In the blink of an eye, the time has come to December.

It has been a month and a half since Henry Morgan left Hong Kong.

Backed by the Morgan family, Henry Morgan has good connections in all aspects of the United States, plus this is a new market that can have a lot of profits, and the combination of the two aspects, they soon set up a top-to-bottom distribution chain system in hundreds of cities in the United States, involving every local bar, shopping mall and some places with large foot traffic.

As for the school and the airport, Chen Zhiwen only knew that Henry Morgan was personally contacted, but he didn't know what the specific situation was.

After 500 arcade machines were flown to the United States and placed in various places, they immediately attracted a large number of people, which also gave dealers from Henry Morgan to every city hope for knife music.

Subsequently, Hong Kong received a one-time order for 15,000 Snake arcade machines, and according to the previous agreement, Midea directly received a one-time advance payment of 18.75 million US dollars on its overseas account, which was like a shot in the arm, so that Midea's management was like a chicken blood, and the entire factory began to produce at full capacity.

The compressor company's acquisition negotiations, has also entered the final stage, a month ago after the release of the news, Lei Shengli also from the United States investment bank to obtain cooperation intentions, they also said that they can find a company in the United States in line with the requirements of the United States acquisition target.

How to persuade the other party to sell himself, how to deal with the inquiries of the local government, how to deal with legal issues, and let the investment company handle it, as long as he pays a certain amount of consulting fees and intermediary fees.

In the end, Lei Shengli was still optimistic about the German BITZER company, and with Deutsche Bank, the two sides were basically at the point where they were about to sign a memorandum of understanding.

However, before that, Chen Zhiwen, the boss, always had to take a look, after all, it was a company that was acquired for tens of millions of dollars, which can be said to be a big acquisition after Hutchison.

Munich, Federal Republic of Germany:

"Chen Sheng, there is the BITZER factory in front." A BMW business car, driving on a wide road, with different factories on the left and right, Lei Shengli pointed ahead.

"Well, there are so many factories in Germany." Chen Zhiwen looked around and couldn't help but say, after getting off the plane from Munich, he got directly into the car that Lei Shengli came to pick up the plane, in addition to being in the city at the beginning, and then out of the city, he entered the industrial area, which was full of all kinds of factories, but because the name was in German, he couldn't understand it.

Soon, the car began to slow down and came to the door of a factory, outside which five or six white Germans also came.

"Hello, Mr. Chen, I'm Bestin, Managing Director of BITZER. Shore. As soon as Chen Zhiwen and Lei Shengli got out of the car, the leader of the Germanic group walked over with a smile and said in fluent English.

"Hello, nice to meet you." Chen Zhiwen also shook hands and said with a smile, the two of them actually don't need any translators, everyone can speak English, and only when there is a very serious business negotiation, there may be a need for a professional translator.

"Chen Sheng, this is." Lei Shengli also introduced several other white people one by one, and Chen Zhiwen also shook hands one by one, including Bestin, these people are the current top management of BITZER, and if they buy the company in the future, they still need to be counted on to continue to run the entire company.

"Mr. Chen, please." After everyone knew each other's names, Best invited a few people into the factory.

"Mr. Chen, the main business of BITZER is divided into three parts, the first is the automotive business, mainly for the public to provide automotive compressors, the second is for industrial use, we produce many different specifications of industrial compressors, and the third, for civilian use, mainly for air conditioning production companies to provide compressors. This workshop is." Along the way, Best introduced the entire factory to Chen Zhiwen, including how large, the status of the factory workshop, etc., Chen Zhiwen also listened patiently and did not bother. In fact, Lei Shengli also compiled these materials for him before.

During the walk, many German workers looked at them with curiosity, obviously knowing that this group of Asians was preparing to buy their company, which is still relatively rare in Germany and even Europe.

With an area of about 20,000 square meters and a floor area of about 40,000 square meters, the BITZER factory is not very large, and after half an hour of walking, the group arrived at the front office.

Entering a conference room, on the table in the middle, bananas, strawberries, oranges and two other fruits whose names Chen Zhiwen didn't know were already placed, and I don't know if it was intentional, and there were a few bottles of Red Bull on the table.

There is no display screen in the conference room, only two whiteboards, which are estimated to be used for writing things daily, and there is a projector on the wall in the middle, which is the same as in the school in the 90s in the later generations, only to see one person pull up all the curtains one by one, and the conference room suddenly darkened a lot, and then the projector was turned on, and a stack of words immediately appeared on a white wall cloth in front of it, and the source of the text was a transparent piece of paper with words written on it, which was the same as the situation in Chen Zhiwen's memory of the class when he was a child, The things you need are written on a transparent sheet of paper in advance, and then reflected on the white cloth or white wall.

As Chen Zhiwen, who came here for the first time, although he already knew about the situation of BITZER, Bestin still gave an overview again.

Ten minutes later, after Bestin finished speaking, Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and asked: "Mr. Shore, in your mind, what is the core business of BITZER at present?" Automotive, Industrial, or Civil? ”

"Mr. Chen, at present, our company's main business is industrial compressors, many industrial refrigeration equipment and refrigerator room compressors in Germany are our customers, and our business volume accounts for almost 30% of the automotive compressors, mainly to supply to the public." Bestin replied, "There's nothing wrong with that ratio, I think it's good right now." ”

"What about civilians? This market should be big, right? Chen Zhiwen asked: "Why don't you want to focus on the development of the civilian market?" ”

"Because the European residential air conditioning market is very small, Mr. Chen, you may not know that there is basically no high temperature in the summer in Europe, and natural gas heating is mainly used in winter, and even many cars are exempt from air conditioning, even Volkswagen, the cars sold in Europe are basically without air conditioning," said Bestin.

There are indeed some air-conditioning companies in Germany, but their main business is export, the volume is not large, so it is difficult to do a good job in this area, and the other is the refrigerator compressor business, we have done it before, but the profit is too low, and then Mr. Schaufler stopped this salesman, and the rest is only the industrial demand, which has been strong, which has always been the main business of BITZER. ”

"Europe doesn't need residential air conditioners, but Asia does, so if I buy BITZER and what do you think of going to Hong Kong to build a branch of factories dedicated to the production of residential air conditioners and refrigerators?" Chen Zhiwen asked with a smile.

"That's the best, and we need to open up new markets as well." Best nodded and said, for this may be the future boss, the group of them naturally knows the purpose of the other party, which is to transfer the technology and experience accumulated by BITZER in the field of compressors for decades, and then transfer to Asia, otherwise, why should an Asian company invest in German industry?

However, they really think that this is a good idea, and it will not hurt them to build a factory to produce civilian products in Asia, and they can also use the Hong Kong factory as a springboard to sell their industrial compressors to Asia, plus the new boss is obviously stronger than the Schaufler family in terms of financial resources, and the development of the company will only be better.

"In Hong Kong, there is almost no basis for making a compressor, in this regard, what do you think should be done to make Hong Kong quickly capable of producing suitable civilian compressors?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"I also know some about the situation in Hong Kong from Mr. Lei, and the biggest problem is that there are no suppliers in related aspects." "Some of the parts inside the compressor are more precise, and if there is no supplier who can process them, then we need to buy relevant industrial processing equipment from Germany, but there are no people in Hong Kong who know how to operate all kinds of processing equipment, so we need to send them to Germany for training," Bestin said.

But I don't have this kind of equipment here, and we all outsource these processing, and in Germany, many factories only do what they are good at, and leave the rest to others. ”

"I know this, it's not a problem to arrange people to come to Germany, there are still some people in Hong Kong who have a processing foundation, it's no problem to send them to Germany, it's no problem to wear a professional translator, and I can buy the equipment." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

There is no way, in Hong Kong, a place that is only good at light industry, if you do something with a bit of technical content, this problem will occur, but fortunately, the compressor is not very large, although the quantity is large, but there are not many types of parts, and it is much simpler to train talents.

Best continued: "There is another problem, that is, the shell of the compressor, is formed by forging, this equipment is a huge investment, the technical requirements are also very high, there will be a certain amount of environmental pollution, I am not sure whether Hong Kong can do it, and generally in Germany, it is impossible for companies with this kind of forging equipment to make only one product, they need a variety of different orders to maintain the operation of the equipment, if in Hong Kong millions of marks to make such equipment, it will be very cost-effective." ”

"Then we can buy from Germany and ship it to Hong Kong, and we can do this initially, and then we will find new suppliers from Asia." Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said: "If the order volume in Hong Kong can maintain this kind of equipment in the future, then you can consider buying one, as for whether it can be in Hong Kong, it is not very important, it is really not possible to invest in areas near Hong Kong, as long as it is close." ”

Nowadays, Hong Kong, the requirements for environmental protection are still very high, many high-power factories have moved to Wanwan, only those assembly plants without any pollution have remained, which is also one of the reasons for the hollowing out of Hong Kong's manufacturing industry in the future, although the environment is important, but it does not give some polluting enterprises a way to live, forcing them to leave, which will only lead to problems in the circulation within the industry, and a lot of raw materials and a part of the industrial chain need to be imported and exported, which will increase a lot of cost and time.

"If that's the case, then it's not a problem, it only takes a certain amount of time to train the colleagues in Hong Kong successfully, and Europe sends some colleagues to guide them, I think in 3-5 years, the factory in Hong Kong can make qualified civil compressors." Best said.

You don't care about these costs, as long as you really invest, you can naturally build a new factory in Hong Kong!

"Okay, I do need your help for the establishment of the Asian factory, but for the BITZER business in Europe, since the civilian development is not possible, then focus on the development of automobiles, compared to the industrial market, even if many cars in Europe do not have air conditioning, the market is much larger than the industrial market, and it is much more stable." Chen Zhiwen continued.

"The automobile market is indeed much larger, but the competition in this industry is also very fierce, and if you want to expand, you need a lot of capital, especially if you want to enter the supply chain of a certain automobile brand, the initial cost is very large." Bestin explained.

Chen Zhiwen said: "It doesn't matter if it costs a lot, I will invest this money, as long as you can enter the supply chain of more car companies." ”

In a stable market, want to enter, you have to pay a high price, although the auto parts market is not the terminal civilian market, there is no advertising this investment, but each car factory basically has its own suppliers, the chain of interests between each other has been formed, any other person wants to get into, must be willing to spend money, just like the civilian market advertising.

Under normal circumstances, parts suppliers have to invest in the production line first, spend a huge price to produce the product first, and then conduct various tests and verifications, and then let the automobile OEM to recognize, so that it is possible to obtain orders and enter the supply chain of the automobile brand.

The above is an investment on the bright side, and there must be a lot more under the bright side.

Relatively speaking, it would be much better if BITZER already had the experience of supplying an automobile factory, otherwise, it would be more difficult for a civilian brand to enter the auto parts industry.

"If Mr. Chen is willing to fully support, it will be better, over the years, in fact, we have always wanted to develop in the automotive field, but we need to invest too much money, and there is no guarantee that we will succeed, and risk is also an important factor for us to consider." Bestin said after a pause.

(End of chapter)