Chapter 593 BYD

In this acquisition of British Energy Group by United Energy Group and EDF Group, and in the process of acquiring British Power Distribution Company under EDF Group, United Energy Group needs to put out a total of 10 billion pounds of funds.

These funds all come from bank loans and financing.

Among them, the 5 billion pounds for the acquisition of British Power Distribution Company comes from a loan from Standard Chartered Bank; and the 5 billion pounds required for the acquisition of British Energy Group together with EDF Group is paid by the relevant public funds of the British government to purchase 5 billion pounds of corporate bonds from United Energy Group.

At the same time, after the results of the acquisition of British Energy Group were announced, the share prices of both United Energy Group and EDF Group rose accordingly - it can also be seen that the market is still very optimistic about their acquisition this time.

In fact, the debt of United Energy Group has been relatively high. Not only has it carried out a number of acquisitions in succession before, but it has also carried out a series of major projects, including projects in Kolo, Huaxia and some refining bases in India.

But the debts of United Energy Group mainly come from bank loans. It is still more cost-effective to use pounds to borrow money now, because in the next few years, the pound will continue to depreciate, which means that the profits obtained by United Energy Group in overseas projects will be able to enjoy a considerable exchange rate difference when they are converted back to pounds for repayment.

Not only United Energy Group, but many companies controlled by Barron have expanded their overseas industrial scale through pound loans as much as possible before.

After that, Barron left London and went to China.

This time Barron's trip to China was also quite high-profile. The Devonshire first landed at Yanjing Airport, where he will be met by the big guys.

This is not surprising. After all, Barron's current identity can no longer be low-key when he comes to China.

Not to mention his status as a British duke, he can save money, but just his influence in the global business community - think about the treatment of Bill Gates, Murdoch, and even Apple CEO Cook and Tesla boss Musk when they came to China, and you can understand it.

You should know that Barron's power and wealth are stronger than any of these people.

Of course, the reason why he can be valued by the Chinese side is that in addition to the great strengthening of the relationship between the two sides after Brown took office, he did not come empty-handed.

First of all, in addition to cooperating with Sinopec on a large-scale refining project in Guangxi Province, United Energy Group will also cooperate with Sinopec to invest in another oil refining project in Liaoning Province, which will also involve an investment of more than 2 billion pounds.

In addition, Four Seasons Cavendish Hotel Group, O2 Telecom and Gucci-Hermes Group will also expand their investment in China.

After meeting with the bigwigs of China, Barron went directly to Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

"I am very happy to meet you, Mr. Wang."

"I also thank His Royal Highness the Duke for his optimism about our company. I hope our cooperation will be successful."

"I will definitely."

In Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Barron met Wang Chuanfu, the boss of BYD Company. Accompanied by the other party, Barron visited BYD's headquarters and the manufacturing plants of cars and batteries.

Yes, before this, Finn Hudson, CEO of Global Industrial Investment Fund, had come to Shenzhen Stock Exchange and proposed to Wang Chuanfu to invest in BYD.

It can be said that BYD at this time did not have the unprecedented success in new energy vehicles that it later achieved. Although BYD has occupied a dominant position in the global battery field, after the unexpected announcement of entering the automotive industry, Wang Chuanfu's decision did not gain the understanding of many people.

And until now, BYD is still not successful in automobile manufacturing.

Barron is a world-renowned investor and a super-rich man who owns the British Motor Group, a car group with many well-known car brands. His willingness to invest in BYD can indeed gain some support for Wang Chuanfu.

However, this time, it is not the Caesar Fund that owns the British Motor Group that will invest in BYD, but the Global Industrial Investment Fund - this is not unrelated. Honor Electronics owned by the Global Industrial Investment Fund is also one of BYD's major customers.

According to the agreement they reached, GII Fund will purchase 10% of BYD's shares at a price of 8 Hong Kong dollars (about 1 US dollar) per share, with a total investment of about 230 million US dollars.

Through this investment, GII Fund has also become one of BYD's major shareholders.

Of course, Barron also knows that he is not the only one interested in BYD. In his previous life, Buffett would invest in BYD in September this year, but this investment was not because Buffett was optimistic about BYD, but because he made the decision under the strong recommendation of his partner Munger.

At that time, Buffett's investment brought him rich returns. BYD shares purchased at 8 Hong Kong dollars per share later rose to more than 200 Hong Kong dollars per share.

But now, this investment opportunity has been intercepted by Barron halfway - with the investment of GII Fund, BYD will no longer need to accept investment from Berkshire Hathaway.

After all, although Buffett's influence in the investment community is huge, Barron at this time is not much weaker than him.

After leaving BYD, Barron also visited Honor Electronics' production base near Shenzhen City.

The scale of this production base is already relatively large. In this production base, Dopod mobile phones and some Honor Mate mobile phones are mainly assembled.

Since the launch of the Mate 1S mobile phone before Christmas last year, global sales of the Mate 1S mobile phone have so far exceeded 5 million units. It can be said that there has been a huge leap in sales compared to Honor Electronics' first smartphone Mate 1. .

This is also the reason why Honor Electronics continues to expand the scale of their production base.

In addition, Honor Electronics is about to launch the Mate 2 mobile phone. In the Mate 2 mobile phone, the proportion of mobile phone originals produced in China will be increased. Therefore, in addition to the production base of Honor Electronics, they have invested in supporting the production of some upstream original components. Businesses have also concentrated their production bases here.

At present, these original mobile phone parts are mainly used in Dopod Smart 1, which also greatly reduces the cost of this mobile phone and makes it very competitive.

"We are also supporting suppliers in the research and development of touch screens. The progress is good at present. I believe we will be able to use domestic touch screens soon..."

The person in charge of Honor Electronics here introduced to Barron:

"However, in terms of quality, there is definitely a certain gap compared with touch screens in Japan and South Korea. Therefore, these touch screens will first be used on low-end models of Dopod mobile phones, such as Honor mobile phones, which still need to be purchased from Sharp, Samsung and others. Manufacturers come to purchase touch screens.”

Speaking of which, touch screens are really important to smartphones and account for a large part of the cost of mobile phones. Therefore, as the sales of Honor Electronics mobile phones increase, they have always hoped to have a stable touch screen supplier - after all, they supply one of them. Samsung and LG in the business world are also considered competitors of Honor Electronics in the field of mobile phones, so they need to be prepared for a rainy day.