Rebirth of England.

Chapter 592 British Power Distribution Company
The merged Four Seasons-Cavendish Hotel Group will have more than 40 hotels and resorts in more than 110 countries around the world, of which Devonshire Family Trust will hold 59% of the shares of this hotel group, GII-1 Holdings (Global Industrial Investment Fund Phase I) will hold 37% of the shares, and the Isadore Sharp family’s shares will be 4%.

Four Seasons-Cavendish Hotel Group will implement a multi-brand strategy and expand into three brands: Devonshire (luxury hotel), Four Seasons (high-end hotel) and Cavendish (luxury hotel) at different levels.

According to the Four Seasons-Cavendish Hotel Group's plan, in the next 10 years, they will open or acquire more than 80 hotels around the world, implementing the "10-20-50" strategy, that is, adding 10 Devonshire luxury hotels. Hotels, 20 Four Seasons high-end hotels and 50 Cavendish luxury hotels.

The main growth will be in Asia, with the focus being on the Chinese region where emerging wealth will gather at an accelerated pace.

In China, the Cavendish Hotel brand under the Four Seasons Cavendish Hotel Group will become a strategic partner with Tianhe Real Estate Company and open a Cavendish Hotel in the new commercial center of Tianhe Real Estate.

For example, China's first Cavendish luxury hotel will be opened in the commercial center on Jinling Central Road currently being developed by Tianhe Real Estate.

As a preferential condition for Nanjing Automobile Group, owned by Tianhe Capital, to increase investment in Jiangsu Province, they have obtained development rights in some good urban areas. In addition to Jinling City, Tianhe Real Estate will also develop three commercial centers in succession. These projects will be completed within three years.

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"Your Highness the Duke, I have already met with Mr. Wang, and he welcomes our investment. In addition, I also received news that Munger of Berkshire Hathaway is also very optimistic about this company. It is said that he has been recommending this company to Buffett..."

"I will go to China in person next month to finalize this matter as soon as possible. I hope to meet with Mr. Wang by then and congratulate him on the success of our cooperation."

"Yes, Your Highness the Duke, I will try my best."

This year is 2008, and the 29th Olympic Games will be held in Yanjing in August, and Barron will also participate in this event.

But now it seems that he will leave early.

But before that, he still had to resolve the matter of British Energy Group.

As early as March, United Energy Group had already participated in the acquisition of British Energy Group.

It can be said that the competition for this acquisition is relatively fierce. Not only the world's leading nuclear power companies such as EDF, but also the Centric Group, the largest natural gas supplier in the UK, are participating in the competition.

However, Centric Group's bid for British Energy Group is 7 pounds per share, which is a purchase price of 112 billion pounds.

The bids of United Energy Group and EDF Group are both higher than those of Centric Group. It is said that the board of directors of Centric Group does not want them to bid too high for British Energy Group. 7 pounds per share is already what they can Acceptable upper limit.

Therefore, the final competition fell between the two companies United Energy Group and EDF.

During this period, Barron's public relations team naturally became busy, lobbying the British government on the grounds that British nuclear power could not be completely controlled by French companies.

And related reports have also appeared in many media - among which the media under the SEM Group are naturally indispensable.

This is of course not to completely exclude EDF, but Barron hopes to have a bargaining chip with them.

In fact, from the beginning, he had no intention of completing the acquisition of British Energy Group on his own. After all, United Energy Group had not been involved in the field of nuclear power before, and it could not take too big a step at once.

Only after it began to contact EDF Group, United Energy Group began to make plans...

United Energy Group is willing to give up its majority stake in British Energy Group, but the prerequisite is that they want to acquire 100% of the shares of UK Power Networks Holdings Limited (UKPN) currently owned by EDF Group.

Many people may not know this company, but in Barron's previous life, Li Chaoren's Cheung Kong Group bought this company from Electricité de France for 2010 billion pounds in 58. Then in 2022, a consortium led by KKR and Macquarie of Australia acquired the company from Li Chaoren for 150 billion pounds...

In fact, the value of British Power Distribution Company is not only the increase in value over more than ten years, but also that as a public basic service company, it will make stable profits every year.

The British Electricity Distribution Company is the largest electricity monopoly in the UK, and its profitability cannot be underestimated - UKPN provides electricity to approximately 830 million households and businesses, and its revenue accounts for a quarter of the total revenue of the British electricity industry.

Now EDF's desire for British Energy Group is higher than that of United Energy Group. After all, if it wins British Energy Group, it will be able to take the initiative in Britain's future new nuclear power projects and use the ERP technology of France's Areva Group. This in itself is of strategic significance to the French government.

Therefore, for EDF Group, which holds nearly 85% of the French government's shares, strategic tasks naturally outweigh the need for profitability - not to mention using the French company's nuclear power technology can bring them returns.

You must know that any technology needs a sufficient market before it can continue to be developed. Especially under an economic system like the West, using profits to continue investing in research and development is a virtuous cycle.

Therefore, EDF finally reached an agreement with United Energy Group.

United Energy Group will acquire 50% of the shares of UK Power Distribution Company (UKPN) owned by EDF at a price of 100 billion pounds. In this way, UK Power Distribution Company will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of United Energy Group and merge its original Power sector.

Afterwards, United Energy Group and EDF will jointly complete the acquisition of all shares of British Energy Group at a price of 125 billion pounds.

Among them, EDF will invest 75 billion pounds and hold 60% of the shares of British Energy Group; United Energy Group will invest US$50 billion and hold 40% of British Energy Group.

And next, after the British government published the "New Energy White Paper" last year, it also published the "Nuclear Energy White Paper" this year, announcing that it would restart nuclear power projects.

It can be said that Britain was the first country in the world to develop nuclear power. It began building the world's first nuclear power plant in 1953.

However, in the 1987s, the British government gave up on local design technology and began to introduce pressurized water reactor technology. Construction of the Sizewell B project started in . This was the last nuclear power plant built by the British itself.

The reason is that in the 20s and s, Britain ushered in a wave of electricity market reform and privatization of energy companies. At the same time, due to the discovery of North Sea oil fields, Britain was able to enjoy cheap oil resources and even achieved energy self-sufficiency for a time.

In this context, the advantages of clean nuclear power and high energy density are no longer as attractive as before, and the disadvantages of large basic investment and long payback time are even more highlighted.

Coupled with various factors such as social anti-nuclear pressure, brain drain in the nuclear energy field, and the government's lack of development plans, nuclear power was unable to receive sufficient attention in the UK for a long time.

This is also the reason why the French government hopes to acquire British Energy Group to expand their nuclear power technology market. Otherwise, once the application of a technology is stagnant for ten or even several years, it may be overtaken and left behind.

There are currently 8 nuclear power plants in the UK (all owned by the British Energy Group), generating 20% ​​of the UK’s electricity consumption. These nuclear power plants will expire around 2030.

According to the "New Energy White Paper" plan, all thermal power plants in England will be closed around 2025.

The combination of these factors will result in a 20% reduction in Britain's national electricity generation from current levels. Energy security has become a real threat to British society.

Therefore, according to the plan, in order to fill this power gap, the British government will successively identify 8 sites suitable for the construction of nuclear power plants and then put them into construction. The highest priority is the Hinkley Point Nuclear Power Project.

Barron had heard of the Hinkley Point nuclear power project, because in his previous life, China's China General Nuclear Power Group was once involved in it, but later chose to withdraw due to various reasons. These things were relatively popular at the time. news.

Now that United Energy Group has become a shareholder of British Energy Group, they will definitely participate in this project in the future.

(End of this chapter)