Many people may not know Zhang Lan, but when it comes to Big S, you must know that Zhang Lan is Big S’s mother-in-law. Many people may have heard of this brand that was destroyed by capital: South Beauty.

When she was a child, Zhang Lan’s dream was to be a surgeon. Unexpectedly, he failed to get the scalpel, but instead picked up a large spoon and started cooking. In 1991, 34-year-old Zhang Lan earned US$20,000 in Canada by doing illegal work, washing dishes and washing dishes. She gave up her Canadian green card and took the money to return to Beijing and open a Sichuan restaurant called "Alan Restaurant". Taking the civilian route, I made my first pot of gold.

In 2000, Zhang Lan sold all the restaurants and raised 60 million yuan to create South Beauty with a clear goal: to take a high-end route. How high-end is it? Zhang Lan spent 300 million yuan to build an "Orchid Club", with a crystal cup worth tens of thousands of yuan, a chair worth 180,000 yuan, a crystal lamp worth 5 million yuan, and 1,600 oil paintings on the walls...

The reason for such luxury is that Zhang Lan has his own little plan, which is to win the bid for the brand to be the catering supplier for the Olympic Games. In 2008, Zhang Lan got her wish and won the bid to be the Chinese catering service provider for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, providing catering services for eight venues. Later, the restaurant was opened at the Shanghai World Expo venue.

Beautiful Jiangnan’s reputation has been fully established. It has opened stores in Beijing and Shanghai, covering first- and second-tier cities such as Chengdu, Taiyuan, Nanjing, Tianjin, etc. However, expansion requires money, and it is high-end. The route is very expensive. Just when Zhang Lan was short of money, a wealthy capital suddenly sent money.

It is CDH Venture Capital. In 2008, it spent 200 million to buy about 10% of the shares of South Beauty. However, this money was not given away for free. CDH and Zhang Lan signed a gambling agreement: South Beauty must be listed by the end of 2012. If it cannot, Dinghui's shares will be bought back, and the annual "interest" is 20%. At that time, Zhang Lan was very high-spirited and felt that this was nothing at all. Even if Dinghui didn't mention it, he would go public, so he readily agreed.

After receiving the money, Zhang Lan was obviously a little overwhelmed, and made harsh words: Beauty Jiangnan "will enter the Fortune Global 500 by the end of the next decade" and "become one of the top three of the Fortune Global 500 by the end of the next decade." . Zhang Lan is still planning her great blueprint, and capital has already cast a dark net and begun to "hunt" South Beauty.

2. Capital hunting, South Beauty becomes "other people's wedding clothes"

2. Capital hunting, South Beauty becomes "other people's wedding clothes"

Beautiful Jiangnan gets the money , began to expand rapidly. Everything was going in the right direction, but when it came time to go public, something went wrong. In March 2011, South Beauty applied for listing. At that time, there were more than 600 companies lining up to go public. After waiting for a year, they were blocked by the China Securities Regulatory Commission precisely because of the gambling agreement and some prohibitions.

When listing on the mainland failed, Zhang Lan thought of listing in Hong Kong, China. In order to facilitate listing, Zhang Lan even quit her Chinese citizenship and joined the tax haven of St. Kitts and Nevis. In this regard, Zhang Lan laughed at herself: If it weren't for the listing of the company, why would I give up my identity as a citizen of the People's Republic of China and go to a small island with no shit and a temperature of more than 40 degrees? I have to fly for 24 hours to go there. It was a place where pirates lived hundreds of years ago.

As a result, the listing failed. Zhang Lan could only bite the bullet and buy back the shares from Dinghui, and he had to pay 20% interest, but Zhang Lan simply couldn't afford so much money. When Dinghui saw that Zhang Lan couldn't come up with the money, he gave her a good idea: If you don't have money, you can sell shares. He also kindly introduced her to CVC, one of the largest private equity funds in Europe. In the end, Zhang Lan sold 72% of the shares to CVC to pay back the money. Together with Dinghui's 10% shareholding, he held 82% of the shares for a day. Dinghui took the money and ran away.

Beautiful Jiangnan, founded by Zhang Lan, finally "cleaned up and left the house". Zhang Lan himself admitted frankly: Bringing them in was the biggest mistake of South Beauty and "meaningless".

The Chinese brand that was "killed" by CVC was Daniang Dumplings. After CVC acquired 90% of the shares of Daniang Dumplings, the original founder Wu Guoqiang was kicked out and only had a "technical consultant" idle position. Later, the cost of dumpling ingredients and goods was reduced by 10%, and more than 100 categories were reduced to more than 40. Consumers complained that Auntie's dumplings had become "only skins, no fillings." CVC, who ruined the Daniang dumplings, sold it to a Chinese company and quickly cashed out.

Some people commented that CVC is "after eating Beauty Jiangnan, try dumplings again."

3. Is the increase in foreign investment adding strength to a tiger or inviting a wolf into the house?

3. Is the increase in foreign investment adding strength to a tiger or inviting a wolf into the house?

Zhang Lan, who lost Beauty Jiangnan, did not give up on catering. Meng, at the age of 62, entered the catering industry again and opened a new store in Guomao, Beijing, called Ma Liuji, but its reputation is far less than that of South Beauty. Perhaps because he was heartbroken by CDH, Zhang Lan also established a private equity fund that only invests in catering. He raised his own capital and specialized in investing in "catering dark horses".

From South Beauty to Da Niang Dumplings, all companies have been "eroded" by foreign capital without exception. This also makes us reflect: does the introduction of foreign capital make the company "more powerful" or "lead the wolf into the house". Here you can see what Lao Gan Ma does. Tao Huabi, the founder of Lao Gan Ma, once said: Do as much as you have money.

She believes that "as soon as Lao Ganma goes public, she may go bankrupt, and it is deceiving people's money."

What's more important is that Tao Huabi truly regards Lao Ganma as her "darling". In terms of business operations, once Lao Gan Ma goes public, it will be easily "manipulated" by the capital market. Tao Huabi can no longer fully control the development direction of Lao Gan Ma. After all, the capital market is greedy and will do whatever it takes to make profits.

Huawei also feels the same way. Ren Zhengfei also said: "One of the reasons why we can surpass our competitors in the industry is that we have not gone public.

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