Chapter 271 Tender Offer

"Your Highness the Duke, what I hope you understand is that Standard Chartered Bank once defeated Lloyds Bank's hostile takeover of us. We can still do such a thing again."

After Barron returned to London, he met Davis, the manager of Standard Chartered Bank at that time.

Davis, 51, has been chief executive of Standard Chartered Bank since 2001 and recently took over as chairman of Standard Chartered Bank from the retiring Sanderson.

"Mr. Davis, my acquisition of the shares of Standard Chartered Bank is not a hostile acquisition, and compared with the acquisition of Standard Chartered Bank by Lloyds Bank that you mentioned before, if I can succeed in the acquisition, it will not Change the business strategy of Standard Chartered Bank. On the contrary, I will give your management more support to ensure your development in emerging markets."

The acquisition of an influential bank like Standard Chartered Bank is not a simple matter. At the beginning of the acquisition, Barron's DS Group had already formed an acquisition-related team with Goldman Sachs Group, and in addition to its In addition to the acquisition of shares, there were also personnel responsible for public relations who began to persuade the governments of England, Hong Kong and other relevant regions.

After all, they need to ensure that after acquiring this company, they will not change the operations of Standard Chartered Bank so much that it will have an impact on the economy of the relevant region.

As for Standard Chartered Bank, Barron personally returned to London to meet with their management, hoping that the other party would support his acquisition of Standard Chartered Bank.

At this time, DS Group held more than 30% of Standard Chartered Bank shares.

At the same time, after completing the acquisition of Avago, Rich23 Capital still has a total of 857 million pounds of funds, equivalent to approximately US$1.5 billion.

After deciding to locate Avago, a very important semiconductor company, in Lijiapo, they also conducted a series of negotiations with Lijiapo. One of them was to get Temasek to transfer their shares of Standard Chartered Bank. Sold to Rich23 Capital.

Prior to this, Temasek had also absorbed some shares of Standard Chartered Bank. Especially after DS Group's shares in Standard Chartered Bank exceeded the 5% quota, they also rushed to purchase its shares.

Temasek currently holds about 5% of Standard Chartered Bank shares, and they finally agreed to sell it to Rich23 Capital at a price of US$7 per share.

In this way, after Rich23 Capital paid nearly US$400 million, it obtained this 5% stake in Standard Chartered Bank.

The remaining funds on their hands continue to absorb shares of Standard Chartered Bank in the capital market.

Therefore, at present, DS Group and its related parties already hold more than 35% of the shares of Standard Chartered Bank. It only needs to buy another 16% of the shares, and its total shareholding ratio will exceed 51%, thus completing the acquisition of Standard Chartered Bank. Relative holdings of banks.

For listed companies, if they hold more than 30% of the shares, they have reached the tender offer line and can make a tender offer for the company.

This is what DS Capital is currently doing. Their tender offer has been submitted to the London Stock Exchange and HK Exchange for review. If there are no problems, then shareholders will vote on their tender offer. If it passes, then DS The group will be able to complete the acquisition of Standard Chartered Bank.

Among them, whether it is the British side, China's HK side or the company's management, Barron hopes to support his acquisition.

"I very much appreciate your management of Standard Chartered Bank in recent years, and I can promise that after the completion of the acquisition of Standard Chartered Bank, Mr. Davis, you will continue to serve as Chairman of this bank and the current management I will continue to stay on, and I will increase my support for Standard Chartered Bank and continue to deepen its business in emerging markets."

The conversation between Barron and Davis was quite effective. At least after that, Davis's attitude became much better, and he also said that he would continue to seek the opinions of the bank management and finally decide whether to accept it. Barron's acquisition of Standard Chartered Bank.

…

It has to be said that DS Group’s acquisition of Standard Chartered Bank is an eye-catching news both in the banking industry and globally.

After all, one side is Standard Chartered Bank, which is very well-known in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and the other side is the youngest Duke in England and a well-known rich man in England.

The combination of the two makes this news particularly eye-catching.

After he returned to London, he immediately began to keep a low profile, rarely appearing in public anymore, and spending most of his time in his residence.

"Your Highness the Duke, currently we have formed the Colo Legion in Colo. The soldiers who have undergone training will join the Colo Legion..."

Nigel Inkster, who had also just returned to London from Colo, reported to Barron the current situation of Colo.

In their plan, the original Protector Military Company will only exist to protect Munger Base and nearby mines, and will retain a total of about 500 personnel.

Most of the soldiers of the former government army who were originally in Colo will join the Colo Corps under the Protector Military Company after being screened.

In the future, Colo will not retain a standing armed force, and their national defense will be outsourced to the Colo Corps, which will be responsible for guarding the country.

Anyway, Kolo itself is a small country and extremely underdeveloped. It is not wise to retain too large a standing armed force. It is better to use more funds to develop the domestic economy.

In London, Barron registered an organization called the British-African Foundation, and this organization has hired many experts in economics, diplomacy, finance, etc. to form the British-African Institute. Currently, these people are working on The actual situation of Kolo is analyzed and researched on the country's economic, social and other aspects to formulate relevant policies in the future.

It can be said that on the surface, many policies will be formulated by Colo's future democratically elected government, but in fact, these policies originally came from the British African Institute.

“Kolo is a traditional agricultural country located in West Africa. Its general situation is similar to that of neighboring Benin and Burkina Faso. They are both very poor and backward African countries with weak industrial foundations, backward economic development, and food shortages. It cannot be self-sufficient, and agriculture is the backbone of the national economy.”

“In addition, agriculture in Kolo contributes 60% of employment to Kolo and accounts for more than 40% of GDP. The country’s main crops are corn, sorghum, cassava and rice, which account for 67% of agricultural output value, and cash crops account for About 20%, mainly cotton, coffee and cocoa, etc., and 42.2% of the country's population are engaged in agricultural production activities. In addition to agriculture, Colo's pillar industries include mining - mainly phosphates, and re-export trade..."

In the Anglo-African Institute, Barron listened to the experts in front of him explaining to him:

"Through our research, we believe that the future development of Kolo requires first of all the consolidation of the three existing pillar industries. Agriculture needs to be further improved, which can start from improving its domestic water conservancy foundation, because Kolo's climate is quite special. , because of its long and narrow land area, the central part of Colo has abundant rainfall, while the southern coastal areas experience severe droughts every year. It is very important to improve the water conservancy system so that its water resources can be distributed evenly in the country..."

"The other thing is mining..."

Speaking of mining, Kolo currently has proven phosphate reserves of 1.26 billion tons, making it the third largest phosphate producer in sub-Saharan Africa, and has iron ore reserves of about 500 million tons. In addition, the reserves of limestone, barite, dolomite, kyanite, garnet, quartz sand, uranium, manganese, bauxite and other minerals are also considerable.

However, most of the phosphate mines currently being mined are owned by French companies, and even the shares held by Collot's company were mostly owned by former head of state Nassin Dema. The "blocking" of the flow by the ruling class has resulted in the wealth transformed from these natural resources being unable to be provided for the development of the country...

Therefore, according to the opinion of the institute, the future government should negotiate with those French companies to recover part of the mining equity, so that more of the wealth transformed from these resources can be retained in Colo.

Barron also supports this. Don't think that this will annoy the French side - you know, so far, they have a lot of evidence of collusion between French companies and Nassin Dema. As long as they don't be too harsh For example, like Iraq or Libya, it is not a big problem to directly nationalize everything without saying anything, but to get back part of the shares through negotiation.

After all, it was a good time for Colonel Cardano, when the Soviet Union and the United States were competing for hegemony. At that time, he took back the shares of Western oil companies, and with the support of the Soviet Union, the other side did not really do anything to him despite their scruples...

But things are different now, and we still need to pay attention to methods.

In this case, even if it is concerned about the international outlook, France will not go too far if it has a certain level. At the worst, French capital will withdraw from Cologne... If this is the case, Barron will be even happier.