Chapter 1008 Teflon
Shuanghui is a pig slaughtering and food giant with domestic revenue exceeding 20 billion Chinese yuan.
Even in the West, this kind of company with a revenue of nearly 3 billion US dollars is a big company.
Its MBO has certain demonstrative significance.
If the operation is good, not only Huaxia, but even if it is taken outside, it can also add points to Hanhua's investment banking business.
"I'll call Lao Jiang and ask Fang Long to contact him later," Jiang Xiaoyang said.
"Yeah."
"Remember Supor?"
Jiang Xiaoyang changed the topic.
“Of course, Hanhua doesn’t hold 18% of Supor’s shares?”
Jiang Xiaoyang nodded. Hanhua invested in Supor in 2003.
It’s a pity that I didn’t make much money from this investment.
Supor was listed in Pengcheng in 2004, and Hanhua did not have investment banking business at that time.
After Supor was listed, its stock price fell directly below the issue price, and it has not recovered until now.
“Su Zengzi plans to sell Supor. Call us to ask if we are interested?”
"Selling Supor?"
This is the kitchen and bathroom and small household appliances brand that he was still famous for before his rebirth.
“Is there something wrong with Supor?”
“Supor’s operation is fine, and it is even maintaining an annual growth rate of 30%, but Supor is not optimistic about its future.”< br>
“This is strange, the founder is not optimistic about the company he founded.” Xu Liang said with a smile.
"You founded Internet Technology, so you are not optimistic about its future."
"That's right. Why is Su Zengyi not optimistic about Supor?"
"I didn't ask directly, but There are roughly three reasons for the feedback from the people we sent to Supor's board of directors.
First, the small household appliances, kitchen pressure cookers, etc. that Supor currently operates are labor-intensive enterprises.
The threshold is low. Without core technology, competition will become increasingly fierce as there are more and more manufacturers
Moreover, raw material prices have been rising, coupled with increasing labor costs, Supor's profit margins will become increasingly lower.
Competition is high and profits are low. If there are other better choices, smart people will decisively adjust the direction. "
"Su Zengqian wants to sell Supor and start over? "
"I heard that he has been inspecting the world's sanitary ware giants recently, and he should be planning to enter the sanitary ware field. ”
“Bathroom is a good direction. ”
Xu Liang nodded slightly.
In fact, as long as you have capital, there is nothing wrong with most choices.
Su Zengqi has money and experience, so there is basically no possibility of failure when starting a business again.
“When he starts his business again, let’s see if we can make an investment.”
Jiang Xiaoyang nodded.
Venture capitalists like to invest in entrepreneurs with successful experience.
“I’m just afraid that people won’t want to take us to play.”
The business environment in China is different from that in foreign countries.
In addition to the first start-up capital for foreign entrepreneurship, all other funds needed for the development of enterprises are venture capital.
An enterprise is an enterprise and an individual is an individual. The distinction is very clear.
But it’s different in China.
Entrepreneurs are accustomed to using their own money to build businesses and like centralized management, especially traditional entrepreneurs like Su Zengqi.
"Try it, and if it doesn't work, say no more."
"Yes."
Xu Liang made a gesture to continue.
"The second reason is that the feedback from Supor's capital market is very poor.
On the first day of Pengcheng's listing in 2004, its stock price directly fell below the issue price at that time. This is an extraordinary situation in the stock market. It was a rare phenomenon, and it still happened to Supor, which was enjoying great momentum at the time.
It made Su's growth very embarrassing and felt very sorry for investors.
At one time, he even thought about delisting. < br>
Moreover, Supor’s stock price fell all the way in the next year.
Even though Supor generated a total revenue of 4.6 billion from 2004 to 2006, it was still difficult to prevent its share price from falling in half between the market share price and the issue price in 2006. "
"Someone is deliberately targeting Supor? "Xu Liang asked.
The capital market is not a fool. It is clear that corporate revenue and profits are rising, but the stock price is falling. No matter how you look at it, there seems to be a problem.
"We are also investigating However, there is no sign of capital short selling.
It may just be a mismatch in the capital market, but this phenomenon will not last forever. It only takes an opportunity for the stock price to match the actual value of the company. ”
Xu Liang nodded slightly.
This kind of value mismatch in the stock market does exist, otherwise there would not be the highly respected investment theory of ‘value investing’.
"What about the third reason?" Jiang Xiaoyang said: "The third reason is the 'DuPont Teflon incident'."
Xu Liang understood.
Teflon is a chemical substance.
In addition to extraordinary chemical stability, it also has unique mechanical properties.
Its surface friction coefficient is extremely low, which means that its surface is very 'slippery', and even geckos, which are famous for 'flying over eaves and walking over walls', cannot hold it firmly.
If used as a coating it can significantly reduce mechanical wear and stain adhesion.
Anyone who likes cooking knows that having a good pot is very important.
When frying ingredients in a traditional iron pan, the pan will stick if you are not careful, causing a lot of trouble for the cook.
One day in 1954, French woman Colette noticed that the Teflon coating on the fishing line used by her husband prevented knotting.
She had an idea and thought that if it was used on a frying pan, the effect would be particularly good, and her husband happened to be an engineer, so the world's first Teflon non-stick pan was born .
After DuPont learned about it, it immediately purchased the relevant patents and started mass production.
Teflon also became popular with this housewife’s whimsical idea and entered thousands of households.
DuPont also made a fortune.
In addition to its wide application in daily life.
In industrial production, Teflon, as a special plastic, helps us solve problems in chemical industry, aerospace, electrical, medical and other fields because of its excellent properties of corrosion resistance, high temperature resistance and low adhesion. Many manufacturing problems have promoted technological innovation in various industries, so it is known as the 'King of Plastics'.
Because Teflon is so widely used in life, people are naturally concerned about its toxicity.
Teflon is hydrophobic and oleophobic, making it extremely difficult to be absorbed by the human body.
Even if people accidentally eat a little Teflon into their stomach, it is easily excreted unchanged through metabolism and will not be absorbed by the body.
And this thing remains stable below 260 degrees Celsius.
So in principle, non-stick pans with Teflon coating can be used with confidence as long as they are not placed on a fire (the temperature of cooking oil is usually lower than 200 degrees Celsius).
Although but.
The safety of polymers does not entirely lie in the polymer itself. The substances used and emitted during its production process also need to be taken into consideration.
What does that mean?
Eggs are safe, but the process of producing eggs is not necessarily safe.
If you feed it some sudan red or something, wouldn’t it be a bad vegetable?
But capitalists first consider profits, not safety.
In 1981, a female worker at the DuPont factory in West Virginia gave birth to a deformed baby. The baby had obvious facial defects and only one nostril (it was too tragic, so I won’t post the picture).
Later, her colleague’s child also developed a congenital eye defect.
Both women were responsible for handling a chemical DuPont calls ‘C-8’ during their pregnancies.
Two female workers in the same position both gave birth to deformed babies, which is enough to make people wary.
But DuPont only transferred all the female workers on the Teflon production line one after another and tried their best to cover up the matter.
The lower limit for capitalists is that there is no lower limit.
Until 1998, an Ohio rancher sold 66 acres of land upstream of the ranch to DuPont for landfill chemical waste.
Soon after, more than 200 cows on his ranch began exhibiting abnormal behavior. They walked unsteadily, had severe body deformities, and eventually died in droves.
The rancher seriously suspects this is due to chemical poisoning.
A man of action, he immediately asked someone to dissect the dead cow, retained the diseased organs as evidence, and sought help from Rob Bilott, a lawyer familiar with environmental litigation.
While investigating the case, Bilott accidentally discovered that DuPont's internal documents mentioned that a large amount of a substance called 'C-8' was dumped in a nearby landfill.
A series of shocking incidents have pointed the finger at the compound ‘C-8’.
‘C-8’ is actually synonymous with ‘perfluorooctanoic acid’, which is composed of an arrangement of 8 carbon atoms. Its emergence can also be traced back to the demand for fluoride during the Manhattan Project during World War II.
Since 1951, DuPont has used perfluorooctanoic acid produced by 3M Company as an additive in the manufacture of Teflon to regulate the reaction rate of emulsion polymerization and prevent product caking.
But until the end of the 20th century, the public still knew very little about this compound.
Unlike Teflon, which is hydrophobic, oleophobic, and biologically inert, PFOA has hydrophilic properties and is a surfactant that can be absorbed by the human body and cause cancer.
It can also disrupt the endocrine system and interfere with reproduction and fetal development.
Once the news was exposed, it quickly caused a global sensation.
This is the famous ‘DuPont Teflon’ incident, and this case has not yet been decided.
But it has severely damaged the global kitchen and bathroom market, especially kitchen and bathroom manufacturers.
Supor is China’s famous ‘King of Pots’ and a major user of Teflon.
Once something goes wrong, Supor will definitely be affected.
Xu Liang finally understood why Su Zengyi sold Supor.
For a labor-intensive company with a limited future and one foot on the powder keg, it would be wise to make a quick profit and leave.
"Tell Su Zengqi, I bought Supor, and I will ask the Hongyan M&A Department to talk to him tomorrow." Xu Liang said decisively.
Jiang Xiaoyang's tone was filled with worry.
"Although the DuPont Teflon case has not yet come to a final result, it is certain that DuPont and 3M will lose the case and pay compensation. If something goes wrong by then, the Supor brand will be completely ruined."
"It's not what you think. So bad. "
If there was a real problem, Supor would have collapsed long ago and there would be no way he would survive until the 24th year of his rebirth.
“Teflon itself is not a problem, the problem is ‘perfluorooctanoic acid and Teflon’, so the victims of the Teflon incident are basically female workers of DuPont, not ordinary people who use non-stick pans.”
(End of this chapter)