In recent times, Li Zeju and Hutchison Whampoa executives have frequently traveled to the United States and Canada. On the one hand, it is about investment in ports, and on the other hand, it is the acquisition of telecommunications companies in Canada and the United States.
This was discussed with Feng Yu before. Ralph can handle it in the United States, but in Canada, Li Zeju has an advantage. After all, he is now a Canadian citizen.
In the UK, there are also frequent exchanges of senior executives from Changshi. Even last month, Li Chaoren even went there in person.
This month, good news came. The British power grid business has been negotiated. Yesterday, Li Chaoren went to sign the contract in person. The total price is about 9 billion US dollars, and he controls one-third of the British power supply. Although the profit is not high, the income is very stable. It just needs to invest another sum of money to transform the power grid.
Moreover, negotiations with the British Water Company have made breakthrough progress. Now the only thing left is the final price. After the acquisition, nearly 8% of the tap water supply in the UK will be their business.
And that’s not all. Li Chaoren feels that the eight percent share is too low and the competitiveness is weak. So at the same time, we are negotiating with another company that supplies domestic water and sewage treatment, intending to acquire it at the same time, and then merge it. Then the share will increase a lot, especially the voice of the industry will be greatly improved.
This investment is expected to be close to US$3 billion.
If it were just Changshi Company, there wouldn't be enough liquidity at all, but now with Feng Yu's investment, there's no need to worry. What's more, Li Chaoren and other shareholders have also invested in it, and Changji is now far stronger than at the same time in its previous life.
Li Chaoren is also extremely prestigious in the UK and has inextricable connections with many wealthy locals in the UK.
This time, Li Chaoren was also interviewed by the Queen of England and talked a lot about his vision for the British market. It just so happens that the UK wants to vigorously attract foreign investment and use foreign investment to boost the local economy and drive the UK's economic development.
The two of them hit it off immediately, and everyone was happy.
Li Chaoren has long planned to enter the British market in a big way, and this is also implicitly supported by China. Maintaining closer cooperation with the United Kingdom can differentiate the relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States to a certain extent.
After the economic crisis, the United States is struggling to revitalize its economy. Chinese companies have invested heavily, nominally to help the U.S. economy recover, but actually to make money. The U.S. market is still the most active market in the world.
The UK is also among the worst hit in Europe. They want to maintain their own economic development and keep their income from falling too much. They also want to find investments in countries that are not severely hit this time.
During this period, China not only bought the treasury bonds of the United States, but also the treasury bonds of the United Kingdom and many European countries. This is equivalent to a large moneylender, playing the role of a bank, and everyone else works for Huaxia Bank to make money.
No matter how much you earn or how little, I have the lowest risk and the most stable income. In particular, China has specifically emphasized the exchange rate changes this time. It is subject to China's decision. When the time comes, you will be asked to repay in pounds, US dollars, euros or RMB. It is up to China to choose.
I don’t have to buy your national bonds. If you want me to buy them, that’s the condition. At the same time, we need to relax China's corporate investment policies and provide some preferential treatment, and allow settlement in RMB for some projects.
In the past, some advantaged enterprises in China wanted to go global, but it was very difficult. Now that conditions have been lowered and the company's own strength has been improved, it will be much easier to go global.
Feng Yu told Li Chaoren not to just invest in electricity and water, but also consider other aspects. Li Chaoren thinks so too, and is also discussing gas, transportation, communications and other aspects.
In his previous life, Li Chaoren did not have so much liquidity, and many acquisitions were much slower. But in this life, Superman Li was richer, and with Feng Yu as a strong ally, many acquisition negotiations were carried out almost at the same time.
Nowadays, many senior executives of Cheung Kong and Hutchison Whampoa frequently travel between the UK and Hong Kong. Every day, the progress of negotiations will change.
The UK's gas network is one of the best in the world, and one thing proves it. At the beginning, London was a foggy city, and the sky was filled with heavy fog, which was known to the whole world.
Later, many people thought that the British had managed it themselves and had better air purification technology. But the most fundamental reason is that the United Kingdom discovered a huge natural gas field and then took the lead in building urban natural gas supply pipelines, which allowed the United Kingdom to significantly reduce the burning of coal and charcoal and reduce a large amount of waste gas emissions. This is the fundamental reason.
If the UK’s air management technology is pretty good now, the UK’s air management technology at that time was actually very poor.
Water, electricity, gas, transportation, and communications are all areas that Li Chaoren's company is good at. Although Li Chaoren has invested in a variety of businesses, which can be regarded as diversified investments, these five are the foundation of Li Chaoren's enterprise.
They need to strengthen advantageous businesses and use their rich management experience in this area to ensure continuous expansion of business, continuous improvement of profits, and continuous reduction of costs.
Moreover, the UK was also a market he specially selected. It is the financial, trade, and information center of Europe. It has very strong regional advantages and very good market radiation.
In particular, the British manufacturing industry is very strong, and its cutting-edge technology research and development capabilities are world-class. This has little to do with Li Chaoren, but it has a lot to do with China.
Although China is the world's top manufacturing country, a member of the BRIC countries, and is considered to be the economic center of the world in 50 years, it still has many weak points.
Even if you spend money on some, you may not be able to surpass them in a short time because the gap is too big. It's very possible that you spent a lot of money, but what you developed is someone else's technology a few years ago.
It is better to just spend money to purchase some more advanced technologies, and then develop them to reach the forefront of the world.
There is one industry that can be represented here, and that is the automotive industry. In the beginning, there was a gap of several decades with the developed countries in the world. Then, through continuous purchases and introduction of foreign advanced technologies, and even allowing other parties to invest in technology, it drove the development of the industry and slowly caught up with its peers in the world.
Although there is still some gap between the world's number one, this gap is no longer without hope of catching up. Even Chinese car companies have developed from introduction to globalization.
What makes Feng Yu unhappy is that it is so difficult to acquire a British telecommunications company. This is what is most beneficial to Feng Yu and can form an industry that complements Feng Yu's other industries.
What worries the Chinese government more is Li Chaoren's acquisition of British Railways. Once successful, high-speed rail can be introduced to the UK, thereby eliminating competitors from Germany and France.
In the future, many netizens around the world will say that Li Chaoren has taken control of British people's livelihood, but perhaps many people will not notice that Feng Yu is behind this.
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