Chapter 21 Manufacturing Movement: Mergers and Acquisitions Give birth to Overlord Dream

After Gu Chujun was imprisoned, many people have been speculating on his motives for acquiring Kelon, trying to prove his conspiracy from some clues. When an entrepreneur starts to implement a major investment decision, there are often multiple factors that affect his decision. There are strategic and rational decisions, the impulse to pursue profits, the passion to meet challenges, and the drive of burning desire.When Gu Chujun acquired Kelon, he may not have a clear plan for advance and retreat. He just intuitively believed that it was an undervalued "cake", or that just operating a star company like Kelon was enough to satisfy this need. The vanity of the extremely conceited.

His various behaviors after joining Kelon showed that he gradually fell in love with this company.He has been unknown in the Chinese business circle, and he quickly found the feeling of leading a large company.Once, he said with emotion: "With Kelon, I can sit on an equal footing with the boss of Electrolux. Greencool without Kelon is a soulless system; Gu Chujun without Kelon is just a third-rate Entrepreneur." In an interview with the reporter of "Chinese Entrepreneur", he said: "If I am old one day, and someone on the street says that this old man makes refrigerators, he will still make a big contribution to China's refrigerator industry. If I made some contributions, then I didn’t do it in vain.”

These words were quite sensational, and when he said them, he must have been moved by himself.However, the words were still in his ears, but they were quickly blown away by the wind. He didn't concentrate on becoming a refrigerator maker. Desire—an inexplicable inner demon—made him embark on another adventure soon. . Observing the failures of Chinese enterprises for more than 20 years, we can find that the collapse of many enterprises is unsurprisingly related to two factors. One is the violation of basic business laws, and the other is the expansion of entrepreneurs' personal desires.Gu Chujun got Kelon because of some special and abnormal chances—if Pan Ning hadn't been out, how could there have been such a chaotic situation later?What he used was extraordinary means, which basically violated the normal business logic and exceeded his capital capacity. However, due to special reasons and the favor of fate, he took just over a year to pull Coron Out of the quagmire of losses—what he wants to be grateful for is that the foundation of Pan Ning’s foundation was really solid. Even if Kelon was emptied out, Kelon was still able to maintain its position. Recovering vitality - the whole story is simply a one-in-a-hundred "abnormal event".If Gu Chujun acts honestly as Kelong, he may prove himself and win respect within a few years, and maybe even his various gray records in Greencool will be washed away or forgotten by people. After all, this is a matter of success or failure. Heroes and many crimes will be covered by the light of wealth in the commercial age.However, at such a moment, the overblown desire regained control of Gu Chujun.

Just when Kelong's foothold was not stable, Gu Chujun reached out to Jiangxi. In May 2002, he announced that he would invest 360 million US dollars in Nanchang to build the Greencool Technology Industrial Park covering an area of ​​2,500 mu.As soon as the information was released, not only did it not bring him applause, but it even increased people's perception of him as a capital speculator.At that time, Song Ruhua of Top was putting up billboards for recruiting 5,000 software engineers all over the highways in the Yangtze River Delta.Gu Chujun and Song Ruhua complement each other, and they become specimens of hype. Three years later, it was revealed that Gu Chujun actually invested 100 million yuan in Nanchang, but borrowed 400 million yuan from two banks in Jiangxi. Five months later, Gu Chujun announced the acquisition of the Jinol Refrigerator Factory in Jilin for 300 million yuan. In December, took over two refrigerator production lines of Shanghai Shangling Electric for 10 million yuan.

2003 was a short but dazzling year in Gu Chujun's career.Under his management, Kelon Electric has returned to normal, with an annual operating income of 6.17 billion yuan, returning to the ranks of the first-line home appliance enterprises.However, Gu Chujun came into the public eye one after another because of his almost crazy acquisitions. In May, he announced in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province that he would control Yaxing Bus, a listed company, for 418 million yuan, and would acquire 1,095 acres of land in Yangzhou to build a Kelon base with a total investment of 400 million US dollars and an annual production capacity of 3.6 million refrigerators.

In June, he appeared in Hefei, Anhui, and announced that he would acquire a 20.03% stake in Meiling Electric for 209 million yuan, becoming its largest single shareholder.This news caused a sensation all over the country. It means that Gu Chujun has acquired two giants in the "Four Great Families" of China's refrigerator industry in more than a year. The annual production capacity of refrigerators in his hands has reached 8 million. Taiwan, second only to Electrolux in the world, is already unrivaled in the field of small and medium-capacity refrigerators.He declared: "I can now say that I can control refrigerators under 150 liters in the world."

His acquisition of Meiling, like the acquisition of Kelon, is full of gray temperament.Later facts showed that Meiling Electric and its parent company Meiling Group at that time had a large amount of related debts, and their current situation was very similar to that of Kelon Electric and Rongsheng Group. Gu promised to "forget the past" after entering.In order to make this deal more convincing, Gu Chujun announced that he would invest 2.49 billion yuan in the construction of the Greencool-Meiling Industrial Park in Hefei, which became the largest investment attraction project in Anhui Province that year.

In August, Kelon announced the acquisition of a 70% stake in Hangzhou Xiling Electric, the largest refrigerator company in Zhejiang.In autumn, Gu Chujun suddenly flew to Shiyan, Hubei frequently to discuss the acquisition of Xiangyang Bearing, a listed company.Some media have learned in advance that he may acquire 29.84% of state-owned legal person shares.So far, he has owned four domestic listed companies, Kelon Electric, Meiling Electric, Yaxing Bus, and Xiangyang Bearing, forming an astonishingly large-scale "Greencool Department". In December, Gu Chujun, who was full of ambition, was elected as "2003 China's Economic Person of the Year" by CCTV.Ding Lei from Netease, who just became the richest man in China, Long Yongtu, who contributed to the negotiation of China's accession to the WTO, and Niu Gensheng, who became famous for his founding of "Mengniu", were selected together with him.At the awards ceremony, the host Yang Ping asked him: "We know that Mr. Gu Chujun wants to build a refrigeration kingdom. Has this goal been realized?" Gu Chujun replied loudly without thinking for a second: "This goal has basically been realized."

There was thunderous applause in the studio.Gu Chujun's reputation as an entrepreneur reached its peak at this moment. Outside of the studio, though, media commentary was much calmer.The just-founded Shanghai "Oriental Morning Post" said in a review article: "43-year-old Gu Chujun has a lot to prove himself: Where does his money come from? Is he a good capital hunter? He has the patience to engage in business. And ability? In the past more than a year, Gu Chujun has successively included Kelon, Rongsheng, Huabao, Compaion, Meiling and other brands under his banner, and has become the most anticipated home appliance king in China's home appliance industry after Zhang Ruimin and Li Dongsheng. He even declared that what I want to integrate is not only the refrigerator industry, but the entire refrigeration industry chain. In an interview, Gu Chujun said that his dream is to become the third-generation entrepreneurial leader in private enterprises. Obviously, his story still on the way."

His story is really on the road, and it is a road full of thorns and mines.