Hollywood Hunter

June 18, a new box office week.

After last week’s four new movies, three more movies continued to be listed on the North American theater this week. They were Columbia Pictures’ second summer blockbuster “Phantom Heroes” and Daenerys Entertainment’s “Seattle Night” with Disney. "Sleepless" and the crime thriller "Shivering" produced by New World Pictures.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s $85 million "Phantom Hero" is the most watched movie of the week, with 2,306 screens, which is 1,000 fewer than "Superman", but from this point on It is not difficult to see that Columbia Pictures does not have too strong confidence in this film.

Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan's "Sleepless in Seattle" stared at 2,369 screens.As a romantic film that needs to rely on word-of-mouth to take a long-term strategy, the opening scale of "Sleepless in Seattle" is of course impossible to spread to more than 3,000 pieces. Intentionally.

New World Pictures' "Terror of the Horror" starring Don Johnson and Rebecca de Moni, this is the success of Rebecca de Moni following the success of 1990's "Cradle Hand" Starring in the second viper woman movie.

Simon and his wife arrived in Melbourne on June 15.

After Janet returned home to continue her leisurely pregnancy life, Simon followed up with the filming of "Batman: The Rise of the Dark Knight" while also considering a recent expansion plan launched by the Johnston family.

As the Japanese economy fell into a downturn after the housing and stock market bubble burst, Australia, which relied heavily on Japan’s import demand, has also experienced a slump in recent years. Among them, the strongest impact is undoubtedly the mining resources of the Johnston family. field.

Simon knows that Australia's economic downturn will continue until about 2000, and it is not until the rise of China after the new millennium that Australia has taken off again with China's strong demand for imported resources.

The industry trough period is actually the best period of expansion and integration.

Without Simon’s big butterfly, the strength of the Johnston family can only be regarded as medium. Due to factors such as lack of funds, it is difficult to expand in such a low period, and it is even more likely to be the object of mergers during the integration process of large industries.

This time, the Johnston family not only accumulated a large amount of capital in several financial capital operations with Simon, but also backed up the entire Westeros system, which can fully realize the small fish in this inevitable wave of industry integration Expansion of eating big fish.

When Simon arrived in Melbourne, Johnston Holdings was quietly preparing for the acquisition of Australia's third-largest mining group, BHP Billiton.

In the original time and space, the name of BHP Billiton is familiar to those who pay a little attention to the mineral resources industry.

It is still 1993, and many industries around the world are in the early stages of long-term separation. Not only is Hollywood Media, but Australia’s mineral industry is also in full bloom. It is far from reaching the three mining giants of Australia’s BHP Billiton, Britain’s Rio Tinto and Brazil’s Vale after 2000. Nearly monopolizing the world's iron ore industry.

There are currently three large mining giants in Australia, namely BHP, BHP Billiton and Northern Mining.It is worth mentioning that the three companies, or the headquarters of most Australian mining groups, are in Melbourne.

The market value of the three major giants has reached tens of billions of dollars, of which BHP Billiton has the lowest market value, and the current market value is also about 13 billion US dollars.

This is the first goal of Johnston Holding Group.

With BHP Billiton, Johnston Holding Group can be completely transformed from a mining holding group that only focuses on mining to the ranks of mining giants.

Even if the Australian economy is at a low point, if you want to acquire Bituto, which has a market value of 13 billion U.S. dollars, you must pay a 25% to 30% premium. Therefore, the final turnover of this business is expected to be 16 billion to 17 billion U.S. dollars. ,

With such a huge amount of capital, no company can easily come up with it.

Therefore, no matter in any industry, the evolution from an ordinary enterprise to an industry oligarch is equivalent to a transformation from quantitative change to qualitative change.

Of course, it is impossible for Johnston Holding Group to acquire Bitutos with an all-cash solution. A complete stock exchange acquisition is of course the lowest cost. However, in this way, it is not necessarily who is annexed, because then Johnston Holding Group The shares held in the new company must be very low.

Therefore, cash and stocks will be used.

In the preliminary plan, Johnston Holdings Group will divest and integrate its own mineral business to form a subsidiary, and then use this subsidiary with an asset value of about US$3 billion as the main body to initiate an acquisition from BHP Billiton in cash and stock. The merger method is half equity and half cash, of which the cash portion needs about 8 billion US dollars.

With 8 billion US dollars in cash, Johnston Holdings Group will also take half of it, accounting for 3 billion US dollars in assets. It is expected to realize about 35% of the new company after the merger, and the remaining 4 billion US dollars of funds will be temporarily financed by other related capital. Capital contribution.

For a mining giant that is already a Volkswagen-owned company, completing a 35% shareholding ratio is basically equivalent to firmly controlling the company.

Moreover, one-third of the holdings are actually the limit that the Australian government can tolerate.

As the pillar industry of a country, it is difficult for the Australian government to let a single capital oligarch completely control a mining giant, because it is difficult to explain to the public, and the Johnston family does not plan to do so. Obviously, if there is industry turmoil in the future, the risks to be taken will also increase significantly.

Holding 35% of the shares not only guarantees almost absolute control, but also integrates with the capital of all walks of life to form a bundled state of advancement and retreat.

Of the 4 billion US dollars that the Johnston Holding Group needs to bear on its own, the Johnston family can only take out 1.5 billion US dollars, and other shareholders of the Johnston Holding Group bear 1 billion US dollars, and the remaining 1.5 billion US dollars naturally fall on Simon. .Moreover, the additional 4 billion US dollars in cash will also require the Westeros system to help draw in and bring in capital from Wall Street and other parties to participate.

Unconsciously spent a week in Melbourne.

These days, Simon can basically only spend two or three hours a day on the "Batman: The Rise of the Dark Knight" set, and all other times are brought by Raymond Johnston or Anthony Johnston to various meetings Or socializing.

Raymond Johnston has now gradually transferred control of the company to Anthony Johnston. However, this expansion is a big thing for the Johnston family, and many things require the old man to come out in person.

After crossing this threshold, the Johnston family will be able to step into the ranks of world-class tyrant families from a remote local tyrant limited to a corner of Australia. This is not to say that the wealth of the Johnston family will increase too much in a short period of time, mainly It is also the influence of the family and the sharp increase in the right to speak in the energy and mineral industries.

Speaking, this is also a process close to quantitative to qualitative change.

Moreover, this is actually just the first step in the plan. Next, Johnston Holdings Group will at least merge with BHP, which ranks first in the Australian mining giants, to form the once-billion billion BHP Billiton.Even, if it can go further, Simon does not mind continuing to eat the Northern Mining Company and further monopolize the Australian mining industry.

Northern Mining Corporation was originally acquired by British Rio Tinto, and Rio Tinto became one of the world's three largest iron ore giants.

Of course, these things cannot happen overnight.

Even if it is the current expansion, if everything goes well, it will take at least one year. After the completion of the acquisition, it will take one to two years to adjust and integrate the new company.

Therefore, if you want to carry out the next expansion, the earliest is 3 years later.After 3 years, if you can successfully merge further with the company, mergers and acquisitions and integration, it will be another 3 years, and it will almost enter the new millennium.

It takes less than ten years to build a billion-dollar world mineral industry giant, and such a cycle is not long at all.

In the north suburb of Melbourne, in the mansion of Johnston Riverside Yarra.

The time is already Tuesday, June 22.

At lunch time, a whole family gathered in the restaurant, more than 20 people, big and small, very lively.

It’s not just Janet. After getting married at the end of last year, David Johnston’s wife Leslie has just confirmed that she has been pregnant for a month, so women’s topics are basically focused on pregnancy maintenance and baby care.

A little guy was held in the arms of an old man. The grandchildren and the grandchildren seemed very tacit. Melbourne, which already had some signs of little playboy, was rarely mischievous, and he personally grabbed the food and sent it to Grandpa's mouth.

Simon sits between Anthony Johnston and Norman Johnston, and the three brothers continue to discuss some trivia of the merger and the company in the noise.

"The family’s ranch in Queensland, if you are interested, you can take it all this time, Simon, there is no need to continue to buy Tasmanian land. The land you have now is already large enough, and that It’s a waste to continue doing nothing.”

"You know, Norman, I just want an island."

"..."

Anthony smiled and said: "Tasmania is so big, there are so many cities and towns, you can't make this island your own after all."

"It's artificial. There are only more than 300,000 people over there. When necessary, I will have no problem raising them completely."

Norman shook his head helplessly: "I can see that Simon is probably a Southern American and a descendant of the slave owner."

Norman Johnston did not lower his voice. Everyone laughed, but Veronica, who was sitting across from the long table, looked up and glanced back casually.

Simon shrugged and smiled, "Maybe."

It was already one o'clock in the afternoon after the lively lunch.

The brothers left the restaurant and planned to go to the study room to talk about some more formal things. Ken Dixon walked in and nodded to the Anthony brothers. Hesitantly he did not move closer, and said directly to Simon: "The New York side, Heh Steve III has made three calls."

Anthony looked at Ken Dixon's expression and looked at Simon said: "Hurst family, is there any problem?"

"It's just a little thing," Simon shook his head and said, "I'll leave."

Although some strange things were noticed in Ken Dixon’s expression, neither Anthony nor Norman asked much. Ken Dixon and Neil Bennett were once the most loyal bodyguards of the Johnston family, before Simon and Janet married. The Johnston family will also directly listen to some things through the two. After Simon and Janet are married, the two are considered to be a complete transfer, even if the old man no longer asks the privacy of the Simon and his couple, the same is true of the brothers Anthony.

Coming to a small living room in the mansion, Simon did not use a satellite phone, directly picked up the landline microphone in the corner of the living room, and dialed a series of numbers at the prompt of Ken Dixon.

The phone was connected, just a sentence, and on the other side of the microphone came a clearly angry voice: "Westeros, what are you doing?"

Simon took the microphone away a bit and sat down on the sofa next to him, casually saying, "William, this question should be the one I asked you."

"You actually made someone break into my bedroom!"

"It's a shame, but you must be wrong about this. I am a civilized person who doesn't do that kind of decent thing. If you don't believe me, I suggest you call the police. By the way, no one will be in you Is there a horse head on the bed? This is too Hollywood, haha."

The tone opposite seemed even more angry: "You little bastard, you are breaking the rules."

Simon is too lazy to play haha ​​with the other party again, coldly said: "Rules, William, if I want to break the rules, something should appear in the newspaper."

"Huh, so you admit it?"

"I don't admit it."

"You, Son of..."

"Shut up, otherwise I will really give you a horse head."

"Are you threatening me?"

"I just said, I am a civilized person, and I hope everyone is a civilized person." Simon said coldly: "However, if someone wants to do something uncivilized, I think, you should also know that I am barbaric What does it look like?"

After Simon finished speaking, he no longer talked to the opposite nonsense and hung up the phone directly.

New York on the other side of the earth is already late at night.

The Hearst family mansion in Greenwich is still brightly lit, and a lot of security is conducting detailed inspections of the inside and outside of the mansion. Half an hour ago, the couple of William Hurst III who had gradually mastered the Hearst family power was planning to rest before entering the bedroom. It was found that the bedroom that was just organized in the afternoon was loudly placed with a lot of things, all of which were sneak shots or secret recordings of the Hearst family privacy, and some indescribable videos were playing on the bedroom TV.

Obviously, the Hearst family encountered an intruder.

After discovering the situation in the bedroom, watching the video on the TV, and thinking about the kidnapping of Patty Hirst, the family's youngest aunt, Hirst III's wife directly fainted.

William Hirst III was also trembling with rage, but he quickly sorted out the ins and outs of the matter.

After some tossing, he called Australia and tried to interrogate a young man, but the result was a gray nose.

Things are not over yet.

It was late into the night and finally had to rest. The phone in the bedroom rang again. Hearst III answered the phone anxiously. On the other side, a weak cry for help came from the crying side. The two unlucky eggs woke up for seven days. I found myself falling more than 10,000 kilometers from Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, with only a series of phone numbers on hand.