I asked you to save a bankrupt factory and you became the richest man in the world.

Chapter 474 Chapter 254-256: Acquire a club! (6000 words)
"What about the other team?" Gao Huaijun asked after pondering for a moment.

"You also said that you want a team in London, but you also know that if you want to buy a Premier League team in London, the price starts at 30 billion pounds. If it is a top team, the price will be even higher. I know that now Arsenal wants to sell % of the shares, and the selling price will be more than million pounds!"

"It's very cheap to buy other Premier League teams. For example, Southampton, which I just mentioned, only needs 200 million pounds. But London is not the same. Even if the price is doubled, it's still not possible. After all, there are only a few teams in the Premier League, so it's naturally expensive when there are too many people and too little money!"

"Although I don't know what your motivation is for buying a team, in a sense, the return on investment is not high."

Huger shrugged and said with pursed lips.

Investment banks actually do all kinds of business.

For example, when it comes to investing in Premier League teams, they have a special department called M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions, which includes two meanings and two methods: mergers and acquisitions).

Huger is a member of this department.

Although he also wanted to make this deal a success, if the unit price was too high, he knew that the original entrepreneur like Gao Huaijun was not a fool, so the deal would naturally not be closed.

Gao Huaijun couldn't help but nodded after hearing what Hu Ge said, "What you said makes sense, go on."

The Premier League is not a pure bubble like the Chinese Super League. It is the most profitable football game in the world.

Since it makes money, and it is the kind of money that can be made over the long term, coupled with the unique advertising effect of football, the premium rate is naturally very high.

One billion pounds is about 80 billion yuan.

He has so much money, but he doesn't spend it like this.

He invests to make money, not to lose money.

"Therefore, my advice is to take it slow and steady. There is a Championship team that is not doing very well right now. It is on the verge of relegation and should be ranked 22nd overall."

"Their owner, a Belgian named Roland, wants to sell the club for £3000 million."

“This price is very affordable.”

"This team is called Charlton."

"Charlton Athletic Football Club was founded in 1905 and its home ground is located at the Valley Ground in Charlton, Greenwich, southeast of London."

"Greenwich is a district of London, Great Britain. It is located southeast of London, on the south bank of the Thames."

"It is about eight kilometers from the financial center of London. This is a very cost-effective team."

A mysterious smile appeared on Huger's face.

Charlton?!

Only 3000 million pounds!
Gao Huaijun immediately became interested in this.

A Premier League team in London would cost hundreds of millions of pounds even if it was a relegation team, but now it only costs 3000 million pounds to be relegated to the Championship?
The price fell too quickly.

Seeing Gao Huaijun's doubts, Hu Ge continued, "A team that has fallen to the Championship is not worth much. What's more important is that this team is not only at the Championship level, but has now become a relegation team in the Championship."

"From relegation to promotion to the Premier League, and from promotion to stability in the Premier League, more than 200 million pounds would have to be spent, otherwise it would have been impossible to achieve it."

"Isn't this price almost the same as buying a Premier League team? And you also need to spend time and energy to buy players and upgrade."

Although Huge said this, it can be seen from his words that the temptation to buy a team is very great.

Even if you invest one hundred million pounds, plus the cost of purchasing the team.

At most, two hundred million pounds would be enough to get into the Premier League.

This is much more cost-effective than simply buying a Premier League team!
If they are lucky, like Luton in later generations, they only need to spend 550 million pounds to get promoted to the Premier League.

That's how it is this year. There is no winter transfer window. The best that can be done is to avoid relegation in the Championship through some bonus incentives and changing coaches.

Let’s see if there can be any big moves next year.

In fact, the reason why Premier League teams are overpriced so seriously is that many of them have a long history of being top clubs.

For example, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, etc., various derbies can even be started from the audience's grandparents.

However, Gao Huaijun, who traveled back from the future, knew that all this background was fake.

Manchester City was a second-rate team for so long, but later became a top club.

why?
The key is still a lot of money and good grades!

Most people actually just want to win. What’s the point of dreaming of being the emperor? How can it be as powerful as just killing people randomly?
"Okay, you arrange it for me to meet with Charlton's boss." Gao Huaijun thought about it and said directly to Hu Ge.

As soon as he finished speaking, Gao Huaijun continued to add, "I only consider a full acquisition and will not leave any tail for previous investors to become minority shareholders to influence my investment decision."

When Hu Ge heard this, he was overjoyed and immediately agreed.

In fact, he was so enthusiastic about this not only because he could earn a commission at the same time.

The most important thing is that he is a Charlton fan!
He was born in Greenwich, and has been a member of this team since his great-grandfather, which was in the late Qing Dynasty.

These four generations of loyal fans are really anxious seeing that the team is almost about to be relegated!

But now there is an opportunity to recommend this team to a world-renowned technology tycoon like Gao Huaijun, rather than letting Roland, a miser, continue to control the team that his ancestors loved. That is his most important goal.

This stingy boss rarely comes to home games and is very unpopular, which has been strongly protested by fans.

This week he described investing in football as "a big mistake in life".

This is even more off the mark!
If they continue to play like this, Charlton will definitely be relegated.

But if Hillhouse takes over, not only will it stabilize its position, it may even be able to reach the Premier League again after a decade. Do you think he would be tempted? Do you want to recommend Hillhouse for the negotiation?
Therefore, Huger quickly said, "Mr. Gao, do you need me to tell you in detail about Charlton's internal accounts and the team's players..."

Gao Huaijun quickly waved his hand and said, "You don't need to tell me about this kind of small matter. Let my financial director discuss the details. I only focus on the big picture for this kind of small investment."

"As for their coaches and players, I am even less interested."

"If the negotiations are successful, I will look for a new coach in the next two days and let this team avoid relegation first."

"If it's downgraded by accident, my investment of tens of millions will be lost."

Gao Huaijun was not interested in knowing some unknown people.

These players may be instantly killable compared to the national team players of the Chinese national football team, but they are just ordinary players in the Premier League arena.

Not to mention the coach. A coach who would lead a Championship team to relegation would definitely not meet his needs.

Gao Huaijun's idea is to see if he can find some Italian tactical masters with relegation experience to come over, jump on the train to save the situation first, and then make a full effort to advance to the Super League next season.

It is a sensible plan to slowly build a top team in about five years.

For Gao Huaijun, spending this little money on a Premier League team is very difficult for ordinary wealthy people, but for him, it does not require too much effort to understand.

Huger is now more confident that Hillhouse can build a good team.

It’s obvious that he’s a wealthy man!

However, for someone like Gao Huaijun who owns an upper-middle-level Fortune 500 company, this little money is indeed not a big deal.

He can even support the team with Hillhouse derivatives!
You should know that Hillhouse derivatives were separated from Hillhouse Technology very early on, and now he is the sole proprietor, which is one of the two small treasuries of the Gao family together with Hillhouse Property.

This small company has an annual revenue of more than 10 billion yuan and a profit of several billion yuan.

It won’t be listed, so you can spend it however you want.

He also planned to let Lin Yunshen come and serve as the chairman of the newly acquired club.

This kid comes from a marketing background, he is bold but careful, and he is good at learning. It would be a good idea to let him play the role of a football manager.

A few minutes later, Hu Ge hurried back from outside and said to Gao Huaijun, "Boss Gao, when the other party heard my intention and heard that I was a Chinese, they directly raised the price to 50 million. I guess they just wanted to drive up the price and take advantage of the opportunity to make a profit."

Gao Huaijun was stunned.

He cursed "Fuck it" in his heart.

Now China's Huachao is in full swing.

Major real estate developers are waving their money and looking for strong foreign aid.

Even many top players from the top five leagues went there.

Now the other party thinks that he is a fool. Even if he makes a little more money, he is really a novice and a playful person.

This game has played into his head!
"You raised the price to 50 million just because you heard I was Chinese? And for a team that was trying to avoid relegation in the English Championship? Just tell him, if you want to sell it, sell it. If you don't want to sell it, get out of here."

"It's up to him to sell it or not. He's not the only one selling the team."

“I don’t have to buy a team.”

"This thing is just a big toy to play with. For me, there is no loss if I don't play with it."

Gao Huaijun said this with dissatisfaction in his mouth.

The Chinese are waving their money to buy people from all over the world.

One is that he was taken advantage of and sold at a high price.

The second is that many managers inside are selfish and want to earn some kickbacks.

For example, Shanghai Shenhua's Yacht Week is one of the best.

He has earned a small goal from Shenhua.

Gao Huaijun is different. He feels bad about spending his own money.

He could spend more money to buy comfort, but he shouldn't be blackmailed like this.

Gao Huaijun thought for a moment and continued to talk to Hu Ge, "I believe in the ability of Merlin Company. I also believe that you can help me negotiate this deal. Let's put it this way, the initial limit is 3000 million. If the acquisition is successful, I will give you a commission of 3000% of the acquisition amount."

"If the acquisition price is less than 3000 million, I will take out 20% of the money saved and give part of it to your company and part of it to you alone. You can find an unrelated company to sign a contract with us." Gao Huaijun didn't want to dwell on details over such a small matter.

3000 million pounds is only about 2-3 million Chinese yuan, which is not worth much.

It's really not worth wasting time and energy.

Hu Ge couldn't help but tremble with excitement when he heard this. "Mr. Gao, you really trust me too much. But it's really too strange to charge you an extra commission for such a small matter."

For those who do mergers and acquisitions, as long as they can get a little bit of money from these big guys, it will be enough for them to be rich for life.

Don’t underestimate the 10% price difference that Gao Huaijun mentioned. It can save 300 million yuan, and 10% is 30 yuan.

£30!
For ordinary people, it is really not a small amount of money!

Moreover, this was a negotiation with Charlton, in which he had a vested interest.

"It's just a small amount of money, just consider it as making a friend."

"You're welcome."

"I have a principle, which is not to let my friends help me for free."

Gao Huaijun waved his hand and said.

For him, if a problem can be solved with money, never use favors to solve it.

How much money can be spent?
Remember that you can never repay a debt of favor!
Huger nodded aside, knowing that this was just a simple business for Merlin.

If they want to rely on this deal to get the lead qualification for Hillhouse Capital's IPO, which is now coveted by all Wall Street investment banks, it's probably not going to work.

So Hu Ge took the initiative to say, "Okay, I'll arrange it. Mr. Gao, how about we have breakfast downstairs? I know a breakfast restaurant that tastes really good."

Gao Huaijun nodded.

. . . . . .

Two days later.

After the news came out that Hillhouse Capital invested in Hungary to build its first overseas factory.

It was also announced on Hillhouse's official website, Hillhouse's official Weibo platform and Xiaoling's official account: Hillhouse will invest 2600 million pounds to become a wholly-owned shareholder of the Championship team Charlton Athletic Football Club.

At the same time, the slogan shouted is: Return to the Premier League within two years and return to the Champions League zone within five years!
This is also the first time that Chinese capital has stepped into the global competitive stage of the Premier League.

This news shocked the entire football world in an instant!
There is no other reason, it's just that the statement of returning to the Premier League within two years and returning to the Champions League zone within five years is so confident.

It seems like a strong dragon is suppressing a local snake.

This also attracted the attention of managers and owners of major Premier League giants.

Wow, here comes another Abu!
And he is a powerful dragon from the East!

Many people, especially those related to technology, have actually heard of Hillhouse and know what Hillhouse does.

A boss who started out by selling electric fans directly subverted two industries, one was the electronic technology industry, and the other was the automotive industry.

Moreover, every time this company enters an industry, it creates a miracle in that industry!

After entering the film and television industry, he produced "The Untold Earth", the highest-grossing movie in Chinese film history. After entering the drone industry, he directly caused a company's market value to soar.

It's such a boss, and now he wants to enter the top five leagues. Who wouldn't be surprised?

Even some foresighted brokerage teams have already started to greet Hillhouse in advance.

A bunch of players' resumes were stuffed into Ning Yuan's hands, leaving him completely confused.

All these signs also indicate that Hillhouse's acquisition of Charlton can be said to have caused a king-bomb-level earthquake in the first place.

Almost instantly, the news of Hillhouse's acquisition of Charlton Athletic topped the Weibo hot search list.

This shows how popular football is in China!

Although Chinese football has become a pressure relief valve in China and is something that everyone spit on, its high traffic and strong attention are unmatched by any other sport.

Naturally, this also sparked a heated discussion in China.

【Finally, Hillhouse has entered this controversial industry.】

[The ultimate showdown between football and Hillhouse is finally here. Let's see if Hillhouse can change its fate. ]

[It is smart for Hillhouse to buy foreign teams. It is obvious that they were advised by an expert. ]

[Of course not. Investing in the English Premier League will not result in losses. If there are losses, they will be within a small range, which Hillhouse can definitely bear. However, investing in the Chinese Super League is different. It loses hundreds of millions every year. Even this iron-clad enterprise cannot bear such losses.]

[I personally think that from the perspective of investment goals alone, Hillhouse's investment in football is a very successful move, because Hillhouse has already started its overseas offensive. With football as its business card, it can save a lot of trouble. Without football as its signboard, it would be difficult for it to stand out among so many mobile phone and automobile companies.]

[It would be best for Hillhouse to learn how to use European capital to discover and train players and build a supporting industrial chain. This approach has been proven successful in Europe. I wonder if Hillhouse can come up with some new tricks.]

[Yes! It would be a terrible thing for such a large enterprise to not have a sense of corporate responsibility. I still hope that since Hillhouse can enter the football industry, it can also contribute to Chinese football.]

[Don’t always blame the companies and entrepreneurs for everything. Hillhouse cannot and does not need to be as great as you imagine above.]

【After reading Gao Huaijun’s remarks, I believe at least 8% of people across the country will think that he is a man of courage.】

[There is nothing wrong with the goal. How can a person not have a dream? What is the difference between him and a salted fish? Such a big boss who is rich, has ideals and ambitions, naturally has a different goal in mind than ordinary people. I am optimistic that Hillhouse will enter the football field this time, just like Yongyuan Football, to win glory for the country.]

[Still winning glory for the country? Chinese football is always a mess. If the root of the problem is not solved, it will all be the same.]

[Yes, the roots of Chinese football are rotten, everything is a physical problem! ]

This thread actually gets better and better, with a bunch of people arguing there.

By the end, the number of replies to this post exceeded ten thousand!
And the number of views exceeded 10 million.

It can be said that this wave of investment by Hillhouse does not focus on the follow-up effects. Just the hot spot ignited by public opinion is worth the investment money.

Sure enough, although everyone thinks that football is not good, everyone can't help but discuss and talk about him.

The opposite of love is not hatred, but indifference.

Those unpopular and weak sports, such as water polo, men's volleyball, men's curling, men's baseball, etc., have no topic at all. This is really miserable!
However, Hillhouse Capital does not seem to be affected by this wave of heated public opinion in China.

A few days later, Hillhouse announced an important decision.

These are really the first three things a new official does upon taking office!

That is, the previous head coach who performed poorly was directly replaced, and the Italian tactical master Benítez became the new head coach of the Championship team Charlton Athletic Football Club.

This change of shareholders was a big deal, and it was also eye-catching that Benítez was snatched from Championship rivals Newcastle United.

You know, Benítez's salary is not low.

The salary package of the entire coaching team starts at tens of millions of Euros a year!
This move is a trump card, which can be said to fully demonstrate Hillhouse's ambition.

The second is to launch the construction plan of Charlton Athletic Club’s new professional football stadium.

The Valley Course where it is located has a very long history.

However, due to years of disrepair, the number of seats available is only 27, which is far from the originally planned 116.

Therefore, Gao Huaijun decided to let Lin Yunshen set up a special repair team to work with the Greenwich District to repair and update the Valley Golf Course. At the same time, he would use the money from the repairs to inject capital and own a certain share of the golf course.

The Greenwich District Government was naturally overjoyed to hear the news.

In a place like the Great Corruption Country, construction costs are very expensive.

In addition, Charlton's strength is not very good, and it seems that the Valley Stadium will not be updated in the next few decades.

Now that the new owner is so generous, the Greenwich District Government will naturally cooperate fully.

And also, the issue of stadium renovation.

Not to mention the corrupt country, even in China, a country obsessed with infrastructure, repairing such a project would cost billions.

Hillhouse plans to renovate the stadium for two years, spending 200 million pounds to transform it into a large football stadium that can accommodate 70,000 people!

This news and such a big move also excited Charlton fans, represented by Huger.

After so many years of waiting, they finally got a rich man.

Finally, Hillhouse will work with Charlton’s youth training team to launch a Chinese Spark Plan!
This is completely different from the approach of the Forever Football Team to build a football school.

This time, Hillhouse will conduct a pilot project with Xicheng as the core, and in the future it will be fully rolled out throughout the entire Sujiang City to implement a huge youth football training program.

Now the first step of this pilot project is to cooperate with the Education Committee of Xicheng to integrate sports and education.

Hillhouse paid to hire some youth training coaches who were making a living at the bottom of South America, such as Poliva, Venezuela, etc., and carried out the youth football training program starting from U9 according to the youth training outline formulated by the newly appointed youth training director hired from Real Madrid in Spain.

The first batch only includes primary school students from various primary schools in Xicheng in the three age groups of U9, U10 and U11.

Among the 251 primary schools in Xicheng, 100 were selected as pilot schools.

These 100 pilot schools will provide on-campus football fields and hire 100 grassroots youth training coaches from South America to coach full-time.

The annual salary of these youth training coaches is about 15 yuan.

In other words, the first batch of coaching expenses is a huge amount of about 1500 million yuan.

And corresponding city youth training leagues are organized every week.

Those who stand out will have the opportunity to join Charlton Football Club's youth training team in the future.

As soon as the Spark Plan was announced, it once again ignited public opinion in China!
(End of this chapter)