Hong Kong Entertainment 1979: A Beating Up the Manager at the Start

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, a new year has begun.

Li Jiangbo and Zhao Dong flew to Australia on February 13th, this time prepared for the worst.

On February 15th, Li Jiangbo and Zhao Dong, along with their group, returned to that office building.

This time, the parent company of Rediffusion sent a different person named Williams to negotiate with them.

Not only have the personnel changed, but more than three local Australian companies may also be involved.

These were things that Zhao Dong's men had to go through a lot of trouble to find out.

Led by the staff, the group sat down in the same conference room as before.

Li Jiangbo didn't have to wait long at Li's place. Soon, a foreigner pushed open the door and walked in.

As soon as he entered, the foreigner went straight for Li Jiangbo and Zhao Dong, bypassing Brian.

He extended his hand and said in broken Cantonese, "Mr. Li, Mr. Zhao, welcome, welcome."

Li Jiangbo and Zhao Dong froze on the spot, but Li Jiangbo reacted quickly and grabbed the foreigner's hand.

"Mr. Williams, is that right? Hello, hello."

After exchanging pleasantries for a while, the two sides took their seats in turn.

Neither side exposed the other's mutual investigation activities.

This is an unspoken rule in business; there's never been a case of "you're allowed to investigate me, but I'm not allowed to investigate you."

But this also served as a wake-up call for Li Jiangbo; it seems this foreigner is not as easy to fool as the last one.

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After the secretary served tea, Li Jiangbo took a sip and was about to speak.

Williams spoke first, "Mr. Li, there's no rush. There are still a few guests who haven't arrived yet, let's wait a moment."

Li Jiangbo glanced at him, nodded, and said nothing.

In fact, Li Jiangbo had already guessed who would be coming; it would undoubtedly be the Kangaroo Consortium, which would later actually purchase RTV (Rediffusion Television).

Ten minutes later, there was a knock on the conference room door.

With Williams' permission, the door was opened, and a group of people rushed into the conference room.

Li Jiangbo calmly observed the foreigner who entered, but made no attempt to get up and greet him.

After everyone was seated, Williams introduced them one by one.

"This is Mr. Brown Lee, representing the Melbourne Newspapers Group."

"This is Mr. Henry, representing Jones Foods."

"This is Mr. Howard, representing CRA Ltd."

When it came time to introduce Li Jiangbo, Williams started introducing Brian instead.

"This is Mr. Brian, representing Friendly Trading Company."

Li Jiangbo remained outwardly calm, but his mind was filled with doubts.

First of all, Melbourne Newspapers, Jones Foods, and CRA are all very powerful conglomerates in Australia.

Secondly, the fact that Williams didn't expose his white gloves caught Li Jiangbo somewhat off guard.

Li Jiangbo didn't dwell on these mysteries.

His current thought is how to defeat these three parties and acquire shares in RTV.

At this moment, Williams returned to the head of the table and cleared his throat.

"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming to Sydney. I've invited you all here today to discuss the transfer of shares in RTV (Rediffusion Television).

He paused, his gaze sweeping over everyone present.

"Before we begin, I need to clarify one point: this transfer involves 61.8% of the shares, and the head office values ​​this deal highly. Therefore, after careful consideration, we have decided to adopt a public bidding process, with the highest bidder winning."

Upon hearing this, the representatives from all four sides began to whisper among themselves.

After Williams and the others quieted down in the meeting room, he dropped another bombshell.

He took a document out of the folder and pushed it to the center of the table.

"The head office's reference price is HK$100 million, starting bid."

The meeting room fell silent instantly.

Brown then spoke first, "One hundred million? Mr. Williams, that price is a bit high! Based on RTV's profits last year, this valuation is over 30%."

Howard, standing nearby, nodded in agreement, "I agree with Mr. Brown's point of view; HK$100 million is a bit too high. And even if we acquire the shares, we might not be able to make a profit."

Only Henry offered a different opinion: "As far as I know, the TV series 'The Land of Love,' which aired on RTV in Hong Kong last year, was very famous. If I remember correctly, it even competed for the Emmy Awards and the French Film Festival. So, I think the price is reasonable."

After just one round of speeches, Li Jiangbo had a clear understanding of the situation in the conference room.

Like Melbourne Newspapers and CRA, they also want to acquire shares.

Jones, on the other hand, was a shill brought in by Williams, who wanted to raise the price on the spot.

Moreover, this food company was later acquired by Coca-Cola.

After Williams and the others finished speaking, he slowly began to say:

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is the price set by the head office, and I have no authority to change it. If you find it unacceptable, you may withdraw from the bidding."

These words caused everyone present to frown.

Li Jiangbo can come up with 100 million, but he needs to take out a loan.

But if all the money is invested, the company's accounts will be empty.

Will we still make movies this year? Will we still do business?

If something goes wrong in any link and the funding chain breaks, then the losses will outweigh the gains.

Furthermore, buying it doesn't mean the end of the process; you still need to invest, which can be a significant sum.

Seeing that no one spoke, Williams spoke again:

"Everyone, since you are all feeling pressured by this price, I have another option for your consideration."

As he spoke, he pulled out a few more documents from the folder and distributed them to the four representatives.

"This is the splitting plan. We will divide 61.8% of the shares into three parts. You can choose to bid for one or more parts based on your own circumstances."

Brown took the documents and examined them carefully. "Separate bidding? Who will ultimately win?"

"Of course, it's the party that holds the most shares. As for the remaining 31.2% of shares, we don't hold them, and we have no right to interfere."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Their presence proves that they have thoroughly investigated and understood ATV.

Li Jiangbo was also looking at that document.

30%, 20%, 11.8%...

This splitting plan clearly aims to sell at a high price, while avoiding the embarrassing scenario of not being able to sell it.

The foreigners really played their cards right.

This was Li Jiangbo's worst-case scenario plan. He had already decided that if the asking price was too high, he wouldn't be prepared to take over the entire deal directly.

It's not too late to step in once the other Australian conglomerates have made a mess of things at Rediffusion.

Although other wealthy people in Hong Kong might have their eyes on RTV at that time, they were able to get involved earlier and discuss things with the other shareholders sooner.

Just be careful of the Jones Group when the bidding starts.

After all, it's a bit inappropriate for a food company to have to resort to acquiring a television station.

Williams waited a few minutes, and seeing that no one spoke, he finally spoke:

"Ladies and gentlemen, if there are no objections, we shall now begin the auction. The first lot, 30% of the shares, has a starting price of HK$40 million."