Mrs. Thatcher didn't know whether Li Guangyu's arrangement was good or bad. Now she is preparing to make these changes in the economy to save the current declining economic situation in Britain.
If Jaguar is sold to Li Guangyu, the money can not only be invested in economic reforms, but if Jaguar develops better as a result, she can also persuade those lawmakers who oppose her reform plan.
Mrs. Thatcher said: "Mr. Lee, if you can agree with a few of my opinions, I will convince the government to sell Jaguar to you."
"Your Excellency, Prime Minister, please speak." Li Guangyu replied.
"First, after you acquired Jaguar, you promised that your automobile group headquarters would not move away from England. Second, after completing the acquisition, you were not allowed to resign as employees of Jaguar Motor Company at will. Third, regarding the Hong Kong issue, I hope you can
Stand with us," Mrs Thatcher said.
After Li Guangyu heard Mrs. Thatcher's conditions, he estimated that the acquisition would end in vain. It was obviously impossible for Li Guangyu to agree to the third request.
Li Guangyu said: "Your Excellency, Prime Minister, I can promise that the headquarters of our automobile group will always be in England. After the Jaguar acquisition, as for the company's employees, as long as they are willing to work for us, I will not quit their jobs. Now we
When the automobile group officially needs talents."
"As for your third request, I am powerless. Regarding the Xiangjiang issue, this is a negotiation between you and the mainland government. It is not something that a small businessman like me can get involved in. I only hope that during your discussion, you can
Stabilize the economic development of Hong Kong."
Mrs. Thatcher was not surprised by Li Guangyu's answer. The third request was just something she made incidentally. It would be better if it didn't work. It didn't matter if it didn't work. She didn't have much hope anyway.
Mrs. Thatcher said: "Mr. Li, you are worthy of being a successful businessman and a qualified family head. But with your answer like this, aren't you worried that you won't be able to get what you want on the Jaguar issue?"
"Your Excellency, Prime Minister, if this acquisition of Jaguar cannot be completed because of this, then I will have no choice but to give up. Then I will look for products that can replace Jaguar, such as Maserati, a subsidiary of the Citroen Group." Li Guangyu said.
Li Guangyu could only think about it this way. Currently, Jaguar cannot complete the acquisition. His own Bentley cars lack engines, so he cannot always buy them from outside. In this way, Bentley will suffer a big loss in the competition with Rolls-Royce in the future.
Although Maserati in Italy has now become a sub-brand of Citroën, Maserati is not lacking in various departments, especially engine technology, which is no weaker than Jaguar.
Mrs. Thatcher said: "Mr. Li, I said you are a qualified businessman, and I am indeed right. You will always leave enough escape routes for yourself. Regarding your acquisition of Jaguar, our government will
Agreed, you will discuss the specific matters with Jaguar."
Thatcher didn't want to let Li Guangyu's automobile group go to Italy because of the third issue. Now Britain is in need of external capital investment, and the sale of Jaguar can also relieve some of the government's financial pressure.
She didn't want the money that England should have earned to be taken away by France on the other side because of this incident.
Li Guangyu was overjoyed after hearing this and said to Mrs. Thatcher: "Your Excellency, Prime Minister, thank you so much. Don't worry, I will never let Bentley and Jaguar decline in my hands."
Originally, Li Guangyu planned to go to Citroen headquarters in Paris after talking to Mrs. Thatcher. Unexpectedly, in a twist of events, Mrs. Thatcher actually agreed to his acquisition of Jaguar.
Mrs. Thatcher said: "Mr. Li, I also hope that leaving Jaguar in your hands will continue the glory of this car company. I also hope that Mr. Li can increase investment in our UK."
Li Guangyu said: "Your Excellency, Prime Minister, after I spent 250 million US dollars to acquire Bentley, I have planned to inject 200 million US dollars into it for the development of Bentley. After acquiring Jaguar this time, we will also invest a sum of money."
funds, and in the future, we will also build a group building here."
Thatcher said happily: "Mr. Li, I believe your investment will be well worth the money, and I also wish your automobile group will develop better and better."
Mrs. Thatcher was very satisfied with Li Guangyu's investment. If the privatization of every state-owned enterprise could bring such investment, the British economy would improve immediately, and she would not have to worry about the British economy.
Li Guangyu said: "With the blessing of Your Excellency the Prime Minister, I believe that our automobile group will only get better and better, and your hard work will be in vain."
Li Guangyu talked with Mrs. Thatcher for more than an hour before leaving his office.
After Li Guangyu returned to the hotel, Du Yuemei immediately asked Li Guangyu: "Li Sheng, how was your discussion with Mrs. Thatcher? Did she agree to our acquisition of Jaguar?"
Li Guangyu looked at Du Yuemei's anxious look and said, "Mrs. Thatcher has agreed to our acquisition of Jaguar. You still need to go to Jaguar headquarters to discuss this matter with their president."
Du Yuemei said happily: "Okay Li Sheng, I will rush to the Jaguar headquarters in the afternoon and start negotiations with Jaguar tomorrow to try to win the Jaguar Motor Company as soon as possible."
With the British government's nod, the acquisition of Jaguar will no longer be a problem. The main issue now is the acquisition price. This issue may not be determined in a day or two, unless Li Guangyu doesn't care about money.
Li Guangyu said: "Yuemei, when we were negotiating with Jaguar, our bottom line was US$900 million. Today, Jaguar's market value is only a little over 700 million. If Jaguar opens its mouth, you can go to Paris first.
Visit Citroën’s headquarters and consult on issues related to Maserati.”
Du Yuemei knew that the reason why Li Guangyu asked her to go to the Citroën headquarters in Paris was to put pressure on Jaguar. Let them know that the Li Group did not necessarily want to acquire Jaguar, and that there were other options besides Jaguar.
Du Yuemei said: "Li Sheng, I know what to do, and I won't let our Bentley Group be taken advantage of."
Li Guangyu then said to Zhang Ziyu: "Ziyu, please contact Mr. Gan Qinglin and ask him to negotiate with Sumitomo Bank. We will borrow US$1 billion from Sumitomo Bank using the shares of Xingyu Group."
"Okay Li Sheng, I will contact Mr. Gan Qinglin right away." Zhang Ziyu said.
Li Guangyu is really short of money now. He spent more than 2 billion Hong Kong dollars on Bentley. This is what is left after excluding the 5 billion Hong Kong dollars transferred to Tianyu Investment last year, plus the money transferred from Xingyu Group.
It took 500 million Hong Kong dollars to satisfy Bentley's investment.
Nowadays, to acquire Jaguar, the only source of funds can be turned to banks. Li Guangyu is not willing to divert the funds from Tianyu Investment. The funds there are for the acquisition of Heung Kong Electric and Heung Kong Telephone Group.
If Li Guangyu only acquired Jaguar, he would not need so many loans. You know, in the first quarter, the profits of Li Guangyu's major groups exceeded 4.5 billion Hong Kong dollars. Although some of the acquired shares increased in value, Xingyu and Hong Kong
The two Yu Groups still provided Li Guangyu with current flows of nearly 3 billion Hong Kong dollars in the first quarter.
In particular, the hot sales of Xingyu Group, home game consoles, and Super Mario, Pac-Man, and Street Fighter games have earned Li Guangyu more than 1.8 billion Hong Kong dollars in profits.
Li Guangyu does not plan to use too much of the funds there. The cash is intended to be used to acquire the two groups of Xiangjiang Electric Lighting and Xiangjiang Telephone in June. At that time, he will have to fight with the two groups of Yihe Qiǎng and gòu.
Got cash.
Li Guangyu then said to Du Yuemei: "When you acquire Jaguar, you can promise their senior management that our group will not change their company's senior management, and at the same time, their company's president will serve as the vice president of our Bentley Group."
Li Xuemei knew that Li Guangyu was doing this to facilitate better negotiations. After all, many senior executives of the group still need to continue working at Jaguar.