Chapter 1276: a step far

August Dr. Musselson has been sitting in the office for a long time, and now he faces the most important choice in his career.
The result of this choice will affect the future success or failure of the Man Group.
MAN Group is Europe's top manufacturer of diesel engines, construction machinery, and trucks, and the representative and pride of West Hans Industries.
But this does not mean that it has no competitors.
Wärtsilä from Finland and Sulzer from Swiss; Caterpillar and Cummins from the United States; Mitsubishi from Japan are also leaders in these fields. Their products are also marketed globally and compete with Mann Enhancing fierce competition.
Among these competitors, there is an "old guy" who is not very big, but in the past few years, it was like eating "Viagra". The second spring was in vain, and the development momentum was extremely fast. Therefore, it was regarded by Mann. As one of the most potential and most threatening opponents in the future.
Steyr, a heavy-duty truck and diesel engine manufacturer from Austria, has a long history but mediocre development, and even faced bankruptcy at one time. However, after entering the 1980s, its surging speed has made many old brands in this field strong. Companies are stunned.
Dr. Musselson actually knew how all this happened.
In April 1979, Huaxia, which had just announced its reopening, sent a heavyweight team to Europe. The name of this team was "China Automobile Industry Investigation Group."
They successively inspected seven major car companies, including: Mercedes-Benz, Renault, Volkswagen, GM Europe, Volvo, MAN, and Steyr. Everyone knows what mission this delegation has. They are looking for technical partners for China's weak domestic automobile industry.
The investigation group sent by Huaxia just opened received a warm welcome wherever it went. Everyone wanted to do business with Huaxia and wanted to sell their products to that mysterious country-but the Huaxia people obviously Not here.
Their request is that whoever can transfer technology can obtain a pass to enter the China market.
Faced with this requirement, the attitudes and practices of various companies showed obvious differences. In terms of cars, it is well known that the Porsche family became the first to eat crabs. After many contacts with China, 1982 In 1991, they took the first step bravely. With the "Passat B2" model as a pioneer, they opened the Chinese market step by step, and they were about to usher in a bumper harvest.
In terms of heavy trucks, Mercedes-Benz and MAN were the favorites of China.
However, the business strategies of these two companies tended to be conservative. Dr. Musselson still remembers that when he was not the president but the head of the Mann’s planning department, he had proposed to the then president that he should be caught Taking this rare opportunity, unfortunately, this opinion was eventually rejected by the board of directors.
The opinion of the board of directors at the time was: It is possible to transfer some of the unleading technologies, provided that China Xia must first purchase MAN products worth hundreds of millions of marks!
Is Mann's stuff good?
Of course it's good, very good, but there is a drawback.
expensive.
At that time, China was just waiting to be thriving. You want them to immediately take out hundreds of millions of marks of real money?
That's just thinking too much.
The same conditions and the same events were also staged in Mercedes-Benz. As a result, the Chinese people shook their heads and sighed and left.
The high threshold set up by Mercedes-Benz and Mann blocked China’s efforts to obtain advanced heavy trucks, and at the same time blocked the pace of these two companies’ entry into China. As a result, the
small company
that was about to be marginalized entered the market. Profit.
At that time, facing a great economic crisis, Steyr, who was on the verge of bankruptcy, said that anything can be sold!
According to MAN, this 150-year-old Austrian company has a technical level barely able to rank second-rate. In addition to being cheap, its products are just as useful as it is. It is far worse than its own company. After the gambler tried his best, he turned over in one fell swoop!
On December 17, 1983, China and Austria signed the "Heavy Vehicle Manufacturing Technology Transfer Contract". Steyr emptied his pockets and packed all his main models on the shelf, ranging from 16 tons to 40 tons, a total of 91 models, all transferred to China Technology! (Historical facts, author's note.)
It was also from this day that Steyr started a rocket-style development model.
Because, so far, all the Steyr heavy-duty trucks produced by Huaxia are assembled from a complete set of parts imported from Austrian CKD. Due to the rapid development of Huaxia in recent years, the demand for heavy-duty trucks has increased exponentially. Dr. Musarson once heard people say that in China, Steyr has become synonymous with heavy trucks!
How many trucks did they sell and how much money they made!
Faced with this situation, Mann’s board of directors finally woke up like a dream. They promoted Dr. Mau Salson, who had proposed to cooperate with China, and appointed him as the new CEO. The first major suggestion of Dr. Acquisition of Steyr!
It is obviously already a little late to reopen negotiations with China Xia, and competitors have also developed. They have launched challenges in MAN's core areas such as heavy trucks, automotive diesel engines, and engineering turbines. Such opponents are very terrible. They have a solid, almost monopolistic market rear, and their continuous profits can accelerate their pace of research and development of new technologies. Although they are still behind, this gradual approaching trend makes people feel scared!
In this regard, the solution proposed by Dr. Musarson is that since it is impossible to kill the opponent in the market, it is better to swallow the opponent in one bite and let the opponent become a part of the party. Then everything is solved?
Now the cost of hands-on is still small, and there is still too much time. If you wait for the opponent to grow up for a few more years, then maybe it is possible for your opponent to be swallowed by your opponent!
And the benefits of doing so are very obvious. Aren’t some of Mann’s leading products blocked from the China market? So after swallowing Steyr, it means that China's market door will be completely opened to Mann!
this is a good idea.
After a fierce debate, the Mann board of directors finally agreed to the proposal of Dr. Musarson. The acquisition began last year-but it is obvious that the implementation of this acquisition will inevitably be subject to Steyr's original board of directors. Fierce resistance.
As a company with a 150-year heritage, how can it easily give up its independent operation? It's not that you can't make money!
Takeover bids and stock market battles have naturally become a means of game between the two sides. Steyr's stock price has also obtained a very high valuation premium during the acquisition of Man Group.
This also means that if Mann wants to get Steyr in his pocket, he needs to pay higher costs and spend more money.
As of today, Mann has grasped 43.6% of Steyr’s equity and became the de facto largest shareholder. It is only one step away from holding. As long as you work harder, you can swallow Steyr’s dream completely. Reached.
However, this step cannot be taken.