Chapter 114 Completed the Acquisition
Barron and his party were arranged by Ding Sanshi to stay at the Baiyun Hotel in Yangcheng. This is one of the most famous five-star hotels in Yangcheng, especially the "Baiyunxuan" restaurant there. Cantonese food, very authentic.
This arrangement also makes Barron very satisfied.
After learning that the other party turned out to be a British Duke on the first day, Ding Sanshi was actually a little skeptical at the time. After returning home, he asked someone to check the information and found out about the Devonshire family. Sure enough, they are a historic ducal family in England.
The current Duke of Devonshire is Barron Cavendish, who just inherited the family business and title a few months ago.
There is no shortage of photos of Barron on local British website news and media. Such a comparison allowed Ding Sanshi to confirm the authenticity of this matter.
This is not to blame for his paranoia, but in the process of reform and opening up, China actually has a lot of foreigners pretending to come to China with various identities. Although DS Capital holds 14.3% of NetEase There is no doubt about this, but he still needs to be more cautious.
After confirming this matter, Ding Sanshi felt better.
How should I put it? Although the current share price of NetArt has risen significantly compared with the previous lowest period, it still has not reached Ding Sanshi's expectations.
Therefore, in media reports, among the three major portals, NetArts is the most unfavorable.
In today's era, Chinese people highly admire many things in the West - this is also due to the gap in national power. Unlike the generation twenty years later, they grew up in China's rising period and have stronger self-confidence.
In this case, a British Duke is so optimistic about NetArt and holds a large number of its shares, which is also a very good publicity point for NetArt.
Of course, when he came to China this time, Barron's schedule was quite tight. After staying in Yangcheng for a day and visiting the headquarters of NetEase, he was ready to go to Penguin Company in Shenzhen City.
Penguin was founded in 1998, only one year later than NetArt, and these early Internet entrepreneurs had met each other before.
So after learning that Barron’s next stop was to Penguin Company in Shenzhen City, he asked strangely:
"Mr. Barron, are you also interested in Penguin?"
"Yes, Mr. Ding, I have paid attention to several Chinese Internet companies, including Penguin."
In fact, it was not until last year that Penguin began to develop significantly. At the beginning, this company had always been more difficult to raise funds than well-known portals such as NetEase and Zhalang—— Ponyboy even thought about selling Penguin at one point.
This is why in their last financing, Superboy and IDG were able to take 40% of the company's shares for US$2.2 million, and use such a high proportion of share financing. In those It is impossible to appear among the Internet technology companies that are widely optimistic.
“But they don’t seem to have any plans to raise funds recently, and their company has given most of its shares to a South African investment company...”
Regarding Ding Sanshi's question, Barron did not give a too specific answer, but said that they would first visit Penguin Company.
It was only a few days later, as news spread, that Ding Sanshi discovered that the British Duke at that time was not just going to "visit" Penguin Company, but had already planned it. ——The South African MIH Group sold most of their Penguin shares to an investment company called DSIIC. Yes, through the efforts of Amber Sheehan, the South African newspaper industry finally decided to sell 35% of Penguin shares to US$4817.2, equivalent to 32.115 million pounds, at a 100% premium to their purchase price. DS Asset Management Company, a subsidiary of DS Capital, is also known as DSIIC.
After Barron arrived in the Shenzhen market, he also met Boss Xiao Ma, the founder of Penguin Company. He told him that DS Capital was optimistic about Penguin Group in the long term, and they were also optimistic about it. He is willing to hand over his shares and voting rights in the board of directors to Boss Pony in order to maintain his operation of Penguin Company.
The South African MIH Group was extremely supportive of Boss Pony. When they invested in Penguin Company, they promised to only participate in financial investment, fully support the development of Penguin Company, and transfer their future Penguin Company shares to The voting rights were all given to Boss Pony. This was also the case. Only then was he assured that the South African MIH Group would eventually hold such a high proportion of Penguin shares.
Now that Barron's is ready to buy Penguin's shares from South Africa's MIH Group, it is best to first obtain the consent of Penguin. This will be beneficial to future cooperation. Therefore, Barron's also expressed that he is purchasing South Africa's shares. After taking over the shares of MIH Group, the shares they hold will still be handed over to Boss Pony like the South African MIH Group.
Of course, the Chinese branch of the MIH Group is not without opposition to the South African newspaper industry’s plan to sell its shares in Penguin. The vice president of the Chinese branch, who originally advocated investing in Penguin, learned the news. After that, he immediately flew back to Johannesburg to persuade the parent company to give up the idea.
But the key is - DS Capital gave too much. Amber Sheehan increased the offer for Penguin shares from a 50% premium to a 100% premium. Once sold, Penguin shares, this investment will be very successful.
However, the persuasion of the vice president of China was not without effect. In the end, the South African newspaper decided not to sell all the shares of Penguin, but only 35% of the 46.5% of Penguin shares they held. %, leaving 11.5% of Penguin shares.
In this case, on the one hand, they recovered their investment in Penguin Company and obtained extremely high returns; on the other hand, if they retain 11.5% of Penguin Company shares, then Penguin Company will explode in the future Growth, and eventually growth, it's not like they gained nothing.
Now that the parent company has made the decision, the vice president of the MIH Group's China branch was very helpless and could only accept the result.
Although this time they did not directly buy out all 46.5% of Penguin shares held by the South African MIH Group, and only obtained 35% of the shares, but to be able to do this, it cost more than 32 million pounds. Lun is also very satisfied.
And this matter is not without additional gains - after learning that DSIIC acquired Penguin shares from South Africa's MIH Group at a 100% premium, there was another DIG who had invested in Penguin. I was also moved.
Initially, DIG and Superboy invested in Penguin Company respectively, each receiving 20% of the shares.
Then the last time Superboy sold its shares to the South African MIH Group, DIG Capital also sold its 12% stake in Penguin to the South African MIH Group.
Now they still hold 8% of Penguin shares!
Next, they took the initiative to contact DS Capital, Amber Sheehan, who had just arrived in Shenzhen from South Africa, and expressed their willingness to sell their remaining Penguin shares at the same price.
After hearing this, Barron naturally agreed immediately and asked Amber to sign an agreement with the other party to acquire their Penguin shares for US$11 million, equivalent to 7.34 million pounds.
In this way, the shareholding ratio of Penguin Company held by DS Capital has reached 43%, which is not much different from the previous 46.5% shareholding ratio of South African MIH Group.
In this process, they need to pay a total of nearly 39.5 million pounds, nearly 40 million pounds!
But compared to the huge market value of Penguin in the future, the investment of these funds is definitely a big bargain.
It can be said that even if Barron does nothing from now on, he will be the richest man in the world just by virtue of the shares he holds in Penguin.
(End of this chapter)