The palm trees block the blazing sunshine, and the sea breeze blows in, making it quite cool for people sitting in the off-road vehicle.
Shen Ji talked about the group’s investment arrangements for the West African branch next year and said:
"...The land prices in palm plantations are rising too fast now, and subsequent acquisitions will be suspended. Next year, I will only get an additional investment budget of 10 million US dollars for the West African branch..."
"Aren't you considering developing bauxite?" Cao Mo asked.
"Ignore it for the time being. The cost of shipping is too high. The industrial supporting facilities in the mining areas here are also completely inadequate. Small capital with a scale of 1 billion or 80 billion cannot be used at all." Shen Ji shook his head and said.
Based on Dongsheng's existing industrial structure, the relatively abundant high-quality bauxite resources in West Africa are directly attractive to Dongsheng.
However, the sea transportation distance from West Africa to the Guangxi Beihai Port nearest Dongsheng Electrolytic Aluminum Factory is 17,000 kilometers. However, West Africa lacks super large deep-water ports. Compared with importing bauxite from Indonesia, Australia and India, the cost of sea transportation alone is It is forty to fifty dollars more per ton.
Unless the domestic bauxite arrival price and the downstream aluminum ingot price can further rise, otherwise, no matter how high-quality the bauxite resources in West Africa are and how easy the mining is, the cost savings that can be achieved in various links will not be offset for the time being. Eliminate the huge gap in shipping costs.
In the alumina and electrolytic aluminum industry, the electricity consumption per ton of aluminum is even more terrifying. The current power generation capacity of Cornero Energy is not enough to consume a 100,000-ton electrolytic aluminum factory; while other industrial supporting facilities The ability is also lacking a bit.
Under the current situation, it is impossible for Dongsheng to extend the upstream end of aluminum production to West Africa. At present, it mainly treats this area as a downstream market for expansion.
Dongsheng plans to invest a considerable portion of its new investment in Canem next year in the Conero Lake Industrial Park.
This is mainly due to Yang Deshan's suggestion, which is to rely on Dongsheng's newly completed aluminum profile processing plant to invest in the construction of an aluminum finishing industrial park to attract aluminum finishing companies to settle in.
This will not only promote the continued development of the Conero Lake Industrial Park, but also promote Dongsheng's aluminum business to expand the downstream market in West Africa...
Cao Mo sighed with regret. The northeastern region of Oyo State has quite good high-quality bauxite resources. If Dongsheng is interested, he also wants to invest some funds to win the exploration rights of a region to make preliminary preparations. work, and even consider adding a small-scale production line at the Cornero cement plant to develop and produce bauxite cement for specific special purposes.
Dongsheng is not interested. The development of large-scale bauxite mines, which often requires hundreds of millions of dollars, is not what he can do now. Besides, when developing bauxite mines, there are no stable and reliable customers downstream, who will he sell to?
Build your own alumina and electrolytic aluminum factories?
The amount of funds required for this is even greater than bauxite development.
"Has Cornero Food considered accepting capital injection?" Shen Ji asked Cao Mo, diverting to another question.
"I'm a very casual person. What matters is the price of Dongsheng's flower." Cao Mo said.
Cornero Foods is mainly engaged in the cocoa butter business, mainly imitating Dongsheng’s palm oil business model.
Although Cornero Food has not yet fully opened the domestic market, with the development of the domestic economy, Chinese people’s demand for high-end food is becoming increasingly strong. No one can think that the future development prospects of Cornero Food will definitely be weak. Passed Dongsheng’s palm oil business.
And the commodity market that is currently booming,
The cocoa butter industry has also benefited greatly.
Of course, the grain, oil and food products under Dongsheng are one of the most important business sectors. It can be said that it is a logical thing to get involved in the cocoa butter industry at this time.
"The development potential of Cornero's food business is great, and the industry is also designed with a long chain. The upstream end has strong complementary advantages with Dongsheng's palm oil business. The main shortcoming at present is that the downstream market development is not too sharp, but Dongsheng Grain and Oil Business Unit It can provide a lot of support in terms of customers and resources," Shen Ji said, "However, Cornello Food has been established for too short a time and cannot financially meet the merger and acquisition requirements of listed companies - if you are willing, Hexi The fund can get involved first, so that I can personally participate in part of the investment..."
"The price offered by Hexi Fund is right. I can give you some shares privately." Cao Mo said shamelessly, regardless of Yang Deshan sitting in the car.
"Ahem," Shen Ji coughed twice in embarrassment and said, "Can you agree to Cornero Foods accepting an investment? My uncle agrees that I will personally invest three to five points..."
"Since you said that, I have to make careful calculations." Cao Mo said while touching his chin, pretending to be a profiteer.
The higher the value of the commodity, the lower the proportion of shipping costs. Whether you are exporting cocoa butter or cocoa beans from West Africa, the journey will not be too long.
Besides, West Africa is the core area for growing cocoa in the world, accounting for 75% of the world's annual output. If domestic companies really want to intervene in the cocoa butter industry on a large scale, West Africa must not be considered too far away.
If Dongsheng really wants to intervene in the cocoa butter industry on a large scale, it is probably the most convenient way to invest in Cornero Foods. If it wants to independently develop the cocoa butter business through its West African branch, at least in Lonta and surrounding areas where Dongsheng has the most industrial and geographical advantages. , Never think about competing with Cao Mo.
"If this were not the case, Hexi would have injected US$200 million into Cornero Foods and taken 50% of the shares?" Cao Mo asked.
"You can't be so open-minded - how do you want me to help you negotiate this offer?" Shen Ji said with a bitter smile.
"The woodland of Oguta in Benin is particularly suitable for planting cocoa trees. It takes six years for cocoa saplings to bear fruit in other places, but it only takes four years to bear fruit in Oguta," Cao Mo said. The gold company's mining area in Oguta covers an area of nearly one thousand square kilometers. I am running over now to contract all the plantable forest land in the mining area. Can you estimate how much planting area can be squeezed out? I have never done this before. The thing is, it’s not that I don’t have this idea, but I don’t have much funds at the moment, but if I put this resource into Cornero Food, how much do you think it’s worth?”
"Even if Oguta can squeeze out more than 100,000 or 200,000 acres of planting land, even if the land price you get will be very low, but for such a large-scale land reclamation and planting, you will not have a continuous investment of 100 million US dollars in the future. Four years later, Where do you go to hang fruit? Besides, you have a certain foundation in Lonta. Apart from investing in gold mines, Benin's other advantages are completely incomparable with Lonta. How are you going to take care of such a large-scale plantation? "Shen Ji said, "You can't suddenly hear that Dongsheng intends to intervene. You really don't count this area as a resource for Cornero Food..."
"Stari is in Augusta," Cao Mo said leisurely. "The Tubman family abandoned the plantation on the northern outskirts of Draculamore. They can't find a buyer at the moment and can only let it be abandoned. However, some management The experienced stewards have also moved to Oguta with the Tubman family, and are currently relying on a secretly acquired cocoa plantation to cooperate with surrounding tribes in cocoa cultivation. So I am confident that I will be able to grow the cocoa plantation in Oguta. Expanding the area for cocoa cultivation is not just a casual talk.
The power of the Jidam family has not been completely weakened yet, so it is not appropriate to do it in a big way for the time being..."
"..." Shen Ji opened his mouth. He really didn't expect that after the Tubman family escaped from Kanem, they actually hid in Oguta, Benin. After a while, he said, "With so much woodland, If you want to develop them all, in addition to hundreds of millions of dollars in funds and the corresponding management team, it is impossible to complete the development in just two or three years. Besides, the Tubman family cannot surface in the short term, and they certainly cannot rush to be included in the science and technology. Among Nairo Foods…”
"The Tubman family can't surface for the time being, but I'm just telling you that you will definitely not suffer a loss if you join Cornero Foods this time," Cao Mo said with a smile, "Except for the cultivation contract of Oguta Outside of the land use, please also tell me, what is the highest price Hexi Fund can offer me?"
"I don't know the financial data of Cornero Food very well. I had a brief chat with the old director before going abroad, but the old director didn't care much about the current financial data of Cornero Food. He just felt that Dongsheng could benefit from Cornero Food. Starting to intervene in the cocoa butter industry is worth 20 million US dollars," Shen Ji said. "In other words, no matter how much money you actually invest in Cornero Foods, Hexi Fund will inject the same amount of money in exchange for half of the shares, and then take away half of the shares. I’ll pay you an additional $20 million as a pass..."
"Your uncle still doesn't have the courage to be a food giant. Even if Cornero Foods is merged into a listed company, there will be no development prospects!" Cao Mo sighed lightly and said, "Let's not talk about Cornero Foods. For the palm oil business of the West Africa Branch, even if the current price of mature oil palm land is too high and it is not suitable to continue to acquire it, it should be properly deployed for planting. Is it possible that a company as big as Dongsheng does not even have a cultivation period of six or seven years? Wait patiently?”
Shen Ji smiled bitterly and said: "Africa is still a strange land full of dangers for most Chinese people. No matter what, Dongsheng is far ahead of others."
"That's right, we can't ask for too much," Cao Mo nodded and said, "In addition to Cornero Food's loan of five million US dollars from the United Bank of Oman, I have actually injected US$25 million in capital - if Dongsheng is willing to share its own customer | resources for the development of Cornero Food, and Hexi Fund will inject you with an investment of 8 million US dollars in exchange for 20% of the equity - this should be more reasonable, right?"
Cao Moshi actually injected 25 million US dollars of real money into Cornero Foods, connecting the upstream and downstream industrial chains. In the end, he accepted the capital injection from Hexi Fund with a valuation of only about 30 million US dollars, completely It can be said that he is super conscientious.
Of course, Cao Mo is willing to suffer this loss because he values the large customers and resources in Dongsheng's hands, which can help Cornero Food quickly open up the domestic market - this is Cornero Food's biggest shortcoming. If it cannot make up for it, Not to mention that the production capacity of Xinxuan Food cannot be fully utilized, and the upstream has no way to expand further, let alone how much sweetness it will reap from this international commodity market.
He suffered some losses in equity valuation, allowing Dongsheng to gain some advantages in exchange for rapid development of the downstream market, which can be regarded as each getting what it needs.
As for holding half of the shares or giving up the controlling stake, Cao Mo will not consider it for the time being.
"I personally can completely accept this," Shen Ji smiled, raised his hand to look at the time on his watch, and said, "I will communicate with the country later. My uncle now pays more attention to Lao Dong's opinions, mainly on It depends on the old director’s opinion..."
The old director, Dong Chengpeng, is the CEO of Hexi Fund. He is a direct descendant of Ding Zhaoqiang who is as trusted by Ding Zhaoqiang as Guo Guangxin. In the Dongsheng system, the goals of people like Zhao Xinyu are Guo Guangxin and Dong Chengpeng's positions.