Chapter 1183 Suez merger case
Veolia Environment has four businesses under its jurisdiction:
Water business, solid waste treatment and recycling, efficient energy services and transportation services.
The best development and the highest revenue are naturally the water affairs that have developed for more than 100 years and have the most experience.
Veolia is now the world's three major water giants that coexist with Suez Group and Thames Water.
11 research centers have been established around the world, providing drinking water and sewage treatment services to more than 131 million people in more than 100 countries.
In addition, seawater desalination business is also carried out in Oman, Spain and other places.
It can be said that Veolia is involved in all water-related businesses.
Including the design and manufacturing of sewage engineering equipment.
In 2006, Veolia's total revenue from water services reached 7.748 billion euros.
In the third quarter of this year, Veolia Water's total revenue exceeded 6.6 billion euros, and is expected to exceed 8 billion euros for the whole year.
It completely showed a snowballing posture.
It's getting bigger and bigger.
Moreover, revenue growth from the East, especially China, has the fastest, driving a sharp increase in revenue from Veolia Water.
Although the solid waste business is not as good as water, it is also excellent.
In 35 countries around the world, it serves 60 million people and 749,000 industrial and third-party customers.
In the three quarters of 2007, 35.6 million tons of waste were collected; 55.7 million tons of waste were disposed of; and 696 sets of waste treatment facilities were managed.
And it earned 5.44 billion euros in revenue.
The third place is the energy business.
Veolia Energy controls 56,000 thermal networks worldwide and 14,300 megawatts of electricity.
Total revenue exceeded 5.16 billion euros in the third quarter of 2007.
Finally, there is transportation business.
Veolia Transportation involves almost all tools.
Bus, light rail, subway, taxi, train, long-distance bus and ferries.
They do everything except the plane.
It has 17% of the total mileage of the UK railway, a railway line of tens of thousands of kilometers, carrying 1 billion passengers annually.
It also has nearly 40,000 different means of transportation.
In 38 countries around the world, it provides operating urban public transportation, including buses, light rail, taxis and transportation between regions.
Revenue exceeded 4.65 billion euros in the third quarter of 2007.
The entire group's annual revenue in the third quarter of 2007 was 21.5 billion euros, net profit was 722 million euros, and total assets were as high as 37.2 billion euros.
Among all assets, fixed assets are only 18.90%, and intangible assets, including goodwill, are as high as 22.30%.
Among them, the net liabilities reached 14.36 billion euros.
The net worth is only 6.65 billion euros.
The operation is relatively healthy.
Xu Liang looked through Veolia's operating information and financial statements, and said nothing.
In fact, utility investment is the least worrying about. Although their profits are not high, their returns are relatively stable.
The competition is not that fierce either.
This is what Li Chaoren likes to invest the most.
"Anthony wants to withdraw from the transportation business?" Xu Liang said.
"Well, he wants to build Veolia into an industry benchmark for environmental solutions," Christina said.
Veolia Environmental Group's four major business segments: water business, solid waste treatment and recycling, efficient energy services and transportation services.
Water, solid waste and energy are connected to each other.
Water affairs and solid waste are both considered environmental protection industries. In addition to recycling and landfill, the most important thing for solid waste treatment is to generate electricity.
Power generation belongs to the energy industry.
The waste heat after waste incineration can heat the city.
But all this has nothing to do with transportation services.
"Anthony's idea is good, I basically agree. But will he report to you how to use the funds after withdrawing from the transportation business?"
"It is mainly used to develop water and solid waste businesses in China and Southeast Asia. It is planned to increase China's water projects from the current 25 to 40 within five years.
The number of solid waste projects has increased from the current 9 to 15.
Become the largest solid waste and water treatment company in Southeast Asia. ” Christina said.
China and Southeast Asia are the fastest growing places in the world in the future. There is huge demand for water, solid waste and new energy, and there is indeed a big investment.
"The direction is right. But we have a better choice."
"A better option?"
Xu Liang smiled slightly, "How do you think we are acquiring Suez Water?"
Christina was stunned for a moment, with an added touch of excitement in her eyes.
"Really?"
"Don't you believe it?"
"You are my husband, of course I believe it. But that is Suez Water, the world's second largest water group after Veolia, and it's too difficult to acquire it.
It not only involves Suez Water itself, but also monopoly.
Moreover, behind Suez Water is the stronger Suez Group, which is still negotiating merger with French Gas.
The merged new group will be the world's largest liquefied natural gas distributor, Europe's largest gas procurement and distributor, Europe's fifth and second largest electricity supplier and Europe's largest energy service provider.
The new group's market value will reach 90 billion euros (about 123.3 billion US dollars), and its annual revenue is expected to reach 72 billion euros, which will make French Gas Suez Group one of the world's three major energy giants.
It is three times as powerful as Veolia, and it is too difficult to acquire it.
What's more, the merger between Suez and French Gas has been supported by the government, especially the new President Sarkozy. If we want to penetrate horizontally, we may be hindered by many people. ”
The merger of Suez Group and French Gas began with the ‘Italian’.
In February 2006, Italian State Electric Power announced its intention to acquire Suez. This move has attracted the attention of the French government, worried that French "star companies" will fall into the hands of foreign companies.
The then French Prime Minister Dominic de Verpen immediately made a suggestion: French gas company and Suez merged to form a "giant" energy company, giving Italian State Electric Power Company no chance to "start".
This plan was welcomed by French Gas Corporation and Suez Corporation.
Just when the merger plan is facing "dawn", it is under double pressure from both international and domestic.
Internationally, many European Union member states, including Italy, accused this move of "national protectionism."
At home, French gas companies trade union organizations expressed opposition, believing that once the two companies merge, many employees are at risk of unemployment.
The main opposition party of France, the Socialist Party, opposes the plan.
Since Suez's market value is greater than that of French gas companies, the Socialist Party believes that the merger will further privatize French gas companies.
The negotiations fell into a dilemma for the next year and a half until the current President Sarkozy intervened.
After Sarkozy came to power, the new French government repeatedly stated that it would promote the privatization of some state-owned enterprises to change the situation where the country's debt remains high.
With his support, the merger between the two sides entered into substantive negotiations.
This is also the background of the whole thing.
Xu Liang smiled and said, "You are right, but Suez Group and French Gas have not yet merged, so the gap between Veolia Group and the two is not big.
Moreover, Veolia does not exist independently, and behind it is the larger Vivendi.
With Vivendi's size, neither Suez nor French gas is as good as us.
As for political obstacles, haha, we are not without supporters in French politics. Sarkozy is still Hanhua's EP, and Hanhua has made a lot of money for him this year.
Moreover, I have collected some internal information.
Because the Suez Group is larger than French Gas.
The latter is state-owned.
In order to ensure France's control over the new group.
Sarkozy hopes Suez can sell non-energy businesses and related assets worth 1.8 billion euros ($2.47 billion) to 2 billion euros ($2.74 billion) in water, which in turn prompts Suez to "equal" with French gas companies.
With this measure, the French government originally controlled about 80% of the shares of French Gas Company, and after the merger, it would hold 34% of the shares of the new company, and has the right to negate the company's decision-making.
Ensures government control over new companies.
In other words, we have the opportunity to get water and solid waste business from Suez Group. ”
Christina's expression became more and more excited, "Dear, maybe we should send a merger email to Suez Group and France Gas now."
Xu Liang smiled and patted her jade hand.
"Don't worry. How much money does the group account now?"
“Velioa has 2.8 billion euros in cash, Vivendi Group has 2.1 billion euros in cash, and 18.3 billion euros in cash in financial accounts.”
When Xu Liang acquired it, Vidiwang Group had nearly 90 billion euros in total assets (including virtual assets such as goodwill.), total liabilities of 45.1 billion euros (Velia 14.76 billion euros), and cash and short-term bonds of 3.2 billion euros. , financial accounts of 5 billion euros.
With Xu Liang's operation, the 5 billion euros of cash in the financial account was doubled in his "golden war" with Soros in 2005.
After deducting taxes and fees in all aspects, the funds in the financial account expanded to 8 billion euros.
There were no good investment opportunities in 2006.
Xu Liang just manipulated his account to invest in some high-value stocks, such as Mercedes-Benz, Dior, etc. Over the past year, his account rose by 63% with leverage.
After deducting taxes and fees in all aspects, the funds in the financial account increased to 13.7 billion euros.
Later, in order to develop Vivendi Telecom, 2 billion euros were withdrawn from the financial account and injected into the group.
The financial account had a balance of 11.7 billion euros at the end of 2006.
In 2007, Vivendi took over $7 billion in CDs bonds from Xu Liang.
Plus the investment income obtained by financial accounts from the capital market.
As of now, with one month left to 2008, Vivendi's financial account achieved revenue exceeding 10 billion euros for the first time.
After deducting various taxes and fees, the funds in Vivendi's financial account reached an astonishing 18.3 billion euros.
The 18.3 billion euro is a three-year investment of 5 billion euros, plus the $7 billion CDs bonds donated by Xu Liang.
Vivendi also holds significant shares in many companies.
Bing, No. 1 Store, Hongmeng Games, and Netcom each have 4.6% equity.
Ubisoft Games has an 11.5% stake.
Sina 18.46% equity. In 2002, in order to acquire "Viwandi Game" from Viwandi, Xu Liang had to take out Hongmeng's original shares as bait.
The final transaction was reached, with Vivendi holding 6.4% of Hongmeng's equity.
At that time, Hongmeng had only five subsidiaries, namely Bing, No. 1 Store, Games, Netcom and Sina.
With the listing of these five subsidiaries, Vivendi's equity has also been cut to 4.6%.
The reason why Sina is different is that Vivendi merged its 80 million users portal "Vvendi Network" into Sina.
Bing is now worth US$132.9 billion, No. 1 store is worth US$31.7 billion, Hongmeng Games is worth US$158.4 billion, and NetTech is worth US$15.9 billion.
Sina's market value is US$31.7 billion.
Vivendi Group holds a market value of US$19.2 billion.
Of course this is just a rough estimate, and the actual situation is definitely different.
For example, Sina's market value once exceeded US$40 billion in 2005, and Vivendi continued to sell under the leadership of Xu Liang.
No mistakes, one song, one content, one in 6, one book, one bar, one reading!
Later, due to the downward trend of the portal website, the stock price continued to fall and has not rebounded much until now.
For example, when Hongmeng Games was just launched, Vivendi did not take the opportunity to cash out, but planned to wait until the six-month lock-up period passed before cashing out.
It is not certain how much money you can get in the end.
But this part of the assets will certainly not be less than $18 billion.
According to the exchange rate of US dollar and euro.
It is about 13.5 billion euros.
Therefore, the actual net assets of Vivendi Financial Account are as high as 31.8 billion euros.
In addition, from the entire process, we can see that except for 2 billion euros to develop Vivendi Telecom, Xu Liang did not use the capital market income to repay Vivendi Group to as much as 45.1 billion euros (Velia 14.76 billion euros) debt.
The reason is very simple.
Most of the investment targets of Vivendi Financial Account are US stocks.
The long-term capital gains tax in the United States is only 15% (holding it for more than one year is the long term).
In contrast, the corporate income tax and capital gains tax in France are uniformly 25%.
It is obviously more appropriate to use Vivendi's pre-tax net profit to repay debts.
In the past three years, with the assistance of Xu Liang, Vivendi has been behind the growing revenue, which is constantly decreasing debt.
As of now, Vivendi Group's debt of more than 30 billion euros has been reduced by 2.2 billion euros.
Note that Vivendi Group's debt reduction does not include Veolia.
The former only holds 45% of the latter's equity.
As an independent listed company, the latter is independently accounted for finance and cannot be mixed together.
This 2.2 billion euros is just a reduction in total liabilities.
In fact, the interest generated by more than 30 billion euros in debt is close to 2.1 billion euros per year.
If this is included, Vivendi actually paid off 8.5 billion euros in debt.
After comprehensively combining all the money, the overall financial status of Vidiwang Group should be counted as.
Total assets are 83 billion euros (including virtual assets such as goodwill, including Veolia Environmental assets, minus the equity assets sold).
Cash 24.7 billion euros (excluding Veolia, not counting equity assets).
Total liabilities of 29.1 billion euros (excluding Veolia).
Net worth 65.7 billion euros (including Veolia).
Just Vivendi's cash and equity assets can completely cover all Vivendi's debts.
In three years, Xu Liang completely pulled Vivendi back from the brink of bankruptcy, and became a financially healthy industry giant, rapidly developing in the fields of telecommunications, pan-entertainment and utilities.
"Suez Group's three major sectors: water, solid waste and environmental solutions, the water sector is 5.2 billion euros, which is about 70% of Veolia Water.
With solid waste and environmental solutions, the three major sectors have an overall revenue of 11.2 billion euros and a net profit of 730 million euros.
If you want to acquire it with full capital, it will be up to 10 billion euros.
We only have 45% of Veolia's equity, and it is enough to only take out 4.5 billion euros of cash.
Now we happen to have enough cash on our account to complete the transaction. "Xu Liang said.
"I think so too," Christina said.
"Sell all Ubisoft Games shares."
"Sell?"
"When the US sub-debts completely explode, global stock markets will be greatly impacted, and then it will be a good time to acquire." Xu Liang sighed, "If the opportunity was not too good, I would not want to acquire Suez Water at this time." br>
Everything has not been settled yet. In order to sell it at a good price, Suez Group will also consider their acquisition invitation.
Moreover, with the strength of French Gas, it is a little shorter in size when facing the Vivendi Group.
In this chaotic situation, the success rate is the highest.
But if the two companies really merge, a corporate giant with revenue of nearly 80 billion euros is far stronger than Vivendi.
Negotiation will be made at that time, even if it is an economic crisis, unequal status will increase the difficulty of acquisition.
Christina snuggled into his arms, "Didn't you say that things in the world are never varied by human will, and you must seize them when opportunities come."
"It's rare that you still remember."
"Of course I have to keep what you said in my heart."
Xu Liang's hand holding her slender waist tightened unconsciously.
...
The Aesheri Palace was built in the early 18th century AD and has a history of more than 300 years.
The word "Elysee" originated from Greek, meaning "a happy land, a blessed land".
In 1718, Henry, Earl of Deffer built this palace in the center of Paris, named "Defer Palace", and was designed by architect Arman Claude Morley.
Originally the private home of Count Everey.
In 1804, Napoleon became emperor, and the First French Empire replaced the First French Republic. His brother-in-law Marshal Murah bought the mansion in 1805 and renovated it extensively, named it "Elysee Palace".
In 1873, McMahon succeeded to the president and issued a decree on January 22, 1879, formally establishing the Elysee Palace as the presidential palace, which was later continued. It is often used as a synonym for the French government.
The Elysee Palace is as famous in the world as the White House in the United States, the Buckingham Palace in the United Kingdom and the Kremlin in Russia. It is the presidential palace of the French Republic and a symbol of France's supreme power.
Xu Liang slowly got out of the car and looked at the two-story building made of marble in front of him.
There is a symmetrical left and right pattern, with two wings being two platforms, surrounded by the garden in the middle, and the appearance is simple and solemn.
It is indeed a rare top Western royal garden.
The last time he came here was when Sarkozy was elected president in May this year and held a presidential dinner.
He stayed for a few days before leaving.
Soon several staff members in suits quickly came up.
At the forefront is Josan Seilleur, secretary of the President's General Office and Sarkozy's personal secretary.
"Mr. Xu, welcome your arrival."
"Mr. Selyol, we're meeting again."
After a quick handshake.
"Mr. President is waiting for you in the office, please come with me."
"Thank you."
It led Xu Liang into the main building, and after a simple search, it entered the president's office on the second floor.
Sarkozy has a typical French look, with a tall hook nose, lying eyebrows, a thin face, and a smiling expression that gives people great affinity.
After seeing Xu Liang enter the door, he opened his arms to greet him.
"Dear Xu, God testified, how happy I am to hear the news of your visit."
Xu Liang also smiled and opened his arms to meet him.
"Sarkozy, my dear friend, every time I meet you, it is the most worth remembering thing. So this time I came to France, I will come to you first. I hope you don't blame me for taking the blame."
"Haha, how could you? You are a distinguished guest I can't invite."
The two of them held their arms at each other and laughed.
Although everyone knows that the other party is vain and despising, the words are extremely friendly.
After the hypocritical courtesy ended, the two sat down on the sofa in the reception area.
"I know you're here, I specially prepared tea."
Sarkozy smiled as the secretary made the tea.
"Thank you."
After picking it up and taking a sip, "This is the best tea I have ever tasted."
"Xu, why did you suddenly come to France this time?"
"I went to Vivendi to take a look and see you, my old friend. By the way, Hanhua Pacific Fund has made a lot of money from the US subprime mortgage crash.
After the lockdown is lifted at the end of the year, you, my dear friend, can earn more than double the return on investment. ”
Sarkozy was overjoyed when he heard this.
He invested 1 million euros in cash in Pacific Fund, and Xu Liang also lent him 4 million euros privately.
If you can make double the profit.
Even if capital gains tax is deducted, there will be 3.5 million euros left.
For him, this is a huge sum of money.
"Haha, Xu, this is really good news!"
"If it's not good news, I wouldn't dare to come over and tell you."
Sarkozy: "Dear Xu, we are friends. Even if you lose money in investment, I won't blame you."
Xu Liang just listen to this sentence.
If you really lose money, the other party will not behave like this.
Looking at his smiling face, Xu Liang felt that the heat was almost the same.
(This chapter ends)