Chapter 311 Invest or seize power?
On August 6, Bank of Communications and Standard Chartered Bank officially signed a strategic cooperation agreement.
According to the agreement, Standard Chartered Bank invested 14.461 billion Chinese dollars, approximately US$1.747 billion, to invest in Bank of Communications, holding 7.775 billion shares, with a shareholding ratio of 19.9%.
The equity ratio is close to the upper limit of 20% for a single foreign-funded institution to invest in Hua Xia Commercial Bank, making it the second largest shareholder among Bank of Communications' major shareholders after the Ministry of Finance.
Part of Standard Chartered Bank's investment was in the form of foreign exchange, while the other part was replaced by the resources they provided to Bank of Communications.
This time, the signing ceremony of the strategic cooperation between Standard Chartered Bank and Bank of Communications was personally attended by Zeng Jingxuan, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Greater China of Standard Chartered Bank. She said in an interview:
"This is an exciting opportunity that allows us to develop a dual-brand credit card. The names of the two major banks, Bank of Communications and Standard Chartered Bank, will be printed on the card. We must have huge development potential in this area."
She was referring to one of the cooperation projects between the two large banks, which is that Bank of Communications will form a separately operated credit card center with Standard Chartered Bank. With the help of Standard Chartered Bank, Bank of Communications will be able to reach the international advanced level in this area of business. It also accepts the use of standard Standard Chartered Bank’s international credit card customers in China.
After Standard Chartered Bank takes a stake in Bank of Communications, Bank of Communications' core capital adequacy ratio calculated in accordance with international accounting standards will reach 8.43%, and the capital adequacy ratio will reach 11.62%.
According to the agreement, Standard Chartered Bank will send two directors and provide technical support and services in risk management, corporate governance and internal control, financial management, asset liability management, human resources management, etc.
This time, Bank of Communications' modernization reform will follow the three-step process of "financial restructuring - introduction of foreign investment - public listing." The first two steps have been completed, and the next step is the public listing process.
According to Bank of Communications executives, in-depth cooperation with Standard Chartered Bank will help Bank of Communications standardize management and become an "accelerator" for their eventual listing.
From now on, Bank of Communications has started the listing work and formulated an overall listing plan. It is expected to complete the listing in Hong Kong in the first half of next year.
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"We have purchased a total of 14.9% of the shares of Fast Retailing Group on the two stock exchanges in Hiroshima and Tokyo through several cooperative institutions..."
On the phone, Finn Hudson, CEO of Global Industrial Investment Fund (GII Fund), reported to Barron the progress of their acquisition of Uniqlo.
The parent company of Uniqlo is Fast Retailing Group of Japan. This company was listed on the Hiroshima Stock Exchange in 1994 and the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 1997.
According to the survey, the Yanai Zheng family, the founder of Fast Retailing Group, currently holds about 31% of the shares of Fast Retailing Group; Japan Trust Bank holds 20.58% of the shares; Japan Trust Bank holds 13.78% of the shares; other shares are held by others. Shareholders hold and circulate in the secondary market.
Because the GII Fund at this time has not disclosed its intention to acquire Uniqlo’s parent company, Fast Retailing Group, the stocks they acquired from the secondary market were owned by several other companies including its partners Standard Chartered Bank and Goldman Sachs Group. It is held on behalf of several institutions and has not yet put forward a bid for acquisition.
Therefore, on the one hand, they will still try to acquire as many shares of Fast Retailing Group in the Hiroshima and Tokyo stock markets.
In addition, they will also contact the small shareholders of Fast Retailing Group and the two Japanese banks that hold a large share of their shares, and try to acquire their shares.
The current total market value of Fast Retailing Group is around US$2.7 billion, which is not too high. However, in Japan, if you want to complete this acquisition, you will need some strategies.
As the founder of Uniqlo, Zheng Yanai revealed his retirement plan in "One Win and Nine Loss" published in 2003.
He, who was only 54 years old at the time, stated in the book that compared with his heyday, his physical strength and energy had begun to decline. He hoped that after retreating from the front line of business, he could focus on his investment career and spend his old age in peace.
In fact, in his early years, Yanai Zheng was deeply influenced by the business philosophy of American retail companies. In management, he neither respected the "one word" of managers nor had any intention to let his career pass on the shackles of family relationships. This was already a problem in Japanese corporate management at this time. It is very advanced.
After that, he successively found two "successors", namely Sawada Takashi and Tamatsuka Genichi, who had worked at IBM. However, before that, Sawada Takashi rejected Yanai Masaru's invitation to serve as the president of Uniqlo. , left Fast Retailing Group.
The current president of Fast Retailing Group is Genichi Tamatsuka, another successor that Zheng Yanai is optimistic about, but he will also resign next year due to the declining performance of Fast Retailing Group.
Although Yanai Zheng has "retired to the second line", he still has great influence on Fast Retailing Group. In the original time and space, he will take charge of the Arms Sales Group again next year, which will last for nearly 20 years.
So later there was a saying that "the iron-clad Yanai Zheng is Liu Shui's successor".
It can also be seen from here that although Fast Retailing Group has gradually recovered from the crisis two or three years ago, the group's sales performance this year is still not satisfactory, which has led to the current president Tamatsuka Genichi next year. took the blame and resigned.
At this time, if the GII Fund can give a suitable price, it is not impossible to buy shares of this company from other shareholders.
After all, others do not predict that Zheng Yanai will return to the position of leader of the group next year. At this time, Genichi Tamatsuka does not seem to be doing well as the president of Fast Retailing Group.
Fast Retailing Group has not grown rapidly because of its success in overseas markets, especially in China.
At this time, they were also facing a lot of competition in Japan, and their prospects were not promising yet.
The only thing Barron needs to consider now is if he can win other shares, will he need to "start a war" with the Yanai Zheng family to compete for control of Uniqlo and its parent company?
After all, judging from the experience of previous lives, after 2005, Uniqlo, or Fast Retailing Group, has been under the leadership of Zheng Yanai, thus expanding aggressively, eventually surpassing Zara's parent company Inditex Group and becoming the world's largest clothing sales company. company's.
You must know that Yanai Zheng is now 55 years old. Even if he is allowed to lead the Fast Retailing Group, he will need to retire in at most 20 years...
Therefore, Barron finally decided to first try to get enough... preferably more than 50% of the shares, and then have a showdown with the Yanai Zheng family to see whether to become their controlling investor or directly seize power.
