Rebirth of England.

Chapter 927 Merger and Reorganization

Although Barron did not make a firm commitment to invest in the Mumbai-Delhi high-speed railway, he only said that he would invest in this high-speed railway project after the construction of the British High Speed ​​Rail Line 2.

But because what he said was all true and he had no excuses, Singer was ultimately very satisfied with the meeting between the two parties.

What's more, the Mumbai-Delhi Industrial Corridor plan itself cannot be started in the short term.

Although when he visited Japan before, Japan was very positive about the construction of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed railway line, and even said that they could bear more than 70% of the total investment of this high-speed railway line, after this conversation with Baron, Singh believed that there could be other options for this plan...

And with the arrival of another piece of news, Singh's change of attitude was also confirmed.

On July 7, Bombardier announced that its board of directors had approved a cash acquisition proposal from a consortium of banks including Alstom and Cavendish Trust.

Under this plan, Bombardier will be sold for $220 billion.

Among them, Bombardier's railway department will be merged with Alstom's railway department. The merged Alstom-Bombardier Heavy Industries Group will become the world's largest transit rail group.

Bombardier's aviation division will merge with Standard Aerospace. The merged Standard Bombardier Aviation will become an aviation group covering commercial aircraft (regional jets), business jets and large unmanned aerial vehicles.

It can be said that this acquisition shocked the world. Although the acquisition price of 220 billion US dollars is not too shocking, this acquisition will change the situation of global rail transit groups and even bring some changes to the aviation field...

According to media reports, after Alstom and Bombardier's railway businesses merge to form Alstom-Bombardier Heavy Industries Group, they will surpass Siemens in the global rail transit field and become the world's largest rail transit group.

At the same time, Alstom-Bombardier Heavy Industries Group will also occupy more than 45% of the market share in the European regional train field.

After the acquisition was made public, the EU antitrust agency announced that it would investigate the merger of Alstom and Bombardier's rail business.

For a time, many people discussed whether this merger that would affect the situation in the rail transit field could be approved by the EU antitrust agency. Relevant comments in several newspapers believed that even if the EU eventually allowed this merger, it would inevitably impose restrictions on some of the businesses of both parties - such as forcing the two companies to sell part of their businesses after the merger.

Although Barron had received information from multiple sources before this, especially from Cameron and French President Hollande, about their meeting with European Commission President Barroso, who made certain promises...

But he still wasn't ready to "open the champagne at halftime"...

After staying in India for a few days, he and Jenny arrived in China on the Devonshire.

What caught the attention of some people who are concerned about the merger of Alstom and Bombardier's rail business is that on the same day that Barron arrived in Yanjing, China, Henri Poupard-Lafarge also arrived in Yanjing.

Henry Poupard-Lafarge is the vice president of Alstom Group in charge of railway business. He flew directly to Yanjing from Canada. Before that, he participated in the negotiations of the consortium of Alstom to acquire Bombardier, and was considered the most likely candidate for the chairman and president of Alstom-Bombardier Heavy Industries Group in the future. Although Henry's arrival in China this time was nominally to inspect Alstom's investment enterprises in China and to study the experience of China's high-speed rail development...

But Cameron, Hollande, and some EU officials all understood that at this time, Henri Poupard-Lafarge temporarily left the front line of the acquisition and integration with Bombardier and went to China to meet with the Duke of Devonshire. The meaning was self-evident - if the EU really did not approve the merger, or put forward other requirements, then this inspection would probably determine the Chinese partner for the UK High Speed ​​Rail Line 2...

This is of course the pressure that Barron deliberately put on the EU. After all, a journey of a hundred miles begins with a single step. At this moment, he does not want the EU to make any mistakes and cause any trouble in the acquisition process.

Of course, bringing Henri Poupard-La Farge to China was not just for show.

Even if the merger is completed this time, in order to complete the UK High Speed ​​Rail Line 2 efficiently, he will also cooperate with Chinese companies on many projects - but in that case, high-speed trains and some related equipment can be handed over to Alstom-Bombardier Heavy Industries Group. However, in terms of project construction, as well as the scheduling and organization of the overall project, Chinese companies have experience in large projects including the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed ​​Railway, which is much more complete than the UK.

Moreover, only by entrusting a considerable part of the project construction and related cooperation to Huaxia Company can they obtain a relatively high proportion of Huaxia loans for the UK High Speed ​​Rail Line 2. Over the years, Huaxia has also been willing to help their companies obtain overseas projects through foreign investment and loans.

In this case, cooperation with China can at least achieve a "win-win" situation for Barron and the other party.

Besides, instead of lending money to someone like Anil Ambani and then being unable to recover it, it would be better to give Huaxia’s loan to myself, at least I can guarantee that it will be repaid on time...

In addition to Henri Poupard-La Farge, Amber Sheehan also came to China this time.

At the beginning of this year, Amber Sheehan, as Barron's "old servant", resigned as CEO of DS Group and was replaced by Daisy.

However, Amber Sheen still serves as the chairperson of the Supervisory Committee of the DS Group's board of directors and is responsible for the group's supervisory duties.

Last week, DS Holdings acquired the British rail operator First Group and renamed it First Rail Group.

Although the acquisition amount was not high - the market value of First Group was only around US$7.5 million before this, DS Holdings bought the company for less than 6 million pounds (US$9 million).

But Barron still appointed Amber Sheehan as the president of the company, because Barron will take over the entire Line 2 High-Speed ​​Rail project through the British First Rail Group.

He needs to rely on Amber Sheen's personal abilities and rich experience to complete such a huge project.

Therefore, after Amber Sheehan arrived in China, it was Amber who was in charge of contacting relevant Chinese companies regarding the UK High Speed ​​Rail Line 2 project, and Barron would not be personally involved.

(End of this chapter)