Chapter 504 British Automobile Industry

It was the day after Barron’s birthday, October 20th.

The SEC and the Nasdaq exchange approved Skype's IPO listing application, which means that the company, which once rejected the sky-high acquisition price of the e-commerce giant eBay, will soon be listed on the Nasdaq.

Last year, eBay proposed to acquire Skype for US$2.5 billion in cash and stock, as well as corresponding options. Barron knew that if the Skype team could meet eBay's requirements in terms of performance growth in the next few years, then adding With these options, the total transaction price will reach $4.1 billion!

However, this acquisition of Skype was rejected by Barron's. At that time, they appeased the founding team of Skype and prepared to IPO Skype at the appropriate time. The income they would be able to obtain by then would definitely be higher than eBay's. acquisition.

Now, the number of free Skype users worldwide has exceeded 100 million, and the number of paid users has doubled compared to last year, reaching 6 million, so it is time to go public.

At this time, Skype's shareholding ratio is: DS Holdings holds 75% of its shares, O2 Telecom holds 10% of its shares, and the remaining 15% of its shares are held by its founding team.

According to their listing plan, Skype will sell 30 million shares to the public, accounting for 15% of its total share capital.

Among them, 20 million shares are newly issued shares, and the remaining 10 million shares belong to the original shareholders, including DS Holdings and part of the Skype founding team (DS Holdings and the Skype founding team each sold 5 million shares).

In this way, after listing, Skype's total share capital will be 200 million shares, DS Holdings will hold 122.5 million shares, accounting for 61.25%; O2 Telecom will hold 17 million shares, accounting for 8.5%; the founding team will hold 2050 shares 10,000 shares, accounting for 10.25%, and the remainder are public shares.

The current issuance price of Skype's shares is set in the range of US$21-23. If calculated at US$23, Skype's market value will be as high as US$4.6 billion, which is US$2.1 billion higher than eBay's acquisition bid last year.

However, when I think about it, with the support of DS Group and O2 Telecom, the number of free and paid users of Skype has almost doubled compared to when eBay quoted it last year. In addition, the current stock market situation is very optimistic, so this market value , is still very reasonable.

In this case, through this IPO, Skype will raise US$460 million, and by selling shares during the IPO process, both DS Holdings and Skype's founding team will be able to obtain US$115 million.

It can be said that the young people on the founding team of Skype, through the listing of Skype, have all achieved financial freedom from poor boys who were once distressed by lawsuits in California courts.

This also makes them very excited.

DS Holdings' investment has also received generous returns.

It is also worth mentioning that after Skype started the IPO listing process and received an enthusiastic response from investors in its first road show, O2 Telecom's share price also gained a small increase because it holds 10% of the shares of Skype. The rise has caused its share price to exceed 6.5 pounds. At this point, O2 Telecom's market value has officially exceeded 40 billion pounds, firmly occupying the third position among European telecommunications companies, after Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone.

…

"Your Highness the Duke, I hope that the British Automobile Group can provide more jobs in Britain..."

After Brown took office, Barron met with him much less often than before - which is normal, after all, he has a lot to deal with.

However, Brown still found time to meet with Barron. During this meeting, he expressed his hope that the British Automobile Group could provide more consolidated jobs in the country...

"Well, Prime Minister, it's not that I don't want to do it, but to be realistic, unless I plan for the British Auto Group to go bankrupt or be acquired in a few years, or even a year or two, it will be difficult to do what you said. so……"

Barron frowned slightly and said to Brown:

"Frankly speaking, the British Automobile Group's plan is to retain the production of only two brands, Bentley and Aston Martin, in the UK. As for Jaguar and Land Rover, it will gradually transfer production capacity to lower-cost countries. ”

Obviously, Barron's words did not satisfy Brown.

Because Bentley and Aston Martin, as luxury car brands whose selling point is hand-made, their own production capabilities are not strong.

Let's put it this way, by 2003, Bentley's cumulative production capacity was just over 44,000 vehicles...

You know, at that time, Bentley had been established for 84 years, and its average annual output was only 523.8 units.

It was only after Bentley launched its best-selling model, the Continental GT, in 2003 that production increased. However, it was not until Bentley's 102nd year, that is, 2021, that its cumulative production capacity only exceeded 200,000 units. This figure , not even one-tenth of the annual output of FAW-Volkswagen at that time...

Aston Martin is not much better. Their annual production in 2000 was just over 1,000 units.

In other words, the combined annual output of these two brands is only four digits. It is better than nothing to stimulate the British industry.

But what Barron said makes sense. Why has the British automobile industry declined? Because there is no competitiveness at all.

In the early days, it was true that the British automobile industry had its glory days. Before World War II, as the initiator of the first industrial revolution, Britain had accumulated rich automobile industry technology and automobile cultural heritage.

The cultural heritage allowed Britain to give birth to ultra-luxury brands such as Bentley and Rolls-Royce. Even now, they are still representatives of the world's top wealthy people and the tickets for the high-end class.

It can be said that British cars are inherently aristocratic.

After World War II, the British automobile industry ushered in a golden period of rapid development. In 1955, automobile production reached 1.2 million units, making it the first country in Europe to produce more than one million automobiles. The scale of the British automobile industry was second only to that of the United States.

At that time, there was no such thing as the German and Japanese systems that would later dominate the world.

The turning point was the emergence of the Ford Model T - it changed the pattern of automobile production. Assembly line production transformed automobiles from aristocratic toys to common people's means of transportation.

However, British cars stubbornly adhere to the "aristocratic" way, using handcrafting and unparalleled materials to create cars that are like works of art.

But the persistence of the "noble way" proved to be a devastating blow to the British automobile industry - it failed to catch up with the tide of assembly line and commercialization, and only served a small number of aristocrats, causing the British automobile industry to miss out. A wave of big market conditions was quickly caught up by countries represented by Germany and Japan.

Therefore, British cars succeed because of the "nobles" and fail because of the "nobles".

Just like now, the automobile industry is not just like before, one factory can complete all the work, but requires the existence of the entire industry chain.

However, Ying Lun has gradually lost its competitiveness in this regard. The manufacturing of Ying Lun Auto Group's brands requires importing many parts.

If production capacity is still mainly located in the UK, not to mention the high labor wages, the current exchange rate of the pound is also very unfriendly to them.

Because according to surveys, more than 80% of vehicles manufactured in Britain need to be exported and sold overseas.

However, the exchange rate of the British pound has been at a high level, which is very unfavorable for their exports. If they put their manufacturing capacity locally, they must purchase it through British pounds. The final price of the car will also be in British pounds, and then converted into the currencies of other countries. The price is completely uncompetitive.

Fortunately, luxury brands such as Bentley and Aston Martin have low production capacity but high profits.

But Jaguar and Land Rover have no advantage at all when facing competing brands such as Audi, Mercedes-Benz and BMW. In this case, the result of insisting on expanding production locally will only continue to inject blood to the British Automobile Group, and the only result will be bankruptcy. Or it might be acquired again.

This is under the premise that Britain has not left the European Union. If Britain leaves the European Union and tariff barriers appear with Europe, then the British Automobile Group will be at an increased disadvantage whether it is importing or exporting parts...

"We will try our best to maintain production capacity in the UK, but the prerequisite is that we need support from the government. Without corresponding support policies, in order to survive, we can only move the production of mass-produced cars outside..."

Barron said to Brown.

To put it bluntly, Barron's current status and core interests are in England, or are obtained by relying on England. Naturally, he does not want to see England become industrially hollowed out like in previous generations, and eventually decline - such a result, only It may be that Britain is following the United States even more closely.

Therefore, if he can do something to change these things, he will try his best to do it.

Of course, the premise is that it cannot harm his own interests too much.