Chapter 339 Earth Agriculture Group

Time flies, and soon it is a day in mid-May 1998.

That morning, Ivana Gimp brought her children to Harvard Business School as usual.

At only seventeen years old, she is already a college student, but what surprises many people is that she is also a mother.

They even dared to bring their children to attend classes at Harvard, the sacred place of academia.

Of course.

The child was a little too young to sit still, and she didn't really take the child to class.

She just takes her kids to school and then she goes to class.

Naturally, someone will help her take care of the child. After all, the most important person among the school’s board of directors is the child’s father.

Let's take a step back.

Even without this relationship, with her or the child's grandfather's wealth, they could easily afford to hire a nanny to help Ivana take care of the child at Harvard University.

But if that were the case, Ivana might not have had it as easy at Harvard University as it is now.

In short, she left her children to the babysitters and only came back during breaks or lunch breaks.

Ivana went to class.

She studied business administration at Harvard Business School.

Harvard Business School is famous all over the world.

It has produced a large number of famous alumni, and its MBA program is highly sought after by many wealthy people around the world who want to gild themselves or make more connections.

As usual, Ivana came to the lecture hall.

She has two classes this morning, the first one is "Business Variables Caused by International Relations".

As soon as she entered the classroom, she attracted the attention of more than 20 students inside.

This is normal, although she is only seventeen years old, but she is fair-skinned, beautiful and dignified, and her figure is even more eye-catching.

More importantly, everyone knew that she was the woman of some important person.

Ivana was already accustomed to this kind of gaze, so she ignored it and went straight to two young female classmates who were about twenty years old.

"Mary, Anna, good morning."

"Good morning, Ms. Blackburn."

"Good morning, ma'am."

Mary and Anna spoke to her respectfully.

That’s right, Ivana Gimple changed her last name.

Her full name now is Ivana Gimple Blackburn… Although she has not actually married, she has changed her last name!

Mary and Anna, in addition to being students at Harvard Business School.

They also have another identity, that is, their father or mother works in Jinpu's company.

They were able to study at Harvard University thanks to the financial support of Kimple and Ivana.

So they would provide Ivana with services such as business secretarial work as compensation while she was attending Harvard.

Going to school...

In addition, there is one of Ivana's classmates who is not actually a student.

That was the personal security guard that United Global arranged to be around her.

In addition, there will be two other security guards waiting outside the classroom at any time.

"Mary, show me today's newspaper."

There were still ten minutes before class started, and Ivana politely spoke to her part-time assistant Mary.

Mary quickly handed a stack of newspapers she had selected to Ivana. "Ma'am, these are all reports about Mr. Right. They are all related to business or politics."

Ivana nodded. The gentleman that Mary mentioned was naturally that man.

Ivana took it and took a look at it, and found that the latest issue of The Wall Street Journal was on the top.

On the front page headline of this issue of the Wall Street Journal, there is a full-color photo of Milo standing on a map of Africa.

Ivana read the newspaper.

[…In the misty volcanoes, 24-year-old world wealth legend Milo Blackburn is kneeling in the mud, his Harvard graduation ring covered in dirt. He carefully adjusts the radio collar on the neck of the mountain gorilla "Charles" - this anesthetized 400-pound silverback gorilla is the core of the conservation project of his charity Blackburn Foundation in Africa.]

[“Charles’ group lost three cubs to poachers last year,” Blackburn’s voice was mixed with the noise of the satellite phone, “but starting today, their range will be protected by laser fences.”]

[This super-rich man with a net worth of over $100 billion is carrying out a week-long controversial operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (renamed from Zaire in 1997). While the world is discussing why he did not set up a charitable foundation like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, Blackburn's three-pronged strategy - wildlife protection, sustainable agriculture, and children's health - is reshaping the boundaries between business and charity...]

[One thousand words are omitted in the middle. ]

[…In this land where 2 million souls are buried, the experiment of the 24-year-old idealist continues. As anthropologist Laurent Ndombe commented: "He brought not only dollars and technology, but also a mirror that reflects the plight of everyone in the face of the resource curse." ]

[The answer may be hidden before the next rainy season arrives, or perhaps there is no perfect answer at all. ]

["The Congolese Diary of a 24-year-old Legend of Human Wealth"]

[Author: Jason Drexel, special correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, April 14, 1998, Kahuzi-Biega National Park, Democratic Republic of the Congo]

【……】

Ivana finished reading the report before class.

She knew that Milo had gone to Africa.

Even Milo is now back in the States.

Milo did not hide the purpose of his trip to Africa from those around him.

As long as they are interested and ask, he will generally tell them.

And Ivana is indeed one of the people who would be interested in this kind of thing.

So she asked.

That is the real purpose of Milo's going to Africa. In fact, he goes there as a victor to adjust, compromise and negotiate with the old Europeans about everyone's future vested interests in Africa.

He went there on behalf of the United States, representing the Boston Consortium and several other consortiums.

After all, before this, the United States basically regarded South America as its own backyard.

Europe is using Africa as their blood bag and backup battery...

Now that Europe is declining and the United States is strong, Americans are certainly no longer satisfied with having only one backyard.

They want the whole world to be like South America, and make the whole world a reserve battery for the Americans!

This is already the case in parts of Asia and Europe as well.

The remaining countries in these two continents are more difficult to deal with.

It cannot be taken in a short time, and it is impossible for Americans to stop their greedy appetite.

Then we can only focus our attention on that black land.

But before Milo existed, the consortiums often had to fight alone.

There is no way to mobilize the entire power of the United States.

Now that we have Milo, he is willing.

So he became the representative of some of the interests of American financial groups in Africa.

This eventually led to this trip to Africa.

These are what Milo told her, and after that Ivana was able to understand them herself.

She couldn't understand any more.

Just at this moment, the professor came to teach the class.

Ivana closed the newspaper and thought that there was nothing wrong in being a lover of a man like this and having children for him.

You know, he has already participated in the real stage of this world.

It is no longer limited to businesses worth millions, tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions of dollars.

Instead, they always seek national and international interests.

Compared to him, all his peers should be ashamed and commit suicide!

With such a satisfying thought in mind, Ivana began the class.

And at the same time, Milo had indeed returned to the United States.

The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!

Even been back for a week.

His people are in New York now.

During Ivana's class.

He is at the International Building, Rockefeller Center, in New York.

The weather in New York is bad today, and Manhattan is covered in heavy rain.

Unable to engage in outdoor activities, Milo simply stayed in his office, looking at the relevant information of interest collected by the Blackburn Foundation.

It is mainly related to the business of Bunge, which has just been successfully acquired.

It has to be said that Bunge is one of ABCD, so it must be very powerful.

It not only engages in the planting and sales of agricultural and sideline products, but also has a seed breeding department, and its industrial chain layout is very complete.

but!

After all, Bunge is not a professional seed company. It may excel in a certain variety, but it cannot be the best in the breeding and improvement of all crop seeds.

Therefore, when necessary, we can only purchase seeds from the world's top seed companies to ensure sufficient competitiveness.

at present.

The world's largest seed company is Pioneer Seed Company, which was founded in 1926 by Henry Wallace, the father of American corn hybridization.

After seventy years of development, Pioneer Seed Company has grown into the world's largest development and sales company of hybrid corn seeds.

The global planting area of ​​its corn seeds has reached nearly 300 million acres, accounting for 22% of the global corn planting area.

In the global seed market, Pioneer Seeds' hybrid corn seeds have a market share of 43%.

In addition to corn seeds, Pioneer Seed Company also has large sales in soybean, sorghum, sunflower, alfalfa seeds and other fields.

Soybean seeds account for a quarter of the U.S. market, and sorghum seeds account for one-sixth.

Milo knew something about this company. Before the turn of the millennium, it was acquired by the DuPont consortium for $7.7 billion and incorporated into the DuPont company, which caused a huge sensation at the time.

The second place is the infamous Monsanto Company.

The company pays great attention to the research and development and cultivation of genetically modified seeds, and ranks first in the world in seed genetic modification technology.

Monsanto's seed business mainly focuses on cotton, soybean and corn seeds, and it is Pioneer Seed's main competitor in the US market.

Monsanto was later acquired by Bayer of Germany for a whopping $63 billion, an absolutely sky-high price! The third largest seed company in the world is Limagrain of France.

The company was founded in 1942 and focuses on the field of vegetable seeds. It is currently the world's number one vegetable seed company.

Ranked fourth in the world is the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis.

They also have strong capabilities in the seed sector, and their main business is also vegetable seeds.

Ranked fifth in the world is Mexico's largest seed company, Seminis.

The company's main seed business is fruit and vegetable seeds, among which vegetable seeds occupy one-fifth of the world market.

They are the best at avocado seeds, and they are also deeply involved in the "avocado scam".

Except these companies.

Data have been collected from internationally renowned seed companies including Sweden's Astra, Britain's Zeneca, the Netherlands' Royal Van der Haff Group, the United States' Merck & Co., Cargill, France's Louis Dreyfus, the Danish Seed Company, the United States' Great Lakes Seed Company, Archer Daniels Midland, Germany's Bayer, and the United States' Delta Seed Company.

As for the seed giants of later generations such as Syngenta of Switzerland, Edwata, Dow Chemical of the United States, BASF of Germany, etc., they are actually evolved from the mergers of the above companies.

The current global seed market, like the bulk trade market, is still in a state of healthy competition and development, and has not entered the stage of malicious mergers and acquisitions.

Therefore, there are still many players in the seed market globally, and there is a lot of room for acquisition options.

but!

In fact, if you want to build a global seed hegemony and completely strengthen the bulk trade industry chain of agricultural crops, the range of choices is really limited.

There is no need to say much about Pioneer Seeds, the world's No. 1 seed company. Although it has a great reputation, its seed sales last year were less than $1.7 billion! Secondly, Monsanto, the leader in genetically modified technology, cannot be let go.

The company's sales in the seed sector last year were only US$1.577 billion.

Genetically modified agricultural technology is the mainstream trend of American agriculture in the future. It is unavoidable. Grasping it means grasping the development artery of the industry.

As long as Pioneer Seed Company and Monsanto Company of the United States take over, they will occupy more than half of the world market in the two fields of soybeans and corn and firmly maintain their dominant position.

Moreover, we have been able to fully enter the first-class ranks in the industry in terms of crop seeds such as cotton, wheat, sorghum, sunflower, and sesame.

Then there is Delta Seed Company in the United States, the world's largest cotton seed company, which must also be taken over. By combining the strength of the three companies, the cotton seed market will be able to occupy more than half of the world's market.

The companies that Milo finally targeted were France's Limagrain and Mexico's Seminis Seeds.

These two companies are giants in vegetable, fruit and melon seeds, one is number one in the world and the other is number three in the world.

As long as they acquire both and merge them together, they will firmly sit on the dominant position in the field of vegetable and fruit seeds, far surpassing the second-place Swiss Novartis.

It’s not that Milo looks down on the Swiss company Novartis, but the possibility of acquiring this company is not high, even if it is just the seed business.

After all, Swiss Novartis is a global pharmaceutical giant, and the seed business is just a small department of it.

Novartis of Switzerland is also controlled by a European old-brand consortium. It is one of the flagship companies in the European pharmaceutical field. How can it be acquired so easily? After all, he just robbed Bunge. If he continues to rob Novartis now, then old Europe will probably go crazy...

Therefore, Milo had no choice but to choose the Mexican Seminis Seed Company as his second choice.

But this is also a good thing, as France's Limagrain and Mexico's Seminis are located in two continents.

There is not much overlap in business areas. If they can be merged, the reinforcement effect will be better.

As long as these five companies can be acquired, Bunge's seed business will be divested and merged into them.

Then we can definitely create a global seed hegemony without any shortcomings.

Without hesitation, Milo immediately issued instructions, asking the Boston Consortium and Paladin Investment to take action separately.

The Boston Consortium was responsible for acquiring Pioneer Seed Company, Monsanto Company and Delta Seed Company, all three of which are located in the United States. With the power of the Boston Consortium, the acquisition was simpler and faster.

Paladin Capital was responsible for the acquisition of France's Limagrain and Mexico's Seminis Seeds.

At the same time, he also made a decision to merge his original Paladin Agricultural Group with Bunge.

He even thought of a name for the new company after the merger.

It’s called Blackburn Earth Agriculture Group, or Earth Agriculture Group for short.

(End of this chapter)