Time flies, and it's mid-October in a blink of an eye.

Orange Corporate Headquarters, London.

The top management of Mannesmann, Europe's second-largest telecommunications company, gathered at Orange, the third largest telecommunications company in the United Kingdom, for final negotiations.

It turned out that as early as more than two months ago, Orange blew out the planned sale, which immediately attracted the competition between Vodafone, the largest telecommunications in Europe, and Mannesmann, the second largest telecommunications in Europe. Now, of course, the most sincere is Mannesman, and the two sides have entered the final stage of negotiations.

Orange was originally a subsidiary of Times Communications, but later merged with Hutchison Communications' in Europe, forming two Hong Kong-owned operators operating the third largest telecommunications company in the UK, led by Fok Jianning and assisted by Yuen Tianfan.

There is no way, if the two Hong Kong-funded telecommunications continue to compete in the UK, it will have a negative impact and will invest more. Currently, Times Communications holds a 27% stake in Orange and Hutchison Communications holds a 24% stake.

The reason why the two companies decided to sell Orange was also the result of discussions between Lin Zuhui and Li Chaoren:

They believe that there are three phenomena in the telecommunications industry: 1. Voice services are becoming more and more popular, and although the growth rate is very fast, the industry competition is too great, so that the marginal profit may be reduced; 2. The proportion of data transmission services is increasing, and the percentage of growth rate is much higher than that of voice; 3. Driven by the boom in technology and communication stocks, the market value of mobile communication companies has reached its peak. ”

There is also a huge pressure that Orange is already the third largest in the UK, but it can hardly be the third, and the fierce competition has made the company's life harder and harder.

Europe's two largest telecommunications giants, Vodafone in the United Kingdom and Mannesmann in Germany, have already made the British market a battleground and are fighting for the top position.

And the so-called case of the boss and the second boss fighting, and finally killing the junior, is also a common thing in business wars throughout the ages.

There is no room for optimism, and even in a situation where the crisis has emerged.

However, it is a 'crisis', but also a 'turning point' - Orange has the shortcomings of being the third, and also has the unique value of being the third - Vodafone and Mannesman, whoever can buy Orange can become the real boss.

If you can inspire two bidders to buy Orange, they will definitely be able to sell for a good price, which happened more than two months ago - Orange company let out the wind and intends to sell.

Both are in a hurry, but Vodafone and Mannesman are in a hurry, especially Mannesman.

Huo Jianning deserved to be a good negotiator, and quickly raised the interest of Mannesman's high-level to a high court, so that the negotiations could proceed in a smooth direction.

"President Forcell, $3.5 billion in cash, $2.8 billion in three-year euro floating-rate notes issued by your company, we have accepted this condition; But considering the number of users and the growth rate of Orange, we also need a 10.5% stake in Mannesman. If you agree, we can sign the contract today. I can remind you that soon Vodafone will also accept such conditions"

The cash plus floating-rate notes are a full HK$48 billion, while Mannesmann was originally only willing to add another 10.2% stake (currently worth about HK$58 billion).

Huo Jianning is right, this condition will make Vodafone agree quickly, and then the two sides will be in competition again. However, there has been news from the two bigwigs in Xiangjiang that it is best to reach a deal in October.

Obviously, both Lin Zuhui and Li Chaoren saw the crisis.

Mannesmann's executives immediately exchanged that a 0.3% difference could determine who is Europe's number one telecommunications provider, and they were already very impressed.

After a long time, Forsel stretched out his right hand across the conference table and said with a smile: "OK, congratulations on our agreement." ”

In this way, the two consortia of Times Communications and Hutchison Communications sold 51% of the Orange company in their hands for about 110 billion Hong Kong dollars.

The two consortia are combined into one consortium, so the follow-up sharing and cash-out issues are the same.

October 20th.

Lin Zuhui of New Era Group and Li Chaoren of Cheung Kong Asset announced at the same time that the two companies have formed a consortium and decided to sell their total 51.01% stake in Orange to Mannesman, and the total consideration of the transaction includes: cash equivalent to HK$26.5 billion, three-year euro floating rate notes issued by Mannesman equivalent to HK$21.5 billion, and 10.5% of Mannesman's shares.

When the news broke, the global capital markets were fried.

Orange's investment is not more than 10 billion yuan, and it has recovered a considerable amount of principal through listing. This means that with this transaction, the two Xiangjiang consortiums have obtained a net profit of more than 100 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Lin Zuhui returned to the office of the New Era Group, and at noon he had a banquet with Li Chaoren to discuss the sale of Orange.

It can be seen that Li Chaoren is very excited to reap a profit of about 50 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Lin Zuhui smiled in his heart: "You could have made a profit of more than 100 billion this year, but I just cut it off!" ”

Actually, this is not the final profit figure, because Mannesman's stock will rise this year; And next year, Vodafone can't swallow that breath and directly annexes Mannesman, then the shares in the hands of the two Hong Kong consortia will become more than 5% of the shares of the new company, and the par value will increase by tens of billions (estimated to be 50 billion).

So, in fact, this transaction will make more than 160 billion profits.

New Era Group and Cheung Kong Group each received about 80 billion Hong Kong dollars, and New Era Group received slightly more.

Historically, Li Chaoren made a big splash this year, because the Cheung Kong Group led by him made a profit of more than 150 billion yuan, shocking the world.

However, in this life, New Era Group has already shocked the world:

In 1997, the net profit of New Era Group was 75 billion Hong Kong dollars (sales of buildings, shopping malls, etc., as well as profits from short selling of gold, plus normal profits);

In 1998, the net profit of New Era Group was 76 billion Hong Kong dollars (46 billion Hong Kong dollars from the sale of European and American bank shares, plus normal profits)

In the past two years, New Era Group has achieved good results in 'shocking the world' business community.

For a long time, when it comes to Hong Kong enterprises, overseas companies always think of HSBC; However, in the two years of 1997~1988, HSBC only had annual profits of 43 billion and 31 billion respectively, which was far from the New Era Group.

Therefore, New Era Group has been the largest enterprise in Hong Kong since 1997.

And now, the market value has exceeded 750 billion, and trillions are not a problem within the year.

Lin Zuhui calculated that this year's conservative annual profit of New Era Group was more than 150 billion, double that of the previous year.

Because the profit from the sale of Orange is calculated as 60 billion, the normal net profit is about 35 billion, plus the profit from the sale of Microsoft is 60 billion Hong Kong dollars.

In the turn of the millennium, New Era Group also has shares in Vodafone (purchased in the secondary market) and Sony, and it is expected to cash out nearly 50 billion Hong Kong dollars; In addition, Vodafone's acquisition of Mannesman made a profit of 25 billion (subsequent profits), and a normal net profit of more than 35 billion; In the millennium, New Era Group will continue to create miracles.

Even in 2001, although New Era Group returned to 'normal profitability', it began to grow from 40 billion Hong Kong dollars and would not show a downward trend. After all, the real estate, hotels, shipping, beverages and food industries invested in these years will gradually explode after the millennium.

The problem now faced by the New Era Group is that there is nowhere to spend the money.

Of course, it is only a short-term confusion, Lin Zuhui still has some investment directions in his heart, but he needs to figure it out slowly.

(End of chapter)