In the small German town of Kolbach, a precision machine tool factory in ALK is located here. Once upon a time, the factory was a beautiful place, with large container trucks plying the factory with the train yard and the Rhine port every day, sending machines bearing the ALK trademark to all parts of the world. Today, the factory has been shut down with the decline of ALK, the doors of the workshop are locked, and the entire factory is in a dead silence.

The decline of ALK seems to have occurred inadvertently, starting with the news that a small market had been lost, then a product had lost its competitiveness, and then there had been a deficit in financial reporting and a number of factories under-employed.

The workers at the Kohlbach factory never cared about what was going on in the outside world, and as early as children, they saw their father and brother carrying lunch boxes to work in the factory, and when they grew up, they naturally became workers in the factory. In their minds, the Kohlbach plant will never go bankrupt, because it has such advanced technology that there are at least a dozen machine tools that are unmatched in the global market.

Two months ago, the factory director paid everyone their last salary, and then informed everyone that the factory had been shut down and that they would no longer have to come to work.

"If we don't come to work, what are we going to do?" A factory asked in a daze.

"Maybe you can have more time to prune the fruit trees in your garden." The director of the factory said a bad joke, but everyone did not laugh, they just looked at the slowly closed factory gate with gloomy eyes, and then went home with their heads down.

The closure of the Kolbach plant is only a microcosm of the overall collapse of the ALK. Due to competition from its counterparts in developing countries, especially China, ALK's annual sales have plummeted from more than 60 billion euros to less than 20 billion euros. Although this figure is still very eye-catching on the list of global equipment manufacturers, for ALK, it means that it is seriously beyond its means.

ALK has dozens of branches around the world. There are also dozens of equipment installation sites, and the consumption of more than 100,000 workers every day is an astronomical amount. The company has thought about reducing expenses, but wages, benefits, and various costs can go up but not down, once they fall. It will lead to all kinds of disputes. After two or three years of tossing, the company's revenue fell by more than half, but the expenses did not move, the company's debt continued to rise, and finally came to the brink of bankruptcy.

Due to the importance of ALK in the German economy, the German government has urgently launched a financial rescue package to support ALK. Avoid a total bankruptcy of this large enterprise. The bailout plan proposed by economists is to dismember ALK, divest some of the industries that have lost their competitiveness, sell them if they can, and throw them away if they can't, and leave them to fend for themselves. It is said that this is how to prune fruit trees, after cutting off some branches. Fruit trees can live better.

The ALK certainly doesn't want to throw away the hard-earned industries, but its poor financial situation leaves it with no bargaining power with the government. The government, along with the banks, gave ALK an ultimatum: either accept the dismemberment package or bankrupt the entire company.

In desperation. ALK had no choice but to choose a strong man with a broken wrist, and made a list of factories ready to close, and the Kolbach plant was one of them. ALK's top management also understands that after the closure of these factories, ALK will still be able to exist, but it will be reduced by more than half, and its influence in the market will not be the same as in the past. To put it more bluntly, ALK, which was once strong enough to stand out from the crowd, will be reduced to a second-rate company.

Factories are closed, and those tangible and intangible assets cannot be thrown away in vain. The best way to do this is to find a buyer to take over, and some money can be sold for money, which can also be used as capital to save the main body of ALK. The Germans played a little trick on this matter, and they asked the leaders to express to China that they were willing to attract Chinese-funded enterprises to invest in Germany and were willing to sell the shares of some high-quality enterprises to China. So. It was originally a matter of throwing off the burden, but it became a painful cut-off of love. …,

There is another factor in the German leader's use of ALK as a gift to China, and that is that he knows that there are some entanglements between ALK and China. Dismembering the ALK and selling the cut parts to the Chinese is quite a gesture of goodwill to China.

Of course, such a little trick is only to look better diplomatically, and Chinese entrepreneurs are not fools, where will they not know what the Germans really think. The current situation of various German companies can be seen clearly in the eyes of the Chinese, and everyone knows that ALK now has only one way to be sold, and if it continues to die, I am afraid that even this residual value will be sold. However, since the Germans are willing to sell, and the technology and equipment of these enterprises are not bad, why not the Chinese?

This is the background of Lin Zhenhua's appointment with Gu Jiahua to acquire ALK, the assets of the entire ALK are four or five billion euros, whether it is Hanhua or Xingbei Heavy Machinery, or the two together, it is impossible to eat. But to eat the assets that ALK spun off, the appetite of the two families is still enough. The tangible and intangible value of these divested assets is more than 20 billion euros, but the German side has agreed that Chinese companies can get all the equity as long as they contribute 5 billion euros, which is a very good deal.

ALK lost to a number of Chinese companies such as Hanhua in the competition, not because it was inferior in technology, on the contrary, many of its technologies were still very advanced compared to Chinese companies. Its failure came from operational reasons, especially high costs, which dragged down its competitiveness. Lin Zhenhua has a strong interest in these fat meat cut from ALK, and he knows that these assets cannot generate value in the hands of ALK, but if they are in the hands of Hanhua, it will be very different.

Gu Jiahua is also a person who has been immersed in the equipment manufacturing industry for many years, and he can't see the value of this deal. The two men reached a verbal agreement in the airport lounge in Lisbon, agreeing to jointly raise funds to acquire this part of ALK's assets, and then each take what he wants. As for those assets that have little value for these two enterprises, take them back and resell them to domestic small and medium-sized enterprises, which is guaranteed to be very popular, and the Chinese are used to being poor, as long as the price is cheap, everyone will not dislike these second-hand equipment.

These were all months ago. In the past few months, the Chinese and German governments have signed a series of agreements aimed at expanding bilateral economic and trade exchanges, and the German side has sincerely expressed its welcome for Chinese enterprises to invest in Germany. Among these agreements is the joint acquisition of several factories owned by ALK in Germany, China Hanhua Heavy Industry Group and Xingbei Heavy Machinery Group. In German newspapers, the move was seen as a letter of nomination from the German government to the Chinese — if Germany also had such a name.

The late autumn wind blows through the small town of Kolbach, the leaves fall to the ground, and the sound of pedestrians rattling under their feet is reminiscent of some poetic scenes. Khedira, the former sales director of ALK, was walking down the side streets of Korbach at the moment, but there was not the slightest joy in his heart.

"Excuse me. Is Mr. Mayor in the office? In front of an unpretentious building, Khedira stopped and asked an old man guarding the door.

"Yes, he's in the office, excuse me, do you have an appointment with him?" The doorkeeper asked.

Khedira nodded, "I made an appointment with him." ”

"Well, please, the mayor's office is on the second floor." The old man at the doorkeeper said.

Khedira thanked the old man at the goalkeeper. I walked into the small building of the city hall and followed the instructions of the old man who guarded the door to the office of Mayor Lawrence. ALK's factory is located locally. Khedira was no stranger to Mayor Lawrence, he walked in the door and casually greeted, "Hey, Mayor Lawrence, didn't bother you, did you?" ”…,

"No, Mr. Khedira, it's been a long time since you've been here." Lawrence sat Khedira on the couch, poured him a glass of water, then sat down on another couch and asked, "You came to me today." What's the matter? ”

Khedira said: "I would like to talk to you about ALK's Kolbach plant. ”

"The Kolbach plant?" Lawrence frowned and said, "Mr. Khedira, how did I hear that you are no longer serving in the ALK?" Could it be that I got the wrong information? ”

"Uh......" Khedira nodded with a slight embarrassment on his face and said, "That's right, I've indeed left ALK. Well, the main reason is that the company's business is compressed, large-scale layoffs, and then ......"

Lawrence smiled slightly, accepting Khedira's explanation. However, in his heart, he did not believe Khedira's words. Khedira has always been an arrogant man, and in the past, he often dealt with the government officials of the city of Korbach for some matters related to the ALK factory, and when dealing with him, he often presented himself as a representative of large business, and he did not take the local officials seriously, and had a very poor reputation among the city officials.

A year ago, Lawrence heard the news that Khedira was fired by ALK, and while gloating, he also deliberately inquired a few more words, knowing that the reason for Khedira's dismissal was that he had provoked disputes between ALK and some Chinese companies without knowing the times, which led to ALK being strongly retaliated against by Chinese companies. It stands to reason that a senior executive in charge of marketing should be good at balancing all kinds of relationships, but Khedira always acted with strong personal emotions, especially racist feelings, and offended a large number of customers and peers in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In the past two years, ALK's operation has been in trouble, and a person like Khedira will naturally become a scapegoat selected by the top management and be cleared out.

Naturally, Lawrence would not go to Khedira to verify these rumors, he just asked strangely: "Mr. Khedira, since you no longer work at ALK, does the matter of the Kolbach factory have anything to do with you?" Besides, the Kolbach factory has been sold to the Chinese, it is no longer an ALK industry, could it be that you are now doing things for the Chinese? ”

"It's impossible." Khedira said categorically, "How can I do things for the Chinese?" Those are some robbers who don't do things according to the rules of the market, and I will never be able to cooperate with them. ”

"Really?" Lawrence nodded slightly, "Well, I don't understand even more, since the Kolbach factory has been sold to the Chinese, and you are neither an employee of ALK nor an employee of the Chinese, what are you going to talk to me about?" ”

"Lawrence, I think you should know that the Kohlbach plant is of great importance to the city's economy and jobs, and if this plant fails, the city will lose 5,000 more people. This can be a huge strain for the city government. Khedira said.

"Of course I know that." Lawrence Road. In Kolbach, ALK's factory is one of the largest enterprises and is the backbone of the entire city, both in terms of taxes and employment. A few months ago. The plant was shut down, and the city of Kolbach was thrown into a quagmire at the same time. Lawrence was worried about it, but there was nothing he could do about it.

"It's not something I can control, it's you...... Ah, no, I should say it's 'their' ALK company that thinks about it. ALK sold the factory to the Chinese. What can I do? Lawrence said.

Khedira did not care about the edge of Lawrence's words, and he said to himself: "When ALK signed an agreement with the Chinese to sell the Kolbach factory, it asked the Chinese side to retain at least 50% of the production capacity of the Kolbach factory locally and accept 2,000 local workers. I think this is ALK's last effort for the local economy. ”…,

"I know that the Chinese representatives came to talk to us last month, and they reconsidered their commitment to ALK to keep at least 50% of their local production capacity," Lawrence said. This is a boon to us. As for the rest of the equipment, they will be dismantled and shipped back to China. According to them, this is to take advantage of China's cheap labor and reduce the cost of production. ”

In fact, in the past, when foreign investors bought bankrupt Chinese companies, the Chinese government would also require foreign investors to resettle the original personnel in the enterprises, but now it is just a change of roles between the two parties. The acquisition of the Kohlbach plant was Hanhua Heavy Industries, at the time of the signing. Negotiator He Fei solemnly promised that after Hanhua took over the Kohlbach factory, it would retain half of the factory's production capacity and half of the workers, and as for the life and death of the other half of the workers, it was not something that Hanhua could manage. GCA is here to buy companies, not to do charity.

GCA acquires the Kohlbach plant. The main reason is to take a fancy to the technical information and some cutting-edge equipment in the factory, which must be shipped back to China. As for the factory and some other equipment, Hanhua was not interested, so he simply let them stay where they were, and some workers were left to fend for themselves. The cost of a German worker is more than 10 times that of a Chinese counterpart, and it is strange that something can be made from such a worker.

"I've heard that 100 Chinese workers are dismantling equipment in the factory right now, is that right?" Khedira asked.

Lawrence said: "Maybe, there are some Chinese working in the factory, as for 100 or 80 people, I don't know." All I know is that they work at least 16 hours a day, and they don't stay in a hotel at night, but in an office in the factory. If they were not Chinese but Germans, I think that with these alone, their enterprises would have been taken to court. ”

"You're so right." "The Chinese rely on this method of oppressing workers to reduce their production costs, which is very unfair to us German companies. ”

Lawrence shrugged and said, "So what? They themselves are willing to do so, and we have no right to interfere. I went to see the scenes where the workers worked, and I thought they were all happy and had no complaints. All I am concerned about now is when they will be able to complete the dismantling of the equipment and resume production at the Kolbach plant as soon as possible. You know, the city has been in a worse state of affairs in recent months due to the shutdown of the Kolbach plant. ”

Khedira said, "That's what I'm going to tell you. As far as I know, the Chinese are currently disassembling the most cutting-edge equipment in the Kohlbach factory, which they are going to ship back to China to reassemble and produce high-end precision machine tools. And those who stay locally are backward equipment. This means that in the future, the Kohlbach plant can only produce some low-end machine tool products, and it will completely lose its market competitiveness. ”

"What does this have to do with us?" Lawrence said, in his opinion, high-end or low-end, it would not have made sense. In the past, ALK always produced high-end products, right, what is the result?

"Whether it is a factory in China or a factory in Germany, it is now a Chinese enterprise, what kind of equipment are they willing to produce where, and what does it have to do with us?" Lawrence said to Khedira.

"Of course it does!" "If you think about it, the Chinese workers are using high-end equipment, while we German workers are using low-end equipment, which is an insult to our German workers!" ”

"Uh...... Isn't that a bit far-fetched? Lawrence said that he was not as strongly racist as Khedira, and that he felt that the workers had a job to do, and that it didn't seem to matter what equipment they used.

Khedira continued: "If it's just a difference in treatment, that's it. Since the Chinese only leave us with backward equipment, the products of the Kolbach plant will not be competitive in the market, and eventually it will inevitably go out of business. At that time, the Chinese will simply throw away this worthless factory so that they do not have to keep the agreement with the ALK. ”

"So that's it?" Lawrence began to understand what Khedira meant, which was a serious question, and he asked, "Mr. Khedira, what do you think we should do?" ”

"Stop them!" Khedira said categorically, "Can't let them take the equipment away!" (To be continued)