Chapter 516 – Opportunity to invest in Lenovo
“Chairman Liu, there is no need to talk about the company’s future plans now. I still have trust in you on that part. I heard that some of you also own the shares of this company?” Feng Yu was not sure how many shares Liu Chuanzhi owns now. In his previous life, the most shares held by Liu Chuanzhi was 3.8%
“I do not own many shares now. I only have 1%. In the company, there are a few more people who are like me. The main shareholder of this company is still the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and the rest is owned by the employees.”
Feng Yu raised his brows. Shares were already distributed to the employees? He remembered in his previous life, CAS owns 65% of the company’s shares and the employees, including Liu Chuanzhi and the other founders, owns the remaining 35%. Feng Yu wanted to know how much shares does the employees own now.
If Feng Yu were to invest in Lenovo, the best scenario was to lower the CAS shares percentage. But CAS will never allow this to happen. Lenovo will be listed soon, and after the share prices had risen, they would sell off some of their shares to get the profits.
Since Liu Chuanzhi had approached Feng Yu now, that means the company have some financial issues or does not have enough funds. Feng Yu was thinking hard about how he can own more shares, even if he had to spend more.
In the future, Lenovo’s profit margin might not be high, but the company will still be doing well. The company will divert and invest in many areas to maintain high profits. This was all due to Liu Chuanzhi and his team.
Most importantly, CAS had only invested 200,000 RMB in the company initially and did not spend a single cent after. A decade later, CAS’s shares in the company were worth more than 150 billion RMB!
The return on investment was fucking high! Even if Feng Yu were to invest 100 million for a 10% stake in the company, the shares will worth more than 20 billion RMB 10 years!
Even Warren Buffett could not get such high returns.
Feng Yu had decided to get as many shares as possible even if he had to pay double or triple for the shares!
The PC and IT industry will be one of the most profitable business in the coming 10 years!
“Chairman Liu, what is the total value of Beijing and Hong Kong Lenovo?”
“Hong Kong Lenovo’s value is about 100 million HKD, and Beijing Lenovo is worth about 70 million RMB.”
Huh? So little? Although compared to the 200,000 RMB initial investment, this was a few hundred times, but the total market value of both companies was much lower than Feng Yu’s estimation.
That means Feng Yu could afford to invest easily without any stress. Even if he had to pay 5 times more for the shares, 500 million RMB could buy more than 50% of shares!
“Then how many shares is Lenovo willing to sell?” Feng Yu asked.
Feng Yu wished Liu Chuanzhi will tell him there were no limits. But this was impossible. Feng Yu hope that the percentage of shares he could own will not be too low, like 3% or 5%. It would be meaningless.
“How many shares do you want to buy?” Liu Chuanzhi asked.
“I will buy all the shares you sell.” Feng Yu confidently replied.
Liu Chuanzhi thought in his heart. This was what he had imagined. But when he told his leaders, his leaders only wanted investment and not selling their shares.
The company was preparing to be listed, and after the company was listed, the share prices will increase. It might even increase several folds. If they were to sell off the company’s shares now, they would lose out a lot.
Liu Chuanzhi had asked this question to test Feng Yu.
“Hmmm…. I need to report to my leaders and might need a few days. How long will you be in Hong Kong?”
“I should be in Hong Kong for the most part of this year. Give me a call when you got a reply from your leaders. Oh, I heard that Hong Kong Lenovo is going to be listed in Hong Kong? I am quite close to Hong Kong’s Fu Family and also have a consultancy company here. We should be able to help you get the approval to be listed.” Feng Yu said.
“That’s great. We can save a lot of trouble this way.” Liu Chuanzhi smiled, but in his heart, he was shocked.
How did Feng Yu know Hong Kong Lenovo wants to be listed in Hong Kong? This was still in the planning stage, and only the top management and some leaders in the CAS knew about this. How did this news leak out?
Could it be Feng Yu had bribed a top management staff in Hong Kong Lenovo? But it can’t be. All the senior management staffs were the ones who had founded Lenovo with him, and all of them owns the company’s shares. There was no reason for them to tell others about this news.
But no matter what, Liu Chuanzhi must investigate how Feng Yu got the news. He was the one who suggested to get Feng Yu to invest in the company. If something were to happen, he would be the one to take the blame!
After leaving Hong Kong Lenovo, Feng Yu called Wu Zhigang to ask how much liquid cash Tai Hua Trading has. When he got the answer from Wu Zhigang, Feng Yu felt even more confident.
Tai Hua Trading had sufficient funds to buy out both Lenovo companies. If it wasn’t for Liu Chuanzhi and the rest of the founders were talents but impossible to recruit, Feng Yu would have agreed to Heitaro Nakajima’s request for Aiwa to enter the PC market.
This year, Aiwa had successfully beaten Sony in the Walkman market. In Feng Yu’s previous life, the slim series Walkman introduced by Sony was produced by Aiwa earlier in this life. Sony had become a follower again!
Heitaro Nakajima was overjoyed. He felt that his Walkman sales will exceed more than 1 billion USD and their profits will not be less than 100 million USD!
The CD player was also introduced into the market. Under the influence of Aiwa’s brand, the sales were also doing well. Although it still can’t be compared to Sony and Panasonic, Aiwa had the VCD technologies. They could have caught up with the rest of the companies in terms of CD technologies.
The quality of Aiwa CD players does not lose to the rest of the companies, and the brand was already established in the audio player industry. Coupled with the established sales distribution channels, there were no worries that Aiwa would fail.
Although Aiwa CD players did not become hugely popular overnight, the sales had reached their targets. At the same time, the market share of the other companies dropped. The company that was affected the most was Sony!
Heitaro Nakajima became more ambitious. Aiwa was also developing video games, and he wanted to enter the PC industry. He had conducted market researches and felt that the PC market had a bright future. Also, Aiwa’s existing engineers were capable. If he recruits a few more talents from other companies, Aiwa could also set up a Computer division.
Although Feng Yu had great foresight and could give Heitaro Nakajima advice on the PC industry, Feng Yu felt it would be easier to invest in Lenovo directly. After all, Lenovo were the experts in this field.
Also, until the day Feng Yu returned to the present life, Japan’s top 3 best-selling computer brands were their own domestic brands. Dell, Apple, Lenovo, and Samsung were not doing well in Japan. In this area, Japan’s protectionism policies were still an issue for foreign brands.
Furthermore, if Aiwa were to enter the PC market, Sony, Panasonic, and other MNC companies will surely join hands to attack Aiwa. Feng Yu still does not have the means to compete with so many MNCs.
Feng Yu also did not think Aiwa will be successful in PC development as they will be starting from scratch. The products they developed will not be able to outdo the rest of its competitors. Aiwa should concentrate on audio equipment. Feng Yu had already planned out Aiwa’s future direction. When Walkman and CD reach the peak, Aiwa will introduce MP3.
Feng Yu still trust Lenovo when it comes to the IT and PC industry. Feng Yu must own a stake in Lenovo!