Looking at Chen Hui's incomprehensible face, he had no choice but to say calmly: "Mr. Chen, it was particularly difficult in the last quarter of 2013, especially in the case of continuous weakening market demand, a large amount of capacity continued to be put into the market, and there was a serious overcapacity, and the container transportation rate on the main routes fell to a record low..."

"We are now aggressively maintaining our cost management and revenue-focused trading strategy in our container business, and we have saved $100 million in costs in the fourth quarter, bringing our savings to $435 million for the full year. However, due to the relationship between cost savings and lower fuel costs, the total cost of sales per 40-foot container fell by 17% year-on-year!"

Chen Hui smiled faintly and said, "So this year's rate will continue to be under pressure?"

Wu Yisong's face became even more embarrassed, and he still said frankly: "Yes, I will continue to be under pressure!"

Looking at Chen Hui's calm face, he continued: "Mr. Chen, let me be honest with you, we are full of regret and helplessness in our hearts when we decide to sell Neptune Group, but Neptune Group is a company with a long history and is of great significance to the development of Singapore's maritime industry, so from a business point of view, the decision to sell Neptune Group is the right one!"

Looking at Chen Hui shaking his head, Wu Yisong couldn't help but flicker, so he said helplessly and regretfully, "Mr. Chen, I "parachuted" into the Neptune Group four years ago, and I want to lead Neptune through the low tide of the shipping industry and turn from losses to sustained profits.

However, over the past four years, I have made a lot of efforts, including reducing Neptune's expenditure by $1.8 billion through various initiatives. However, in the face of the sluggish situation of the global shipping industry, I have never been able to reverse the loss of Neptune Group, so we are forced to sell the assets of Neptune Group one by one. ”

Chen Hui smiled and said, "I will lose a little money soon, your Singapore sovereign fund is very rich, this little money is just a little money!"

"Singapore's sovereign wealth fund has a net worth of $350 billion, and the market value of less than $2 billion is really nothing!"

Saying that, Chen Hui stared at Wu Yisong and teased: "You have been in charge of the Neptune Group for so long, so you can bear to sell it to the Standard Chartered Group?"

Wu Yisong listened to Chen Hui's words, and his heart was extremely embarrassed, he said: "Mr. Chen, I am not an iron fight after all, I know that Neptune Group is a company with a long history and is of great significance to the development of Singapore's maritime industry, so from a business point of view, I know that the decision to sell Neptune Group is right." But personally, it was a very difficult decision to make. ”

When Wu Yisong expressed his feelings in his heart, he paused several times during the period, and regret and helplessness were all written on his face.

As a Singaporean, Ng also knows that Neptune Group is an iconic brand in Singapore, and he is worried that letting it fall into the hands of foreign companies will make it a part of history, which will attract many criticisms.

So when Standard Chartered Group was interested in acquiring Neptune Group, he discussed it with Lin Zhaojie and asked Standard Chartered Group to take over this loss-making enterprise, after all, in Lin Zhaojie's eyes, Chen Hui only knows how to play finance and banking, and is not good at operating entities, and he is not interested in entities.

What's more, he believes that consolidation has become an imperative trend in the container shipping industry during a long cycle of low shipping rates.

Nowadays, scale has become more and more important for the consolidation industry. Because it is necessary to achieve asset integration and scale through merger, freight costs will be reduced, competitiveness will be improved, and it will be difficult for Neptune Group to continue to grow, or merge with other large shipping giants, but without that strength, it can only be acquired, so this burden and burden are still thrown to Standard Chartered Group!

And he also clearly knows that the market concentration of the industry is quite high today, and the largest top 15 to 16 shipping companies control more than ninety percent of the global market share.

He can't afford to let Neptune continue to operate independently, he has to sell Neptune Group, and now the overall pattern of the container shipping industry has made you have to merge with others to form a stronger and competitive team, otherwise you will be eliminated from the market!

The $1 trillion global maritime industry has been hit by weak global trade and overcapacity, and shipping costs have fallen due to lower global demand for manufactured goods due to an increase in the supply of container ships. Some shipping companies have been forced to respond by strategically partnering with similar companies and cutting costs. Maersk, for example, said last week that it would cut 4,000 jobs.

Standard Chartered Group's deep pockets can allow Neptune Group to continue to survive!

At least not the layoffs easily!

At this time, Chen Hui said: "Mr. Wu, I will only give you a price of 1 billion US dollars to acquire 50% of the shares of Neptune Group!"

Wu Yisong thought for a while and said, "Mr. Chen, this is okay, but you can't lay off more than 5%!"

Chen Hui smiled weirdly and said, "Yes!", this guy is naïve!

Wu Yisong said excitedly, "Mr. Chen, then we have a happy cooperation!"

After a while, the two signed a contract, and Chen Hui paid $1 billion directly to Singapore's sovereign fund!

Of course, this money was paid by Standard Chartered Group, after all, the $2 billion that Standard Chartered Investment Bank had just transferred before, and the funds were abundant.

Chen Hui said: "Mr. Wu, before the acquisition is completed, you will continue to temporarily remain as the chairman of the Neptune Group!", Chen Hui of the Neptune Group has not found a suitable person to take charge for the time being, and temporarily let someone from the Singapore Sovereign Fund serve as the director, and send some executive directors to slowly hand over the work!

Wu Yisong said: "There is no problem with this, Mr. Chen, I will hand over the work!"

···

Soon Standard Chartered Group held a press conference to announce the purchase of 50% of Neptune's equity from Singapore's sovereign wealth fund at a market price of $1 billion!

This is one of the largest acquisitions in the global shipping industry in recent years. In the history of shipping, it is second only to Maersk's acquisition of the famous Dutch shipping company Tiexing Zhahua for 2.9 billion US dollars in 2005.

In this regard, Neptune Group, one of the world's top ten container terminal operators, with a history of more than 150 years, has become a shipping company under Standard Chartered Group!

After thinking about it, Chen Hui still felt that it would be difficult to divide the shares in the future, so he still transferred the shares of the Neptune Group from the Standard Chartered Group to his countless offshore companies, and it was better to pay the money himself!

Therefore, Chen Hui still paid $1 billion out of his own pocket, and now he has $44.7 billion left in his HSBC private deposit account!

After Wu Yisong left, Chen Hui called his assistant and said: "Send a few executive directors to live in Neptune Group, and within two years, think of some special ways to lay off 50% of the employees publicly!"

Wu Yisong's idea is a little naïve, if he does not lay off employees, he will lose huge losses year after year, when will it be a head! Moreover, the net debt of the Neptune Group is as high as more than 3 billion US dollars, and the net debt of the Neptune Group is as high as hundreds of millions of US dollars every year, and the entire Neptune Group cannot even pay off the interest on its debts!

If you don't lay off employees, sooner or later you will go bankrupt and go bankrupt!

If the interest on the $3 billion debt is an average of 8% per year, then the debt interest of $240 million will have to be paid, and if the future debt of the Neptune Group remains unchanged at $3 billion, it will lay off 50% of the staff and reduce at least $200 million in expenses!

In the future, the annual loss will be about 50 million US dollars, which is still acceptable, the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars a year is indeed a bit high, the scale of the debt will only be infinitely large, bankruptcy is a matter of time, Chen Hui will not fill this debt hole!

And if you get the Neptune Group, you can do something to the Singapore Port Group, the world's second largest port operator!

The assistant said: "Yes, chairman!", that Wu Yisong may stay for a while, and when they find a suitable person, they will replace him.