America's Road to Fame

Chapter 246 Manchester United Savior

By the time William Chen arrived in Manchester again, the news that he had completed the agreement to acquire Manchester United had become the headline of sports news all over the world.

This time, he arrived at the Manchester United Club with an entourage of more than ten people. As the new owner of the club, whether it is the club's employees, players, or Manchester United fans, they are all looking forward to Chen William's arrival. What kind of changes will Manchester United get.

Chen William did not let them down. In this meeting with the club management and players, Chen William put forward his future plans after taking over Manchester United.

First of all, Chen William will pay off all the foreign debts of the Manchester United Club's bonus of US$10 billion at one time, so that the club can travel lightly, without having to bear high annual interest, which devours the club's profits. From then on, the club's profits can be fully For the future development of the club.

Just this one put smiles on everyone's faces. At this moment, they finally felt a sigh of relief. Ever since the Glazer family bought Manchester United and transferred the debt to the club, Manchester United has been burdened with huge debts. Since then, no matter the club's management and child players, they have actually been affected, especially the head coach Ferguson. It is indeed very difficult to maintain Manchester United's current results without much money for him to trade players.

You know, Manchester United is the most profitable club in the world, but under such circumstances, Ferguson was forced to sell Ronaldo, the head star, and even most of the 8000 million he got from selling Ronaldo was used. The debt was paid off, which also made Ferguson very dissatisfied with the Glazer family.

When the Glazer family wanted to buy Manchester United, Ferguson was one of the supporters. Now the behavior of the Glazer family has also made the legendary Manchester United coach feel resistant to them.

Then, a professional consulting company will be hired to adjust the salary of the club's personnel. In addition to being linked to the club's performance, it is guaranteed that the salary of all club personnel will be in the first echelon of world football clubs.

In addition, it is to communicate with the management and the head coach. In the future, a complete championship bonus will be formulated. Whether it is the Premier League or other competitions, as long as Manchester United can win the championship, then the players and the head coach of Manchester United will receive the corresponding bonus. As for the bonus The specific amount needs to be determined through research, but it will definitely not be lower than that of other companies.

With only two words, everyone immediately saw the difference between William Chen and his former boss.At this time, many people in the field almost burst into tears. We can finally experience the feelings of rich teams like Chelsea and Manchester City. I have to say, it is really cool.

This is not over yet, Chen William will also authorize the management to conduct an assessment and renovate the current home of Manchester United - Old Trafford Stadium. In addition to adding modern facilities, optimizing the lawn, training ground, etc., the stands will also be repaired , to add more seats.

In addition, there are other improvement measures, such as cooperating with the three top universities in the UK to build a sports health laboratory to train and recover players more scientifically to ensure that they are free from injuries; They're offering better terms, and they're bringing other promising youngsters to Man Utd for development...

In addition, what Chen William carried out immediately after his arrival was the commercial transformation of Manchester United.Chen William specially hired the American sports giant IMG to conduct a complete business plan for Manchester United from now on.

This point, after William Chen made the above expenditures, has also been recognized by the management, including CEO David Gill and head coach Ferguson, but they made one point, that is, the team's games and training should not be affected by business.

This is for sure. After all, Chen William is different from the Glazer family. He does not need to make money through Manchester United.The reason for strengthening Manchester United's commercial development is also to make the club develop healthier, and will not need to continue to inject capital because of a shortage of funds.

While IMG was conducting detailed research on Manchester United, Chen William's team also began negotiations with EMI.

Before, William Chen had already decided to acquire two companies, Warner Music and EMI, and EMI happened to be a British company, so this time he came to the UK, he can also complete this matter by the way.

Speaking of EMI, it has something to do with Citigroup, which William Chen holds shares in.

EMI currently belongs to Terra Firma Capital, which acquired EMI for 2007 billion pounds (approximately US$40 billion) in 65, when EMI's debt was as high as US$15 billion.

Not long after that, the subprime mortgage crisis broke out, and the recording industry has been sluggish for the past few years, so this investment suffered heavy losses.As a result, Ge Hansi, the chairman and CEO of Terra Firma Capital, declared that Terra Firma Capital’s acquisition of EMI Records was a failure. In this leveraged buyout, they were deceived by the main financing party, Citibank, and even prepared to sue Citigroup. court.

"If Terra Firma hadn't invested in EMI, the company's investment decision would have been very wise."

That's what he told reporters at the time.

It is no wonder that he is so angry, because when he acquired EMI, it was in 2007, when the M&A market was extremely prosperous. At that time, there were active M&A events around the world, and these M&As were often carried out at a high premium.Because the market is so optimistic that the global economy has entered an active period, mergers and acquisitions - rising valuations - continue to merge and acquire, which is a tried-and-true strategy for many groups.

But more than two years later, the subprime mortgage crisis broke out, and the economic situation was completely different. The lack of global liquidity made it more difficult to obtain funds. Those companies that had been aggressive in mergers and acquisitions broke out one after another, putting them on the verge of bankruptcy.

The same is true of Terra Firma Capital. At this time, they asked Citigroup to take responsibility. In addition to exempting them from part of their financing debts, they also asked to help sell EMI, a big burden.

At this time, EMI Records had debts as high as 20 billion U.S. dollars, and with the shrinking of the music record market, the valuation had already been cut in half since the time of their acquisition.

Originally, Citigroup was going to accept EMI through debt exchange, and then sell it to other companies.But after inquiring, the bids of the other three major record companies were not satisfactory to them. Universal Music, the highest bidder, only called out a price of 20 billion US dollars, and they were unwilling to accept any higher price.

In the current situation, even if they pay an extra [-] million U.S. dollars, it will be difficult, because the current situation of these record companies is not good, and it is good to have a strong parent company. Then it's hard to cope alone.

Moreover, a large part or even all of the bids of these record companies need to be traded in the form of stocks, which makes it difficult for both Terra Firma Capital and Citigroup to accept.

At this time, Citigroup knew that William Chen intended to acquire EMI, and was naturally overjoyed. This is a big money lord, and most importantly, William Chen's acquisitions were often made in cash. In terms of capital, it is more desirable.

It’s just that Terra Firma Capital spent nearly 75 billion U.S. dollars on the acquisition of EMI Records. Of course, part of this was due to the high exchange rate of the British pound against the U.S. dollar at that time, and the premium was also high at that time. Now it is an economic crisis, and the tide has receded. You swim naked It showed its original shape, so it was destined to be impossible to trade at the previous price.

However, the final transaction price is still under negotiation. William Chen's bid is higher than other companies, at 25 billion US dollars, and it is paid in cash.But Terra Firma Capital also hopes to get back some more funds. They were a leveraged buyout at the beginning. If it was really sold at this price, they can only say that they got rid of the burden, but they don’t get any money at all. It all belongs to the bank that provided the financing. them.

However, for William Chen, besides Goldman Sachs, the negotiating team also includes some members of the think tank he formed recently. They will definitely not allow the other party to raise the price. Therefore, in a timely manner, the corresponding news came out——

At the same time, Chen William's team is in contact with Time Warner Group, negotiating the acquisition of Warner Records.

Except for the people around Chen William, it is hard for anyone to imagine that he would acquire two major record companies at once. Therefore, both Warner and Terra Firma Capital made a misjudgment, and Chen William would choose the other among the two. One to make an acquisition.

Of course, many of these misjudgments were deliberately released by William Chen's team.

Then something interesting happened.

(End of this chapter)