Chapter 1417: Force him to sell!

With his current wealth and capital, he could buy any of the four major international food companies that have been dominating the industry for generations.

Even if these four major food companies were at their peak in the future, Xia Yu would not be afraid with his current capital.

However, Xia Yu knew very well that money was very useful, but not omnipotent.

If someone wanted to buy his Jiuding Bank and Jiuding Securities with money, why would he sell?

Even if the price was five times higher, he would not sell!

This was no longer a matter of money, these companies were the foundation of his life and livelihood, and they could not be sold!

For these grain merchant families, their companies were also non-negotiable.

Otherwise, they would not have developed steadily and would not have gone public for hundreds of years.

Just like Cargill, even in later generations, it has never been listed, and the entire family has survived by holding onto this company.

Therefore, it is extremely difficult for Xia Yu to acquire these non-listed companies now!

'Anyway, we still have to try our best, otherwise it will take a long time to catch up with the foundation accumulated by these companies over the past century even if we use our money to invest.'

'Try any one of ABCD, with a focus on ADM. This company's probability of success should be the greatest...'

After making the decision,

Xia Yu immediately gave orders to the family office.

Among them, Guangming Fund was responsible for acquiring the French company Louis Dreyfus and the Dutch company Bunge.

As for Polaris Capital, it was responsible for acquiring Cargill and ADM.

Other companies such as Icarus, Daliven, Paul Reinhardt, and Oran are alternatives.

Of course, if one of the four major grain merchants can be acquired, these companies can also be the target of mergers and acquisitions to enhance one's own strength and improve the global industrial layout.

After all, it can be seen from the survey data that the current four major grain merchants are not the four major grain merchants of the future. None of them has achieved absolute dominance in the market and are still in the process of expansion.

For example, ADM only set up a branch in Hong Kong, an international port in the East, in 1983, and only this year has it formulated a European expansion strategy. It is now trying to expand in the Netherlands and West Germany through mergers and acquisitions.

After giving the order to take action,

Xia Yu's focus remains on the field of bulk trading of agricultural products.

The acquisition of these four major grain merchants will not affect the continued expansion of the Swire Agricultural Group.

Hong Kong is adjacent to Southeast Asia, and Xia Yu wants to turn Southeast Asia into a stronghold. He has already strengthened control in various fields, and naturally will not ignore the biggest feature of Southeast Asia!

Rice is the world's staple food, and Asia's rice production accounts for more than 92% of the world's rice production.

Among them, Southeast Asian countries such as Southeast Asia account for 18% of Asia's total rice production and one-sixth of the world's rice production!

Thanks to Southeast Asia's unique climate, rice accounts for more than 80% of the arable land used for food crops in Southeast Asian countries.

Southeast Asian countries also rely heavily on rice exports, with the rice exports of Southeast Asian countries accounting for two-thirds of Asia's total rice exports.

Of course, Southeast Asia's influence in the field of rice can be seen from many data.

However, if we analyse some data in greater depth, we can see that there is still much room for improvement in the entire rice industry chain in Southeast Asian countries.

For example, a horizontal comparison of island countries with a large population and limited land, which intensively cultivate the land.

The yield of rice per hectare in 1977 reached a historic high of more than 60 quintals per hectare, where one quintal is equivalent to 100 kilograms, so the yield per hectare was more than 6 tons.

This was still the yield without the technical output of hybrid rice from China.

And Southeast Asia?

During the same period, only Indonesia and Malaysia exceeded 20 quintals per hectare.

Countries such as Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand and the Philippines, none of them exceed 20 quintals per hectare, and the lowest yield in Thailand is less than 120 kilograms of rice per mu!

Indonesia and Malaysia, which have higher yields per mu, grow rice as their second most important crop after rubber.

This is not the case in other countries.

From this we can see that Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand and the Philippines are not making full use of their land, and they all practise extensive cultivation and management.

Even if the rice yields on these lands were to more than triple, they would barely match the island country's rice yields.

However, with nearly 25 million hectares of rice cultivation area in these four countries, if they catch up with the island country's planting level, they will increase production by nearly 100 million tons.

Not to mention the future production after the mainland's hybrid rice technology is promoted to Southeast Asia.

Therefore, it is now an excellent time to delve into the rice industry in Southeast Asian countries.

At a time when even the rice-growing giant of China does not export its rice, taking control of the rice industry in Southeast Asian countries is enough to create a world-class food giant.

In addition to Southeast Asia, India on the South Asian peninsula is also a major agricultural country.

Thanks to its unique geographical environment and climate conditions, India has a very high status in crops such as cotton, rice, wheat, corn and jute.

For example, India is the world's largest cotton producer, accounting for more than a quarter of the world's cotton production.

Swire Cotton, a subsidiary of Xia Yu's Taikoo Agriculture Group, is a cotton giant in India and has been developing in India for nearly a century.

However, because Taikoo Agriculture Group was not the most important in the entire Taikoo Group, it could not obtain too much support from the Taikoo Group, so even though Swire Cotton has been developing in India for nearly a century, it has not occupied the supreme position in the market.

After Taikoo Agriculture Group was acquired by Xia Yu, Xia Yu did not interfere too much and placed it under the Jiuding Industrial Group, allowing it to develop on its own.

Compared to being under the Swire Group, it naturally has more resources and is developing more rapidly, but not to an exaggerated degree.

After all is said and done, compared to companies in the fields of heavy industry, finance and media, Xia Yu had not previously attached enough importance to it.

However, now that Xia Yu's attention is on it, resources will definitely be heavily skewed.

Soon, Xia Yu directly bypassed Wei Li of the Jiuding Industrial Group and summoned the president of the Swire Agriculture Group.

After some detailed discussions, Xia Yu injected 600 million Hong Kong dollars into Taikoo Agriculture Group, allowing Taikoo Agriculture Group to develop by leaps and bounds according to a long-term plan.

Just as Taikoo Agriculture Group was gearing up to set off an 'agricultural whirlwind' in Southeast Asia and South Asia,

news of the acquisitions of the four major grain merchants ABCD came one after the other.

As Xia Yu had expected, the news was not good.

Both the French company Louis Dreyfus and the Dutch company Bunge, faced with Bright Food's repeated price increases, did not hesitate to refuse, declaring that the company was not for sale.

And the American company Cargill, faced with the chips thrown by Polaris Capital, the McMullen family and the Cargill family likewise did not hesitate to refuse, and were also very vigilant. After rejecting Polaris Capital, they immediately contacted some other minority shareholders, trying to acquire the 12% of shares outside the two families' control and achieve a 100% joint holding by the two families.

The final company, ADM, also had a fierce and nasty owner, Duane Andres, who made it clear that no one was going to take ADM away from him.

North Star Capital acquired 22.4% of the shares from the other shareholders, but the acquisition stalled because of Duane Andres.

Compared to the other three companies, ADM was still relatively open to negotiations, but it was extremely difficult to continue moving forward.

Knowing this situation,

Xia Yu had one attitude:

We must buy it!

Duane Andres will have to sell, no matter what!

We will use any means to achieve this!