After last week's four new films, this week, three films will continue to appear in North American Theaters, including Columbia Pictures' second blockbuster "phantom hero", Denise Entertainment's partnership with Disney's "sleepless in Seattle" and New World Pictures' Crime Thriller "Thriller".
Arnold Schwarzenegger's $85 million "phantom hero" is the most popular movie this week, with 2306 screens, 1000 less than "Superman". It's not hard to see that Columbia Pictures does not have much confidence in this film.
Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan starred in "sleepless in Seattle", the number of open screen painting is 2369. As a love movie that needs to rely on word-of-mouth to take a long-term strategy, "sleepless in Seattle" can't be spread to more than 3000 yuan, which is also the intention of the distribution teams of the two companies.
New World Pictures' thriller is starred by Don Johnson and Rebecca de Moine. It is Rebecca de Moine's second snake and scorpion Woman movie after the great success of "shaking the cradle's hand" in 1990.
Simon and his wife arrived in Melbourne on June 15.
Janet goes home to continue her leisurely pregnancy. Simon follows up the shooting of Batman: the rise of the dark knight, while also taking into account an expansion plan recently launched by the Johnston family.
has been in the doldrums following the collapse of the Japanese economy after the housing and stock market bubble burst. Australia's economic development in recent years has also been in a low ebb, which is most dependent on the import demand of Japan. The most intense impact is undoubtedly the mining resource area of the Johnston family.
Simon knows that this kind of economic downturn in Australia will last until about 2000. It is not until China rises after the new millennium that Australia takes off again with China's strong demand for imported resources.
The industry trough period is also the best period of expansion and integration.
Without Simon as a big butterfly, the Johnston family, whose strength is only medium, is difficult to expand in such a low period due to lack of funds and other factors, and even more likely to become the target of merger in the process of large industry integration.
This time, the Johnston family has not only accumulated a large amount of funds in several financial capital operations with Simon, but also has the whole westrow system as the backing, which can fully realize the expansion of small fish eating big fish in this inevitable wave of industry integration.
When Simon arrived in Melbourne, Johnston holdings was quietly preparing for the acquisition of Australia's third largest mining group, BHP.
In the original time and space, the name BHP Billiton is familiar to people who pay a little attention to the mineral resources industry.
It's still 1993. Many industries around the world are in the early stage of division and integration. It's not only Hollywood media companies, but also Australia's mining industry. It's far from the extent that BHP Billiton of Australia, Rio Tinto of Britain and vale of Brazil nearly monopolized the world's iron ore industry after 2000.
At present, there are three large mining giants in Australia, namely BHP, BHP and northern mining company. It is worth mentioning that the three companies, or most of the mining groups in Australia, are headquartered in Melbourne.
The market value of the three giants has reached tens of billions of dollars, and the current market value of BHP, which has the lowest market value, is about 13 billion dollars.
This is the first goal of Johnston holdings.
With the help of BHP, Johnston holding group will be able to transform from an investment holding group which only focuses on mining industry to a mining giant.
Even if Australia's economy is at a low ebb, it will have to pay a premium of 25% to 30% if it wants to acquire BHP with a market value of US $13 billion. Therefore, the final turnover of this business is expected to be US $16 billion to US $17 billion, equivalent to a $23 billion to a $25 billion.
Such a huge amount of capital, no company can easily come up with.
Therefore, no matter what industry, the evolution from ordinary enterprises to industry oligarchs is equivalent to a transformation from quantitative change to qualitative change.
Of course, it is impossible for Johnston holding group to acquire BHP with the all cash scheme, and the full share exchange acquisition is of course the lowest price. However, it is not certain who will be swallowed up in this way, because Johnston holding group will have a very low share in the new company at that time.
Therefore, cash plus stock will be used.
In the preliminary plan, Johnston holding group will separate and integrate its own mineral business to form a subsidiary, and then take this subsidiary with assets value of about US $3 billion as the main body to launch a merger with bito in the form of cash and stock. The merger method is half equity and half cash, of which the cash part needs about US $8 billion.
Johnston holding group will also bear half of the $8 billion in cash, including the $3 billion subsidiary, which is expected to hold about 35% of the new company after the merger, and the remaining $4 billion will be temporarily funded by other related capital.For the mining giant, which is already a public holding company, to complete the 35% shareholding ratio is basically equivalent to firmly controlling the company.
Moreover, a one-third stake is actually the limit that the Australian government can tolerate.
As a pillar industry of a country, it is very difficult for the Australian government to allow a single capital oligarch to completely control a mining giant, because it is difficult to explain to the public. The Johnston family does not intend to do so either. The more the proportion is, the more obvious the goal will be. In the future, once there is industrial turbulence, the risks that need to be borne will also increase significantly.
Holding 35% shares can not only guarantee almost absolute control, but also integrate with capital from all walks of life to form a binding state of common advance and retreat.
Among the $4 billion that Johnston holding group needs to bear, Johnston family can only take out $1.5 billion, other Johnston holding group shareholders take out $1 billion, and the remaining $1.5 billion naturally falls on Simon. What's more, another $4 billion in cash also needs the help of the westrow system to bring in capital from Wall Street and other parties.
I was in Melbourne for a week.
These days, Simon can only spend two or three hours a day on the set of Batman: the rise of the dark knight, and the rest of the time is taken by Raymond Johnston or Anthony Johnston to attend various meetings or parties.
Raymond Johnston has gradually transferred the control of the company to Anthony Johnston. However, this expansion is a big thing for the Johnston family, and many things need to be done by the old man himself.
Beyond this threshold, the Johnston family will be able to step into the ranks of world-class warlords from the remote local tyrants only in a corner of Australia. This does not mean that the wealth of the Johnston family will increase too much in a short period of time. The main reason is that the family's influence and voice in the energy and mineral industry will increase significantly.
It is also a process from quantitative change to qualitative change.
In fact, this is only the first step in the plan. Next, Johnston Holdings Group will at least merge BHP Billiton, which ranks first among the three mining giants in Australia, and form BHP Billiton once again. Even if he can go further, Simon doesn't mind eating the northern mining company to further monopolize Australia's mining industry.
Northern mining company, originally acquired by Rio Tinto in the UK, has become one of the three iron ore giants in the world.
Of course, these things can't be done overnight.
Even if everything goes well in the current expansion, it will take at least one year. After 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, it will be three years at the earliest. In three years' time, if further mergers and acquisitions can be carried out smoothly, it will be three years before merger and integration. By then, it will almost enter the new millennium.
In less than 10 years, it is not a long period to build a world's mineral industry giant with the level of 100 billion.
In the Johnston's mansion on the Yarra River in the northern suburb of Melbourne.
It's June 22, Tuesday.
At lunchtime, a large family of more than 20 people, big and small, gathered in the restaurant.
It's not just Janet. After getting married at the end of last year, Leslie, David Johnston's wife, has just confirmed that she has been pregnant for a month, so women's topics are basically focused on pregnancy care and baby care.
When a little guy is held in his arms by an old man, the grandparents and grandchildren seem to have a very tacit understanding. Melbourne, which already has some signs of being a little dandy, rarely has been naughty, and will personally grab food and deliver it to his grandfather.
Simon sat between Anthony Johnston and Norman Johnston, and the three brothers continued to discuss the details of the merger and the company.
"If you're interested in the ranch in Queensland, you can take it all this time. Simon, there's no need to buy the land in Tasmania any more. The land you occupy now is wide enough, and there's nothing to produce there. It's a waste to continue to do it."
"You know, Norman, I just want to have an island."
“……”
Anthony said with a smile: "Tasmania is so big, there are so many cities and towns, you can't make this island your own after all."
"It's up to people. There are only 300000 people there. If necessary, I can raise them completely."
Norman shook his head helplessly: "I can see that Simon is probably a Southerner and a descendant of slave owners."
Norman Johnston didn't keep his voice down. Everyone laughed, but Veronica, who was sitting across the long dining table, looked up and looked back as if nothing had happened.
Simon shrugged and said with a smile, "maybe."
It was one o'clock in the afternoon after the hot lunch.
The brothers left the dining room, planning to go to the study to continue to talk about more formal things. Ken Dixon came in, nodded to the Anthony brothers, hesitated, did not get close, and said directly to Simon, "there are three phone calls from Hurst III in New York."Anthony looked at Ken Dixon's face, looked at Simon and said, "the hursts, what's the matter?"
"It's just small things," Simon said, shaking his head. "I'll leave for a moment."
Although they noticed something strange from Ken Dixon's expression, Anthony and Norman didn't ask much. Ken Dixon and Neil Bennett used to be the most loyal bodyguards of Johnston's family. Before Simon and Janet got married, Johnston's family would inquire about some things directly through them. After Simon and Janet got married, they were completely transferred, even the old man Son no longer to interfere with Simon and his wife's privacy, Anthony brothers naturally the same.
When he came to a small living room of the mansion, Simon didn't use the satellite phone. He picked up the landline microphone in the corner of the living room and dialed a series of numbers at the prompt of Ken Dixon.
As soon as the phone got through, a voice came from the other side of the receiver, which was obviously a little angry: "westero, what are you going to do?"
Simon took the microphone away a little, sat down on the sofa beside him and said casually, "William, I should have asked you this question."
"You let someone break into my bedroom!"
"I'm sorry, but you must be mistaken. A civilized man like me would not do such a shameful thing. If you don't believe it, I suggest you call the police. By the way, someone didn't put a horse on your bed, did they? It's Hollywood, ha ha. "
The opposite tone seemed more angry: "you little bastard, you are breaking the rules."
Simon was too lazy to laugh at each other again. He said coldly, "rules, William, if I want to break the rules, some things should appear in the newspaper."
"Well, so you admit it?"
"I don't admit it."
"You, son of..."
"Shut up, or I'll really give you a horse's head."
"Are you threatening me?"
"I just said that I am a civilized person, and I hope everyone is civilized." Simon said coldly, "but if someone wants to do something uncivilized, I think you should also know what I looked like when I was savage."
Simon said, no longer and opposite nonsense, directly hang up the phone.
It's late at night in New York on the other side of the world.
Half an hour ago, William Hurst III, who had gradually mastered the power of the Hurst family, was planning to have a rest. When they entered the bedroom, they found that many things had been placed in the bedroom which had just been cleaned in the afternoon, all of which were secretly photographed or stolen They recorded the privacy of the Hurst family, and there were some indescribable videos on the TV in the bedroom.
Apparently, the hursts had an intruder.
Finding the situation in the bedroom, watching the video on the TV and thinking about the kidnapping of the family's sister-in-law Patty hurst, Hurst III's wife was stunned.
William Hurst III was also trembling with anger, but also quickly sorted out the context of the matter.
After tossing about for a while, he called Australia and wanted to question a young man, but it turned out to be a failure.
It's not over yet.
Late into the night, he finally wanted to rest. The phone in his bedroom rang again. Hurst III picked up the phone impatiently. On the other hand, there was a weak cry for help. After seven days in a coma, the two wretched men woke up and found that they had fallen down on Argentina's Tierra del Fuego, more than 10000 kilometers away, with only a string of phone numbers on hand.