Chapter 500: Aiming at new overseas giants, the sprouting personnel will be adjusted again!
Monday, August 17th.
At the regular meeting, Daosui Group President Lin Zhengdong and Executive Vice President Liang Song were both present.
It can be seen that the matter discussed is related to Daosui Group.
In fact, after successfully signing the contract with Dongzhi last Saturday, Lin Zhengdong did not even return to Jiangxia, where the Daosui Group is headquartered, but flew directly from Japan to Binhai City.
Liang Song also rushed over from Luzhou at about the same time.
Last night, Zhang Shuo held a rare banquet at home and entertained two generals from the Daosui Group.
Everything that needs to be discussed has been settled.
Therefore, at today's meeting, after Lin Zhengdong introduced the acquisition of Dongzhi Flash Memory in detail to the executives present, Zhang Shuo spoke.
"Tell me about the personnel adjustments."
"I have mentioned before that with the establishment of Nebula Group, Lime Group and Xinghai Group, it is necessary for the group to add a senior vice president in charge of business."
"After internal recommendations and inspections, the group finally decided that Lin Zhengdong would be promoted to senior vice president of the group to assist president Lu Kai and be in charge of the three subsidiaries of Nebula Group, Qing Ning Group and Xinghai Group."
"Thank you, Chairman, for your trust!"
Lin Zhengdong suppressed his excitement, stood up and signaled to his colleagues, and at the same time accepted everyone's congratulations.
With the current scale of Sprout Holdings, even just serving as the president of one of its group subsidiaries has already hit the ceiling for professional managers.
Even if you look around the world, you can rank among the top professional managers in the world.
When it comes to China specifically, not to mention Lin Zhengdong, group presidents like Du Qingqing and Wang Tao can all be considered equal to Ali president Ren Xiaoyao and Tenda president Lu Jianzhi.
And the senior vice president of Sprout Holdings
Before Lin Zhengdong, there were only two people, Lu Qi and Gu Mingzhang. One was a top professional manager in the global Internet field, and the other was a super giant in the global electronic information industry.
His status in the global business circle is even higher than that of the founders such as the first uncle and the second uncle.
Now, Lin Zhengdong is about to join this ranks and complete another jump in his career.
How can you not be excited?
Therefore, even if he has to leave Daosui Group, Lin Zhengdong is very happy.
Lu Kai and other senior executives all smiled and clapped, and they didn't look surprised at all.
Obviously, Zhang Shuo had fully communicated with the relevant executives in advance about this major adjustment in the group's personnel, and it was not a temporary move.
Because in the internal recommendation process, Lin Zhengdong scored very high.
Zhang Shuo, however, has never made a decision. He is just waiting for Lin Zhengdong to lead his team to successfully win Dongzhi Flash Memory and achieve impressive results that can convince the public before making adjustments.
Everything seemed to fall into place.
After all, today's sprout is no longer the grass-roots team it was before, and the internal network of relationships and interest chains are also very complicated.
Although Zhang Shuo is the chairman and CEO of Buya, he can be called the local emperor of Buya, and he can decide everything with just one word, but any decision he makes must also convince the public as much as possible.
Otherwise, hidden dangers will remain.
In terms of division of responsibilities, Lin Zhengdong is somewhat similar to Gu Mingzhang, both of whom belong to the manufacturing industry.
The difference is that the Maili Group, Daosui Group and Mango Group that Gu Mingzhang is in charge of are all high-end manufacturing industries, and they are all relatively cutting-edge and more inclined to the electronic information industry.
On the contrary, Lin Zhengdong's Nebula Group, Qing Ning Group and Xinghai Group's business scope includes aerospace, intelligent robots, medicine, energy and minerals, and they are more inclined to traditional manufacturing.
Of course, except for the smart robot business.
Another difference is that after Lin Zhengdong is promoted to senior vice president, he will also step down as president of Daosui Group and will no longer serve as president of any group subsidiary.
This is also the reason why Liang Song appears here.
There is no doubt that Liang Song will succeed Lin Zhengdong and be promoted to the position of president of Daosui Group.
Liang Song also has this ability. Not only did he lead the team to successfully break through the 28nm advanced process technology, but the research and development of the 14nm advanced process has also entered a critical stage.
It is expected to achieve another leap.
Therefore, there will be no objections or obstacles to Liang Song's promotion to president of Daosui Group.
The same thing comes naturally.
In a sense, it was precisely because of the presence of Liang Song in Daosui Group that he could successfully hand over the position of president, which gave Lin Zhengdong the opportunity to stand out from the crowd of competitors.
………
After announcing the new personnel appointments, Zhang Shuo picked up an investigation report.
"This is an industry survey report on China's modern agriculture submitted by the Investment and Mergers and Acquisitions Department. Unfortunately, through this report, I can't see any opportunities for large-scale investment in modern agriculture in China."
why?
Needless to say, there are Chinese agricultural companies and the national team. The most famous private companies are giants like Hope and Zhenbang, who either raise pigs or sell feed.
Or a dairy giant.
Not to mention the low technical content of this type of private enterprise, the key is that the ownership concentration is very high. More than 80% of the equity is in the hands of the founder's family, and they will not accept external investment.
Not to mention being acquired by Sprout.
Of course, Sprout has no interest in acquiring such companies. With Sprout’s structure and pursuit, if it really wants to enter the modern agriculture sector, it will basically target overseas giants.
In particular, we need to make some new breakthroughs in the field of modern breeding to make up for China's shortcomings in this area.
Breeding itself is the hardest hit area for overseas giants to monopolize.
Looking around the world, the concentration of the seed industry and agricultural chemical industry is also very high, and they are almost monopolized by several giants such as Du Bang, Dow Chemical, Xianzhengda, Monsanto, and Bayer.
Except for these super giants, any agricultural company will be crushed to pieces.
Although it is cruel, this is the reality.
And the most terrifying thing is that just a few global giants are still in the process of merging with each other.
In December 2015, Du Bang and Dow Chemical reached a merger and acquisition deal worth US$130 billion. In May 2016, Bayer announced that it would acquire Monsanto for US$63 billion. .
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Therefore, there is not much time left for sprouting.
In order to maintain the status of Huaxia Agriculture in the original time and space, in 2017, Huaxia Zhonghua Group acquired Xianzhengda for US$46.5 billion, catching up with the last train of the competition.
This also reshaped the three-legged pattern of global agricultural giants.
But at that time, some people questioned why China spent huge sums of money to acquire a foreign agricultural company. Wouldn't it be better if it invested more than 300 billion in scientific research?
The idea is beautiful, but the reality is very skinny.
To answer this question, we must first understand the current situation, that is - although Chinese agriculture has existed for thousands of years and has the third largest land area in the world, it is not a true agricultural power.
Give a very simple example.
There was such a scene at the longevity market in 2008. Many farmers were rushing to buy one thing, which was a kind of Dutch bell pepper seeds called mandi.
How expensive are these seeds?
One kilogram costs 180,000, yes, 180,000 per kilogram.
And if you want to buy it, you have to buy it individually.
Do you think this seems a bit nonsense? But the more nonsense is yet to come.
At that time, 80% of the vegetables in Changshou were foreign varieties, and the number of vegetables produced in Changshou accounted for a quarter of the total vegetables in China.
In other words, perhaps half of the vegetables in China at that time were foreign varieties.
It can be seen that in the field of seeds, overseas giants have achieved a certain degree of monopoly, but it is not easy to break this monopoly with only their own efforts.
Let’s give another example related to Mengshandu.
Mentioning the name Monsanto, many people may be unfamiliar with it, but they must have heard of one of its products, which is the herbicide glyphosate.
It is also the most widely used herbicide in the world.
The product that Monsanto is most proud of is genetically modified soybeans, which have strong disease resistance and very high yields.
Best of all, it is unaffected by glyphosate.
In 1998, Monsanto came to the Pampas, gave local farmers a large amount of soybean seeds for free, and taught them how to plant them. He also said that this kind of soybean is disease-resistant, has high yields, and can be harvested twice a year.
Local farmers planted soybeans with the mentality of giving it a try, and the result was just as Mengsandu said. Combined with their herbicides, it was simply a fool's farming method.
So local farmers were so excited that they planted this kind of soybean. In order to expand the planting area, they even cleared all the original native crops and replaced them with soybeans.
By 2002, Monsanto's soybean planting area accounted for 99% of the entire Pampas.
Just when Pampas farmers were immersed in the huge profits brought by high-yield soybeans and couldn't extricate themselves, in 2004, Monsanto suddenly demanded that Pampas pay soybean patent royalties.
At first Pampas did not want to pay, but Monsanto immediately threatened to cut off the supply of seeds if the royalties were not paid.
At first, farmers did not take this seriously because they had a large number of seeds they had saved. However, when they planted these seeds, they found that the performance of these seeds was far less than the performance of their previous two generations.
Not only are these soybeans not resistant to diseases, they also grow in strange shapes, and their yields have plummeted.
Now everyone wakes up, and it turns out that this is a scam set by Mengshandu. They first pretend to provide seeds and pesticides, and then slowly encroach on your native farmland and eliminate native crops.
When the time is right, huge patent fees will be demanded.
At this time, even if the Pampas wanted to grow native crops again, due to the large-scale and mindless spraying of glyphosate in the past, the local soil has long been unable to grow crops other than soybeans.
So in the end, Pampas had to pay him a huge patent fee.
You can imagine.
How aggrieved Pampas felt when he found out that he had been cheated but had to bow to an overseas giant.
But there is no way, this is how the rules of the game work.
As a country with a large population, China's food security is of vital importance, and it is even more important to make breakthroughs in the field of breeding in order to close the gap with overseas giants, otherwise it will have to rely on others.
However, the technological generation gap in the field of breeding cannot be caught up in the short term.
A more realistic approach is to acquire a relatively powerful overseas giant and obtain the numerous technologies and channels it has accumulated in related fields.
Zhang Shuo's target this time is also Xianzhengda, because Xianzhengda is the easiest to acquire.
Xianzhengda is the largest agrochemical company in the world and the third largest seed company in the world. Their products are sold in more than 90 countries and regions around the world.
He is a veritable super giant.
Although Xianzhengda's seed industry is not as good as other companies, the direction of their efforts is vegetables and flowers, crops with huge potential and high added value.
Before the original time and space Mengshandu was acquired by Bayer, it also attempted to acquire Xianzhengda.
Unfortunately, Mengshandu only wants Xianzhengda’s chemical department, which means that once Xianzhengda is acquired by it, a large number of employees and previously accumulated seed patents will lose their jobs and value.
Therefore, Xianzhengda finally rejected Mengsandu's merger and acquisition, which gave Zhonghua a chance.
In order to win over Xianzhengda, Zhonghua even had to promise that after the acquisition was completed, not only would it not change any of Xianzhengda's existing organizational structure, but it could also pay in cash.
Of course Zhang Shuo didn't want Xian Zhengda to be so cheap.
With the joint participation of Dream Fund and Vision Fund, after the acquisition is completed, it is completely possible to reorganize the board of directors of Xianzhengda and firmly control the management rights of Xianzhengda in the hands of Zhang Shuo, the boss behind the scenes.
Not only Xian Zhengda, but also Zhang Shuo had ideas about Mengshandu.
Want to build a super agricultural giant.
"United Dream Fund and Vision Fund's acquisition of Xianzhengda is just a means, but it is not our ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is to make up for our own shortcomings through the acquisition of Xianzhengda."
Zhang Shuo changed the topic.
"Therefore, I hope that while initiating the acquisition of Xianzhengda, Xinghai Group will activate Xinghai Chemical and make sufficient preparations to take over Xianzhengda's chemical business."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! The purpose of acquiring Xianzhengda is to continuously transfer its business to China.
"Well, Chairman, which group subsidiary should be responsible for the seed business? Or should we establish a separate agricultural company?" Group President Lu Kai asked for instructions.
Chemical industry is secondary, seeds are fundamental.
"There is no need to set up a separate subsidiary, let's put it under a certain group subsidiary." Zhang Shuo has always deliberately controlled the number of group subsidiaries.
"As for which group subsidiary it should be transferred to, what do you think?"
"I suggest that it be included in the Qing Ning Group."
Lin Zhengdong, who had just been promoted to senior vice president of the group, was unexpectedly the first to speak up. He explained with a smile: "The modern seed industry is closely related to life sciences. Qing Ning Group is not only involved in medical devices and biopharmaceuticals, but also has a long-term layout in the field of life sciences. It just so happens that
A synergistic effect can be created.”
On the surface, modern medicine and modern breeding seem to be unrelated, but in fact they are similar.
"That's not a bad idea."
Zhang Shuo's eyes also lit up, and he approved Lin Zhengdong's suggestion, "Then instruct the Qing Ning Group to register Qing Ning Agriculture as soon as possible and be responsible for making preparations to connect with Xian Zhengda's seed business."
between words.
Zhang Shuo, however, has great confidence in acquiring Xian Zhengda.
After all, Xianzhengda in the original time and space can accept acquisitions from Zhonghua, so there is no reason to reject entities like Dream Fund and Vision Fund.
The only problem may be that the Dream Fund and Vision Fund have insufficient financial strength.
Dream Fund was the main lead party in the previous acquisition of Dongzhi Flash Memory and was also the largest shareholder of Simon Flash Memory, with a total investment of US$6.845 billion.
In one fell swoop, more than half of the Dream Fund’s cash flow was drained.
That's it.
This is all because in April, Zhang Shuo launched a 100 billion dividend distribution from Germination Holdings.
As for the Vision Fund, it is new to the scene, and its financial strength is not strong enough. It relies entirely on the 6 billion start-up capital for support, and it cannot provide much funds at the moment.
The acquisition of Xianzhengda this time involved a huge amount of nearly 50 billion U.S. dollars.
If it is still led by the Dream Fund, and at the same time, in order to ensure the success of the acquisition, it is best to be able to pay in cash, then the Dream Fund will have to prepare at least US$16 billion in funds.
The current Dream Fund simply cannot afford this money.
It seems that the only solution that is easier to think of is to allow Sprout Holdings to issue another equity dividend.
But this is also the most unrealistic.
Not to mention, Sprout Holdings just carried out a dividend of 100 billion in April, whether it can pay a second dividend; even if it can, to meet the capital needs of the Dream Fund, the scale of dividends needs to be at least 300 billion.
Sprout simply doesn't have that much cash in its account.
The only feasible way is for Sprout Holdings to use the funds on its books to repurchase part of the equity held by the Dream Fund to meet the funding needs of the Dream Fund.
In this way, it can also reduce the Dream Fund's equity holdings in sprouts in disguise, and avoid the outside world always saying that the pedigree of sprout holdings is not pure enough and is controlled by overseas investment institutions.
It can be said that it kills two birds with one stone!!!