Chapter 571: Chapter 565: Strong Acquisition

As Finn Lewis said this, someone among the shareholders of Flying Horse Company could not contain themselves and directly asked, “Mr. Lewis, if you want to purchase, how many shares of the Flying Horse Company do you want?”

“I’m only bringing in the technology, I won’t put in any capital, but I want 40% stake, and for the remaining 10%, I’ll personally acquire it from the stock market.” Finn Lewis stated very plainly, “Of course, if you want to unload your shares, you can go ahead and sell them on the stock market.”

These people are not fools. Although Lewis proposed transferring the shares for free, if they sold it on the stock market, they would get money. But who would sell their shares on the stock market at this time? Not only should they not sell, they should buy more. Increase the shares in their own hands. Once the news of Lewis’s shareholding and these new technologies are announced, the shares of Flying Horse might skyrocket. By that time, even if they collectively lose about half their ownership, the remaining shares would still be much more than their current ones.

Most importantly, with this arrangement, Flying Horse will not lose its competitive edge in the automobile industry. But what does it mean if they do not side with Lewis?

“Actually, you don’t really have a choice, do you? You can choose not to cooperate with me and then watch the market value of Flying Horse become worth less than toilet paper in your hands. Of course, you may not believe this, but I believe that with these technologies in hand, how long would it take for Flying Horse to come up with something similar? I know that you have hybrid cars, but how far can your batteries travel? And if you plan to use graphene batteries, the patent is in my hands,” Lewis shrugged his shoulders and said.

This time Lewis’s words were clear, either you opt for Flying Horse’s shares to become worth less than toilet paper in your hands, awaiting bankruptcy, or you choose to throw yourself into Lewis’s embrace. It seems that there are only these choices.

“I believe you should know the outcome of another giant, Finland’s telecom giant Nokia, which is the outcome of not being flexible.” Lewis gave another example.

Having said this, Lewis stopped talking. There wasn’t much else to say. “Although the market in the Flame Nation won’t be exclusively yours, partnering with me has a huge advantage,” Lewis thought for a moment and then added.

“What advantage?” David Lancaster couldn’t help but ask. He knew that many shareholders actually wanted to know, but were too embarrassed to ask.

“It’s simple, the advantage is me. I don’t think any of you will deny that I have enormous influence in the Flame Nation,” Lewis shrugged and pointed to himself while speaking. The others paused for a moment before nodding thoughtfully. Lewis’s words, were indeed irrefutable. To the average person in the Flame Nation, Lewis had huge popularity.

Probably everyone had heard of Finn Lewis. Even if they may not know what he does, they would definitely have heard of his name and knew that he was a big-league player. With Lewis’s endorsement of a car, which company in the world would be able to hire the world’s wealthiest person as a spokesperson? Unless it was for his own product, otherwise, it would be impossible to hire him.

“Gentlemen, what are you hesitating for?” Lewis spoke up, smiling. “If we sign a contract together, the entire global automobile market is waiting for us to conquer it. That’s right, let me give you a piece of news for free, but you can’t spread it out, because it involves your own interests.”

The next morning, before Finn Lewis had even gotten out of bed, he received David Lancaster’s team in his room. David Lancaster’s team had received authorization from the company’s board, but those shareholders still found a way. They certainly weren’t going to pay for this themselves. Instead, they submitted an application to the securities supervisory board where Flying Horse is located, proposing a suspension of trading and measures such as restructuring to buy back all circulating shares. Shareholders of Flying Horse… you either choose to reduce your share by half, or you can sell your shares. Flying Horse would repurchase the shares at the prevailing share price.

The related transactions would be completed within two trading days. Although the time was a bit tight, Flying Horse didn’t actually have many circulating shares. There was a significant difference between the number of shares on paper and what was actually available. The number of shares shown on the market could be 2 billion or 3 billion, but in fact, many of these shares were held by major shareholders who bought directly from the market without announcing it externally.

These should not be counted as circulating shares. There actually weren’t many circulating shares held by many people. It was indeed possible for these people to handle this within one night. Anyway, it was like this: Flying Horse had already reached an agreement with the officials of the Graham Kingdom, applying for a suspension of trading. All remaining share trades will be traded at the suspension price, either you have to accept a contract with half the shares in it.

As to how to choose, you have to decide for yourself. Once this was determined, David Lancaster’s team received the authorization from the board of Flying Horse and was in full charge of negotiating with Finn Lewis. Basically, there wasn’t much to negotiate. All the technologies were the ones Lewis had mentioned the previous night. Lewis agreed to invest this technology into the company, and help Flying Horse expand the market in the Flame Nation. In return, all automobile prices of Flying Horse in the Flame Nation’s market would decrease by about 30%, from the highest-end cars to mid-range GLA, GLK, and C Series cars, all would go by this rule.

However, the performance and configuration of the car will not drop, but instead, decrease the maintenance agreement with the 4S store, reducing the cost of maintenance. Everyone knows the future is for electric cars. If they continue to charge high maintenance fees, they would be courting death. If the oil price nosedives significantly, be it engine oil or other fuels, all will drop drastically, including the maintenance costs. This is the right time to seize the market.

All contracts were negotiated as quickly as possible, Lewis got 40% of Flying Horse’s shares by bringing these technologies to the table, and giving Flying Horse the authorization to produce. As for how many shares Lewis could acquire from the market, that’s not something Flying Horse could control. In any case, what they have in their hands right now was absolutely not less. Foreign companies did not care much about the ownership of these companies, as long as they could bring in profits.