标题: [转帖] [Business education] [2012.08.11] Law of the jungle丛林法则 [打印本页] 作者: showcraft 时间: 2012-8-20 17:28 标题: [Business education] [2012.08.11] Law of the jungle丛林法则
A deal between a Chinese firm and a Japanese tech giant hits trouble
一家中国企业和日本科技巨头的交易陷入困局 060 Business - Sharp and Hon Hai.mp3(1.22 MB, 下载次数: 70)
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Aug 11th 2012 | HONG KONG | from the print edition
“AS HUMAN beings are also animals, to manage one million animals gives me a headache.” So declared Terry Guo, the chairman of Taiwan’s Hon Hai, earlier this year. His firm’s Foxconn division is China’s biggest contract manufacturer and makes most of Apple’s whizzy devices. He has since apologised for his remarks and insisted they were taken out of context. Perhaps they were, but fresh signs emerged this week that he does indeed believe in the law of the jungle.
Mr Guo made a splash in March when he announced an unusual deal with Sharp, an ailing Japanese technology giant. Hon Hai and Foxconn Technology, an affiliate, said they would invest over $1.6 billion in Sharp in return for around a tenth of the company. Sharp, hit badly by the downturn in the market for flat-screen devices, needed the cash. Hon Hai was keen to get the inside track to advanced glass technology (used in iPhone displays, for example) much valued by Apple, its main customer. Both sides trumpeted this as a done deal.
Alas, a deal is not always a deal in the corporate jungle. The Japanese firm’s share price has fallen by some two-thirds since March, when the two firms shook hands. Sharp’s investors believed that Hon Hai had thrown the firm a reliable lifeline. But Mr Guo’s investors were rather less pleased. The ill-timed deal would, by one estimate, mean Hon Hai having to write down the value of its investment by NT$12 billion ($400m) this year.
The bombshell hit on August 3rd, a day when Sharp’s shares fell by 28% on news of an anticipated loss of $1.2 billion in the second quarter. Hon Hai said the two firms had agreed that “due to the current price volatility of Sharp shares, Foxconn will not be required to fulfil its subscription obligations.” Alas, that news seemed to surprise Sharp, which put out a terse note saying no revision had been agreed.
What is going on? Kirk Yang of Barclays Capital, a bank, reckons it unlikely that Sharp will force Hon Hai to honour its original deal. He thinks the likely outcome is for Hon Hai to take a 9.9% stake in Sharp but at a price closer to ¥200-300 ($2.50-3.80) rather than ¥550, where the shares stood when the deal was agreed in March. Others speculate that a reworked deal may give his firm a bigger stake in Sharp.
That might seem like good news for Hon Hai. If Mr Guo does not pour all the cash he has promised into Sharp, his investors would be relieved. The contradictory statements this week may simply be a result of Sharp’s internal bureaucracy moving more slowly than the dynamic Mr Guo, in which case the Japanese company may well confirm a revised deal shortly.
Still, there is reason to think this might prove a Pyrrhic victory for Hon Hai. After all, it would still be saddled with a stake in a debt-laden firm with diminishing prospects. By withdrawing a much-needed lifeline, it might well be propelling Sharp towards eventual bankruptcy. Mr Guo surely knows that in the jungle, mistakes can prove fatal.
060 Business - Sharp and Hon Hai.mp3 (1.22 MB, 下载次数: 70) 