Chapter 14: Med-Ferry Acquisition (Part 5)

Chapter 14: The Med-Ferry Acquisition (V)

Once Jing Hong stepped inside, the elevator rose quickly and smoothly, finally stopping at the top floor. Zhou Chang's assistant made a "please" gesture, letting Jing Hong exit first, then led him all the way to the general manager's office at the far end of the building.

Many CEOs of major American companies don't even have offices and work in cubicles. Although Zhou Chang had studied and worked in the US for many years, he clearly hadn't fully embraced Western ways.

The office was rectangular, and together with several other offices, it jutted out from the main structure. Thus, three sides were floor-to-ceiling glass, with excellent lighting and views, but it took up a lot of space. The Qinghui building was a cube, but the top floor was shaped like a cylinder, and the protruding offices looked like petals gently perched atop the building.

Zhou Chang's office boasted the best view.

Like Jing Hong's, Zhou Chang's office was very modern in style. It was clear Zhou Chang had renovated the office too after taking over Qinghui.

The office was done in a simple palette of black, white, and gray. The outer area was the reception area, and the inner area was the work area.

In the middle of the reception area sat a long black sofa, with two matching short sofas on either side, all arranged around a coffee table. A bookshelf stood against the wall behind the long sofa. Jing Hong glanced at it and saw not just IT books and papers, but also books on other fields—agriculture, sociology, even religion and race, among others.

The work area featured a long L-shaped desk, sleek and modern. A personal computer sat on the short side, with documents on the long side. Behind it, a shelf held not books but commemorative items from each Qinghui product launch—mostly just a round plaque engraved with "Product X, [date]," yet they represented thirty years of the Qinghui Group's deep imprint.

To the left of the desk, against the wall, hung a large whiteboard with notes from executive briefings.

The assistant led Jing Hong in.

Zhou Chang was fiddling with the coffee machine himself on one side of the room. Seeing Jing Hong, he smiled and asked, "President Jing, coffee?"

They were always perfectly polite in their formal meetings.

Jing Hong paused, then also smiled: "President Zhou certainly knows how to enjoy the finer things."

Zhou Chang gave a light chuckle: "Just learned. Got to learn to fend for myself, right?"

As he spoke, Zhou Chang finished brewing a cup. He handed the coffee to his assistant, motioning for him to bring it to Jing Hong, then looked at Jing Hong and added, "Try it? Not sure if it's to your taste."

The assistant took the cup, walked over, bent slightly, and set it on the dark coffee table. Then he straightened, nodded briefly at Jing Hong, and left.

"Thank you." Jing Hong thanked Zhou Chang and walked into the reception area. But instead of sitting, he turned, facing the coffee table with the sofa behind him, a hand still in his pocket, and looked across the table at Zhou Chang, now on the opposite side. "President Zhou, I'm here to talk about the Med-Ferry acquisition."

"Hm?" Zhou Chang's tone rose. "How so?"

"Simple." Jing Hong cut to the chase. "Fanhai will transfer its entire 18.9% stake in Med-Ferry to Qinghui at Qinghui's offer price. Then Fanhai will drop out of the bidding for Med-Ferry. But once Qinghui acquires Med-Ferry, it must sell Med-Ferry's AI drug development subsidiary to Fanhai for 200 million euros."

Zhou Chang listened quietly, then asked, "But... why would I do that? That AI drug development company is the best asset Med-Ferry has right now."

"No point in playing coy." Jing Hong smiled. "Fanhai already holds 33.5% of Med-Ferry's voting rights. Qinghui wants to split and restructure Med-Ferry fast, right? Then under the law, Qinghui needs more than two-thirds approval, and Med-Ferry's articles of association have no special provisions either. Don't forget—Fanhai has read Med-Ferry's articles of association line by line too."

Fanhai held 8.9% of the A-shares and 10% of the B-shares, each with ten voting rights, for a total of exactly 33.5% of voting rights—just over a third. For major decisions like company splits, most countries' laws require at least two-thirds approval—including Sweden and China. In other words, if Fanhai objected, Qinghui would struggle to complete Med-Ferry's split and restructuring.

But Qinghui also had Weikang Medical. It hoped to move some of Med-Ferry's assets and resources under it, then spin off Med-Ferry's distribution arm to grow independently—free from R&D's oversight and no longer barred from selling other companies' orthopedic devices. This would help Weikang Medical break into the European market fast and make a run at the "First 3D Printing Stock" title.

Zhou Chang didn't seem surprised by Jing Hong's words. He just listened quietly, still with that earnest look.

"Therefore,"—the morning light in Zhou Chang's office was brilliant, and it caught Jing Hong's face—"if Qinghui drops out, Fanhai will naturally take over Med-Ferry—no question. But if Qinghui wants to continue this bidding, then the two of us have considerable room for cooperation—Fanhai transfers its 18.9% stake to Qinghui, Qinghui can likely get 100% of Med-Ferry's equity, split it up as needed, do whatever—Qinghui will be the sole shareholder, and Fanhai gets that AI drug development company. However, if Qinghui takes Med-Ferry but doesn't cooperate with Fanhai... then Fanhai's 33.5% voting rights might not be so obedient."

When he said "might not be so obedient," he meant they definitely wouldn't be—they'd oppose everything Qinghui wanted, vetoing split proposals, restructuring proposals, even vetoing every proposal.

After a pause, Jing Hong added, "Anyway, Fanhai only has 18.9% of the shares, so the cost isn't particularly huge—we can treat it as throwing money into the water just to hear a splash. But I wonder if Qinghui is willing to do the same." Clearly, if Qinghui acquired the remaining shares, the expense would far exceed Fanhai's.

Zhou Chang lifted his chin, signaling Jing Hong to continue.

"Additionally," Jing Hong pressed on, "the acquisition price is already very high. If we continue bidding, the final price will be extremely high. Under such circumstances, even transferring that AI drug development company to Fanhai for 200 million euros would still be quite favorable for Qinghui, wouldn't it? Otherwise, Qinghui would spend even more."

"200 million euros is too low—even lower than what Med-Ferry paid to acquire that company a few years ago." After a moment, Zhou Chang finally spoke. He smiled. "Is this price non-negotiable?"

"Unfortunately," Jing Hong said, "it's non-negotiable."

Zhou Chang simply nodded and said nothing more.

For companies of Qinghui and Fanhai's scale, haggling wasn't the style. Qinghui had always been: accept it or walk away.

He just asked, "Does Fanhai have a new acquisition target?"

Jing Hong didn't dodge it and nodded.

"Quite the loud abacus you're calculating on." Zhou Chang's expression remained calm and breezy. He smiled. "I recall that initial 8.9% stake—Fanhai bought it at 9 euros per share? Now transferring to Qinghui at 15 euros per share? So Fanhai directly earns over 100 million euros on this single deal? Plus Med-Ferry's termination fee, this is almost like taking that AI company from me for free. Isn't President Jing being a bit too ruthless?"

Jing Hong said, "It's called a win-win."

He wasn't wrong.

If Fanhai continued bidding, Qinghui's final total acquisition cost would definitely exceed the extra 200 million.

Finally, Jing Hong pressed one more point: "In short, Med-Ferry's AI drug development subsidiary and Med-Ferry's split and restructuring—Qinghui can only choose one. President Zhou had better decide quickly. All those funds out there know Fanhai and Qinghui are bidding, and they're still buying in. Med-Ferry's stock price is still rising. The longer Qinghui delays, the more it costs."

Zhou Chang stood across the coffee table, quietly watching Jing Hong for a moment, seemingly deep in thought. Finally, he nodded and said, "OK. Deal."

Hearing that "Deal," Jing Hong flashed an insincere smile: "Alright, then we'll leave it to both sides' legal teams."

Zhou Chang nodded again.

"I won't disturb you any further." Jing Hong took one hand out of his pocket. "President Zhou's schedule must be very full."

But Zhou Chang glanced down at the coffee, then pulled his hand out of his suit pants pocket, raised it, and asked, "President Jing really won't try the coffee? This is my first time serving someone, and President Jing is really making me lose face?"

Jing Hong hesitated briefly, but finally picked up the cup of coffee, stood where he was, tilted his head back, and drank it in a few gulps.

After finishing, Jing Hong set the cup back on the saucer and said, "Thank you."

But Zhou Chang wasn't done. He looked at Jing Hong and asked, "How is it? Does it suit your taste?"

Jing Hong responded politely, "Not bad."

"That's good."

A few seconds later, Zhou Chang's gaze moved from Jing Hong's eyes to the corner of his mouth, paused, lifted his chin slightly, and reminded him, "President Jing, the corner of your mouth."

Reminded like that, Jing Hong realized there might be a bit of coffee at the corner of his mouth—it did feel slightly cool there. He didn't mind. He raised his right hand, wiped it with his index finger, then casually rubbed it on the cotton napkin on the saucer to wipe off the coffee, and said with slight mockery, "Can I leave now?"

"Sure," Zhou Chang didn't try to keep him. "I'll have an assistant see you out. Qinghui is quite large, and some areas have access control."

With that, Zhou Chang walked to his desk and dialed an extension. Shortly after, the same assistant as before walked back in, gestured with his right hand, and said, "President Jing, this way please."

Jing Hong nodded, one hand in his pocket, and strode toward the door.

Zhou Chang watched his back from behind.

Based on Zhou Chang's past experience, very few people could walk cleanly and decisively while he stared at their backs. Most felt needles prickling their spines, but not Jing Hong—his pace was always unhurried, steady.

He'd been outmaneuvered... Zhou Chang thought.

Jing Hong had guessed one of the most important reasons Qinghui was bidding for Med-Ferry, then completely stopped caring about the Med-Ferry board's attitude, raised his voting rights to 33.5% through "hostile" means, and was now gripping Qinghui's soft spot tightly, threatening Qinghui, forcing it to transfer Med-Ferry's AI drug development subsidiary to Fanhai at a rock-bottom price.

Jing Hong knew that Qinghui also wanted the AI drug development company, but if forced to choose between the two, Qinghui would likely abandon it. After all, in previous negotiations, Qinghui had never given up the idea of "splitting and restructuring Med-Ferry," even going so far as to raise his bid and form a consortium with Antai Fund. Compared to Weikang Medical's listing, the AI company seemed less important.

"Acquisitions" are always meticulously calculated endeavors, where everything is staked on one decisive move—win and you're king, lose and you're nothing, with no middle ground. Yet Jing Hong had managed to carve out an entirely different path.

This time, he had lost.

Zhou Chang watched Jing Hong's retreating figure and unconsciously licked his back teeth.

Author's note:

To put this scenario simply: the male lead wants to split up this company, but a "split" is a major matter requiring at least two-thirds of the voting rights. So the love interest increases his stake to over one-third, using this to pressure the male lead into transferring the "AI company" he wants at a rock-bottom price, after which he transfers all his shares to the male lead.

Bosses always lick their back teeth—don't ask which specific one, upper or lower, I don't know. I only know that CEOs are into this move, so I'm adding it in too.