Chapter 651: Touching Xia Yu's tiger's whiskers

Among the world's top headhunting companies, there is a company that has a very good chance of being acquired, of course not a full acquisition, but the acquisition of a portion of the equity to become a major shareholder.

Even a portion of the equity is enough to make Xia Yu happy.

And the company that can buy shares is still the glorious international that will leap to the top of the world headhunting industry in the future.

It is also the company that Xia Yu most wants to buy shares in. Apart from the future prospects, the talent pool of glorious international is the most suitable for Xia Yu. Not only does it focus on the level of executives and directors of the world's top 500 companies, but it has also developed the recruitment business of middle management.

There are a lot of employees at the bottom level, and for a large company to develop well, what is lacking is still mid-to-high-end talent, which is just what glorious international can meet Xia Yu's requirements.

And Korn/Ferry International was also the first to set up a branch in Hong Kong, and Xia Yu was familiar with it. If he could become the majority shareholder of the parent company of Korn/Ferry International, the Hong Kong branch could be completely classified as his territory, which would be of great help to him.

With anticipation, Xia Yu patiently read both consulting reports, and a flash of understanding crossed his eyes.

When he saw the OTC transaction, he understood why a portion of the equity of Korn/Ferry International had flowed out even before it went public.

The source of it all dated back to 1972, seven years ago.

Korn Ferry was founded on the west coast of the United States in 1969 by Lester Cohen and Richard Ferry, the two heads of the former KPMG Peat Marwick US West Coast headhunting department. With the spirit of 'Western cowboys', they pioneered advertising for headhunting companies in newspapers, a strategy that allowed Korn Ferry to rise rapidly.

However, because of this advertising expenditure, the faster Korn/Ferry International grew, the more advertising expenditure it incurred, and the company never made a profit after its establishment.

It was not until 1972 that Lester Cohen, one of the two founders, urgently needed money and traded 25% of the company's shares on the OTC market in the United States. At that time, the shares were bought by an investment company for 4 million US dollars.

When it comes to stock trading, most people think of the stock exchange.

However, it is important to know that OTC trading already existed more than 100 years ago. This type of trading has no fixed location, no prescribed membership, no strictly controlled rules and regulations, and even no prescribed trading products or restrictions. It is mainly one-to-one trading between counterparties through private negotiations.

When it first appeared, investors at the time could only buy and sell stocks at the counters of securities companies and bank branches, hence the name 'counter market' and 'counter trading'. The counter trading market is another name for OTC.

Back to the topic.

The 25% stake that had flowed out of Lester Cohen's hands in 1972 had also changed hands twice in the past seven years and was now held by a major financial investment company on Wall Street.

Both Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch expressed confidence in helping Xia Yu complete the acquisition of this stake.

In fact, after reading the consulting reports provided by the two companies, Xia Yu knew that there would be no problem with the acquisition. After all, he knew very well the nature of financial companies on Wall Street. As long as the US dollars were in place, there was nothing that couldn't be sold!

Now if Jiuding Securities came knocking on the door, he was confident that he could acquire the equity.

However, due to insufficient connections and influence, even if Jiuding Securities could really complete the task, it would take a long time and there was a possibility that he would be ripped off.

This was unacceptable to Xia Yu!

If the two Wall Street giants, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch, stepped in, it would be a breeze.

It would be absolutely worth it to spend a little money to get the equity safely and quickly.

Therefore, Xia Yu immediately contacted Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. After some comparison, Xia Yu chose Merrill Lynch as the partner for this acquisition.

There was no choice, as Merrill Lynch was stronger than Goldman Sachs at the time, and Merrill Lynch had a close relationship with the financial company and offered Xia Yu a lower price.

When success is guaranteed, of course you choose the cheaper option. This is the rule in the business world. If you are not as skilled as others, there is nothing Goldman Sachs can say, and they can only hope to cooperate with Xia Yu next time.

Merrill Lynch is very efficient.

Eight days later, 25% of the equity of Korn Ferry International was in Xia Yu's hands, and Xia Yu paid the price of 25 million US dollars.

After all, Korn Ferry International is not listed, and it has been operating at a loss in order to grow, so its value is not very high.

Xia Yu had no idea how much profit Merrill Lynch had made from the deal, and he didn't really care.

He remembered that in its previous incarnation, Korn Ferry had been worth billions of dollars after going public. Even if you factored in the fees charged by Merrill Lynch, the current valuation of $100 million was still several dozen times higher.

With such a huge profit margin, this was a good investment for Xia Yu, not to mention the fact that this investment would also strengthen his business.

After obtaining the shares, Xia Yu entrusted Wang Qi to fly to the west coast of the United States to attend the shareholders' meeting on his behalf after the change of shareholders.

Since Korn Ferry had not yet gone public and had not raised any funds, the shareholder information was very simple, and there were only three shareholders in total.

They were co-founder Richard Ferry, who held 49% of the shares and was now the largest shareholder,

and the second largest shareholder, another co-founder Lester Cohen, who held 26% of the shares.

Originally, Lester Cohen was the largest shareholder with 51% of the shares, but he sold so many shares that he had to give up the throne of chairman.

Finally, there is Xia Yu, who is only one hundredth of a percentage point behind Lester Cohen.

Although Xia Yu is last, and Richard Ferry and Lester Cohen wear the same pants,

the two men also know Xia Yu's apparent strength and do not want to offend him too much.

Moreover, the request that Xia Yu had asked Wang Qi to make was also of great benefit to Korn Ferry. After some discussion, the head office decided to increase its efforts to develop the Asian market, and to adjust the original plan of making Singapore the Asian headquarters to Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong branch of Korn Ferry would accept the leadership of the parent company, but Xia Yu would also have the right to manage it on behalf of the company.

Once this was decided, Xia Yu immediately summoned the general manager of the Hong Kong branch of Korn Ferry, his old friend Robert Joyce.

Robert Joyce was also thrown into disarray at the news that his biggest client had become one of his bosses. Fortunately, he quickly came to terms with the situation.

After the subsidiary received a large injection of resources from the parent company, and Xia Yu, one of the new bosses, gave him instructions and drew up huge plans, Robert Joyce happily threw himself into the task of recruiting talent for Xia Yu.

A weakness in his career was beginning to be remedied, and Xia Yu was feeling much better.

However, there were always people in the world who didn't want Xia Yu to have an easy life.

A transatlantic phone call from London ruined Xia Yu's good mood.

The call was from Hua Shengshi, who had acquired antiques for him. Someone was secretly scheming to take advantage of Hua Shengshi, or rather Xia Yu behind the scenes, and was doing so ruthlessly and insidiously.

After listening to Hua Shengshi's account, Xia Yu was furious!

If he doesn't show his teeth, he really thinks he's Hello Kitty!