pjbooks Chapter 1037 Shocking! Lin Haoran has been exposed!
Chapter 1037 Shocking! Lin Haoran has been exposed!
Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony.
This is a very small city in Germany, with a population of less than 100,000 and an area of only 200 square kilometers.
Nevertheless, it is quite well-known.
The reason is that the birthplace and headquarters of the famous Volkswagen are located here.
The city has nearly 50,000 employees of Volkswagen alone. If you include their families and people working in related industries, almost the entire city revolves around Volkswagen.
From factory workshops to R&D centers, from logistics warehouses to administrative buildings, from employee dormitories to schools and hospitals, the Volkswagen logo is everywhere.
While Lin Haoran was having tea and chatting with Tang Kun and others in a Chinatown building in London, England, a supervisory board meeting was being prepared in a conference room at Volkswagen headquarters.
Volkswagen adopts the typical German dual board system, separating ownership from management, and combining state-owned background with market-oriented operation.
The Supervisory Board is the highest decision-making body of the Volkswagen Group, with its seats divided equally between shareholder representatives and employee representatives.
Every so often, the Volkswagen Group Supervisory Board holds a meeting to report on the latest developments of the group and to submit new decisions for voting.
This is a typical feature of the German corporate governance structure, where the supervisory board has higher power than the management board, and key matters such as major strategic decisions, senior management appointments, mergers and acquisitions must be approved by the supervisory board before they can be implemented.
Currently, the top leader of the Volkswagen Group, the chairman of the board, is Karl Hahn, who officially took office in January last year.
This chairman of the Volkswagen board may not have any outstanding achievements at present, but decades from now, people who understand the automotive industry will definitely recognize this legendary figure in the industry.
He spearheaded Volkswagen's expansion in the US market, spearheaded key initiatives such as Volkswagen's entry into mainland China, the acquisition of SEAT, and the revival of Audi, making him the core helmsman who propelled Volkswagen from a European leader to a global giant.
At this moment, Karl Hahn was sitting at the head of the long table in the conference room, quietly waiting for the meeting to begin.
However, as time went by, only 9 of the 14 members who should have been present at the board meeting were actually there!
A total of 5 people were absent!
Among the supervisors of the company, 7 are senior professional managers and 7 are shareholders.
All five people who were absent were shareholders!
The representative from the Lower Saxony state government glanced at his watch and asked in bewilderment, "Mr. Hahn, the meeting is about to start in two minutes, why are so many people still missing?"
Carl Hahn's gaze slowly swept over the empty seats, his expression calm, and he said, "Mr. Eli, I have already had my secretary call these supervisory board members, and we will have results soon."
As soon as he finished speaking, the conference room door was gently pushed open, and Hahn's secretary quickly walked to his side, leaned down and said in a trembling voice, "Mr. Chairman, we have contacted five supervisors, and their replies are almost identical. They say that their shares have already been sold to a buyer, but they haven't had time to notify us yet."
Although the secretary spoke in a low voice, her words were still clearly heard by everyone present in the quiet conference room.
The moment the words left his mouth, the air in the conference room seemed to freeze.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned their gazes to Hahn and the secretary.
"Do you know who the buyer is?" Before Karl Hahn could speak, the representative of the Lower Saxony government hurriedly asked.
“I’ve already asked them, and their buyers are all the same company, an American investment firm called Universal Investments, headquartered in New York.”
"Investigate! Immediately investigate the background of this Huanyu Investment Company. Also, get me the comparison table of Volkswagen Group's stock transaction details for the past few months."
I need to know the background of this Huanyu Investment Company, who is behind it, when they started buying Dazhong shares, whether they acquired them from the secondary market, and how many shares they currently hold. Send all the information as soon as possible!
Carl Hahn already knew the seriousness of the situation.
It's important to understand that holding a 20% stake grants a veto right within Volkswagen, which represents a significant strategic risk for the Volkswagen Group.
According to German company law, shareholders holding more than 20% of the shares have the right to veto major company decisions, such as capital increases, mergers and acquisitions, and amendments to the company's articles of association.
If this mysterious Universal Investment Company truly holds more than 20% of the shares, then theoretically it already possesses the ability to influence or even prevent major strategic decisions by the public.
The sudden appearance of this unknown shareholder gave Carl Hahn an unprecedented sense of loss of control.
Since taking the helm at Volkswagen, he has been known for his prudence and caution, striving to control every key decision the company makes.
Although the Lower Saxony state government holds 20.1% of the shares, it only holds shares and supports all decisions, without easily interfering with the company's daily operations and strategic decisions.
As for the other shareholders, none of them hold more than 5% of the shares, so they naturally don't have much say.
Therefore, Carl Hahn was never really worried about shareholder resistance.
But this time, without his knowledge, someone quietly became the second largest shareholder of Volkswagen, possibly even reaching the 20% shareholding threshold.
The feeling of being approached from behind made him extremely uneasy.
That's a huge investment, truly a huge investment!
It's worth noting that the Volkswagen Group currently has a total market capitalization of nearly $65 billion.
The shareholders or institutions represented by those five supervisors collectively hold nearly 12% of Volkswagen's shares.
Even if the other party did not acquire shares from the secondary market, based on market prices, this 12% stake would already be worth nearly $7.8 million.
Not to mention that for these shareholders or institutions to sell their Volkswagen shares so readily, the other party must have already paid a premium.
Otherwise, these shareholders wouldn't have sold off their long-held Volkswagen shares so readily.
Germans are known for their prudence and long-term perspective, especially when it comes to high-quality assets like Volkswagen. These shareholders would never consider selling unless offered a sufficiently attractive premium.
There are very few people in the world who can pull off such a grand spectacle.
It's either Middle Eastern oil capital, American Wall Street giants, or Japanese conglomerates.
None of the people present had ever heard of this Huanyu Investment Company.
This is also what puzzled Carl Hahn and others the most.
If it were institutions like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, or First Boston, they wouldn't find it strange, since these are Wall Street giants with the financial strength to make such an acquisition.
But what exactly is this Huanyu Investment Company?
They had never heard of it before.
In fact, the newspapers had reported on Universal Investment Company, but that was in the United States and it had no presence in Germany. So it's normal that Karl Hahn and others didn't know about Universal Investment Company.
"Let the meeting proceed as scheduled!" Karl Hahn glanced at the five empty seats again and began to preside over the meeting.
However, it was clear that the supervisors present today were somewhat distracted.
After all, with such a major event suddenly occurring within the group, it would be impossible for anyone to fully concentrate.
The simultaneous transfer of shares by five shareholder representatives signifies a significant change in Volkswagen's shareholding structure without their knowledge.
Although the meeting was still ongoing, everyone's attention was already focused on the mysterious Huanyu Investment Company. About half an hour later, there was another knock on the meeting room door.
The meeting was adjourned.
“Come in,” Karl Hahn called out to the door.
The person who came in was his secretary.
"Mr. Chairman, and all the supervisors, we've investigated everything. I've printed out all the information on A4 paper." The secretary rushed in, panting, carrying some documents.
This is actually because Huanyu Investment Company was recently reported by the United States; otherwise, they really wouldn't have been able to find out the details of Huanyu Investment Company so quickly.
After the secretary distributed the information to all members of the supervisory board, he stood next to Karl Hahn.
Meanwhile, Karl Hahn's eyes were already rapidly scanning the contents of the paper, and his brows were gradually furrowing.
Universal Investment Company, registered in New York, has been established for more than three years and has close ties with Citibank. The owner behind the scenes is suspected to be Lin Haoran, a super-rich man from Hong Kong.
They had never heard of Huanyu Investment Company, but they had heard of Lin Haoran.
After all, this is an era of rapid information flow.
Lin Haoran's series of business moves in Hong Kong, the United States, and the United Kingdom have already been reported to the global business community through mainstream international media such as the Financial Times, The New York Times, and The Times.
Even in Germany, those who follow international business trends will be familiar with this name.
In addition, he has also received news from the UK in the past few days.
Lin Haoran invested £15 million in Rolls-Royce, acquiring a 20% stake in the Rolls-Royce Group!
Bao Yugang joined forces with Lin Haoran to acquire three major car brands: Austin, MG, and Land Rover.
When these two things reached him, he was impressed by the extraordinary passion and ambition this Hong Kong tycoon had for the automotive industry.
This incident even gave him a good idea for future development.
Although the British automotive industry is declining, these brands still have a strong foundation, and with sufficient funding and the right strategy, they have every possibility of revival.
If Lin Haoran can acquire or invest in these car brands, then Volkswagen can do the same.
Although Volkswagen is currently in a much better position than Leyland Group, Hahn has been thinking about how to keep Volkswagen at the forefront of future global competition.
If Volkswagen could integrate British and German automotive resources through cooperation or alliances to form a cross-European automotive industry matrix, it might not be a bad thing.
What he didn't expect was that, just two days later, the gossip would reach him. The other party not only had their eyes on British car brands, but also on Volkswagen, the leader of the German automotive industry.
Moreover, the other party's methods were more direct than he had imagined. Instead of negotiating cooperation at the negotiating table, they directly used the capital market to become Volkswagen's second, or even possibly first, shareholder!
This shocked and terrified Carl Hahn.
After reviewing the information from Huanyu Investment Company, he then looked at a comparison table of Volkswagen Group's stock trading details over the past six months.
When he looked at the transaction data for the most recent month and compared it with the transaction data for the previous five months, he easily noticed that something was wrong.
The trading volume over the past month has clearly increased by 15% to 20% compared to previous periods.
If this is a normal situation, it's not surprising, since increased trading volume is a common occurrence in the stock market.
However, considering that the five major shareholders and institutions transferred their shares at the same time, the sudden increase in trading volume appears particularly suspicious.
That extra 15% to 20% in trading volume is most likely traces left by Huanyu Investment Company secretly buying up shares in the secondary market.
If this assessment is correct, then Huanyu Investment Company's actual shareholding ratio may have far exceeded the 12% transferred by the five supervisors.
"Mr. Eli, what are your thoughts?" Karl Hahn asked, looking at the representative of the Lower Saxony government.
“Mr. Hahn, you are in charge of handling this matter, and I will fully cooperate.” Mr. Eli directly threw the problem to Hahn.
As a representative of the Lower Saxony state government, his responsibility was to ensure the interests of the state government and the stable operation of Volkswagen, but he did not possess the same deep understanding of the automotive industry and capital operations as Hahn.
In this situation, he chose to trust Hahn's judgment and hand over the initiative to this experienced chairman of the board.
Carl Hahn nodded and didn't ask any further questions.
He turned to the supervisors present and said, "Gentlemen, since Mr. Eli trusts my judgment, I will be direct. Huanyu Investment Company has likely acquired close to or even more than 20% of Volkswagen's shares through negotiated acquisitions and secondary market purchases."
This is a significant change in shareholding, and we must take it seriously.
He paused, then his tone became more decisive: "I suggest that we temporarily suspend all major decisions that require a vote by the supervisory board before we formally confirm the shareholding ratio of Huanyu Investment Company."
At the same time, I will have a face-to-face meeting with the person in charge of Huanyu Investment Company as soon as possible to find out their true intentions.
Until the outcome of the communication is available, everyone should remain in a wait-and-see mode and refrain from disclosing any information to the outside world.
The supervisors present all nodded in agreement.
The meeting concluded in a cautious and restrained atmosphere.
Meanwhile, in the editorial office of Handelsblatt, Germany's largest business and economic newspaper, a reporter is looking at an article he has finished writing.
Shocking! A silent takeover by Far Eastern tycoon Lin Haoran: Will he control the future of Volkswagen?
This is the title of the article he wrote himself.
The Volkswagen Group Supervisory Board was still asking everyone not to disclose any information, unaware that the matter could no longer be kept secret.
As a veteran journalist who has long covered the German automotive industry, he learned yesterday that an organization had sold its shares in the Volkswagen Group.
Subsequently, he followed the clues and, through his connections in the financial industry, gradually learned more details. It turned out that not only this institution sold its shares in the Volkswagen Group, but five institutions and shareholders had sold them!
The buyer was Huanyu Investment Company.
Lin Haoran, the behind-the-scenes boss of Huanyu Investment Company, was quickly exposed by him through his connections.
Lin Haoran is secretly acquiring shares in the Volkswagen Group!
This is big news!
This reporter had been working at the Business Daily for seven or eight years and had always hoped to be promoted to the next level, but he was struggling to find enough exclusive stories to prove his worth.
Now, this lead concerning Lin Haoran and the public is undoubtedly the most significant report he has encountered in his career. (End of Chapter)