Be a friend of time and stick to long-termism.
This is Zhang Lei's investment credo.
More than two years ago, Zhang Lei took 15% of the equity of Gree for 41.6 billion yuan, becoming the largest shareholder of Gree. At that time, the track of real estate and home appliances was full of possibilities. It is based on such factors that the outside world is unanimously optimistic about Zhang Lei's investment.
Now, more than two years later, Gree's stock price has also fallen through the holding line of Hillhouse Capital, and capital seems to have "forgotten" the track of white goods. In fact, in the matter of investment, in the past ten years, Zhang Lei has rarely lost his hand, and Gree and Midea seem to have "stabilized" after a year of decline.
Recently, Dong Mingzhu was asked in an interview whether there is pressure from the investor Hillhouse?
Dong Mingzhu replied: "Hillhouse is very good, as a capital, it has different demands for different enterprises. For manufacturing companies like us, their investment is not for the purpose of making money quickly, but to support the growth of Gree while obtaining benefits. So they were very supportive of us. If they only engage in capital operation, for Gree, it will be a disaster to come in. ”
In fact, although home appliances have been a bit "cold" in the past two years, the pace of diversification of Gree and Midea has not slowed down. As early as the beginning of last year, Fang Hongbo, chairman of midea group, had worried: "Will midea miss the next era?" ”
His judgment is that nothing in the future is eternal, and the advantage will become more and more short-lived, which means that beauty has "nothing to keep."
Therefore, on the way forward, the United States began to become radical, starting from home appliances but not only home appliances, not so much that the United States is a white goods giant, but rather that it is a comprehensive giant. Especially from 2021, the pace of investment in the United States has accelerated significantly.
According to the data, in February 2021, Midea acquired 29.02% of the shares of Wandong Medical to enter the medical industry, and only one month later, it established Midea Biomedical Co., Ltd. in Hefei.
In March 2021, Midea acquired the controlling stake of Hekang Xinneng for 731 million yuan through its subsidiaries and became its controlling shareholder. Constantly crossing the border and constantly increasing the Chaoyang Track seems to have become Fang Hongbo's answer.
On December 23, 2021, Midea Group announced that it intends to acquire and privatize the equity of KUKA Aktiengesellschaft (KUKA), a company listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in Germany, through its wholly-owned subsidiary. It is reported that this is the second increase in the robot business since the investment of the United States in KUKA in 2017.
On January 12, 2022, Midea established Anqing Welling Auto Parts Co., Ltd. with a registered capital of 200 million yuan. Not only that, Midea also established Hangzhou Long-term Technology Co., Ltd., although the company's registered capital is only 1 million yuan, but this is also Midea's attitude to the future.
Fang Hongbo once said: "In the United States, there is nothing that cannot be denied." ”
Just as he took over the banner of midea from He Xiangjian ten years ago, the first thing he did was to stop the scale, and cut off two-thirds of the product models in the main business, sold 7,000 acres of factory land, and cut off most of the agents.
For Fang Hongbo, it seems that every step of his step is "breaking the ice" for the Midea Group, and his biggest backer is He Xiangjian's trust.
In fact, in the ten years that Fang Hongbo was at the helm, the Midea Group underwent essential changes, from a Chinese company to a multinational company, and Midea easily completed the global layout. By 2016, Midea's overseas revenue accounted for half of its total revenue. Behind all this is Fang Hongbo's bold plan to go to sea, including the acquisition of Toshiba's home appliance business and the annexation of the Italian company Clivet.
On the whole, increasing the proportion of overseas income in the past decade has become a direction for the United States, and it is precisely because of this correct direction that the United States has become invincible and has also gained the favor of more capital. Since 2019, the market has a more obvious choice between Gree and Midea, compared with Gree's distinct "air conditioning" positioning, at present, Midea has divided the smart home business group, mechanical and electrical business group, HVAC and building business group, robot and automation business unit and digital innovation business five business groups.
Decentralization, de-single productization has become Fang Hongbo's most successful strategy, although the current market value of the United States is more than twice that of Gree, but Fang Hongbo still has a very strong sense of crisis, this sense of crisis stems from the global business. The profit and loss are the same source, and the helmsman with such a sense of crisis is not a bad thing for The United States.
At present, Midea has come to a crossroads, from diversification to diversified investment, will be the focus of midea in the future. Because Fang Hongbo once said, "In the future of American investment, we must dare to make subversive investment." ”