Return to 88: Starting from Marrying My Sister-in-law

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone, and then Mu Qizhong's breathing became heavy through the receiver.

Staring at the map of the Tianfu Cola joint venture factories spread out on his desk, the dense red circles suddenly pierced his eyes like needles.

Damn it.

Damn it, this kid is trying to mess with me like I'm Japanese!
He gripped his pen, scribbling circles and crosses across the blueprints, highlighting a few key targets, then grumbled into the phone, "You're always spouting nonsense. These aren't 108 joint venture factories you can just close down. They've been rooted in this area for over a decade. You think you can just move them around like that? Take this one, for example. Last year, the Yuzhou factory alone supported a third of the local logistics volume. If it suddenly shuts down... do you even know the consequences?"

He hasn't even said whether the workers would be willing to accept being laid off.

Obvious.

They definitely wouldn't accept it!

If pushed too far, even though they now have a controlling stake in Tianfu Cola... if the workers really riot... it could disrupt local stability...

Even if he didn't say it, the young man surnamed Lu on the other side should understand that he might end up getting burned. Not only would the more than 1000 million US dollars he invested in Tianfu Cola be ruined, but their main businesses, as long as their assets are still in mainland China, would also be affected.

"That's why I had you go and negotiate, brother!"

Lu Yang stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, overlooking the night view of Shenzhen. The glass reflected the cold smile on his lips. "They're just a bunch of parasites sucking blood from the collective economy. If they want to incite the workers to riot, they'll have to wait for an opportunity."

Mu Qizhong asked, puzzled, "You're threatening to take away their Coca-Cola production rights, aren't you worried they'll rebel?"

Since acquiring Tianfu Cola, Lu Yang has thoroughly figured out its cooperation model with the 108 affiliated factories. These local affiliated factories were not actually assets of Tianfu Cola at all. From the beginning, some of them were local beverage factories, canneries, food factories, sugar and wine companies, etc., a series of local small collective enterprises.

Because it could no longer continue operating.

Because of reform and opening up, competition intensified and the previous rationing system was broken, forcing these small local state-owned enterprises to surrender to large state-owned enterprises that controlled their lifelines when they were trying to survive.

The most typical example is Tianfu Cola and its 108 joint venture factories located throughout the country.

To put it bluntly, these branch factories were simply contract manufacturers located all over the country that Tianfu Cola selected during the initial years of its rapid expansion.

Then, due to the rapid decline in their own product sales, they received a surge in orders from Tianfu Cola, which eventually occupied more than 90% of their product production capacity, and even their entire production line.

At this point, even without making an acquisition offer, Tianfu Cola essentially controlled all of their lifelines.

The process of removing and replacing the old signage with the new one, and then uniformly using the Tianfu Cola brand, has been ongoing for years.

Relying on the fact that Tianfu Cola once held 75% of the national cola market share at its peak a few years ago, these affiliated factories were all raking in profits, and there was no decline like that of other small state-owned enterprises in the area, which suffered from the shrinking of their main business.

Even in the last year or two, due to the invasion and suppression by foreign capital, Tianfu Cola has experienced a significant decline in both production capacity and market share compared to previous years. However, even so, these local joint venture factories are still able to barely survive.

big deal...

What's the big deal?
At worst, we can hand over less profit to the main factory in Sichuan and put more profit into our own pockets. Anyway, everyone is having a hard time now. Even if the main factory goes under in the future and the Tianfu Cola brand declines, it doesn't matter. We can just disperse and go our separate ways.

This is also the reason why Tianfu Cola's profits have plummeted in recent years. Not only are the external enemies hateful, but the internal enemies are even more hateful. Even though it's not really a dead end yet, the branch factories below have stopped handing over profits to the higher-ups. They choose to hand over less, or not at all, or even ruthlessly give you a deficit and then ask your headquarters for money. What can you do?

It was for this reason that Lu Yang had no choice but to make a firm decision to take advantage of the situation and thoroughly clean up all 108 joint venture factories, even if it meant breaking ties. Otherwise, with these parasites down there, no matter how hard you try, you will eventually be drained dry.

Doesn't Mu Qizhong understand?
Mu Qizhong understood, even more so than Lu Yang, because he was in Sichuan and witnessed shocking scenes everywhere. In fact, the situation at the headquarters was also very serious. The more difficult the times, the more corrupt officials would emerge. With the building on the verge of collapse, everyone wanted to make a quick buck before it collapsed.

However, the situation here is quite complicated. As mentioned earlier, the 108 joint venture factories under Tianfu Cola are not all assets of Tianfu Cola headquarters. They also have close ties with the local governments. The reason they chose to change their names and rebranded before was because Tianfu Cola had brought them substantial returns in the past.

But now, from their perspective, this newly established joint venture is turning its back on them, not only ordering them to suspend operations for rectification, but also threatening to revoke their production license if they fail to rectify the situation... Isn't this going to kill them?
If it were him, Mu Qizhong, he would also rebel.

Lu Yang chuckled and said, "Are you stupid? I did say that if they don't follow our rules, we'll threaten to revoke their production licenses. But when you encounter a tough nut to crack, can't you try to appease them first, and then secretly bypass them to talk to the people behind them?"

Mu Qizhong was still trying to figure it out, and subconsciously asked, "What are we talking about?"

Lu Yang snapped his fingers and said smugly, "Of course we're talking about a full acquisition. Our joint venture was just established, and we have so much money sitting in the account. What are we going to do with it if we don't spend it?"

Because of the chaotic management within Tianfu Cola, as Lu Yang knew, even after Pepsi acquired 60% of Tianfu Cola's shares, Tianfu Cola could still have fought back at the beginning after the agreement they signed. However, because the joint venture factories below each had their own ulterior motives and too much autonomy, they were quickly defeated one by one by the foreign capital, or bought off, and abandoned the production of Tianfu brand cola, turning instead to produce Pepsi's 7UP, Mirinda and other brands, bypassing the contract, directly leaving the local state-owned assets supervision and administration commission in Sichuan, which held 40% of Tianfu Cola's shares, speechless.

Now that Lu Yang knows about it, he must plug this loophole in advance.

Otherwise, even if he has already taken the lead in acquiring Tianfu Cola, as long as its affiliated factories remain the same as before, with complex shareholding structures and numerous independent factions, once foreign capital discovers these potentially fatal loopholes and exploits them, colluding with each other, these inevitable events could still occur.

This is no longer a matter of unified branding, vertical management, and consistent taste; it's a question of whether outsiders will exploit its vulnerabilities and break down the fortress from within!
"Really? If we really had to buy back all the shares of our joint venture held by these local governments one by one, wouldn't that cost a lot of money?"

Mu Qizhong couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

Don't be fooled by the $13 million they currently have in their accounts, which is just over 100 million RMB. Don't forget that they have 108 affiliated factories. Even if they don't buy all of their shares, it's still an unimaginable astronomical figure.

Even 100 million wouldn't be enough!
Moreover, Pengcheng is preparing to build a new factory, using new equipment and setting up a new Coca-Cola formula laboratory. It is said that the factory will be at least 10 times larger than any of the joint venture factories located in the country. In the future, not only will the Coca-Cola here be sold throughout the country, but it will also be exported to Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea through the port here.

It's clear that this guy surnamed Lu has a lot of ambition.

But all of these things, don't they all cost money?
Mu Qizhong couldn't understand what Lu Yang was really up to.

Lu Yang chuckled and said, "Don't worry about that. Anyway, this matter is imperative. If we don't take back the management rights of these 108 local joint venture factories, we'll suffer even greater losses if someone poachs our talent. You know, these local joint venture factories don't just produce Coca-Cola for us. They also hold the list of local distributors. If they surrender to the enemy, all our hard work, scheming, and spending so much money to acquire the Tianfu Coca-Cola headquarters shares will be for nothing." Mu Qizhong hissed on the other end of the phone, almost sucking up the heatwave in Sichuan, causing the province to snow earlier than usual this year.

He smacked his lips, savoring the memory, and said with some worry, "So what should we do? It seems we don't have enough money. Those damned foreigners came all this way for nothing, and they'll probably hold a grudge against us..."

Even a fool would know that the other party would definitely not let this go.
Faced with such retaliation from international giants, who wouldn't be extremely cautious?

Mu Qizhong was worried that he wouldn't have enough money.

Lu Yang, however, was worried that the money wouldn't run out. "Just do as I say and spend it as much as you want. Don't worry about spending it all. When it's all gone, hehe... can't we just raise more funds?"

It's pointless to spell everything out, but if you don't spell it out, it's easy to misunderstand.

Therefore, choosing the lesser of two evils, Lu Yang decided not to hide his true thoughts from Mu Qizhong.

Simply put, he felt that the current shareholding structure of Tianfu Cola Group was not healthy enough.

If we raise funds again, we can simply dilute everyone's shares once more.

The goal is to increase the combined shareholding of him, Mu Qizhong, and Qian Youyou in Tianfu Group to over 75%...

That would look healthier, and there wouldn't be any more instances of people pointing fingers at you.

Of course, if a second round of financing is conducted, it may not be necessary to use foreign exchange again. Lu Yang's ideal scenario is that he will invest in and build the Tianfu Cola branch in Pengcheng. This money can be provided by him personally or by his Century Group. He can cooperate with Tianfu Group in Sichuan, with the latter authorizing him to provide the funds, and the shareholding can be negotiated.

As long as the result is satisfactory and Lu Yang achieves his goal, he will not lose control of this company, which he is determined to build into a domestic aquatic product giant. Even without relying on Qian Youyou or Mu Qizhong, Lu Yang is confident that the company will not fall into other hands.

Otherwise, if you work hard all day only to end up benefiting others and having your fruits stolen, then what is the point of all that hard work?
"Wonderful!"

Mu Qizhong slapped his thigh and said, "Okay, we'll do as you say."

He was actually hoping Lu Yang would invest even more money, so that his investment would be safe and wouldn't be wiped out in the event of a large-scale invasion by foreign giants, thus losing all his money.

As for whether the guy on the other side had any other ideas, he couldn't be bothered to care. Anyway, the second round of financing was still a long way off. If he thought he could win when the time came, he would have a stake in the company. If he thought the chances were slim, he would let the guy go and challenge the foreign giants. He would just sit back and pick up the pieces.

"Heh heh heh..."

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but chuckle evilly. No matter how clever you are, kid Lu, you still have to drink my old Mou's foot bath water.

Lu Yang rolled his eyes and hung up the phone, too lazy to guess what he was laughing about.

what's so funny?

He turned around and said to Xu Siqi, who had been standing obediently behind him, "You heard that too. From now on, you'll be in charge of contacting that old man. He's very cunning; be careful not to fall into his trap..."

Xu Siqi realized that this was another burden being placed on her!

A flicker of excitement crossed his nose.

Looking at Lu Yang mischievously, he asked, "What about you, boss? What are you doing?"

Lu Yang pretended to tap her head and said, "Stop talking nonsense. Of course I'm going back to lie down."

Just do it.

He had already left work early, picking up his coat from the executive chair...

Xu Siqi rubbed her head and muttered to herself with a wronged expression, "Stinky boss, trying to slack off again, hmph!"

But she also knew that Lu Yang was actually going back to be with his wife, because his wife was nine months pregnant.

Even though she was jealous and felt a pang of jealousy, how could she possibly stop it?

Furthermore, what reason or motive would be used to stop it?

oops……

"You big bad guy, hmph... I'll do your work for you since you're family-oriented."

She murmured to herself again.

Lu Yang had no idea she had so much inner turmoil; after going downstairs...

He returned to the villa not long after, but unexpectedly encountered an unforeseen woman at home.

"How did you come?"

(End of this chapter)