I have to say that Buffett has a vicious eye, invests in BYD, and earns 25 times in 15 years. At that time, BYD was in a trough, with constant disputes and was not optimistic about the outside world, Buffett firmly believed that BYD would become a great company; now, BYD has become a giant of new energy vehicles, with a market value of more than 3 times that of SAIC. In fact, when Buffett invested in BYD, he was also bombarded by Foxconn.
Saving BYD, Buffett annoyed Gou
In 2008, just when BYD was in the middle of the water, Buffett threw an olive branch. This timely rain allowed Wang Chuanfu and his BYD to be freed from the struggle. At that time, the entanglement between Foxconn and BYD was at a time when the sword was raging, and BYD was in a delicate position in terms of public opinion. The big guys in the global capital market have endorsed BYD and reversed BYD's decline.
Buffett
At the time, Buffett told Wang Chuanfu that he wanted to have a 25% stake in YAD, but Wang Chuanfu did not "back down." In the end, Buffett took a 10% stake in BYD for $250 million. Buffett's subscription price is HK$8 per share, and a total of 225 million BYD shares have been subscribed. For more than a decade, Buffett has never sold his byd-company stake in BYD.
When Buffett invested in BYD, it angered Gou, who repeatedly questioned that Buffett should not invest in such a "problem company". At that time, Buffett did not come forward to explain, but his partner Munger responded to this - supporting BYD, thinking that Wang Chuanfu was doing a great thing!
Gou believes that BYD has a moral problem - copying Foxconn's business model and stealing Foxconn's trade secrets. But Munger doesn't see it that way. He said Foxconn's allegations were unfounded, but only lost their advantages in the field of mobile phone foundry.
Munger admired Wang Chuanfu, who started with $300,000 and became a world-renowned battery producer across multiple fields. In an interview with Fortune magazine, Munger praised Wang Chuanfu, saying that Wang was a "synthesis" of Edison and Jack Welch. This assessment, spoken from Munger's mouth, came as a surprise.
I have to say that Buffett and Munger have a unique vision. More than a decade ago, when domestic consumers did not recognize BYD, the two of them firmly believed that BYD would become a great company. Munger said at the time: "Some people think I'm crazy with Buffett, and you see BYD's car and you understand how good it is." Munger also said that BYD has great ambitions and that he will be very surprised if BYD does not succeed.
From a small mobile phone battery factory to a new energy giant
Back to Foxconn boss Terry Gou and BYD founder Wang Chuanfu, the two of them seem to have a "deep hatred", and the two companies have been fighting for many years. At that time, Foxconn was already a "foundry aircraft carrier", and its volume was far above BYD. But BYD suddenly came out and stole some of Foxconn's orders at a lower price.
Wang was born in 1966 in a small mountain village in Anhui Province, his parents died early, and he was able to complete his studies thanks to the help of his brothers and sisters. After graduating from Central South University, he was a senior engineer in a state-owned enterprise, and after getting inspiration from the expensive "big brother", he borrowed 2.5 million yuan, founded BYD in 1995, entered the field of mobile phone batteries, and used semi-automated production lines to create low-cost products. Tv, Japan sells $8 a piece of mobile phone battery, BYD only $2.50.
Wang
In 2002, Wang Chuanfu visited Hon Hai and Gou received him. But Gou could not have imagined that Wang Chuanfu copied Foxconn's model in a short period of time and poached more than 400 people from Foxconn. BYD from a small mobile phone battery enterprise, into the field of foundry with a high threshold, and Foxconn has intersected - BYD's rapid rise, in addition to no overlap in computer foundry, automobile manufacturing, many of BYD's businesses are similar to Foxconn.
Foxconn believes that BYD's mobile phone OEM business has developed rapidly, not only poaching Foxconn's talents, but also taking away Foxconn's trade secrets. The great thing is that the same solution costs BYD 20% less. The advantage in price allowed BYD to win the favor of many mobile phone manufacturers, and successfully entered the mainstream mobile phone manufacturers at that time such as Nokia, Motorola, sony Ericsson, etc., and became the supplier of these big guys. Of course, they also intend to support BYD in order to contain Foxconn and better grasp the pricing power.
More than ten years have passed, Foxconn is still that Foxconn, and BYD is no longer the original BYD. With the east wind of new energy vehicles, BYD has overshadowed Foxconn in terms of market value and vision. Today, leading battery technology and new energy vehicle sales have made BYD the darling of the capital market.
In fact, 15 years ago, Wang Chuanfu fantasized that by 2025, BYD Automobile would become the world's first. At that time, no one believed Wang Chuanfu, and no one took this sentence seriously. Today, although the overall sales of BYD automobiles have a big gap with Toyota and Volkswagen, in the field of new energy, BYD is confident. In February this year, BYD's sales of new energy vehicles reached 874.73 million units, a sharp increase of 746% year-on-year. Text/Xu Shangfeng