The Industrial Giant Reborn

"Oh, what do you think? Let me hear it." Chen Zhiwen said. Regarding the triangular debt problem, in his previous life, he had also seen in some materials that the origin and reform of the root cause had led to rapid economic development in various places. Around 1985, due to the overheating of the mainland's economy and excessive government fiscal expenditures, the mainland government had to take measures such as reducing monetary policy to limit the overheating development of the economy.

As a result, many companies have naturally lost their source of funds. Therefore, everyone instinctively began to default on payments to suppliers to ensure their company's capital chain. But the problem is that the entire mainland economy, except for a few export industries, most It’s all a self-circulation, and even export companies will do the same thing in order to ensure the capital chain. As a result, everyone is stuck in the problem of not being able to pay customers, and this result naturally leads to Each company cherishes the funds in its hands, let alone its suppliers.

Collecting debts has become the primary task of the company, and avoiding debts has become the second task. To put it exaggeratedly, many small bosses spend more time and energy on collecting debts and avoiding debts than on serious work. During the Chinese New Year, It was more serious before. After all, if the money is gone, why produce anything? The employees' wages cannot be paid, and if they don't ask for debts, it is estimated that the employees can dismantle the factory equipment and sell it. If the debts cannot be collected, it will be even less possible to pay the suppliers.

As early as last year, the central government has been paying attention to the problem of triangular debt, but it is difficult to solve it because the name of this debt is "triangular debt", but it is just an explanation name that can be understood instantly. In fact, the real debt The situation may involve more than a dozen or even dozens of different companies to form a circle, and within the circle, there are still many branches that are connected to other circles. It is so complicated that it is really difficult to sort it out. In addition, The amount is huge, and a huge amount of capital is needed to solve it, because it is very likely that even if a huge amount of money is invested, the triangular debt cannot be sorted out, causing greater losses to the national finances.

Historically, the final solution to this matter was the personal supervision of a high-level leader of the central government, coupled with the injection of large amounts of capital and the rapid development of the economy in the 1990s. In the end, it took almost three years to resolve the problem in stages. In fact, Of the three important factors, the most core one is the effect brought about by the subsequent economic take-off.

Many times, as long as the economy develops well, many problems will be solved. On the contrary, problems will appear one after another. Therefore, economic development has become one of the most important things for many countries.

"Sheng Chen, do you still remember that a few years ago you asked Hutchison Whampoa to invest in a private steel smelting company in Suzhou City?" Zhou Jiayang said.

"Yes, I remember that I have read this report before. You have done quite well. You have invested in dozens of companies, and several of them are developing very well." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

Hutchison Whampoa's investment in mining is very large. Although most of it is through commercial investment, some of it is personally involved. Among them, the main ones are copper mines and lithium mines, and another one is Christmas Creek in Australia. Iron ore, although this iron ore is also a joint venture with Rio Tinto, Hutchison Whampoa has the terminal sales rights for 60% of the ore according to the share ratio.

In the early days, Chen Zhiwen reached an agreement with Baosteel. Oriental Overseas, which he invested in, would transport almost 8 million tons of ore from Western Australia to Shanghai every year. Later, he relied on Baosteel's relationship and its own suitable prices. It also successfully started supplying to several other steel plants. However, the interests involved are very large, and at the national level, the purchase of iron ore is also a means of economic balance. The enterprise has already taken a lot of share, and it is impossible to grow indefinitely. Of course, if Chen Zhiwen came forward in person, he could still win more, but it would be unnecessary. His face and favor were of higher value.

In China, the steel industry, oil, and mining are all controlled industries, which are much more stringent than the automobile industry. The automobile industry still allows foreign investors to hold 49% of the shares, while the steel industry allows up to 24.9%, and foreign investors are allowed to hold 49% of the shares. Even if the party invests, it cannot obtain management rights. Under this situation, Chen Zhiwen had no way to directly invest in the steel industry, so he could only invest in a curved line. He could not get involved in state-owned enterprises, but he could in the private steel industry.

The largest private steel company in later generations is Shagang in Suzhou City. As early as the mid-1980s, Chen Zhiwen wanted to invest in this company, not that there would be much return. In fact, this pure steel industry was considered At the infrastructure level of price control, you can't make a lot of money in the mainland. Compared with civilian commodity companies like Haier, they are far behind. However, the profits may not be high, but the scale of production capacity is real. Waiting for the scale of Shagang It's big, with an output value of hundreds of billions of yuan every year, and the purchase volume of such a company is also very huge. If you invest early and can lock in some or even most of the iron ore purchases, it will definitely be a killing two birds with one stone.

However, when Chen Zhiwen invested in Haier, it could be said that he was attracted by Zhang Xirui's actions like smashing the refrigerator. For other small-scale enterprises, no matter how high their future achievements are, it would be abnormal for him to go there in person. And there are many such companies. If he really went to one by one, he would be busy to death.

Therefore, a simpler way is to cast a net for fishing. In a designated location or industry, cast a large net and catch a hundred fish. As long as the fish you want is in it, the other 99 will be fine. , just treat it as a casual investment. Anyway, according to the economic development of the mainland, even if a small part of these 99 enterprises can survive to the later stage, for you, the investment will definitely not be a loss.

For Shagang, this was the model. They targeted Suzhou City and asked Hutchison Whampoa to invest more in local steel companies. Then Hutchison investigated all steel companies of some size in Suzhou City. After the list was handed in, Chen Zhiwen discovered If you have Shagang, you can directly ask Hutchison Whampoa to invest in all the companies on the list, or you can select a few and bring Shagang. If Shagang is not on the list, let the following people continue to look for it.

In this way, the matter is completed. Chen Zhiwen does not need to come forward in person. He only needs to give an order and say a few words, and then look at the list of information in the report. It is concise and clear. Although it costs more money, it saves a lot of money. Little time and energy, for Chen Zhiwen, time is more important than money.

With this model, he can easily participate in many future giant companies, such as the future New Hope Group, Fuyao Glass, Vanke, TCL, etc., all of which have been invested by him. Similarly, some companies established in the future, unless they are Internet giants such as Alibaba and Tengxun will not participate in early investments at ordinary levels, so this method will be enough.

Of course, history has changed too much, and I don’t know whether Teng Xun and Ali will still appear.

"In the middle of last year, Shagang sold a large amount of finished steel products to customers, but did not receive payment. The entire company was in difficulty because we were the major shareholder and they also notified us. Later, I arranged for Huang Trading purchased a large amount of steel materials from Shagang and advanced the payment in advance, which allowed it to temporarily get out of trouble. However, for this reason, Shagang itself gave the funds to its suppliers after solving its own problems. This solved the problems of many companies near Suzhou City. After the senior officials of Suzhou Province and the central government learned about this matter, they sent people to me, hoping that we could increase the purchase volume or invest in some companies." Zhou family Yang said.

In fact, if it weren't for the fact that Shagang is a company that the boss is optimistic about, and because of his status, he would not care about such things, Hutchison Whampoa has invested in too many companies in the country, how could he care about a small steel company? died.

"You mean, at this time, we invest on a large scale and acquire shares in some companies?" Chen Zhiwen asked, and he immediately understood what Zhou Jiayang meant. Increasing purchasing volume or something like this, Zhou Jiayang Just make your own decision. If it is possible to invest, the scale involved is too large, so Chen Zhiwen still needs to agree.

"They are shares of high-quality companies, especially those whose products have a certain share of the national market, or the simplest, whose company address has land in the core location of the city. These companies are suitable for us to invest. In fact, it is not just us. "Many domestic governments are also trying to get rid of these companies, but we cannot take over these companies because we don't have the energy, but if we take shares and provide some support by the way, it will be a win-win situation," Zhou Jiayang said.

"You can try this. It may be more meaningful than directly investing in building office buildings." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, although he has made plans to invest heavily in China, the most direct model is infrastructure and In terms of real estate and infrastructure, not all projects are comparable to the Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan Expressway, and most of them are restricted by the government. You cannot build them if you have money. The same is true for ports, and the number is even smaller. In terms of real estate, apart from hotels, only office buildings are left. At present, Mandarin Oriental has built 50 hotels in more than 35 cities in China, accounting for almost half of the domestic five-star hotels. If it continues to build, it will still be a monopoly. It's not an exaggeration. As for office buildings, we can't achieve a monopoly, but building unlimited office buildings seems a bit outrageous.

Whether it is infrastructure or real estate itself, it is also helpful to the domestic economy, and may even be beneficial to the current "triangular debt", because their payments are very timely, but this kind of help is indirect, far more than if it were not Directly locate the heart and then perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation. This is the urgent solution to the current triangular debt problem.

"What the mainland means is that we can take this opportunity to intervene in the domestic manufacturing industry on a large scale. The advantage for us is that Watsons can fully enter all cities in the country without any restrictions. However, try to purchase locally. , In addition, payment to suppliers also needs to be timely, and the same is true for KFC." Zhou Jiayang said.

"Hahaha, what a good idea. Although Watsons has entered the country earlier, with so many supermarkets, if funds flow, it will also be of great help to the domestic economy." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

As early as 5 years ago, the domestic retail market was closed to the outside world. Except for Shenhai City, only a few other cities would consider introducing a few overseas supermarkets. The main purpose was for reference and learning. When the domestic central government did not relent, even Watsons , and could only play around in places other than the deep sea. Later, it was Chen Zhiwen who personally came forward to exchange other benefits, giving Watsons the opportunity to enter 20 open coastal cities such as Yanjing and Shanghai.

At the time, such gains were enough. After all, even if the country opened up to allow Watsons to enter, Watsons would not be able to enter hundreds of cities at once. The expansion of retail supermarkets requires the cultivation of a large number of local talents and the selection of supply chains. , the establishment of logistics centers and other issues. Even in the early 1970s, the development of Costco was the same.

Today, at least half of the retail sales in 20 coastal cities are controlled by Watsons, especially RT-Mart, which is a sweeping trend everywhere and has gained customers from people several kilometers away. Fortunately, now is the time to head inland.

"The mainland side can obviously see what we actually need, and the conditions proposed can be regarded as a win-win situation for everyone." Zhou Jiayang said: "In addition to us, Wal-Mart and Carrefour have also opened in Yanjing and Shanghai. Stores, from the data I know, their profits are also good. I estimate that they will start to increase investment in China in the future. There are also domestic retail brands. Many smart people are also imitating our business model, and then in Supermarkets have been built in other places and have been successful. If we are not allowed to enter the mainland for a few more years, overseas brands will not be afraid. However, local brands in the mainland may become our strong rivals, especially domestic ones. There are too many cities, and at least in the first ten years, we will not be able to compete directly with our competitors."

"Well, what you said makes sense, but don't expect us to really have a monopoly on the mainland like Hong Kong. It's impossible. With so many local talents, there will always be someone who becomes big in the retail industry. We can do it. Yes, just do your own thing well." Chen Zhiwen said nonchalantly.

For non-Internet online shopping, it is impossible to control all the traffic. There are too many places. Even if the money is unlimited, it is impossible to build supermarkets in all places. The talent team alone cannot keep up. Therefore, for the mainland market, You can naturally do as much as you want, but you can’t expect too much. Anyway, in the Internet age, there will still be opportunities for online shopping.

"Okay, then I will negotiate with the mainland side like this later?" Zhou Jiayang said.

"Well, yes, but if there are other benefits, they should be small, as long as they do not involve direct loss of mainland interests. Anyway, in many markets, if they are not given to us, they will be given to others." Chen Zhiwen said.

"Okay, I understand." Zhou Jiayang nodded and said. (End of chapter)