Chapter 106 A Mission
In such a back-and-forth confrontation with "The Sun", its effect is not only to increase the popularity of the Woaw website, but also whether it is "The Independent" or "The Sun" The circulation number of "London Evening News" has increased - of course, since "The Sun" has also "cooperated", it is also because they have also gained popularity.
No wonder after the rise of short video live broadcasts, many Internet celebrity anchors fought all day long on the surface, but secretly they may all belong to an MCN company...
" In the Cavendish Building project, we will use steel structures to This construction method is now relatively mature and has advantages in terms of efficiency and environmental protection.”
The bidding for the Cavendish Building has been completed and construction is about to begin. The person responsible for the entire process is responsible for this. Amber also reported the specific situation to Barron.
As he said, there are already many buildings using steel structure construction methods, which can be regarded as a trend in building construction.
The main reason is that in addition to being more environmentally friendly than reinforced concrete structures, steel structure buildings are also faster to build.
For example, in Barron's previous life, China used steel structures and standardized modules to build a 60-storey building in 19 days.
When Barron heard the news for the first time, he was quite surprised and wanted to know more about it.
This is not an exaggeration, because the so-called 19 days is only the time to build those standardized modules, and the time for these modules to be produced in the factory is much longer than this - if the production time is Added together, it would be more than a year...
It's just that at this time, steel structure buildings still mainly exist outside of China. The buildings built in China still use reinforced concrete structures.
The reason for this is naturally that the cost of steel structure buildings is much higher than that of reinforced concrete structure buildings.
From the perspective of the Chinese project team, their labor is much cheaper than abroad. During construction, they can hire more construction workers. In this way, even for reinforced concrete structures, The building will not take much more time, but in terms of cost, it will be much cheaper.
But in Europe and the United States, the labor costs of construction workers are very high, so there are good reasons for them to choose steel structure buildings, which can not only use fewer workers, but also save time. , calculated in this way, the steel structure building is a good choice.
But even so, it will take 6-7 months until the Cavendish Building is completed and ready for use...
"Mr. Sheehan, there is something you need to do personally - I'm afraid you need to go on a business trip for a while."
Hearing Barron's words, Amber knew that since he said so, it must be very important. What is the matter, so he immediately replied:
"No problem, Your Highness the Duke, what is it?"
"I hope you go to a Go to Johannesburg, South Africa, to talk to the South African newspaper industry and buy their shares in a Chinese company called Penguin.”
Amber Sheehan herself worked at PwC before. So at that time, he helped Barron's acquire independent newspapers. Now he is also responsible for the industrial investment department of DS Capital, because it is most appropriate to leave this matter to him. Last year, affected by the bursting of the Internet bubble, HK Little Superman, who had invested in Penguin and held 20% of its shares, intended to sell his shares in Penguin.
The South African MIH Group bought these shares at that time. They currently hold 46.5% of Penguin's shares, and the South African Newspaper Industry is the parent company of the South African MIH Group.
In the beginning, Superboy's Digital Yingke and the American venture capital firm IDG invested a total of US$2.2 million in Penguin, each holding 20% of its shares.
Last year, Superboy sold 20% of its shares to the South African MIH Group for US$12.6 million, earning more than 11 times its initial investment; and in At the same time, due to the bursting of the Internet bubble, IDG, which did not have much confidence in the future development of Penguin, also sold more than 13% of the 20% of Penguin shares it held. For this, the South African MIH Group paid a total of less than 21 million US dollars, got 33% of Penguin's shares.
Next, in June this year, the South African MIH Group acquired 13.5% of the shares from other founders of Penguin. So far, they hold 46.5% of the shares of Penguin. A total of It cost about US$32 million, which is equivalent to more than 20 million pounds.
So at this time, Barron is preparing to try to buy the shares of Penguin he holds from the South African newspaper industry - you know, at its peak in the future, Penguin's market value will be close to one trillion US dollars, even if After counting subsequent financing and the decrease in shareholding ratio, at that time, the value of Penguin shares held by the South African MIH Group exceeded US$300 billion!
"According to my investigation, North and South Newspapers now holds 46.5% of Penguin's shares. They paid about 32 million US dollars for this. I hope you can try to buy these shares. The most I am willing to pay is A double premium, of course, is the best if you can buy these shares at the lowest price."
Amber couldn't bear to hear that Barron was willing to pay such a high premium to buy Penguin shares. I was secretly surprised. You know, the Internet bubble crisis has just passed, but there are still no signs of recovery...
Nasdaq's technology stocks, which have been trending stably, have been trending steadily since September. , ushered in another decline, and their DS Capital took advantage of this time to complete the establishment of positions in all technology stocks.
Although it can be seen from this step that his boss is optimistic about the future recovery of technology stocks, at this time, his willingness to buy shares of this company called Penguin at a double premium still shows that he is optimistic about the future recovery of technology stocks. This company is not generally optimistic.
Therefore, Amber decided to collect information about Penguin Company after returning, make sufficient preparations, go to Johannesburg, try his best to buy the shares of this company from the hands of the South African newspaper industry, and complete the task assigned to him by the boss.
As for now, will the South African newspaper industry be willing to sell Penguin?
If it is later, it may not be possible to succeed, but at the current time point, it is still very possible.
Because the first investment in Penguin Company was due to the optimism of the vice president of the Chinese business of the South African MIH Group. If you go to negotiate with the Chinese branch of the MIH Group, I am afraid that you may not agree; but if you give the other party enough For income, it is still possible to negotiate directly with their parent company, South African Newspapers.
You know, from the name South African Newspapers, you can see that this company was originally a newspaper company - they are the largest media company in Africa, but later in 1997, the new CEO After Kus Becker took office, he expanded his business scope and shifted to the technology field, such as TV station business and telecommunications operators.
Investing in Penguin was their first venture capital investment in the Internet. Before that, they had no experience in the venture capital business.
It can be said that they were extremely lucky and won a big prize on their first investment - but also because of this, it cannot be ruled out that they are willing to invest and exit after obtaining satisfactory returns. .
(End of this chapter)