Chapter 11 Returning to China (1)

Three hours later, Yang Cheng sat in the first-class cabin of a Boeing 777 of China Eastern Airlines with constipation on his face, looking at his business attire that he had not had time to change, and couldn't help but smile bitterly. It's all his fault.

The family's private jet was carrying grandfather and grandfather to New Zealand for fishing, so he had to "grieve" Yang Cheng to take the first-class cabin. Because the ticket was bought in a hurry, Elena and the two bodyguards were in the business class at the back. This time, Dad sent his secretary to assist Yang Cheng, also to facilitate communication with all parties.

Thinking about what Yang Sen told him at noon, Yang Cheng still feels a pain in his brain. This time, a total of people including Yuanshan Capital, the Lehman family, and the Hershey Company (the largest chocolate and candy manufacturer in North America) were involved. Three American companies, Lotte Group and Tairong Real Estate, two bar companies, and Lotte (Country Z) Foods, a joint venture company that Hershey has invested in in the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The core of which is the Hershey Company, a 120-year-old company headquartered in Pennsylvania.

There is no doubt that this food giant with a market value of more than 20 billion US dollars and the world's sixth largest candy sales share in North America and an annual revenue of more than 7 billion US dollars is optimistic about the Lehman family, which has been focusing on mergers and acquisitions in the food industry, and has become their new hunting target.

Unlike other companies, though, Hershey is actually in the hands of a bunch of kids.

The founders, Mr. and Mrs. Hershey, had no children, and the loving Mrs. Hershey decided to dedicate her mother's love to those orphans who had lost their families. Her advice was fully supported by Mr. Hershey.

In 1909, the Hershey couple founded the predecessor of the Hershey School, the Hershey Industrial School, which specialized in educating orphans from all over the United States.

The Hershey School provided them with all education and room and board expenses.

At present, the Hershey School has grown to a scale of 1,500 students and is the largest private school in the United States.

The student residences at Hershey School are beautiful villas, with 8-12 students living in each student home, with Hershey employees or community volunteers serving as their temporary parents.

The school's tuition for each student totals as much as $70,000.

This 1,500-student middle school ranks fifth among the richest schools in the United States, behind only Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford, with assets of more than $9 billion!

The Hershey Trust Committee, which manages these assets, has 70% of the voting rights in the Hershey Board of Directors, which means that whether the company is sold or not is within the committee's mind.

As a group of standard businessmen, you can't expect them to always think about a group of children, and their creed is the priority of interests.

Because the operating goal of general listed companies is to maximize the interests of shareholders, when the stock price falls sharply under poor performance, the best way is to acquire or expand the value of shareholders through mergers and acquisitions. It is not that the committee has not moved this idea.

As early as 2002, the Commission of Charitable Trusts had moved to sell Hershey, authorizing the then president to find a buyer. Cadbury and Nestle jointly bid $10.5 billion, and Wrigley Wrigley Candy Co. bid as high as $12 billion.

However, the residents of Hershey City, also known as Hershey Town, objected, because everyone was afraid that the new factory owner would lay off workers or even close the factory, and media news reports continued one after another, causing a stir for a while, so that the Pennsylvania Attorney General and senior local judges got involved. In this case, the sale was stopped by legal means.

The Attorney General removed the members of the Board of Trusts, which had voted in favor, and replaced LeRoy S. Zimmerman, former Pennsylvania Attorney General, as head of the Board of Charitable Trusts.

Zimmerman has publicly stated many times that the trust committee will insist on holding the Hershey company,

Even in its most recent statement, the Charitable Trust Commission also stressed that "accelerated growth of the company does not mean that the Commission must give up its holdings."

Following this incident in 2002, Pennsylvania legislation required advance notification to the Attorney General's Office under any circumstances where the School Board of Trustees decides to give up its controlling interest in Hershey.

The legislation also grants the attorney general the prerogative to block any transactions by the school trust committee that are inconsistent with its obligations.

It is not common to pass special legislation to protect the company, which undoubtedly increases the difficulty of the sale and merger of Hershey Company. Any behavior that may threaten the controlling position of the school trust committee is a challenge to this legislation.

The old fox Paul Lehman who is well versed in this will naturally not be clear, so the biggest obstacle to the successful acquisition of the Hershey Company is not the capital, but how to overcome the current Pennsylvania beauty Attorney General Katherine Kane.

It stands to reason that this matter cannot involve the Yang family. One is engaged in the non-performing asset industry of real estate, and the other is focused on the food field, and the two have no relationship. The two have never had any contact before, but sometimes things are like this. coincide.

In 1967, Stanley Milgram, a psychology professor at Harvard University, wanted to describe a network of interpersonal connections connecting people and communities. He conducted a chain letter experiment and proposed the theory of six degrees of separation.

To put it simply: "There are no more than six people between you and any stranger, which means that you can know any stranger through at most six people."

This theory is completely in line with the current situation. The Yang family has developed into this position, and as a yellow race, it is inevitable to seek political protection. As early as the arrival of the 21st century, Mr. Yang began to win over the political stars in Texas, and then Yang Sen It is even more focused on the United States. The Yang family's think tank has set up a political public relations team to maintain relations with politicians.

Of course, the Yang family has no political inclination, no matter if you are an elephant party or a donkey party, as long as you have the ability, are friendly to the Chinese, and the most important thing is to give the Yang family the strongest protection, you can become the Yang family. A friend of mine, Catherine Kane is one of them.

About two years ago, in 2012, with the help of the Yang family, Katherine Kane became the first Donkey Party member to serve as Pennsylvania's attorney general since 1980, and the state's first female attorney general. .

For this reason, the Yang family did not hesitate to purchase the bankrupt pastures in Pennsylvania to raise dairy cows. The milk produced was purchased by the Hershey Company, and all the profits were invested in the welfare of Pennsylvania, which added luster to Katherine Kane's political achievements. Of course, this Everything is unknown to the outside world, but it is absolutely impossible to escape the investigation of those who are interested.

This was discovered by the Lehman family now, and they want to find evidence of the connection between the Yang family and Catherine Kane, in order to coerce Catherine Kane to let go of their acquisition of the Hershey Company. As for how to publicize other members of the Attorney General's Office, then It couldn't be simpler, everyone is an adult and has their own desires. Beauty is still a knife, as long as you speak.

However, the Yang family is not so easy to investigate. As the mistress of the Yang family, Liu Yun has naturally become a breakthrough in Louis Lehman's eyes. Women, whether in the East or the West, are blind once they fall in love, and how crazy they are for their lover. It's not hard to imagine the move, let alone just leaking some news?

I don't know if this guy is arrogant and arrogant because of his success over the years, completely forgetting that Liu Yun's blood of country Z is very different from their Western culture, or whether he thinks that the Yang family is just like the ordinary people he provoked in the past, in short. , this time he hit the iron plate.

The Boeing 777 was steadily lifted up to the stratosphere for cruise, and the beautiful stewardess began to act, serving drinks to the first-class guests.

"Mr. Yang, you are welcome to take the China Eastern Airlines flight. What would you like to drink?" Yang Cheng, who was lost in thought as soon as he got on the plane, was lightly disturbed by the sweet voice.

Turning her head following the voice, the dignified and elegant stewardess stood next to the independent warehouse with a refreshing smile.

Yang Cheng was a little absent-minded. It's not that he has never seen a beautiful woman. He has tasted the one who is more beautiful and sexy than the one in front of him, but she brought it to Yang Cheng, um. . . It seems that there is no special word to describe it, it is comfortable, as if I am used to the hustle and bustle of the city, and suddenly came to a green valley with little people, small bridges and flowing water, birds and flowers, and the whole body and mind were washed, but he It's clear that it's not love at first sight, it's just some of the most basic impulses a man has on a woman.

He was staring at Jiang Shiyu in a daze. At the same time as the flight attendant, Jiang Shiyu was also observing him. Compared with Yang Cheng's countless reading girls, with her work experience and environment, she was well experienced and could afford to sit still. Who is not the elite in the first class of international direct flights, tall, short, fat, thin, old and young, ugly, handsome, everything.

But only Yang Cheng made her a little curious. To be honest, Yang Cheng is not the kind of handsome, earth-shattering and coquettish bitch. If you have to give a score, it will be around 70, which is more than the top and more than the bottom. She belongs to Xiaoshuai. of that class.

But his handsome face with a little Western classical style, and his demeanor and demeanor in his gestures are really easy to impress people, especially when he thinks seriously, he doesn't have a mature charm.

Jiang Shiyu, who remembered his work, was the first to come back to his senses and chuckled, "Mr. Yang? What would you like to drink?"

Yang Cheng rubbed his face to make sure he didn't show Brother Pig's expression just now, tapped his fingers on his thigh and said, "A glass of red bar." He needed alcohol to relieve his tense nerves.

Jiang Shiyu nodded with a smile, "Okay, Mr. Yang, please wait a moment."

As Jiang Shiyu's graceful figure left, Yang Cheng slapped himself lightly and cursed inwardly, "Look at how you have never seen the world, you are useless."

If it was another time, Yang Cheng would definitely not miss the opportunity to hunt Yan. The flight attendant can always bring infinite reverie to men. Unfortunately, now he is full of thoughts on how to complete the task given by his father.

In addition to being his own family and being able to trust 100% of such an important part to him, there is no doubt that there is an element of testing.

Yang Sen knows that his son is smart, and his past stock investment can also prove Yang Cheng's vision, but at best, it is just a small talk, and it is still far from a real investor or businessman.

Especially now that Yang Cheng has stepped out of his own decadence and wants to achieve a career, Yang Sen must cultivate it carefully while being pleased. After all, Yang Cheng is the only heir of their Yang family. It is necessary to train Yang Cheng's ability without destroying him. This level of self-confidence is not easy to master, and this task can just test Yang Cheng's ability. For Yang Cheng, Yang Sen also took great pains.