June 18th, a new box office week.

After four new films last week, three movies will continue to be logged into North American theaters this week, namely Columbia Pictures' second bombshell "Phantom Heroes", Daenerys Entertainment and Disney's "Sleeping in the Night" and New World Pictures' crime thriller "Thurting" produced by New World Pictures.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's $85 million "Phantom Heroes" is the most popular movie this week. The number of screens to be opened is 2,306 yuan, which is 1,000 yuan less than "Superman". However, it is not difficult to see from this point that Columbia Pictures does not actually have strong confidence in this film.

"Seattle Sleeping in the Night" starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan has 2,369 screens. As a romantic film that needs to rely on word of mouth to make a long-term strategy, the scale of "Seattle Sleeping in the Night of the Night" is certainly impossible to expand to more than 3,000 yuan, and deliberately reaching a level slightly exceeding the level of "Phantom Heroes", which is also the intention of the distribution teams of the two companies.

New World Pictures' "Trending" starring Don Johnson and Rebecca de Money, the second femto-woman movie starring Rebecca de Money after the success of "The Hand of Shaking the Cradle" in 1990.

Simon and his wife arrived in Melbourne on June 15.

After Janet returned home, she continued her leisurely pregnancy life. Simon followed up on the filming of "Batman: The Dark Knight Rises", while also taking into account an expansion plan recently launched by the Johnston family.

As the Japanese economy fell into a sluggish post-burst of the real estate and stock market bubbles, Australia, which relies heavily on Japan's import demand, has also fallen into a trough in recent years. Among them, the most impacted is undoubtedly the mining resources field where the Johnston family is located.

Simon knew that this economic downturn in Australia would last until around 2000, and it was not until China's rise after the new millennium that Australia took off again with China's strong demand for imported resources.

The industry's trough period is actually the best period of expansion and integration.

Without Simon, the big butterfly, the Johnston family, whose strength was only considered to be of medium strength, would be difficult for the expansion in such a trough due to factors such as lack of funds, and would even be more likely to become the merger target in the process of integrating large industries.

This time, the Johnston family not only accumulated a large amount of funds in several financial capital operations with Simon, but also supported the entire Westeros system. It was able to achieve 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 Billiton, Australia's third largest mining group, at this stage.

In the original time and space, the name BHP Billiton is familiar to those who are a little concerned about the mineral resources industry.

It is still 1993, and many industries around the world are in the early stages of long-term separation. Not only Hollywood Media, but also Australian mineral industry is also blooming, far from reaching the level of Australia's BHP Billiton, Britain's Rio Tinto and Brazil's Vale's three mining giants almost monopolizing the world's iron ore industry after 2000.

There are currently three large mining giants in Australia, namely BHP, Billiton and Northern Mining. It is worth mentioning that the three companies, or most Australian mining groups, are headquartered in Melbourne.

The market value of the three giants has reached tens of billions of dollars, among which Billiton, the lowest market value, has a current market value of around $13 billion.

This is the first goal of Johnston Holdings Group.

By taking Billiton, Johnston Holdings Group can completely transform from an investment holding group that only focuses on mining industries into the ranks of mining giants.

Even if the Australian economy is in a trough period, if you want to acquire Billiton with a market value of US$13 billion, you must pay a premium of 25% to 30%. Therefore, the final transaction volume of this business is expected to be between US$16 billion and US$17 billion, equivalent to A$23 billion to 25 billion.

With such a huge amount of capital, no company can easily take it out.

Therefore, no matter in any industry, the evolution from ordinary enterprises to industry oligopolies is equivalent to a transformation from quantitative change to qualitative change.

Of course, Johnston Holdings Group cannot acquire Billiton with an all-cash plan. The complete share exchange acquisition is of course the lowest price. However, if this is done, it is not certain who will be swallowed up, because at that time the shares of Johnston Holdings Group in the new company will inevitably be very low.

Therefore, cash plus stock will be adopted.

In the preliminary plan, Johnston Holdings Group will divest its own mineral business and establish a subsidiary, and then launch a cash and stock acquisition from Billiton with a subsidiary with an asset value of about US$3 billion as the main body. The merger is half the equity and half the cash, of which the cash part will cost about US$8 billion.

Johnston Holdings Group will also bear half of the 8 billion US dollars in cash, including the subsidiary with $3 billion assets, and it is expected to achieve approximately 35% of the new company after the merger, and the remaining $4 billion of funds will be temporarily funded by other related capitals.

For mining giants that are already Volkswagen's shares, completing a 35% shareholding ratio basically means firmly controlling the company.

Moreover, one-third of the holdings are actually the limit that the Australian government can tolerate.

As a pillar industry of a country, it is 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 this. If there is too much proportion, the more obvious the goal will be. Once the industry turmoil occurs in the future, the risks that need to be taken will also increase significantly.

Holding 35% of the shares can not only guarantee almost absolute control, but also integrate with capital from all walks of life to form a bonding state of common advance and retreat.

Of the $4 billion that Johnston Holdings Group needs to bear on its own, the Johnston family can only take out $1.5 billion, while other shareholders of the Johnston Holdings Group bear $1 billion, and the remaining $1.5 billion naturally falls on Simon. Moreover, the other $4 billion in cash also requires the help of the Westeros system to introduce capital from Wall Street and other parties to participate.

I stayed in Melbourne for a week without realizing it.

These days, Simon basically only spends two or three hours a day to stay on the set of "Batman: The Dark Knight Rises", and all other time is led by Raymond Johnston or Anthony Johnston to attend various meetings or social events.

Raymond Johnston has now gradually transitioned control of the company to Anthony Johnston, but this expansion is a big deal for the Johnston family, and many things require the old man to take action in person.

After crossing this threshold, the Johnston family will be able to step into the ranks of world-class wealthy families from remote tycoons limited to a corner of Australia. This does not mean that the Johnston family's wealth will increase too much in a short period of time, but mainly because of the family's influence and the significant increase in the voice in the energy and mineral industry.

Speaking of which, this is also a process that is close to quantitative change to qualitative change.

Moreover, this is actually just the first step in the plan. Next, Johnston Holdings Group will at least merge BHP, which ranks first among the three Australian mining giants, and once again form the BHP Billiton giant, which was once a billion-level. Even if it can go further, Simon doesn't mind continuing to take over the Northern Mining Company and further monopolize Australia's mining field.

Northern Mining Company was acquired by Rio Tinto in the UK in the original time and space, so Rio Tinto has become one of the three giants in the world of iron ore.

Of course, these things cannot be accomplished overnight.

Even if everything goes well in front of you, it will take at least one year. After completing the acquisition, it will take one to two years to adjust and integrate the new company.

Therefore, if you want to expand the next time, it will be at the earliest 3 years. If you can successfully merge BHS, mergers and mergers and integrations in 3 years, it will take another 3 years, and then you will almost enter the new millennium.

It took less than ten years to build a world mining industry giant of 100 billion yuan, and such a cycle is not long at all.

In the northern suburbs of Melbourne, inside the mansion of the Johnston-on-Yarah River.

It was already Tuesday, June 22.

It was lunch time, and a whole family gathered in the restaurant, with more than 20 people of all sizes, which was very lively.

Not only Janet, after getting married at the end of last year, David Johnston's wife Leslie has just confirmed that she has been pregnant for a month, so the topics of women are basically focused on issues such as pregnancy care and baby care.

A little guy was held in his arms by an old man, and his grandfather and grandson seemed very tacitly in understanding. Melbourne, which already showed signs of some playboys, rarely isn't naughty, and would personally grab food and send it to his grandfather's mouth.

Simon sat between Anthony Johnston and Norman Johnston, and the three brothers continued to discuss some of the trivial matters of a merger of BHS in the midst of the hustle and bustle.

"If you are interested, you can take it all this time. Simon, there is no need to continue buying Tasmanian land. The land you possess is vast enough, and there is nothing produced there. It is a waste to continue doing it."

"You know, Norman, I just want to have an island."

“…”

Anthony continued with a smile: "Tasmania is so big and there are so many cities and towns, you can't turn this island into your own after all."

"It's up to man. There are only more than 300,000 people there. If necessary, it's okay for me to raise it completely."

Norman shook his head helplessly: "I can see that Simon is probably from Southern American and a descendant of a slave owner."

Norman Johnston did not lower his voice, everyone laughed, but Veronica, who was sitting opposite the long dining table, looked up and took a look, then looked back as if nothing had happened.

Simon shrugged and smiled, "Maybe."

It was already 1:00 pm after the lively lunch.

The brothers left the restaurant and planned to go to the study to continue talking about some more formal things. Ken Dixon walked in, nodded to the Anthony brothers, hesitated for a while and did not get close to Simon, saying directly to Simon: "In New York, Hurst III has called three times."

Anthony looked at Ken Dixon's expression and looked at Simon and said, "Hurst family, are there any problems?"

"It's just a little thing," Simon shook his head and said, "I'll leave."

Although there was something strange in Ken Dixon's expression, Anthony and Norman did not ask much. Ken Dixon and Neil Bennett were once the most loyal bodyguards of the Johnston family. Before Simon and Janet got married, the Johnston family would directly find out some things through the two. After Simon and Janet got married, the two were completely transferred. Even the old man no longer used this to ask about the privacy of Simon and his wife. Of course, the same was true for Anthony and his brothers.

When he arrived at a small living room in the mansion, Simon picked up the landline microphone in a corner of the living room without using a satellite phone, and dialed a string of numbers at the prompt from Ken Dixon.

The phone was connected, and just as he spoke, a obviously a little angry voice came from the other side of the microphone: "Westero, what are you going to do?"

Simon took the microphone a little away, sat down on the sofa next to him, and casually said, "William, I should ask you this question."

"You actually made someone break into my bedroom!"

"It's a pity, but you must have made this mistake. A civilized person like me would not do such undecent things. If you don't believe it, I suggest you call the police. By the way, it's not that someone put a horse on your bed, right? This is so Hollywood, haha."

The tone of the other person seemed even more angry: "You little bastard, you are breaking the rules."

Simon was too lazy to fight with the other party anymore and said coldly: "Rules, William, if I want to break the rules, something should appear in the newspaper."

"Hmph, did you admit that?"

"I don't admit it."

"You, Son of..."

"Shut up, or I'll actually give you a horse head."

"Are you threatening me?"

"I just said that I am a civilized person, and I also hope that everyone is a civilized person." Simon said coldly: "But if someone wants to do something uncivilized, I think you should also know what I look like when I am barbaric."

After Simon finished speaking, he stopped talking nonsense with the other person and hung up the phone.

It's already late in New York on the other side of the earth.

The Hurst family mansion in Greenwich is still brightly lit, and a large number of security guards are conducting detailed inspections inside and outside the mansion. Half an hour ago, William Hurst III, who had gradually grasped the power of the Hurst family, was about to rest. When they entered the bedroom, they found that the bedroom that had just been sorted out in the afternoon was placed on the floor. All of them were secretly photographed or recorded. There were some indescribable videos on the bedroom TV.

Apparently, the Hurst family encountered an intruder.

When he discovered the situation in the bedroom, he watched the video on the TV and thought about the kidnapped son of the family, Patty Hurst, who was kidnapped, and Hurst III's wife fainted.

William Hurst III was also trembling with anger, but he quickly sorted out the whole story.

After a while, I called the phone to Australia and wanted to question a young man, but I felt disappointed.

Things are not over yet.
Chapter completed!