Rebirth of England.

Chapter 718 Tiehang Group
The British Steamship Company that Barron was interested in had a long history.

P&O was founded in 1822.

They also had a large amount of business in Asia - on December 1840, 12, the Peninsular Oriental Steamship Company was established in London with a capital of 31 million pounds. With the pace of colonial conquest, the business of the iron and steel companies also spread to Egypt, India and even Lijiapo and Hong Kong.

The full name of P&O is Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, which literally means Peninsular Oriental Shipping Company.

From the very beginning, the China Railway Company almost monopolized Hong Kong's early foreign shipping business: at the end of the 19th century, the China Railway Company used Hong Kong as the regional headquarters for its Far East business and established a branch in Sai Wan, Hong Kong, which, in addition to office buildings, also had a private dock.

The Chinese name "Tiehang" came about because when the HK company was established, the company boss (comprador) could not think of a Chinese name that could accurately convey the meaning of "Peninsula East". When he saw the iron railings on the terrace, he casually picked up the word "Tiehang", and thus the name has been used ever since.

In 1971, the P&O Group was reorganized into five major business units: shipping, truck freight, passenger transport, European and air transit business, and general holding business.

Then in 2002, P&O Group merged with Carnival Corporation in a transaction involving US$54 billion.

After the transaction is completed, Carnival will hold a 74% stake in the new company after the merger, while P&O will hold a 26% stake.

The two companies joined forces and immediately created a "giant" in the global cruise market. After the acquisition, Carnival acquired almost all well-known cruise brands, and the number of cruise ships owned increased to 73, accounting for nearly 110% of the global cruise market with a total value of US$40 billion.

Before being acquired by Dubai World Group, P&O Line had 18 container terminals in more than 100 terminals in 29 countries around the world, and had become a leading global terminal operator.

These include many Chinese terminal projects in which they participated in investing. For example, on July 2003, 7, China Railway Construction Corporation, Maersk Group, COSCO Group and Qindao Port Group jointly invested in the Qindao Port Qianwan Container Terminal joint venture project.

The total investment in the reorganized Qindao Port Qianwan Container Terminal Co., Ltd. is US$8.87 million, of which China Railway Construction Corporation Limited holds 29%, Maersk Group 20%, COSCO Group 20% and Qindao Port Group 31%.

In the UK, the Iron & Steel Shipping Company, owned by the Iron & Steel Shipping Company, has a total of 32 passenger ships that travel between Britain and coastal countries in Europe every day.

CRRC Cold Storage Logistics is the world's largest temperature-controlled logistics provider.

P&G China Shipping, a 50:50 joint venture between P&G Group and China Shipping, is the world's second largest container freight company, with more than 70 fixed routes connecting 120 ports in 230 countries and 147 owned or leased ships.

Five years ago in 2004, Dubai World Group defeated its competitor, Lijiapo Port Group, and acquired British Rail Group for US$68 billion, which immediately made Dubai World Group's ranking among global terminal operators jump from seventh to third.

Ranked ahead of Dubai World Group are HK Hutchison Group and Lijiaopo Port Group.

Together with BP’s 29 container terminals around the world, Dubai World’s global container terminals have increased to 51, and its container throughput has increased to 3330 million TEUs.

However, Dubai World Group, which is facing debt default, now has to raise funds by selling their assets to avoid the situation from getting worse.

Therefore, when Finn Hudson, CEO of Global Industrial Investment Fund (GII), went to Dubai to propose the acquisition of British P&C Group, they also showed a positive attitude. "The current acquisition price we proposed is US$60 billion, but Dubai World Group said it is difficult to accept such a price. They hope to sell P&C Group at least US$68 billion, which is the original acquisition price."

Finn Hudson said:
"But I think that if we insist, then it is very likely that they will compromise in the end. After all, so far, the projects invested by Dubai World Group have all seen a significant drop in market value. In comparison, the P&O Group has already maintained its value..."

"In addition to price factors, we also need to consider whether the PRC will be affected by the delay. After all, although Dubai is eager to resolve the current crisis, it will not be a good thing for us if it is delayed for too long."

Although Dubai World acquired British Rail Group for US$68 billion, the subprime mortgage crisis has affected not only the market value of many companies, but also the global port and shipping business has entered a downward cycle due to the economic recession. Therefore, it is normal to lower prices appropriately.

But Barron also knew that if Dubai World Group was preparing to sell P&O Group, then GII Fund would not be without competitors, such as the Lijiaopo Port Group, which had bid against them when Dubai World Group acquired P&O Group.

As the world's second largest port group, if it can merge with the China Railway Group, the Lijiaopo Port Group will be able to surpass the HK and Hutchison Group and take the top spot, which is also quite tempting for them.

What's more, after acquiring the China Railway Group, Barron still has a lot of things to deal with.

For example, before Dubai World Group acquired British Steam Navigation Company, the British Steam Navigation Company owned six container ports in the United States, located in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.

However, during the process of this transaction, the American side has not passed the review of this transaction.

The reason was that a considerable number of American congressmen believed that the UAE, a country associated with the 9/11 hijackers, operating American ports would threaten their national security.

Since the September 9th incident, the United States has regarded airport and port security as the "top priority" of national security. In January 11, it proposed the "Container Security Initiative" and regarded it as an important part of the United States' global anti-terrorism strategic deployment, aiming to prevent terrorist organizations or terrorists from exploiting the weak links of container freight to attack the United States.

They believe that if Middle Eastern companies control the six major ports in the United States, the so-called container security issues will make the US security departments more worried.

Although George W. Bush worked hard to push for the deal, after a lengthy review, Dubai World Group finally compromised and handed over the operation of six container ports in the United States to relevant American institutions, thus completing the deal.

If the GII Fund can complete this acquisition, then with its British background, it will naturally be able to take back the operating rights of the six container ports in the United States.

Therefore, after comprehensive consideration, Barron instructed Finn Hudson to make appropriate compromises on the price to speed up the completion of their deal.

It can be said that many of Barron's current businesses rely on sea transportation, such as the petrochemical products and natural gas of United Petroleum Group, the products of Argos Retail Group, the British Motor Group, etc. Therefore, the acquisition of the P&O Group is still very important for his future layout.

And it's not just the P&O Group. Greece itself is also a major shipping country. So taking advantage of the Greek sovereign debt crisis, it can not only be in the financial field, but also take the opportunity to acquire some Greek shipping companies.

(End of this chapter)