My 1999

"Of course he doesn't, but some people do."

"Vincent?"

Foch smiled and nodded.

"Xu, it seems that the shares you gave him didn't impress him."

"On the contrary, I'm sure he wants to get more shares of the Pacific Fund, otherwise he would have been out long ago, instead of letting Lagardère jump out as the first bird.

But what I didn't expect was that this guy was more greedy than I thought.

Not only did he want a share of the Pacific Fund, he also planned to swallow Vivendi."

"The greed of businessmen is endless, and this is France. The Borore family has a deep foundation and great influence. Vincent will certainly think he can handle everything.

Including you!"

Xu Liang nodded.

"It seems that I need to break Mr. Borore's fantasy."

Paused.

Xu Liang turned to say.

"Foch, according to the regulations, the board of directors cannot directly interfere with Vivendi's operations. You should have the right to sell Canal+ Group directly."

"Of course I have this power, but the Borore family, together with the Lagardère family, has already held 24.2% of the shares, and I know that the Borore family is still absorbing Vivendi's shares through shadow accounts.

Now no one knows how much Vivendi's shares he holds.

But one thing is certain.

If the Borore family and the Lagardère family unite.

They must be the largest shareholder of the Vivendi Group, with the power to intervene in major company affairs, and even directly appoint and dismiss the group's CEO.

So, I can't get rid of the board of directors and force the sale of Canal+ Group.

If so, I will soon be thrown out by Borore using his influence on the board of directors.

Without my cooperation in Vivendi, your acquisition of Vivendi will be more tortuous, and you may even lose the opportunity to acquire it directly."

Looking at Jean Foch, who was talking eloquently and looked like a loyal guard, Xu Liang suddenly smiled.

"Jean, you have indeed considered it very comprehensively.

But this situation cannot be dragged on."

"Of course."

Jean Foch continued.

"Now we have only one choice.

Mr. Xu directly acquires Vivendi's shares. As long as you become Vivendi's major shareholder, you can completely take the initiative."

"Vincent will probably not let us become Vivendi's major shareholder comfortably." Xu Liang said.

"That's for sure, but as Vivendi's CEO, I have the management rights of the company and can dilute Vincent's shares through a private placement."

Xu Liang nodded slightly, "In this case, our previous strategy will be completely overturned."

Foch understood what he meant.

When they were in London, the two agreed on a merger and acquisition strategy of first acquiring the Canal+ Group and then acquiring Vivendi Telecom to reduce the difficulty of the overall acquisition of Vivendi.

In fact, Xu Liang's idea was to only acquire the Canal+ Group.

But now it has changed.

If Xu Liang directly acquires Vivendi's shares, then the entire Vivendi Group will be acquired.

canal+ Group, Vivendi Telecom, Havas Group, Vivendi Networks.

45% of Veolia Environment;

11.5% of Ubisoft Games;

6.4% of Hongmeng Technology (Bing, No.1 Store, Sina, Hongmeng Games and Netcom);

Vivendi Venture Capital Fund, and Vivendi Startup Incubator in cooperation with Softbank.

The total value of all these assets added up is close to 40 billion euros.

Calculating debt, Xu Liang needs 20 billion euros to acquire the company in full.

Of course, he did not intend to acquire the company in full.

He just wanted to become a major shareholder.

But there is one thing.

According to French securities law, a 30% stake triggers a comprehensive acquisition agreement.

So, once he takes 30% of Vivendi's shares, he must prepare enough money to acquire the remaining 70%.

Of course, shareholders may not sell, but they will definitely sell a lot.

Calculated by half.

In the end, his shareholding exceeded 65%.

This requires a huge sum of 13 billion euros.

Of course, this is still a conservative calculation.

Once the private placement is made, it is not only Vincent Borore's equity that will be diluted, but also Xu Liang's own equity.

Let's take a simple example.

Vivendi's total share capital is 100, and each share is worth 1 yuan.

Borore and Xu Liang each hold 10% of Vivendi's equity.

If Xu Liang wants to become a major shareholder, he only needs to acquire another 40% of the equity, which is 40 yuan.

But Borore doesn't want to let go and snatch equity from him.

In order to dilute Borore's equity, Foch now makes a private placement of 20 yuan to Xu Liang.

In this way, Vivendi's total share capital becomes 120 yuan.

Xu Liang and Borore, who originally held 10% of the equity respectively, have their equity diluted to 0.83%.

Because Xu Liang invested 20 yuan more, his actual shareholding in Vivendi has become 25%.

In other words, Xu Liang invested 30 yuan twice in total, but only held 25% of Vivendi's equity.

This seriously increased the cost of his acquisition of Vivendi.

This strategy is similar to the anti-takeover poison pill plan.

The purpose is to help Xu Liang acquire Vivendi and resist Borore's acquisition.

But back to the original topic.

Whether it is a direct acquisition or an acquisition through a private placement, Vivendi spent too much money on the acquisition.

According to Xu Liang's original financial plan.

Christina Investment Company borrowed money from Standard Chartered Bank with its 12.75% stake in Facebook.

According to the latest valuation of Facebook after the merger of the two parties.

This 12.75% stake in Facebook is worth about 2 billion US dollars.

Xu Liang's Hongyan Fund guaranteed Christina Investment Company and strived to loan 2 billion US dollars.

Then with 2 billion US dollars as leverage, Hanhua Group provided 2 billion US dollars, 4 billion US dollars to acquire Canal+ Group as a whole, and assumed all the debts of Canal+ Group.

Now it has become a whole acquisition of Vivendi Group.

Hanhua will have to take out tens of billions of dollars in cash to help Christina Investment Company.

Even more is needed.

Perhaps someone will ask, why not just invest, but acquire in this way.

Two words, safety.

In the final analysis, it is for TM safety.

Twenty years later, everyone knows what the Americans and the West are like.

If you can't fight, rob, and if you can't beat, sanction.

Therefore, he is very cautious in his investment in the United States, especially in the West.

Whether it is Facebook or Vivendi, he will not invest more than $1 billion.

All investments are made through layers of debt.

Then in the process of operation, all the investment money is recovered.

In this way, even if the United States and the West make trouble, his capital and interest will definitely not be lost.

The foundation is preserved.

As for Facebook and Vivendi, if they are gone, they are gone.

It hurts, but it doesn't hurt the body.

Xu Liang pondered for a long time and sighed in his heart.

"It seems that I have to discuss it with Xiaoyang."

"Mr. Xu, nothing is immutable. Our strategy must change with the changes in the real environment. Now Vivendi has changed and you are no longer allowed to acquire it separately." Jean Foch explained.

Xu Liang nodded.

It's not just because of Vincent Borror, the joining of Sina has also brought new variables to his original plan.

"It's a serious matter, I need time to think about it."

"Of course. But you'd better hurry up. Vincent is now busy acquiring Vivendi's shares, and he won't give you too much time to prepare."

Xu Liang smiled and nodded.

There was something he didn't tell Foch.

The shares of Vivendi he holds are far more than Vincent's.

Hanhua London No. 1 Private Equity Fund currently holds 8.9% of Vivendi's shares, and Hanhua New York No. 2 Private Equity Fund holds 7.8% of Vivendi's shares.

Both of these shares were acquired after Vivendi's financial collapse in 2002 and have never been sold.

The last one is the 12.8% stake held by Hongyan Fund through the shadow fund.

Hongyan entered the market because it planned to make a quick buck after the news of Vivendi's acquisition spread.

But now if he plans to acquire Vivendi, this part of the shares cannot be sold.

At least it cannot be sold on the secondary market.

The three shares add up to 29.5%, which is definitely more than the total of the Borore family and the Lagardere family.

If Xu Liang wants to acquire again, he must disclose his holdings.

Securities laws in various countries have similar provisions.

Once the equity held by an affiliated company in the same company meets the disclosure requirements stipulated in the securities law, it must be disclosed, otherwise it is illegal.

Although people often violate the law, they will definitely not do it openly.

And it will be troublesome once it is found out.

After sending Jean Foch away, Xu Liang immediately said: "Lv Hui, you call Xia Changsheng, Huo Yan and Chu Gang immediately, and all previous plans for Vivendi will be invalidated."

"Okay."

"Wait. I will call Lao Xia myself."

After Lu Hui agreed, she hurried out.

Xu Liang took out his mobile phone and called Xia Changsheng.

"Mr. Xu?"

"Lao Xia, how much has Vivendi's equity increased now?"

"Since the news of your acquisition of Vivendi spread, Vivendi's market value has increased by 7.9%, and it is still rising."

Xia Changsheng's words were full of excitement.

Now there is only news of Xu Liang's acquisition of Vivendi in the market, but no actual action has been spread, so the increase in stock prices is not high.

It has only risen by less than 10% in a week.

If Xu Liang takes action, it will definitely soar.

"Stop the plan to sell off Vivendi shares."

"Stop?"

"Yes, the plan has changed."

Xu Liang simply recounted his plan for Vivendi and the current changes.

"It is no longer possible to acquire only the Canal+ Group." Xu Liang sighed.

"Mr. Xu, you should immediately contact the Hong Kong Li family and the Singapore Qiu family to acquire Vivendi's shares."

Xu Liang is surrounded by many families, but there are only two who can be called die-hards.

One is the Hong Kong Li family (Uncle Li), and the other is the Singapore Qiu family (Qiu Deba).

These two families often act as his white gloves and have made great contributions in the acquisition of Master Kong, Standard Chartered Bank, Bandai and other corporate mergers and acquisitions.

Therefore, in the previous fundraising of funds under Hanhua, others are based on quotas, and they can get as much as they want.

"I'll call them later. Please check for me how much convertible bonds Vivendi has issued now?"

"5.44 billion euros."

"So clear?"

"When we acquired Vivendi's equity, we also acquired some of Vivendi's bonds, so it's very clear."

"Sure, we all know how to draw inferences from one example." Xu Liang smiled.

He didn't explain the acquisition of Vivendi's bonds at the beginning.

"With the example of Unocal Oil on the table, we certainly know how to learn." Xia Changsheng said.

"Continue to acquire. As long as the bonds are past the grace period, buy as many as you can."

He didn't ask the specific amount of the acquisition.

He gave Xia Changsheng the authority of 100 million US dollars.

That is to say, Xia Changsheng has independent decision-making power for investments below 100 million US dollars and does not need to report to him.

But if it exceeds 100 million US dollars, he must report.

Since the other party did not submit a report to him, it means that the acquisition amount is not very large.

"Understood."

Here we have to talk about convertible bonds.

It is a bondholder who can convert the bond into the company's common stock at the price agreed upon at the time of issuance.

If the bondholder does not want to convert, he can continue to hold the bond until the principal and interest are collected at the end of the repayment period, or sell it in the circulation market for cash.

If the holder is optimistic about the stock appreciation potential of the bond-issuing company, he can exercise the conversion right after the grace period and convert the bond into stock at the predetermined conversion price, and the bond-issuing company shall not refuse.

Here we need to emphasize the "grace period".

Generally refers to the time after the bond is issued when early repayment and conversion are not allowed.

Let's take a simple example.

If you go to the bank for a loan with a three-year loan term, there will generally be a "grace period" of half a year or one year.

If you repay early during the grace period, you will have to pay a penalty.

After that, only the principal will be repaid.

That's roughly what it means.

If convertible bonds want to be converted into stocks, they must pass the "grace period" before they are allowed to be converted.

After hanging up Xia Changsheng's phone, Xu Liang immediately called Uncle Li and Qiu Jinshan.

If they can each acquire 4.9% of the shares.

Then Xu Liang's shares in Vivendi will be close to 40%, and he will be sure to win.

Thinking of this, Xu Liang felt inexplicably relieved.