“15%？ Including, what shares do I have now? Chen Zhiwen asked.

"Eric, how many shares do you have now?" John Reid asked rhetorically.

"4.99 percent, not enough to reach the 5 percent that needs to be publicly declared." Chen Zhiwen said.

Unlike Hong Kong, many countries around the world are very strict about the management of shareholders of all parties, with a limit of 5%, whether it is more than or less shareholding, it is necessary to make it public, and at least notify the listed company and the stock exchange. This also virtually increases the difficulty of hostile takeovers, so in the history of Europe and the United States, there are many cases of acquisitions, but most of them are bona fide acquisitions, because of various legal provisions, which make the cost of hostile takeovers too high.

Chen Zhiwen's acquisition of Citibank's shares actually began two months ago, after the outbreak of the oil crisis, for many companies that are struggling to support, it is almost unbearable.

However, he did not use multi-account secret acquisitions very cautiously, but was above board and directly swept the goods, although at this time, he was not optimistic about the shareholders of Citibank, which led to a sharp drop in stock prices, but this kind of sweeping is an act, or more attention-grabbing, which is also Chen Zhiwen's purpose, he needs the official of the flower bank, to take the initiative to find himself, to ask for his own shares, in this way, for himself, is the most efficient.

“4.9%？ If you add 15%, it is too high, and American law does not allow such behavior. John Reid said.

"Then, if I buy some of the shares in the hands of overseas capital, or let them sell, then I can't do it?" Chen Zhiwen asked again.

In the United States, the restrictions on the banking industry are still not as good as those in the media and technology industries, at least there is no restriction that overseas unilateral capital cannot exceed 5% of the equity, otherwise it is impossible for him or the former historical Middle Eastern prince to buy Citi.

The only restriction is that unless it is authorized by a special license, all foreign capital must not exceed 25% in total, in which case dozens or even hundreds of overseas individuals or institutions can hold the 24.99% shares, or one person can hold the shares, but the latter is almost unlikely, and even if there is, it is impossible to manipulate American banks.

After all, banks are different from media or technology, the former is only purely large-scale, with a wide range of influence, and there is no big problem for overseas people to understand or even participate in management, but the latter two, many times, a secret, may affect national security, therefore, the supervision is extremely strict.

"If that's the case, it's okay, I'll arrange someone to contact some overseas investors first, and try to persuade them to sell their stocks, Aric, it's better to try to increase shares with our bank, you know, the current situation of Citibank, we also urgently need funds." John Reid said.

"Okay, you guys are in charge of these, I'll arrange some people to see if they can help, in terms of funds, we'll talk about a number later, and I'll have cash ready." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

Recently, the bank is in urgent need of a large amount of money to solve its debt problem, as well as the principal problem, it is hard to imagine that such an American giant, because of a gap of less than $1 billion, will almost collapse.

But the financial industry, is so risky, don't look at hundreds of millions of dollars of loans, but these money they are only kept, once their own operation problems, it is extremely easy to trigger a domino effect, such as the most terrible run, once it happens, that is, the bank is no problem, and it will be run bankrupt.

It's just that no one knows that the time of the third oil crisis is very short, and after the end, plus another major event that will happen next year, and the subsequent rise of the Internet, the U.S. economy will take off again, Citibank, and natural benefits will skyrocket. Even if no one comes to save Citi this time, the flowering period itself can survive two or three years later, as long as there is no serious run in the middle of the process.

But except for Chen Zhiwen, no one knows the future, and who would have thought that the oil crisis would end soon?

Citi's matter, and Chen Zhiwen and John Rhett set the general direction, follow-up, in terms of price, and then talk about the same, it's okay, for Chen Zhiwen, this investment is a once-in-a-century opportunity, price fluctuations are not important at all, can be successful.

After leaving Citibank, Chen Zhiwen spent two days in New York before heading to Detroit, the city of automobiles.

This was known as the second largest city in the United States 20 years ago, and 20 years later, it was the first super-large city in the United States to declare bankruptcy, and in the 90s, Detroit's cars were basically abused by Japanese cars, in particular, Japanese cars also began to produce cars in the United States, so that the U.S. government at the public level, it will not be able to help Detroit cars, after all, the U.S. government, or maintain the slogan of "free trade", otherwise, If he doesn't give others a fair market, then others can follow suit and deal with other industries in the United States.

The automotive industry, while important, is not more important than the rest of the U.S. industry combined.

And the ongoing oil crisis has given Detroit's auto industry a slap in the face.

Since the end of the second oil crisis in the early 80s, because of the good relations between the Middle East and the United States, they have worked together with the United States to massively increase oil production in an attempt to weaken a powerful country that is heavily dependent on oil exports, and in the process, it has also benefited the domestic automotive industry in the United States.

Oil prices in the mid-80s to the late 80s for almost six or seven years, has been maintained at a little more than $10 a barrel, which also makes the terminal oil price very cheap, coupled with the recovery of the global economy, Americans, back to like big cars.

This has made General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and even Chen Zhiwen's acquisition of AMC, have benefited a lot, a large number of orders forced the American auto giants, once again put all resources on fuel-guzzling and powerful models, and at the same time, because of the improvement of relations between the US government and Middle Eastern countries, as well as the establishment of federal oil reserves, so that the lack of oil seems to have become a long thing in the past.

However, after Iraq's actions detonated the global oil price tripled, the large-displacement oil trucks in the United States immediately fell into a situation of unsalable, after all, the last two oil crises were tossed back and forth for almost ten years, and at the worst time, they couldn't even buy oil.

Automobile is a heavy industry, the United States giants, although in the past few years to make a little money, but after all, still can't do small Japan, plus there is a desperate union on the top of the head to ask for money, as soon as this crisis comes, the three giants will immediately stop cooking, not that there will be a big problem immediately, but the capitalists have to guard against it, worried about the future.

Among them, the most popular of the three is Chrysler.

As early as 1988, the top 100 CEOs of the 20th century, Li Iacocca, had retired, and the market was not as optimistic about Chrysler itself as before, as soon as the oil crisis came, Chrysler's stock price immediately fell to the bottom, and the daily operations of the entire company were also greatly affected.

Chen Zhiwen came first, which is the production base of AMC, and it is also his own company, so he naturally wants to come over to have a look when he comes to Detroit.

"There are very few orders from all over the country during this time, right?" Chen Zhiwen asked, although the on-site production seems to be very busy, but it is likely that the boss is coming, so the production is specially arranged, this situation is not unique to the mainland in later generations, it is the same all over the world, including health, the entire car workshop can be clean, the products are also neat, the factory can achieve this level on weekdays, what is the ghost to believe? That is, when the big boss or customer is coming, it is just to urgently sort out the results of 5S.

Stephen Hawking may stand up for a toast at home, but there may be more to be done in the United States.

"Yes, it's not too good, now the price of oil is too high, and many people don't think about American cars anymore." George, a vice president of AMC, said that there is nothing to hide about this kind of thing, the big boss is not only the boss of AMC, but also the largest channel provider of AMC, and currently has almost 1,000 car sales stores in the United States, and it is precisely because of the existence of these stores that AMC's business has been getting better and better in recent years, although these stores do not only sell AMC's cars, but the effect of resource tilting is completely different, and there are many boss's stores in Europe and Asia. This has also increased AMC's export business a lot, but it is only limited to models that Yanjing AMC, another subsidiary, cannot produce.

Controlling the sales side, the big boss naturally knows a general situation, and the "busy" here today is just a default rule.

"Don't we have two fuel-efficient models in development? How's the sales? Chen Zhiwen asked again, after the acquisition of AMC, Chen Zhiwen arranged for AMC to start trying to develop fuel-efficient models, including turbocharging and other technologies.

"It's better than other American cars, but it's still a lot worse than Japanese cars, and turbocharging is a technology that has also been used in other car brands, and we still have advantages, but maybe it's not that big, the main thing is that our brand awareness is not enough." George said.

"Well, take it one step at a time." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, in a mature market like the United States, it is difficult to launch a new model, especially in terms of technology, it is not as good as other giants, it is completely dependent on the number of terminal stores and a large amount of capital publicity, it is good to be able to win a market, and it is undoubtedly a pipe dream to hope to conquer the entire market like home appliances and games.

In fact, for the automotive industry, he did not expect to be at the top level, and it would be good to be able to achieve the second tier of the global level, but domestic, because of the first-mover advantage and financial advantage, he hoped to become a first-line level.

"Yes." George also said.

"What happened to the other cars in Detroit?" Chen Zhiwen asked again, although he probably knows that the situation of American cars is very bad, but what it looks like is definitely not as much as the people in Detroit know.

"It's not very good, although the three giants have a strong foundation, they are also large, and when the market suddenly shrinks, they will be hit the hardest." George paused and said: "These are secondary, how can they generally last for a period of time, the problem is in the UAW, a few years ago, when our American car sales were a little better, the UAW was clamoring to raise wages, and the constant threat of strikes continued for several years, and finally all the car factories had to agree, and they also needed to compensate for the previous losses, but immediately encountered the current thing, but the UAW side also refused to change." ”

"Do we too?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"It's the same, but we have a small number of people, and the impact is not very large, and the big three of GM are the ones who have the most losses." George said.

"Sooner or later, the American car companies will die at the hands of the auto union, and they will not be staring at the Japanese car companies and catching the wool of the American cars." Chen Zhiwen shook his head helplessly and said.

The decline of the American automobile industry, in addition to its own choice mistakes at the technical level, the bigger reason is this UAW, the former is not a revolutionary measure like replacing fuel vehicles with electric vehicles, although the fuel consumption of American cars has been complained about a lot, but as long as it is made up in other aspects, the problem is not very big, because many people in many places, they don't care much about fuel consumption, but a blood-sucking union, this is like a virus, if it can't be removed, then only the main body will die.

However, no one can do anything about this kind of thing, the American Big Three can be said to be calling for wind and rain in the 70s, but they still can't withstand the long-term erosion of UAW, and AMC will not expand much in the United States anyway.

"The production efficiency in the mainland has become higher and higher, and in addition to the US market, other places in the world can be produced in the mainland, so that we will not be targeted by the UAW when we expand our scale." George said that American companies, not limited to automobiles, have been preparing to move factories overseas over the years, but in fact, the United States is no longer suitable for traditional manufacturing, and labor is expensive and inefficient.

"This has been done all the time, and the expansion of factories in the mainland will not be so fast, and it is estimated that it will take a few more years to basically meet the requirements." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, although the development speed of the mainland is very fast, but the transfer of the automobile industry chain is very difficult, and the requirements for employees are very high, and because many cars are exported, the quality of cars is related to personal safety, therefore, you can be slow and steady, even if the United States is still producing some models, you can't be in a hurry, otherwise the risk may affect the entire company.

"That's good." George said.

"How's Chrysler doing, I know their stock is plummeting, what's the actual market like?" Chen Zhiwen asked again, this is the purpose of his visit to Detroit, because this is the golden opportunity to buy Chrysler again. (End of chapter)