Traveling through the sword to engage in military industry.

The negotiations dragged on for a long time amid the smoke of gunpowder.

"Mr. Elk, you know, we are sincere in seeking cooperation, but we cannot accept completely unfair conditions." Qi Tongsheng patted the manuscript of the first round of consultations between the two parties.

"Our valuation of Rolls-Royce's automotive business has exceeded that of its peers and is more than 25 percent higher than that of well-known auto companies such as General Motors and Ford. I think this shows our sincerity in cooperation."

"With a valuation of £4 million, I believe that apart from us, there is no other investment institution that can afford such a high valuation."

What Qi Tongsheng said was all true, so he was justified.

Rolls-Royce's CEO Elke had no way to refute it.

Rolls-Royce itself is now a private enterprise with a complex source of shareholders. Consortium families such as the Capet family, which has a complicated relationship with the royal family, and the Swire family, which covers a wide range of industries, all have shares.

But in this era when the British Empire's international reserves are only more than 20 billion US dollars, 4 million pounds is already a very large number. Frankly speaking, without the huge financial background of the Liming Research Institute, Dongda's PASSAT Automobile Industry would not be able to come up with so much money to invest in Rolls-Royce.

This is an era where one million pounds is a very large sum, because one million pounds can be exchanged for more than 1.3 tons of gold in the current time of the Bright Sword World! Converted into the gold price of the main world in 2024, it is almost 8 million Dongda's local currency, which is more than million US dollars!

Ren Zhong actually offered Rolls-Royce an irresistible high price.

Of course, it may seem like a loss in the short term, but this Rolls-Royce is a golden goose that lays eggs!
"Mr. Qi, we do have our own special domestic circumstances and hope to retain absolute control over the company, so 33.3% of the equity is a suitable price. If we negotiate on the basis of this equity, our internal resistance will be much smaller." Elke said stiffly.

"Mr. Elke, we are open to the final number of equity. Frankly speaking, we can accept even 25%, but the corresponding consideration we offer is 1 million pounds, which is a very clear correspondence. Mr. Elke, we will not seek control of Rolls-Royce now and in the future. Even if it is 50% of the equity, we can sign a long-term statement. We will give the voting rights of this part of the equity in our hands to the current board of directors of Rolls-Royce for collective decision-making. I think Mr. Elke can understand what it means to your board of directors." Qi Tongsheng smiled and took out Ren Zhong's last trump card.

This stunned Elke, who had always had some doubts about Dongda’s equity.

Originally, Ren Zhong thought that giving up voting rights was acceptable, which would mean that the original power structure of Rolls-Royce would remain unchanged. However, if that were the only thing, it would not have much of an incentive effect on the current board of directors of Rolls-Royce.

Therefore, before leaving, Ren Zhong gave Qi Tongsheng instructions in person, suggesting that when appropriate, they could consider giving Dongda's equity voting rights to the Rolls-Royce board of directors for collective action. For the Rolls-Royce board of directors, this would certainly be a great opportunity to increase their power, which almost meant that they had obtained the unanimous support of the major shareholders!
Elke pondered for a long time, raised his head and said to Qi Tongsheng, "Regarding this new situation, I want to suspend our negotiations. I need to report to the company's board of directors."

"No problem, Mr. Elke. There is no doubt that our cooperation with Rolls-Royce is very sincere. We will not interfere with your production and operation decisions. In particular, we will not affect the personnel arrangements of your board of directors in this regard." Qi Tongsheng gave Elke a reassurance.

Elke felt relieved. If that was the case, then the next step would be much easier to talk about.

"Mr. Prime Minister, in our cooperation with Dongda in the automotive business, Dongda has given up its voting rights on the equity. I think this is an opportunity for us." After receiving Elk's report, Robert hurriedly made an appointment with Harold.

As an enterprise that the British Royal Navy pays special attention to, any external cooperation of Rolls-Royce requires approval from the authorities.

"It seems that Dongda does not have too many calculations in its cooperation with us. Mr. Robert, according to your assessment, after the injection of this capital, can Rolls-Royce get rid of the constraints of the orders from the aviation giant Rogue Eagle? Will our aviation business suffer a severe setback as a result?" Harold stared at Robert and asked.

"Mr. Prime Minister, I can only say that if we accept the maximum investment of 2 million pounds, our aviation business can survive even if it is idle for three years." Robert said cautiously, "According to our research arrangements, the A3 aircraft improved for European standards will make its maiden flight at the end of 300 at the latest. If our airworthiness certification can be successfully passed, it can be sold on a small scale in 58. Now we are optimizing and improving the project while compiling the airworthiness application materials. We will submit the application materials after the maiden flight. If there is no problem with the test flight of this aircraft, then at least there will be no problem with the airworthiness certification of our John Bull. Next, our applications to Gaul, Prussia, Portugal, Spain, Italy and other countries will not be difficult after we have our domestic airworthiness certificates. At the latest, we can obtain airworthiness in Europe in about three years. In this way, the only obstacle for our sales to Europe is whether the product competitiveness is strong."

Robert was describing their internal plans. In terms of feasibility, given Rolls-Royce's position in the European aviation industry, there shouldn't be any major problems.

Of course, as to the assessment of the progress of the CAC-120 aircraft, Rolls-Royce has sent experts to conduct a comprehensive assessment after signing the cooperation agreement. They expressed high satisfaction with the progress of Dongda Yandu Aviation Industry. Both Dongda's production line preparation work and the design maturity of the aircraft itself are very strong. Just like this aircraft has a prototype reference, all aspects of the design considerations are very thoughtful.

This makes Rolls-Royce full of confidence in this cooperation. Even though it suffered a heavy blow such as the cancellation of orders by several major aviation giants for Rogue Hawk, the board of directors has not lost confidence. They are just trying to find ways to raise funds to overcome the current difficulties.

It cannot be said that they hit it off immediately when Dongda approached them for cooperation in the automotive business, but it felt like timely help!
"In that case, I agree to your cooperation in principle. For this cooperation, we need a written commitment from Dongda, rather than explicitly stating it in the terms of the equity agreement. Rolls-Royce is the hope of our John Bull family in the automotive industry, and we cannot have any risk of losing control." Harold nodded and said, "If the aviation business can be implemented smoothly, Rolls-Royce will rise again and will no longer rely on Rogue Eagle's aviation industry orders. This is an important project for our British Empire to maintain its international status. I hope you can handle this matter well and let Rolls-Royce get back what the British Empire aviation industry has lost!" In the past few years, Harold has been tricked by Rogue Eagle several times. Although he is one of the beneficiaries, if Rogue Eagle had not stabbed John Bull in the Canal War, the previous prime minister would not have stepped down so quickly.

But as a proud old-school politician of the British Empire, Harold does not agree with the fact that the British Empire has been reduced to a lackey of others!

Now they are only a few years away from the glorious era when the sun never sets, and the glory of the past is always calling them.

Therefore, if there is an opportunity to enhance the strength and influence of the British Empire, Harold and his people will not refuse it. Even if it is a life-saving straw, they will find ways to grab it.

The British Empire needs a chance to rise again. The rising power of the University of Tokyo is no less important to the British Empire than the good old days they experienced during World War I.

In the world of "Sword of the Dragon", Southeast University, which has an independent development mindset, has not only made rapid progress in cutting-edge science, but also made impressive progress in people's livelihood. In just over ten years, it has not only solved the domestic food problem, but also begun to solve the world's food security problem without any additional conditions.

By taking advantage of the abandoned lands in the British Empire, we can really build a large-scale grain-growing group. This is something that no one has ever done before.

It is precisely because of the efforts of the East China University of Technology EIC in recent years that the British Empire's voice in food has suddenly increased a lot. It can even be said that in terms of food, the British Empire has completely broken free from the control of North America. In its colonies in black Africa, the British Empire has begun to achieve self-sufficiency in food, which has laid a new condition for the British Empire to develop black Africa.

Coincidentally, the demand for minerals in the East University was also very strong, which provided the British Empire with a stable sales channel for its efforts in colonial mineral mining.

The colonial system, which was once shaky, now feels much more stable due to the improvement of the economy.

Although Harold and his colleagues knew that the final result would inevitably be the loss of these colonies, if they could gain a few more years of economic benefits from these colonies, it would be a very meaningful thing for the recovery of the British Empire's economy.

It can be said that the current cooperation with the University of Tokyo has brought too many benefits to the British Empire.

Even in terms of the market, due to the other party's inclination, the largest export partner of the British Empire has now begun to shift from North America to the Asian server region.

It turned out that Harold and his friends were insensitive to these changes and had little understanding of them.

However, with the launch of several major cooperation projects, they have already felt the important impact of the eastward shift of the economic center of gravity.

Of course, if possible, Harolds would like to have both!

"Mr. Prime Minister, we will strictly maintain the interests of the British Empire in the cooperation agreement. We are very confident that Rolls-Royce's aviation business will grow stronger in cooperation with Dongda. The A300 we are currently cooperating with Dongda has a seat cost that is more than 15% lower than that of Boeing and Douglas according to Dongda's production accounting standards. The British Empire also needs such a powerful passenger aircraft to compete with its competitors for the aviation market." Mr. Robert said with confidence.

"Now, we just need to survive the first two to three years, and we will be back to a new competitive situation with North American Airlines in the future. We have the opportunity to share the world with them in this market in the future. But we need to integrate the current domestic aviation industry. According to our plan, Rolls-Royce will take the lead in establishing an aviation industry company that produces complete aircraft. We hope to merge British Aircraft Corporation, Hawker Siddeley and Scottish Airlines to form BAC, which will then be responsible for the production and sales of complete aircraft under our Airbus Group. In this regard, I hope that the Prime Minister can strongly support our integration."

Mr. Robert's view is exactly the consensus within Rolls-Royce.

With the development of the world economy, the aviation industry has actually grown very rapidly. In Renzhong's main world time and space, Boeing has become a giant in civil aircraft by surpassing its competitors such as Douglas and McDonnell in the field of passenger aircraft with this wave of development!

It can be said that the current development of passenger aircraft is the real golden starting point.

In the main world, the British Empire actually created the BAC passenger aircraft to compete for the market, but unfortunately their strength was too weak. The investment in research and development and the weak domestic market resulted in the failure of the originally powerful BAC1-11 to grow with the development of the market. From the perspective of the passenger aircraft field, this is a high-input and high-output field. Even the former world hegemon like the British Empire cannot support itself without the support of a strong domestic market.

The European continent of the main world eventually had to form an Airbus alliance to compete with the North American aviation giants.

Today, the aviation development of Dongda is comparable to the European aviation market in the main world. Now, it is being developed in conjunction with the British Royal Airlines, which just makes up for the two major shortcomings of the rise of the British Royal Airlines.

The huge market amortizes the huge R&D, and the strong cash flow supports the continuous iterative development of the product. Robert and others don’t know that there are such good conditions, coupled with Dongda Natural’s low-cost environment, how can they lose?
This is also one of the reasons why Rolls-Royce no longer needs to drag its smaller brothers on the Continental side to play together. For this big cake, Rolls-Royce can take the lead in integrating the British Airways forces. The current British Airways company is strong but not big. There are more than a dozen companies in the country that can produce various types of fighter jets, and the leading ones are the British Aircraft Corporation, Hawker Siddeley and Blackburn Aircraft Corporation.

In the main world, Hawker Siddeley is the company that produced the Trident passenger aircraft. It also produced famous fighter planes such as the Vulcan strategic bomber, the Harrier fighter, and the Hawker Hunter fighter. It is also a prominent aviation pioneer.

Rolls-Royce has seized the opportunity to cooperate with Dongda and of course hopes to wipe out these competitors in one fell swoop.

"It's a bit difficult, but we can work hard to promote integration." Harold frowned and then relaxed his brows. He understood that under the current situation, the integration of domestic aviation is inevitable. Under the current climate, the scattered domestic aviation industry is no longer able to be compared with the powerful aviation giants in North America.

"Then I'll leave it to you, Mr. Prime Minister. We will fully consider the interests of the shareholders of these existing companies during the integration. According to our plan, we will use stock swaps to complete the integration as soon as possible. In other words, Rolls-Royce shareholders hope to share the future development of the aviation industry with the shareholders of these companies." Robert said with a smile.

If you don’t have money in your pocket, then use equity exchange to achieve integration. (End of this chapter)