Chapter 1242: A false front to conceal a covert operation

Nippon Steel is one of the core pillars of the Mitsui consortium, and because of the special properties of steel, this company can be said to be of extremely high importance.

The size of a company is actually a reflection of its overall strength, which includes technical level.

The current steel industry structure of the island country is one superpower and multiple strong players.

The one superpower is Nippon Steel, which towers above the rest.

The multiple powers are the island nation's steel pipe, Sumitomo Metal Industries, Kawasaki Steel, Kobe Steel and many other large steel companies. These companies are all at the same level of strength, with a turnover between 1 trillion yen and 1.5 trillion yen.

However, compared to Nippon Steel, which has a turnover of over 3 trillion yen, none of them are even half as good.

This time, the Mitsui Consortium caused trouble for Xia Yu's acquisition plan.

If Mitsui Securities hadn't appeared, it would have been easy to take it over at a low cost according to the original plan formulated by Jiuding Securities, based on the Torii family's shareholding ratio.

The money spent now is enough to buy more than twice as much equity as it is now!

And in the Tiangong Automobile Group, it was also the Toyota Motor Group, which is part of the Mitsui Consortium, that took the lead in blocking it, with Nippon Steel leading the way.

So this time, it is definitely not unfair to target the conflict directly at Nippon Steel!

The Mitsui Group is only that, and although its overall strength is stronger than Xia Yu's,

Xia Yu is not intimidated by fighting it.

...

However, in addition to the role of diverting attention while attacking Nippon Steel, one of the real purposes is to extort money. If you really want to acquire it absolutely, it will be very difficult for the time being!

Therefore, in order to lay out his own iron and steel field, Xia Yu is preparing to secretly attack the enemy by another route, and the three real targets that have been selected are

Tokyo Steel Manufacturing, Sanyo Special Steel and Nisshin Steel!

Tokyo Steel Manufacturing, a company founded in 1924 and headquartered in Tokyo.

As of last year, Tokyo Steel Manufacturing had 4,722 employees, a crude steel output of 2.04 million tons, accounting for 2.02% of the island nation's total crude steel output, company sales of 189.33 billion yen, and a net profit of 2.63 billion yen.

This is a relatively independent steel company that has not joined any of the six major consortia. Due to repeated mergers and acquisitions in the past, there are many shareholder factions in Tokyo Steel, and coupled with the government's failure to regulate the industry over the past two decades, there is a serious overcapacity in the island's steel industry, so competition is fierce.

Any of the six major consortia has excess production capacity and faces strong sales pressure. Therefore, even Tokyo Steel, which was previously proud of its independence, is not attractive to any of the six major consortia, even if it wants to merge.

Without the background of the six major consortia and without the help of a strong general trading company to sell products, Tokyo Steel's business is difficult, as can be seen from its net profit margin of only 1.39%.

Currently, Tokyo Steel's total assets are 240.91 billion yen, liabilities are 179.4 billion yen, net assets are 61.51 billion yen, and the debt ratio is 74.47%. The company has been listed, but its market value is less than 60 billion yen, at 52.36 billion yen, with a price-earnings ratio of 19.9 times.

This price-earnings ratio is quite high in an island country where the price-earnings ratio is generally only a dozen times.

In theory, the steel industry is now in a depression, and it is very unusual to have such a high P/E ratio.

However, a closer look reveals that the reason it is still supported by such a high P/E ratio is that it benefits from the net assets of Tokyo Steel Manufacturing, which are now higher than its market value.

But net assets are a very important but also unimportant thing, and it all depends on the mentality of the investor.

For large consortia, there is no need to buy a company with such a low profit margin even if they have money. The interest earned from running the bank would be higher than the profit, so buying it would actually result in a loss. Even if it doesn't lose Tokyo Steel's assets, it will lose its own assets, so it is a tasteless or burdensome.

For ordinary investors, with such a low profit margin, in such a depressed industry, with low dividends and low potential for growth, there is no need to buy it.

So it is only natural that Tokyo Steel's market value is so low.

The second company, Sanyo Special Steel, was founded in 1935. It is a professional manufacturer of special steel, headquartered in Himeji City, southwest of Hyogo Prefecture on the island. It was founded in November 1933. In 1935, Sanyo Steel Co., Ltd. was established and began producing bearing steel. It was renamed Sanyo Special Steel Co., Ltd. in 1959.

The steel plant mainly produces special steel bars, wires, pipes and semi-finished products.

In more detail, it involves steel for bearings, steel for tools and moulds, steel for automotive parts, steel for transport machinery, construction machinery, petrochemical equipment, thermal power generation, electrical machinery and other fields. In addition, it also produces superalloys for corrosion and heat resistance, metal powders, metal powder metallurgy products, composite materials and magnetic materials.

Because it belongs to a more technologically advanced field in the steel industry, Sanyo Special Steel Company's revenue is not as good as Tokyo Steel's, only 67.39 billion yen, less than half of it, but its net profit is 2.75 billion yen, with a profit margin of 4.1%. This profit margin is considered high in the entire steel industry in the island country.

In terms of company assets, total assets were 99.49 billion yen, liabilities 62.29 billion yen, net assets 37.2 billion yen, and the debt ratio 62.6%. The debt ratio was also much better than that of Tokyo Steel Manufacturing.

The market value was 40.74 billion yen, and the price-earnings ratio 14.8 times.

This price-earnings ratio is only found in an outstanding steel industry company, and is consistent with the characteristics of a depressed industry.

The last company is Nisshin Steel, which was formed in 1959 by the merger of Nippon Steel and Nisshin Steel. Its headquarters is located at the Shin-Kokusai Building, 4-1, Marunouchi 3-chome, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo.

As of 1982, the company had 5,212 employees, a crude steel output of 2.45 million tons, and accounted for 2.42% of the island country's crude steel output of 101 million tons (second in the world) that year. The company's sales were 226.82 billion yen, net profit 5.67 billion yen, and profit margin 2.5%.

In terms of assets, Nisshin Steel is the largest of the three companies. The company's total assets are 293.88 billion yen, liabilities are 200.99 billion yen, and net assets are 92.89 billion yen, with a debt ratio of 68.4%.

Nisshin Steel was listed in 1972 and currently has a market value of 86.22 billion yen, with a price-earnings ratio of about 15.2 times.

The reason why Nisshin Steel's profit margin is lower than that of Sanyo Special Steel and its price-earnings ratio is even higher is that it is a subsidiary of Nippon Steel, which holds a 13.5% stake in it. The steel produced by Nisshin Steel can be sold abroad through Mitsui & Co., making it a less risky investment for investors.

The first two of the three companies that Xia Yu was eyeing were relatively independent steel companies with no backing from large consortia, while the only company with backing from Nippon Steel was Nisshin Steel. Nippon Steel's shareholding ratio was not high either, and with a proper surprise attack, it was very possible to take it over from Nippon Steel.

Of the three companies, Nisshin Steel and Tokyo Steel are the ones that produce crude steel at the lowest end of the industry. Together, they can produce up to 4.5 million tons of crude steel, which accounts for 4.42% of the total crude steel production in the island nation!

If they can be taken over, although the production volume will still be lower than the six steel giants controlled by the six major consortia, they can at least become the strongest player outside the six consortia.

As for Sanyo Special Steel, Xia Yu values its technical strength and wide range of products. Most of its products can serve his consortium, and most of them can be absorbed internally. Most importantly, they can greatly solve the problems encountered by Tiangong Automobile Group.

Bearing steel, tool steel, steel for auto parts, etc. are all what Tiangong Automobile Group needs now!

...

Just as Xia Yu was planning to take over these three steel companies,

Jiuding Securities' disclosure of its shareholding in Suntory on the stock exchange attracted a great deal of attention and discussion.

Immediately afterwards, there was speculation about Jiuding Securities' intentions in disclosing its shareholding.

Matsumoto Yu, the president of Jiuding Securities, announced his firm determination and attitude towards acquiring Suntory in an interview, and stated that he would invest an additional 100 billion yen in the acquisition!

Then he said imperiously that any competitors with malicious intent would end in failure, and advised them to cut their losses as soon as possible to avoid any regrets!

As soon as the news broke, Suntory's share price started to soar.

While Haneda Yohei was laughing at Matsumoto Yu at Mitsui Securities, Torii Keizo on the Torii family side was shocked.

But he was unwilling to give up now, and repeatedly ordered the acquisition team to increase the stakes and strive to take over as much equity as possible.

At this time,

Wells Fargo, which had cooperated amicably before, was very understanding and came to the door on its own initiative.

'Torii-kun, our bank is very strong. I heard that you need a lot of capital recently, and we are willing to help!'

Tori Family's living room, Fukoku Bank President Maruyama Toshi smiled and said to Torii Keizo.

Torii Keizo's hand holding the teacup was covered with bulging blue veins, and he was struggling fiercely in his heart...