Chapter 862 The Opponent's Purpose
After Song Yuanchao learned from Lin Daoyuan that Nando was about to be restructured, he began to make preparations.
On the surface, Song Yuanchao applied to intervene in the restructuring of Nandu through Sit, but in fact Song Yuanchao did not place all his hopes on Sit. After all, as a joint venture, the issue of equity was unavoidable, and Nandu itself owned part of Sit's shares. Once Sit acquired Nandu, these shares would become Sit's.
This would directly affect the equity structure of Sit, making it impossible for foreign capital to directly control Sit, which is not allowed by policy. After Sit submitted its application, some comrades who opposed Sit's involvement in the restructuring of Nanfang Daily thought so.
Song Yuanchao knew clearly that because of this reason, although Si Te had great advantages, its disadvantages were also real, and it was unlikely that the city would agree to Si Te's involvement in the reform of Nandu.
But Song Yuanchao still did it. His purpose was not to let Si Te forcibly intervene in the restructuring of Nandu and complete the real control of Si Te. On the contrary, Song Yuanchao had no such intention from the beginning.
Zheng Guoyuan didn't know what Song Yuanchao was really thinking, and even Sun Yaoliang and Ying Annie didn't know either.
When Si Te made a big show of intervening in the restructuring of Nandu, Song Yuanchao's other move came at the right time. This move was the new company registered by Shenghua Capital, which had nothing to do with Si Te but extended an olive branch under appropriate circumstances.
Song Yuanchao's calculations were good, one open and one secret.
On the surface, Si Te is the main force, but in fact, Xiao Qi is the real trump card. Although the reform conditions proposed by Xiao Qi are slightly worse than those of Si Te, in the case of Si Te and Nan Du's intricate relationship, choosing Xiao Qi has no sequelae.
Business and government are different. Business is about pure profit. If it is just a business behavior, then of course Sit is the most suitable. But the problem is that Nandu is a state-owned enterprise, and Nandu also holds part of Sit's shares. For the sake of safety, it is obvious what choice the city leaders will make.
Everything was developing just as Song Yuanchao had expected. Just when Song Yuanchao thought that the dust was about to settle and taking over Nandu was a sure thing, no one expected that such a competitor would suddenly emerge, and this competitor was so powerful.
Song Yuanchao stood up and paced back and forth in the living room with an extremely serious expression.
He had not expected the sudden intervention of Coca-Cola. In the past two years, Coca-Cola had developed rapidly in the domestic market, especially after its cooperation with Shenmei, its domestic sales had been increasing.
Currently, in the carbonated beverage market, including the cola market, Coca-Cola's market share is growing rapidly. A few years ago, the carbonated beverage market was dominated by brands such as Shanghai's Zhengguanghe, Tianfu Cola, and Laoshan Cola, and of course, also included Sit's products.
But starting from the past two years, the two major cola companies have adopted the dual means of mergers and acquisitions and expansion in China, which has led to a sharp increase in production. Although in the current carbonated beverage market, taking cola products as an example, Sterling's Feichang Cola and Tianfu Cola still have an advantage, Zhengguanghe's Xingfu Cola has been defeated by Coca-Cola because it is located in Shanghai like Shenmei. As for Laoshan Cola, it sells quite well locally, but it is not doing well outside Shandong Province, not to mention some other brands.
Logically speaking, although Nandu is a food company, its product structure is somewhat different from that of Coca-Cola. From this point of view, Coca-Cola's reform of Nandu will not play a practical role in seizing the carbonated beverage market.
But now Coca-Cola suddenly made a move and proposed to intervene in the restructuring of Nandu. And from the news Song Yuanchao just learned, Coca-Cola’s condition for the restructuring of Nandu is corporate mergers and acquisitions, which means that the purpose of Song Yuanchao’s arrangement of Xiaoqi for the restructuring of Nandu is the same.
As a well-known multinational company, acquiring a food company like Nandu through mergers and acquisitions is actually completely different from Coca-Cola's traditional means of brand mergers and acquisitions to seize the market. You must know that Nandu's products are not mainly beverages, and its product structure is very different from that of Coca-Cola. To acquire Nandu, Coca-Cola has to pay a huge price. Such an approach seems incredible and puzzling.
But Song Yuanchao didn't think so, because he immediately thought of an old saying, which is probably the most suitable to describe the real reason why Coca-Cola Company suddenly intervened in Nandu.
"Xiang Zhuang dances with a sword, aiming at Pei Gong."
Previously, in the bidding for beverage sponsorship of the National Games, Sit Company defeated two strong competitors with absolute advantage and won the beverage sponsorship of the National Games.
One of these two opponents is Jianlibao and the other is Coca-Cola.
Song Yuanchao still clearly remembers the scene of that day, including the brief conversation with the representative of Coca-Cola Company.
After obtaining sponsorship for the National Games, Sit quickly launched its own cola product - Fanta. Taking advantage of the National Games, Fanta came out of nowhere and occupied a place in the cola market in a very short time. Although Fanta's current market share is not the first, it is a strong competitor of the two major colas. What's more, Sit also has other carbonated beverage products and absolutely advantageous drinking water products. Overall, in the domestic beverage market, Sit is currently the most powerful.
Would Coca-Cola turn a blind eye to such a rival? The answer is of course no. In fact, before Song Yuanchao left Stein, Coca-Cola had already contacted Stein with the intention of replacing Stein through mergers and acquisitions.
But Song Yuanchao rejected the other party's extremely tempting proposal out of the blue. He didn't even meet with the representative from Coca-Cola and directly asked Ruth to send the person away.
Then, Coca-Cola tried to take action through Sit's company in the United States, but they did not expect that Sit's core business was all in China, and the American company was just a shell. In addition, the equity structure of Sit's American company was very complicated. Song Yuanchao did a good job in this regard from the beginning. Not only did he control Sit through cross-shareholdings between several offshore companies and Shenghua Group itself, he also deliberately set up several "firewalls" to avoid company equity issues.
Under such circumstances, Si Te became a turtle with nowhere to bite, leaving Coca-Cola helpless. However, Song Yuanchao knew very well that with the rapid development of Coca-Cola in the domestic market, a fierce "battle" between the two sides was inevitable. However, as long as the fence was tight, Coca-Cola could not do anything to Si Te.
Who would have thought that Coca-Cola would suddenly take advantage of the opportunity of Nandu's restructuring and make a move, showing its intention to intervene in Nandu's restructuring and acquire Nandu. Song Yuanchao immediately felt a strong sense of crisis.
You should know that Nandu owns most of the shares of Sit. When the joint venture company, Sit, was established, the equity was determined to be 49% for Sit and 51% for state-owned assets.
Actually, Nandu is the largest shareholder of Sit, but because of the outrageous actions of Jiang Dahai and Gu Ping when they first established the joint venture, the higher authorities were extremely dissatisfied with them. As a result, the equity originally belonging to Nandu was readjusted, and the right of Nandu to send a chairman to Sit was cancelled. Instead, the relevant departments directly managed the equity and sent a chairman. This was one of the reasons why Song Yuanchao later served as the chairman of Sit.
At present, this part of the shares still belongs to Nandu in terms of ownership. Once Coca-Cola acquires Nandu, in other words, Nandu will become a company under Coca-Cola. At the same time, Coca-Cola can also directly enter the board of directors of Sit through the shares held by Nandu. The consequences of this will be extremely serious.
Of course, some people may ask, isn't Coca-Cola's company in China also foreign-owned? If so, then Nandu is controlled by foreign capital? Isn't this contrary to the policy on the shareholding ratio of joint ventures? However, this question is easy to explain. Coca-Cola's company in China is not actually purely foreign-owned. It is also a joint venture, and the shareholding ratio of Coca-Cola within the company does not reach the limit. In fact, it is similar to the proportion of foreign capital held by Sitco, or even lower.
From this point of view, according to the overall equity ratio, even if Coca-Cola acquires Nandu, the largest equity will still be in the hands of several state-owned enterprises, which will not affect the policy restrictions at all. This is completely different from Sit's involvement in Nandu's restructuring.
However, there is a problem. Although Coca-Cola does not hold a controlling stake, the actual operating rights belong to Coca-Cola. Foreign capital has a great say in the company, which is similar to Stewart.
Once Coca-Cola takes over Nandu, its previous plan to acquire Nandu can be realized in this way.
Song Yuanchao could imagine the steps and strategies that Coca-Cola would take next. By that time, Coca-Cola would be able to directly enter the board of directors as a major shareholder of Sit, which would be impossible to stop either commercially or legally. Even the position of chairman could be directly replaced by Coca-Cola.
By that time, Sit will be faced with the situation of being actually controlled by Coca-Cola. Even if it cannot establish direct control for a while, as long as Coca-Cola's people make trouble within Sit and affect Sit's normal operations and decision-making, and Sit will have no secrets from Coca-Cola by then, it will inevitably cause internal and external chaos. How can Sit withstand such a wave at that time?
Zheng Guoyuan once said that if the market does not advance, it will retreat. When there are hidden dangers within Stein and there is external restraint from Coca-Cola, it is obvious that Stein will retreat step by step. After Stein is crippled or even killed, Coca-Cola can naturally accept Stein's "rich legacy" and become the beverage company with the highest market share in China.
After taking a deep puff of his cigarette, how could Song Yuanchao sit still at this moment?
He would never allow Coca-Cola to defeat Sitton in this way, and he would never allow Coca-Cola to acquire Nandu.
