"What is the specific situation now and where are the difficulties?"
Wang Yaocheng walked out refreshed, chewing sweet strawberries in his mouth, a trace of juice flowed from the corner of his mouth, and he wiped it smoothly.
Miss Tess, the personal housekeeper, quickly came forward from behind and took out a white towel from nowhere to wipe his hands.
"Oh, okay, thank you, Miss Tess, uh... let's talk about something for a while!"
"Understood, can we come back in an hour?"
"OK."
Wang Yaocheng invited everyone to sit down in the garden, ready to hear what the problem was and why it had been delayed for so long.
"In terms of the merger price, it has been generally determined that the payment will be 1.15 to 1.2 billion US dollars, and the bank liabilities of 4.6 billion US dollars and the subsequent smooth handover of 12,100 employees will be arranged."
President Huo Jiaguang said: "In order to stabilize the traditional brand image of the Netherlands and take into account KLM's traditional market and customer base, the merged company will continue to retain KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and adopt the method of independent operation of two brands in one company. However,
Cathay Pacific's world-leading management experience will be introduced in terms of ticketing, routes, aircraft procurement, post-maintenance and senior personnel management, and will be arranged at the parent company's discretion."
"Yes, isn't this condition very good?" Wang Yaocheng asked with a frown.
"But some of these Nordic guys regard us as a bastard, and they came up with a condition halfway. They hope that the bank liabilities can be converted into the equity of the company after the merger, or the preferred stock type, rather than ordinary shares."
"What a melon skin, the lion is opening his mouth!"
Wang Yaocheng's face suddenly darkened. This was no different from robbery.
Generally speaking, the most important thing for banks in corporate mergers and acquisitions is to ensure the safety of loan funds and not to interfere excessively in mergers and acquisitions.
Except for one situation.
That is similar to Hynix Semiconductor, which is on the verge of bankruptcy and reorganization, or Hong Kong Pacific Telecom, which has completely entered bankruptcy and liquidation. Creditors will take over the company in the form of a syndicate and conduct restructuring negotiations with interested takeovers.
This was also the case when we took down Wang An's computer.
The current KLM Royal Dutch Airlines does not fall into this situation at all. It is an airline with normal operations, and creditor banks have absolutely no reason to step in and interfere with the company's normal mergers and acquisitions operations.
At most, it is to assess merger and acquisition risks from the bank's perspective to prevent corporate mergers and acquisitions from harming the bank's interests.
"Which bank is it?"
"Chairman, it is a syndicate of banks led by UBS, as well as Deutsche Bank, etc., but the loan proportion is relatively small."
"Hey, Sima Zhao's heart is known to everyone on the street!"
Wang Yaocheng sneered; "This is to mess up the deal. It seems that he is wary of HSBC's expansion into Europe, and at the same time he doesn't want to see Cathay Pacific embark on the road to globalization. This dark mentality is really shameful!"
"
"Yes."
President Huo Jiaguang said with deep emotion, “You can’t blame the Americans for calling it old Europe, especially in these areas with Germanic influence. The folk customs are very conservative and cannot keep up with the development of the high-tech era of the Internet.
We are not alone in our consistent resistance to external forces, and the United States has also suffered greatly from it.
The last time United Airlines tried to expand in Europe, it ended in vain due to resistance from Germany and Austria. Now we are facing the same dilemma.
Fortunately, most people on the board of directors of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines are willing to cooperate.
After all, our bid is very sincere, and it is difficult for them to find a better partner. From a business perspective, Cathay Pacific should be a good partner.
On the board of directors, the person who strongly supports UBS's proposition is the second largest shareholder, Count Van Basten. He is a traditional local noble in the Dutch royal family and has great influence in the upper class.
This person has strong white right-wing extremist tendencies, is quite unfriendly to Asians, and has strong resistance. This is a very difficult thorn in the side."
Wang Yaocheng said strangely, "Please! We are not engaging in universal suffrage, nor are we seeking absolute control. Can Count Van Basten stop this?"
"Count Van Basten holds 14.3% of the shares, but he can unite some small and medium-sized shareholders to oppose us and create trouble in these mergers and acquisitions. It is not easy to get around it."
"Is there nothing you can do?"
Faced with the boss's doubts, President Huo Jiaguang glanced at Zhang Shuguang, smiled slightly and said, "Of course not. Since small and medium-sized shareholders can be won over, we can naturally do it too. It's just talking with money. After all, businessmen are only interested in profit."
"Then do it. I don't care about spending more money. This time I will resolutely win over KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. If UBS Group continues to make unreasonable troubles, HSBC can take over the creditor's rights."
Wang Yaocheng ended the conversation with a domineering final word.
For the expansion of its consortium, these three to five years are the best time. If you enter the European market earlier, you will gain more initiative.
Although KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is located in a remote place in Northern Europe, thanks to the EU's large market principle, it can set up ticketing centers and routes in EU countries, and operate transatlantic, Southeast Asian and Far East transcontinental routes.
As long as they can provide sufficiently excellent services, attractive enough air tickets, and sincerely preferential prices from partner hotels, they can attract European tourists to choose KLM and Cathay Pacific.
What's more valuable is
As the only large-scale civil airline in the country, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has an absolute controlling interest in Amsterdam Airport, and the price is almost half-buy, half-get.
No other international airline would base its headquarters in Amsterdam, which is almost the end of the world.
The neighboring Nordic countries Norway and Sweden have small airlines and most of their international routes are transited through the Netherlands, making Amsterdam International Airport a Nordic hub port.
Travel across Europe
Taking the airlines of Britain, France and Germany as the strongest ones, not to mention Air France and Lufthansa, these are countries with huge national pride and will never allow foreign airlines to get involved. There is really no possibility at all.
British Airways is a privatized airline with London Heathrow International Airport and Manchester Airport as its hub airports. Its strength is almost the same as that of Cathay Pacific Airways.
After Cathay Pacific acquires KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, it will jump to the top in the international rankings and become its strong competitor.
The UK also has a privately owned airline, Virgin Atlantic, which is second only to British Airways.
The boss is the irresponsible Richard Branson, whose Virgin Group holds 51% of Virgin Atlantic, while Delta Air Lines holds the remaining 49%.
Wang Yaocheng has known Richard Branson for many years. Richard Branson was once a minority shareholder of HSBC, and the two had discussed cooperation.
The end result is that everyone does his or her own thing.
Richard Branson is adventurous by nature and loves extreme sports. He has been actively planning to travel in the universe beyond the earth.
Russian Aerospace launched a space flight to outer space at a price of 20 million US dollars. This guy was the first to sign up and paid all the fees.
Such an adventurer with an out-of-the-box personality is not naturally willing to be subordinate to others, let alone accept other people's arrangements. He is born to be the boss.
The same is true for Wang Yaocheng. If these people get together and cooperate, it will be like a spark hitting the earth, and what they will unleash will not only be passion, but also complete disaster.
Although Europe is a large country with numerous airlines, large and small, the only one that Cathay Pacific can find attractive and suitable for merger and acquisition is KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.
For this, Wang Yaocheng was willing to pay an excessive price.