My capital is quite large.

In July 2013, the sun was blazing.

Xuzhou New City Economic Development Zone has now transformed into a massive and technologically advanced industrial zone.

The huge factory buildings stand side by side, and heavy trucks transporting materials come and go in an endless stream.

This is the formidable moat that Haofeng Group built at the cost of hundreds of billions of yuan in debt—encompassing Xiaomi Technology's assembly line, Pop Mart's manufacturing base, and the Huaxin Technology semiconductor industrial park, which is currently undergoing arduous construction!

10:00 AM.

Wearing a safety helmet, Li Feng, accompanied by Xiaomi CEO Yu Chengdong and a group of senior executives, inspected several newly completed production lines.

"Big Mouth, how's the progress of establishing full self-sufficiency across the entire industry chain?"

As Li Feng walked, he looked at the roaring machines.

This is something he has poured countless hours of effort and money into, and he cannot afford to be careless in the slightest.

Yu Chengdong wiped the sweat from his forehead, his expression showing a mix of pride and helplessness.

"Mr. Li, from reverse engineering of screen panels to packaging of camera modules, and even some chip manufacturing, we have now basically completed the closed loop of domestic production across the entire industry chain!"

"Basic?"

Li Feng caught the word and stopped in his tracks.

He stared intently at Yu Chengdong: "I don't want to hear these ambiguous words. What's missing? Where's the problem?"

Faced with the boss's extremely oppressive gaze, Yu Dazui dared not be careless and quickly reported the truth to his supervisor:

"Mr. Li, it's the battery! The lithium batteries we use in our phones have encountered a critical bottleneck!"

"Although domestic manufacturers have basically achieved domestic substitution for three of the four key materials used in battery manufacturing—positive electrode, negative electrode, and electrolyte—and can meet our production capacity needs."

"But! The real bottleneck is the [barrier]!"

Yu Chengdong pointed to a factory building in the distance where equipment was still being debugged, his tone heavy:

"The separator is a high-tech polymer material that determines the safety, energy density, and cycle life of lithium batteries!"

"Mr. Li, currently, over 75% of the global high-end lithium battery separator market share is controlled by foreign giants such as Celgard from the United States, Asahi Kasei and Toray Industries from Japan, and SKI from South Korea!"

"Our domestically produced separators not only fall short in terms of extreme performance, but most importantly, their consistency is too poor! If they are used in Xiaomi's future high-end flagship phones, and battery swelling or even explosions occur, the damage to our brand will be devastating!"

"Therefore, we still have to rely on foreign suppliers for the batteries in our high-end models, purchasing them at high prices!"

The diaphragm is choking us!

Upon hearing this report, Li Feng's brows furrowed into a deep knot.

In his past life memories, the University of Tokyo's later new energy vehicle and lithium battery industries were a global leader!

How could someone get stuck on even a small piece of a phone battery separator at this crucial moment?!

"What about Ningde Era?"

Without a second thought, Li Feng blurted out the name of the battery giant that would later be known as the "King of Ning" and whose market value once exceeded one trillion!

"Go contact CATL! Since we can't manufacture high-end separators ourselves, let's invest in them! Let them be the exclusive supplier for Xiaomi!"

Upon hearing the name "Ningde Times," Yu Chengdong paused for a moment, his expression turning somewhat strange.

"Mr. Li... are you sure you're not mistaken?"

Yu Chengdong cautiously reminded him, "While CATL's technology is indeed impressive, their main business is making power batteries for new energy vehicles! They don't make small-capacity consumer batteries for 3C products like mobile phones!"

"Um?"

Li Feng was also stunned; this had indeed touched upon a blind spot in his knowledge from his previous life.

He always thought that battery giants made all kinds of batteries, but he didn't expect them to be so specialized!

"Which company in China is the best at making mobile phone batteries right now?" Li Feng asked, trying to appear calm.

"It's ATL!"

Yu Chengdong blurted out, "ATL is absolutely the uncrowned king of mobile phone lithium batteries in the world right now! They even take the lion's share of Apple's iPhone battery orders!"

"However..." Yu Chengdong gave a wry smile, "This amazing company, originally founded by Chinese people, was completely acquired by Japan's TDK Group for one hundred million US dollars back in 2005!"

Upon hearing this, Li Feng felt somewhat embarrassed.

A financial tycoon reborn with a third eye actually made a fool of himself in this specific industrial development history, and was even educated by his senior executives!

To cover up his embarrassment, Li Feng turned to look at Zhang Xinyu, who had been silently following behind him, trying to regain his boss's authority.

"Xinyu, since CATL makes car batteries, let's invest in them! As long as they have the technology, this investment will definitely be worthwhile given the future boom in the new energy vehicle market! Check CATL's current market value and equity structure right now!"

As Zhang Xinyu's personal secretary, her professional skills have long been honed to perfection.

"Boss, our investment department has actually been paying attention to CATL before."

"However, this company... is very difficult to invest in."

"As you can tell from its name, it's called 'Ningde Times,' because its headquarters are located in Ningde City in the Wuyue region. This company has a huge influence in the area, and its connections are very deep."

"In their environment, where local protectionism is so strong, this is definitely a key project supported by the province. If Haofeng, as a private capital from another province, wants to invest or even seek control, it will most likely be blocked by various local administrative barriers and state-owned background."

Hearing Zhang Xinyu's clear and logical analysis, Li Feng nodded inwardly.

now it's right.

He could wield immense power in Nanjing because he had tied the interests of the entire Haofeng region to those of Liangjiang Province.

But this doesn't mean that he, this "dragon crossing the river," can just go and steal food from other people's territories.

Local protectionism is the same everywhere.

If you can't afford to mess with them, then don't touch them.

Just as Li Feng was deep in thought, Zhang Xinyu had not yet finished speaking.

As if she had anticipated her boss's thoughts, she picked up her laptop and began reporting information about ATL and its Japanese parent company, TDK!

"Boss, I've also looked into ATL, which Mr. Yu mentioned earlier."

Its parent company, Japan's TDK Group, currently has a total market capitalization that fluctuates around 500 billion RMB.

"TDK's shareholding structure is very dispersed. The two largest shareholders are Japanese trust banks, namely Master Trust Bank and Trust Services Bank. Together, they hold 39.54% of TDK's shares."

"Moreover, with the internal resources of TDK being allocated to ATL in recent years, it has firmly established itself as the global leader in consumer-grade lithium batteries!"

Zhang Xinyu spoke very quickly, but every word hit the nail on the head: "However, if you want to acquire TDK entirely through a secondary market bid, thereby bringing ATL back... the obstacles come not only from funding, but also from the current 'Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law'!"

"TDK is a core, sensitive technology company in Japan. If Dongda Capital wants to achieve absolute control, or even move the technology and production capacity back to China, Xiao Rizi will absolutely veto it!"

"Not bad, you've improved."

Li Feng, unusually, praised Zhang Xinyu in front of everyone.

However, despite the praise, Li Feng quickly seized on a point in Zhang Xinyu's report that displeased him!

"Wait a moment!"

"Xinyu, you mean...?"

"ATL, the company that controls the lifeline of global mobile phone batteries and holds Xiaomi by the throat."

"It was founded by Chinese people! The current core management and technical team are also entirely controlled by Chinese people!"

"But! This company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of a Japanese company?!"

"What the hell is this?! How can this be allowed?!" Li Feng couldn't help but swear!

His disgust at the fact that the good work was going to outsiders was ignited at this moment!

"Why should the Japanese leech off core technologies developed by the Chinese themselves?!"

"Notify the Overseas Investment and Mergers & Acquisitions Department! Everyone, gather at the top-floor conference room of the Jinling headquarters at 6 PM!"

"Before the meeting, I need to see an acquisition plan that would divest ATL from TDK!"

"Get the car ready! We're heading back to Jinling now!"

......

At 6 PM, at the headquarters of Jinling Haofeng Group.

Inside the top-floor, top-secret conference room, several senior partners and the general counsel of the overseas investment department sat at the conference table, sweating profusely. In front of each of them was a newly drafted acquisition proposal.

Li Feng sat in the main seat, flipping through the document entitled "Strategic Path and Cost Calculation for the Divestment/Acquisition of ATL".

The meeting room was so quiet that the only sound was the rustling of papers turning.

"Mr. Li..."

Zhao Zhe, head of the overseas investment department, broke the silence and began to report on the plan that was enough to trigger a transnational business war.

"It is absolutely impossible to bypass the Japanese government's scrutiny by acquiring TDK's parent company."

"Our proposed solution is a combination of [spin-off + performance-based agreement + reverse takeover by the core team]!"

The person in charge pointed to the PPT on the big screen and explained in detail:

"Our first step is to leave TDK alone and instead reach out to ATL's founding team in China! Although they've lost controlling interest, they're still the ones actually running the company! We can grant their management buyback options through a private side agreement!"

"The second step is to use Haofeng's overseas funds to register a shell company with a complex offshore structure in the Cayman Islands. This shell company will then make an offer to TDK to acquire a portion of ATL's shares at a premium."

"The third and most crucial step is to apply pressure through orders!"

"Our Xiaomi Technology is currently the hottest mobile phone brand in China! We can place massive battery orders with ATL, but we require a stringent performance-based agreement! If ATL fails to meet our production capacity or quality requirements, we will face huge penalties for breach of contract!"

"At this point, TDK, as the parent company, in order to mitigate risks, and tempted by our premium acquisition offer, is highly likely to agree to divest ATL's assets or transfer absolute controlling stake to our 'shell company'!"

After hearing the plan, Li Feng closed the folder. "So, tell me, approximately how much will this combination of measures cost?"

The head of the investment department presented a figure that even made him shudder:

"Mr. Li... ATL is currently TDK's most profitable cash cow, even if we use underhanded tactics..."

"To acquire absolute control of ATL, you need to grease palms at various levels and make commitments to the founding team."

"Conservatively speaking, we need to prepare at least... [five billion US dollars] in cash reserves!"

"Converted to RMB, that's over 33 billion!"