Chapter 546 Opportunity Choice

Fan Wubing still couldn't have dinner at home that night, so Boss Zhu invited him.

Of course, Boss Zhu wouldn't invite him to dinner for no reason. This time, he just wanted him to participate in the negotiation dinner with Kodak.

But no matter what, Boss Zhu's attention to Fan Wubing is beyond doubt. Just because Fan Wubing said that he wanted to participate in Kodak's acquisition of the entire film industry, he nodded without hesitation. This means that some things done in the past few years need to be adjusted, which has a great impact on the negotiation team.

Currently, the representatives of the Domestic Film Industry Federation are negotiating with Kodak. Representatives of seven domestic photosensitive material manufacturers including Lucky have participated. Therefore, the dinner this time also includes representatives of these seven companies, Kodak's negotiators, and several leaders of national ministries and commissions. A total of more than 20 people participated.

Naturally, Ye Ying, the plenipotentiary representative of Kodak, was also a focus of the dinner. Fan Wubing admired her very much. At such an old age, she still dressed like a butterfly wearing flowers. It really takes a lot of courage.

After the latest phase of negotiations, the cooperation agreement has basically been finalized. The Chinese government has implemented different policies for the six domestic photosensitive companies except Lucky. Xiamen Fuda, Shantou Gongyuan, Wuxi Alme and Kodak have joint ventures. Shanghai, Tianjin, Liaoyang and other three companies will not cooperate with any other foreign companies during the three-year infrastructure period of the joint venture. Kodak paid the Chinese side $400 million in asset transfer and economic compensation. On the basis of this agreement, Kodak was allowed to invest $1.2 billion in China to establish a photosensitive material production base, which in fact created a monopoly position in the domestic film industry market.

There is a small change here, that is, of the $1.2 billion investment, $200 million was invested by Fan Investment Group, which means that in the Kodak China company to be built, Fan Investment Group holds 16% of the shares.

However, Fan Wubing also made it clear that he would not interfere in the company's management business, but only hoped to obtain the due benefits. After three years, Kodak can purchase Fan Wubing's 16% equity at its discretion.

Fan Wubing's approach made Kodak very confused. They couldn't figure out why Fan Wubing proposed such a strange condition. If Fan Wubing's previous proposal of sharing digital camera technology for three years was relatively reliable, then the investment dividend condition was a bit confusing.

Under the support of policies, it doesn't take much effort to establish a monopoly market, but three years is just a time for Kodak to become a company that monopolizes the Chinese film market. If Kodak chooses to transfer its equity at this time, it feels that Fan Wubing's move is a bit too early. It will take at least five years for Kodak's production capacity and market cultivation to show actual results. Although Kodak is confident that it can recover its investment and make a lot of profit after three years, compared with the future market estimate,

if Fan Wubing recovers his equity at this time, his income will be relatively low, which does not meet the principle of maximizing investment income.

In short, this is a very puzzling condition.

Although it was very incomprehensible, Kodak had to take into account Fan Wubing's huge influence. Since he proposed this acquisition cooperation proposal, Kodak had to seriously consider it and make it happen.

At least now it seems that this condition is not bad for Kodak, and it can even alleviate the company's financial pressure and make Kodak's Chinese plan more realistic.

During the dinner, Kodak representatives toasted Fan Wubing one after another, saying that the future cooperation will last for a long time and everyone should keep in touch. Fan Wubing was very polite and responded one by one with a very friendly attitude.

The mentality of the seven film manufacturing companies participating in the negotiations was different. Xiamen Fuda, Shantou Gongyuan, and Wuxi Alme, which were jointly owned by the joint venture, were naturally very happy. The huge debt problem could finally be solved. The future cooperation prospects seemed to be very good. At least for the management, there was a good way out.

The three companies in Shanghai, Tianjin, and Liaoyang did not cooperate with any other foreign companies in the three-year infrastructure period of the joint venture. Kodak paid the Chinese side $400 million in asset transfer and economic compensation. This condition is also acceptable. After all, these three companies are basically ready to switch production. It is naturally the best result to be able to obtain economic compensation at this time. At least everyone can have a relatively large amount of support funds when switching production.

The most unhappy one is Lucky Film. Although they strongly resisted Kodak's acquisition from the beginning, it now seems unstoppable. Since the acquisition plan has been finalized, Lucky will face even stronger competitiveness in the future.

After all, Kodak, which has a complete monopoly on the Chinese market, is more terrifying than Fuji, a small Japanese company. Their technical strength and strong funds over the past century are beyond the reach of Lucky. Just in terms of scientific research investment, Lucky cannot be compared with others, not to mention how big the gap is in digital camera technology and some other civilian medical film manufacturing industries, and not to mention that Kodak is a provider of all-round imaging and graphic solutions.

Ye Ying was talking to two executives of Kodak in English. She looked at Fan Wubing who was dealing with others very freely over there, and said, "This Fan Wubing is very difficult to deal with. I still don't know what he wants to do. This is the first time in my many years of working in journalism and diplomacy."

An executive replied, "This Mr. Fan is also a genius in the world financial world. Although the outside world underestimates his assets, most people think that he is much richer than Bill Gates. It's just that these funds are scattered all over the world through various channels, making it impossible for everyone to have an accurate statistics, while the wealth of Bill Gates and others can be seen in stocks, etc."

"Fortunately, he just asked for dividends. If he participated in management, it would bring us great inconvenience." Another executive said with some relief.

Ye Ying drank the red wine in the glass, and then said to the two people, "In fact, I am also looking forward to seeing what this legendary boy is going to do. Is he just trying to hold our shares and wait for the price to sell in the future?"

"Even if he just wants to invest in our shares, it will be a huge income in the future." An executive said.

Ye Ying nodded, not because she was confident in herself, but because Kodak, which was also very strong in financial and technical strength, wanted to make a lot of money in the Chinese market under the premise of basically monopolizing. Therefore, even if Fan Wubing simply invested in the shares, he would get a great return.

But she always felt that Fan Wubing's decision was not so simple, and no one knew what it was.

Boss Zhu was not very clear about Fan Wubing's decision. When they were drinking, he asked him what the trick was. However, Fan Wubing smiled and said that it was a commercial secret and could not be announced before the time was right, otherwise it would not work.

In fact, Fan Wubing knew very well that the agreement reached this time was largely a victory for Ye Ying and Kodak's public relations strategy in China, and the most important significance was not that Kodak acquired all photosensitive material companies except Lucky, but that it gave Kodak the opportunity to develop independently in the Chinese market for three years. Kodak did not make China's photosensitive industry go global as he said, but made China's photosensitive industry Kodak's family world.

As Ye Ying herself once said, she felt that being No. 1 was very dangerous, because when you are No. 1, you are the target of public criticism, and everyone wants to replace you, so being No. 1 is not the safest.

This deep sense of crisis is certainly due to Ye Ying's pursuit of Kodak's sustainable development, but the more important reason is that the agreement reached now can only protect her for three years. Three years later, Fuji will make a comeback and fight Kodak China, and the growing Lucky will also form a pincer attack on it in the low-end market. The expectation of the three major players competing for supremacy makes Kodak feel the danger of the future.

In the agreement, Lucky was retained as the only national brand in China. This is considered a hand left by the top management, and all photosensitive enterprises were not handed over to Kodak. Otherwise, Ye Ying might not say that being No. 1 is the most unsafe, but I am No. 1, who am I afraid of, because in that case, she will no longer have opponents.

In fact, fundamentally speaking, Agfa is definitely not Kodak's opponent. It will take some time for Agfa to compete with Kodak. However, if Agfa and Fuji join forces three years later, Kodak will be helpless.

In fact, according to what Fan Wubing knows, three years later, Fuji began to fight back against Kodak on two fronts: traditional film and digital printing. Despite the slow pace, Fuji still made gradual progress in the Chinese market. In less than a year, Fuji's own brand of digital printing equipment sold 300 units. Fuji even plans to build 1,000 Fuji digital printing stores with this equipment within three years.

Not only digital cameras are Fuji's trump card to fight back against Kodak, Fuji is also quietly contacting Agfa to seek a joint venture. Once the joint venture is successful, Fuji will have a legal production company in the Chinese market, and Kodak's position as the leader in the Chinese photosensitive market will be in jeopardy.

However, Fan Wubing also knew that Kodak was obviously overthinking, because the government's pressure on Fuji was very strong. In the process of cracking down on Lai's in Fujian, Fuji was found to be involved in the smuggling of large amounts of film. Fuji was basically completely defeated in the Chinese market, which was also Kodak's luck.

Of course, no one could have imagined that this situation would happen now, not Lucky, not Kodak, and even less Fuji.

Fan Wubing knew very well what his $200 million investment would become in the future, and how far Kodak could go on this monopoly road? Choosing an appropriate time to intervene and then make a profit was the most important thing.