The Industrial Giant Reborn - Chapter 647

c638 The U.S. auto industry’s nightmare returns

“15%? Including the shares I currently own?” Chen Zhiwen asked.

“Eric, how many shares do you have now?” John Reed asked.

“4.99% is not the 5% that needs to be publicly declared.” Chen Zhiwen said.

Unlike Hong Kong, many countries around the world have very strict management of shareholders of all parties. With 5% as the limit, whether it is an excess or a reduction, it needs to be made public, and at least the listed company and the stock exchange need to be notified. This also virtually increases the difficulty of hostile acquisitions. Therefore, in the history of Europe and the United States, there have been many acquisition cases, but most of them were friendly acquisitions. It is because of various legal regulations that the cost of hostile acquisitions is too high.

Chen Zhiwen’s acquisition of Citibank shares actually started 2 months ago. After the oil crisis broke out, many companies that were struggling to hold on could no longer hold on.

However, he did not use multi-account secret acquisitions very cautiously. Instead, he bought goods directly and openly. Although at this time, there were many shareholders who were not optimistic about Citibank, which caused the stock price to plummet, this kind of buying was still an attractive behavior. Note that this is also Chen Zhiwen’s purpose. He needs the officials of Huaqi Bank to take the initiative to find him and beg him to buy shares. In this way, it will be the most beneficial to him.

“4.9%? If you add 15%, it would be too high. American law does not allow such behavior.” John Reed said.

“Then, if I acquire some stocks from overseas capital, or let them sell them, wouldn’t that be fine for me?” Chen Zhiwen asked again.

In the United States, restrictions on the banking industry are still not as high as those on the media and technology industries. At least there is no limit on overseas unilateral capital exceeding 5% of equity. Otherwise, neither he nor the Middle Eastern princes in history would be able to buy the bottom of Citigroup. .

The only restriction is that unless authorized by a special license, all foreign capital must not exceed 25% in total. In this case, dozens or even hundreds of overseas individuals or institutions can hold the 24.99% shares, or one person can hold 24.99% of the shares. Yes, but the possibility of the latter is almost impossible. Even if it does happen, it is impossible to manipulate the banks of the United States.

After all, banks are different from media or technology. The former is simply large in scale and has a wide range of influence. It is not a big problem for overseas people to understand or even participate in management. But for the latter two, many times a secret may affect National security, therefore, is extremely strictly guarded.

“If this is the case, it’s okay. I will arrange for people to contact some overseas investors first and try to persuade them to sell their stocks. Eric, you’d better try your best to increase shares with our bank. You also know that now The situation at Citibank, we also desperately need capital,” John Reed said.

“Okay, you are responsible for this. I will arrange for some people to come and see if they can help. In terms of funds, we will discuss a number later and I will prepare cash.” Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

Huaqi Bank has recently been in urgent need of large sums of funds to solve its debt and principal problems. It is hard to imagine that such an American giant would almost collapse due to a shortfall of less than US$1 billion.

But the risks in the financial industry are so great. Even if they loan hundreds of millions or billions of dollars, they only keep the money. Once there is a problem in their own operations, it is extremely easy to trigger the Domele effect, such as the most terrifying run. , once it happens, it means that the bank, which was fine in the first place, will be run on and bankrupt.

But no one knew that the third oil crisis was very short-lived. After the end, another major event that happened next year, and the subsequent rise of the Internet, the U.S. economy took off again, and Citibank’s natural benefits skyrocketed. Even if no one comes to save Citigroup this time, the flowering period itself will be able to survive in two or three years, as long as there is no serious run in the process.

But except Chen Zhiwen, no one knows the future. Who can think that the oil crisis will end soon?

Regarding the Citigroup matter, Chen Zhiwen and John Reed have set a general direction. In terms of price, it will be more or less the same. For Chen Zhiwen, this investment period is a once-in-a-century opportunity, and the price will fluctuate a little. It doesn’t matter, as long as it succeeds.

After leaving Citibank, Chen Zhiwen stayed in New York for two days before coming to the car city: Detroit.

This city was known as the second largest city in the United States 20 years ago, and 20 years later, it was the first large city in the United States to declare bankruptcy. Cars succeeded and cars failed. By the 1990s, Detroit’s cars were basically They have all been abused by Japanese cars. In particular, Japanese cars have also begun to produce cars in the United States. As a result, the U.S. government cannot help Detroit cars at a public level. After all, the U.S. government is still The slogan of “free trade” must be maintained. Otherwise, if it does not give others a fair market, then others will follow its example and counterattack other industries in the United States.

Although the auto industry is important, it is not more important than all other U.S. industries combined.

The ongoing oil crisis has dealt a blow to the Detroit auto industry.

Since the end of the second oil crisis in the early 1980s, because the relationship between the Middle East and the United States was relatively good, they have cooperated with the United States to increase oil production on a large scale in an attempt to weaken a powerful country that relies heavily on oil exports. In the process, they have also benefited the American auto industry.

Oil prices remained at just over 10 US dollars a barrel for about six or seven years from the mid-to-late 1980s, which also made terminal oil prices very cheap. Coupled with the recovery of the global economy, Americans have resumed their preference for oil. Car hobby.

This has allowed General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and even AMC acquired by Chen Zhiwen to benefit a lot from it. The large number of orders has forced the American auto giants to once again put all their resources on models with high fuel consumption and high power. At the same time, And because of the improvement in relations between the U.S. government and Middle Eastern countries and the establishment of federal oil reserves, oil shortages seem to be a thing of the past.

However, what Iraq did triggered a tripling of global oil prices, and large-displacement oil trucks in the United States immediately fell into unsalable conditions. After all, the last two oil crises lasted almost ten years. Time, in the worst case, you can’t even buy gas. Who dares to buy a car with extremely high fuel consumption?

The automobile industry is a heavy industry. Although several giants in the United States made a little money in the past few years, they still cannot do what little Japan does. In addition, there is a labor union above them that is desperate for money. When this crisis comes, The three giants stopped selling immediately. This does not mean that there will be big problems immediately, but that the capitalists have to take precautions and worry about the future.

Among them, Chrysler is the weakest among the three giants.

As early as 1988, Lee Iacocca, one of the top 100 CEOs of the 20th century, had already retired. The market was no longer as optimistic about Chrysler itself. When the oil crisis hit, Chrysler’s stock price immediately fell to the bottom, and the entire company’s daily operations , has also been greatly affected. When cars cannot be sold, so many daily expenses will basically not be reduced.

The first place Chen Zhiwen came to was AMC’s production base. Since it was his own company, he naturally wanted to come and take a look when he came to Detroit.

“There are very few orders from various places during this period, right?” Chen Zhiwen asked. Although the production on site seems to be very busy, it is most likely that the production is specially arranged because his boss is coming. This situation is not unique to the mainland in later generations. Yes, it is the same all over the world, including hygiene. The entire car workshop is clean and the products are neat. Who can believe that the factory can achieve this level on weekdays? That is to say, when the big boss or customers are coming, we urgently sort out the results of 5S.

Hawking may stand up and toast at home, but he may be able to do more in the United States.

“Yes, it’s not very good. Now the oil price is too high, and many people don’t consider American cars.” George, a vice president of AMC who accompanied him, said. There is nothing to hide about this kind of thing. The big boss not only He is not only the boss of AMC, but also AMC’s largest channel dealer. Currently, he has almost 1,000 car sales stores in the United States. 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 are not just Selling AMC cars, but the effect of tilting resources is completely different. In addition, there are many boss stores in Europe and Asia, which has also increased AMC’s export business a lot, but it is only limited to another branch. Models that Yanjing AMC cannot produce.

Having taken control of the sales side, the big boss naturally knows a general situation. The “busyness” here today is just a default rule.

“Don’t we have two fuel-efficient models under development? How are sales?” Chen Zhiwen asked again. After acquiring 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. Moreover, turbocharging technology has also begun to be used in other car brands. We still have advantages, but they may not be that big. The main thing is , our brand awareness is not enough.” George said.

“Well, let’s do it step by step.” 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 still inferior to other giants and relies entirely on terminal stores. With quantity and a large amount of money for publicity, it would be good to win a piece of the market. It is undoubtedly a daydream to expect to conquer the entire market like home appliances and games.

In fact, he does not expect to reach the top level in the automobile industry. It would be good to reach the second tier at the global level. However, domestically, because of the first-mover advantage and financial advantage, he hopes to reach the first tier.

“Yes.” George also said.

“How are the other cars in Detroit doing?” Chen Zhiwen asked again. Although he generally knew that the situation of American cars was very bad, the specifics were definitely not as clear as those in Detroit.

“None of them are very good. Although the three giants have a strong foundation, they are also large in scale. When the market suddenly shrinks, they will be hit the hardest.” George paused and said: “These are secondary, no matter what, they are generally the same. If we can persist for a period of time, the problem arises with the UAW. In the past few years, when our American car sales were a little better, the UAW was clamoring for a wage increase. The threat of strikes continued for several years. In the end, all the car factories had to agree. We still need to make additional compensation for the previous losses, but we immediately encountered the current situation, but the UAW refused to change it.”

“The same for us?” Chen Zhiwen asked.

“It’s the same, but we have a small number of people, so the impact is not very big. The three giants of GM are the ones who have suffered the most.” George said.

“Sooner or later, American car companies will die at the hands of the auto unions. They don’t keep an eye on Japanese car companies and are trying to steal American cars.” Chen Zhiwen shook his head helplessly.

The decline of the American automobile industry is not only due to its own mistakes in technical choices, but also the UAW. After all, the former is not a revolutionary measure like replacing fuel vehicles with electric vehicles. Although American cars are criticized a lot for their fuel consumption, they are still As long as you make up for it in other aspects, the problem won’t be too big, because many people in many places don’t care much about fuel consumption, but a blood-sucking union is like a virus. If it can’t be eliminated, the main body will die.

However, no one can do anything about this kind of thing. The three giants in the United States could be said to be all-powerful in the 1970s, but they still cannot withstand the long-term erosion of the UAW. AMC’s scale in the United States will not expand much anyway.

“The production efficiency in the Mainland has become higher and higher. In addition to the U.S. market, other parts of the world can be produced in the Mainland. This will also prevent us from expanding our scale and being targeted by the UAW.” George said, American companies, not Limited to automobiles, in fact, we have been preparing to move factories overseas in recent years. In fact, the United States is no longer suitable for traditional manufacturing. Labor is expensive and inefficient.

“This has been done for a long time. The expansion of the factory in the mainland will not be that fast. 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 in the mainland is very fast , but the transfer of the automobile industry chain is difficult, and the requirements for employees are very high, and because many cars are exported, the quality of the cars is also related to personal safety. Therefore, you can be slower and more steady, even if the production part is still in the United States. Models should not be rushed, otherwise risks may affect the entire company.

“That’s good,” George said.

“How’s Chrysler doing lately? I know their stock is plummeting. What’s the actual market situation like?” Chen Zhiwen asked again. This is the purpose of his visit to Detroit this time, because this is a golden opportunity to buy Chrysler at the bottom again. (End of chapter)