Chapter 592 British Power Distribution Company

The merged Four Seasons Cavendish Hotel Group will own more than 110 hotels and resorts in more than 40 countries around the world, of which Devonshire Family Trust will hold 59% of the shares of the hotel group, GII-1 Holdings (Global Industrial Investment Fund Phase I) will hold 37% of the shares, and the Isadore Sharp family will hold 4%.

Four Seasons Cavendish Hotel Group will implement a multi-brand strategy, with three brands, Devonshire (luxury hotel), Four Seasons (high-end hotel) and Cavendish (luxury hotel), to expand at different levels.

According to the plan of Four Seasons Cavendish Hotel Group, in the next 10 years, they will open or acquire more than 80 hotels around the world, implementing the "10-20-50" strategy, that is, adding 10 Devonshire luxury hotels, 20 Four Seasons high-end hotels and 50 Cavendish luxury hotels.

The main growth will be in Asia, with the focus on China, where emerging wealth will accelerate.

In China, the Cavendish Hotel brand under the Four Seasons Cavendish Hotel Group will become a strategic partner with Tianhe Real Estate Company and open Cavendish hotels in the new commercial centers of Tianhe Real Estate.

For example, the first Cavendish luxury hotel in China will be opened in the commercial center of Jinling Central Road currently under construction by Tianhe Real Estate.

As a preferential condition for Nanqi Group, which is owned by Tianhe Capital, to increase investment in Jiangsu Province, they have obtained the development rights of some good locations in the city. In addition to Jinling City, Tianhe Real Estate will also develop three commercial centers in succession. These projects will be completed in three years.

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"Your Highness, I have met with Mr. Wang, and he welcomes our investment. In addition, I have also received news that Berkshire Hathaway's Munger is also very optimistic about this company. It is said that he has been recommending this company to Buffett..."

"I will go to China in person next month to confirm this matter as soon as possible. I hope to meet with Mr. Wang at that time to congratulate us on the success of our cooperation."

"Yes, Your Highness, I will try my best."

This year is 2008, and the 29th Olympic Games will be held in Yanjing in August. Barron will also participate in this event.

But now it seems that he will leave early.

But before that, he still has to solve the problem of British Energy Group.

As early as March, United Energy Group had already begun to participate in the acquisition of British Energy Group.

It can be said that the competition for this acquisition is also quite fierce. Not only the world's leading nuclear power company such as Electricité de France, but also the largest natural gas supplier in Britain, Centrica Group, participated in the competition.

However, Centrica Group's bid for British Energy Group is 7 pounds per share, which is a purchase price of 11.2 billion pounds.

The bids of United Energy Group and Electricité de France are higher than those of Centrica Group - it is said that the board of directors of Centrica Group does not want them to bid too high for British Energy Group, and 7 pounds per share is already the upper limit they can accept.

Therefore, the final competition fell on the two companies of United Energy Group and Electricité de France.

During this period, Barron's public relations team naturally began to get busy, lobbying the British government on the grounds that British nuclear power cannot be completely controlled by French companies.

And related reports also appeared in many media - among which the media under SEM Group is naturally indispensable.

This is of course not to completely exclude Electricité de France, but Barron hopes to have bargaining chips for negotiations with them.

In fact, from the beginning, he did not intend to complete the acquisition of British Energy Group alone. After all, United Energy Group had not been involved in the field of nuclear power before, and the step could not be too big at once.

After starting to contact EDF, United Energy Group began to show its true colors...

United Energy Group can give up the majority stake in UK Energy Group, but the premise is that they hope to acquire 100% of the shares of UK Power Networks Holdings Limited (UKPN) currently owned by EDF Group.

Many people may not know about this company, but in Barron's previous life, Li Chaoren's Cheung Kong Group bought this company from EDF for 5.8 billion pounds in 2010.

Then in 2022, a consortium led by KKR and Macquarie of Australia acquired this company from Li Chaoren for 15 billion pounds...

In fact, the value of UK Power Networks is not only the value-added in more than ten years, but as a public basic service company, it will have stable profits every year.

UK Power Networks is the largest electricity monopoly in the UK, and its profitability cannot be underestimated-UKPN provides electricity to about 8.3 million households and businesses, and its revenue accounts for a quarter of the total revenue of the British electricity industry.

Now EDF's desire for BEG is higher than that for UEG. After all, if it can acquire BEG, it will be able to take the initiative in Britain's future new nuclear power projects and use the ERP technology of France's AREVA Group, which in itself is of strategic significance to the French government.

Therefore, as the French government holds nearly 85% of the shares of EDF, the strategic mission is naturally higher than the need for profit - not to mention that using the nuclear power technology of French companies can bring them returns.

You know, any technology needs a sufficient market to continue to develop, especially under the Western economic system, using profits to continue to invest in research and development is a virtuous cycle.

Therefore, EDF finally reached an agreement with United Energy Group.

United Energy Group will acquire 100% of the shares of UKPN owned by EDF for 5 billion pounds, so that UKPN will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of United Energy Group and merge its original power department.

After that, United Energy Group will jointly complete the acquisition of all shares of UKPN with EDF at a price of 12.5 billion pounds.

Among them, EDF will invest 7.5 billion pounds and hold 60% of the shares of UKPN; United Energy Group will invest 5 billion US dollars and hold 40% of the shares of UKPN.

And then, after the British government published the "New Energy White Paper" last year, it published the "Nuclear Energy White Paper" this year, announcing that it would restart the nuclear power project.

It can be said that Britain is the first country in the world to develop nuclear power, and it began to build the world's first nuclear power plant in 1953.

However, in the 1980s, the British government abandoned local design technology and began to introduce pressurized water reactor technology. In 1987, the Sizewell B project started, which was the last nuclear power plant built by Britain itself.

The reason is that in the 1980s and 1990s, Britain ushered in a wave of power market reform and privatization of energy companies. At the same time, due to the discovery of North Sea oil fields, Britain was able to enjoy cheap oil resources and even achieved energy self-sufficiency for a time.

In this context, the advantages of nuclear power's cleanliness and high energy density are no longer as attractive as before, and the disadvantages of large basic investment and long payback time are more prominent.

Coupled with social anti-nuclear pressure, talent loss in the nuclear energy field, and the government's lack of development plans and other factors, nuclear power has not been given enough attention in Britain for a long time.

This is why the French government hopes to take over British Energy Group to expand their nuclear power technology market. Otherwise, once the application of a technology stagnates for ten or even several years, it is likely to be overtaken and fall behind.

Britain currently has eight nuclear power plants (all belonging to British Energy Group), and the power generation accounts for 20% of Britain's electricity consumption. These nuclear power plants will expire and be retired around 2030.

According to the "New Energy White Paper" plan, Britain's thermal power plants will also be closed around 2025.

The superposition of these factors will lead to a 20% reduction in Britain's national power generation on the basis of the current level, and energy security has become a real threat to British society.

Therefore, according to the plan, in order to fill this power gap, the British government will successively determine eight sites suitable for the construction of nuclear power plants, and then invest in construction. The top priority is the Hinkley Point nuclear power project.

Barron has heard of the Hinkley Point nuclear power project, because in his previous life, China's China General Nuclear Power Group once participated in it, but later chose to withdraw for various reasons. These things were also relatively hot news at the time.

Now that United Energy Group has become a shareholder of British Energy Group, they will definitely participate in this project in the future.