The Industrial Giant Reborn

August 1998.

The capital of South Korea, Seoul.

"This is my first time in Korea. There are so many Chinese on the street." Liu Xiaoli said while shopping.

"This is some Chinese in Korean." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

At the same time, I took out my camera and took a few random street scenes.

"Oh, just like Japanese, I can guess the meaning of some Japanese sentences." Liu Xiaoli said again.

"Yes, the culture and language of Japan and South Korea are all derived from our Chinese language." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

Before 2005, the capital of South Korea was still called Seoul, and there was also a lot of Chinese in the Korean language.

The older generation of Koreans even only know Chinese, not the new language with a bunch of circles and squares.

Later, in order to reduce the influence of Chinese culture, the then mayor of Seoul, Lee Myung-bak, initiated a city name change, and the entire country also began to vigorously de-Chinese.

Japan is also doing the same thing. Relatively speaking, it is not as active as South Korea.

"Well, the food here tastes so bad. It's not as good as some domestic stalls?" Liu Xiaoli bought some snacks at the street intersection and said after eating.

"Haha, you can come to Korea to have fun, but forget about the food." Chen Zhiwen said.

Korean food is simply hard to describe. Not to mention the food on the street, even the state banquets they use to entertain foreign dignitaries have left many international dignitary guests unsatisfied.

You know, people also want to give face to the Korean government, but their stomachs disagree.

"Yeah, okay." Liu Xiaoli nodded and asked, "Will you come back to eat with us at noon?"

"No, you can eat with your parents." Chen Zhiwen said.

This time when he came to South Korea, it was just for traveling and playing, but the main reason was that he came to buy bargains.

The Asian financial crisis in 1998 caused great damage to the South Korean economy, bursting the once huge bubble, causing the entire country to be in tight foreign exchange, and had to rely on the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for old loan turnover, and these two, who Everyone knows it’s from the United States.

Even the national level has been severely affected, and South Korean consortiums that are extremely dependent on South Korea have suffered heavy losses.

"Okay, then go and do your work." Liu Xiaoli nodded and said.

"You should also pay attention to your health." Chen Zhiwen said.

Anyway, there are another set of twins in my belly. It’s not obvious yet. You can come out and play, otherwise it will be inconvenient again in half a year.

After leaving, Chen Zhiwen came to Land's headquarters in Seoul, South Korea.

This is a skyscraper with a height of 62 floors. From the top floor, you can see half of Seoul.

"How many large-scale properties does our group have in South Korea?" Chen Zhiwen asked, looking at the steel forest outside.

Over the years, Land's main investment directions have been the Mainland and Hong Kong. However, even if Chen Zhiwen knows the future, he requires his group to diversify, regardless of business types or investment destinations.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Land invested heavily in Southeast Asia, including South Korea. However, before 1997, under the order of Chen Zhiwen, it basically adopted a strategy of selling off all assets and cashing out.

After Soros' bloodbath in Southeast Asia, Land returned to look for opportunities.

Only Hong Kong will not move. This is a permanent real estate investment. Other places are just speculation.

Kim Sang-Nong, who is in charge of the Korean real estate business, said: "Sheng Chen, the Korean market economy is still unstable at present, and we are not sure whether it will continue to plummet in the future.

Therefore, we did not enter the market on a large scale, but when some local consortiums were in urgent need of funds, we purchased some prime positions at extremely low prices.

Currently, we own a total of 3 office buildings, 2 shopping malls, and some small-scale properties in Seoul. "

"Well, okay." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, "After that, we will prepare large-scale capital investment to acquire suitable targets. Although the crisis in South Korea is serious, in the long run, I am still optimistic about South Korea's economy."

As a time traveler, of course he knows that by next year, South Korea's economy will recover, and even Southeast Asia will be the same.

Not to mention returning to the previous peak state, but at least it can be said to be out of the quagmire.

He came here to buy South Korea at the bottom, which means he chose this right time.

"Yes." Jin Shannon bowed and agreed.

At the same time, I also had something in my mind. My boss started buying the bottom. Doesn’t that mean that the Korean economy has reached rock bottom and will soon be back to life?

Although he is Korean, he also knows that his boss's historical achievements are almost at the right point of the times.

"Have the people from Samsung, LG, and Hyundai arrived?" Chen Zhiwen asked again.

"They have arrived and are waiting for us next door." Jin Shannon replied.

"Okay, let's go meet them." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

This time I came to South Korea, of course, not just to buy Korean real estate.

Such a thing, even though the benefits are great, is relatively simple. Just give an order from Hong Kong.

He came to South Korea in person, but to buy these future super conglomerates in South Korea.

"Please come this way." Kim Shannon said with another Korean bow.

Even though he, as the person in charge of Land in South Korea, controls funds in the amount of 100 million US dollars, even the heads of local Korean consortiums are polite to him, but in front of the Hong Kong bosses, he can only grovel.

It's really because the largest real estate group in Asia and even the world is just one of the consortiums controlled by the person in front of me.

Soon, Chen Zhiwen came to a luxurious conference room next door. When the people inside saw Chen Zhiwen coming, they all stood up immediately.

"President Li, President Goo, President Zheng... hello everyone."

Under Jin Shangnong's introduction, Chen Zhiwen shook hands with everyone in the conference room one by one.

Those who come here today are also the heads of South Korea's top chaebols.

However, what Chen Zhiwen values ​​​​is actually Li Jianxi, a Samsung legend. The others are just the second generation and the third generation.

"Hello, Mr. Chen." Li Jianxi and others also said politely to Chen Zhiwen.

"Please take a seat." Chen Zhiwen greeted with a smile.

After everyone took their seats, everyone exchanged casual greetings and business talk for a while.

Chen Zhiwen also expressed his optimism about the future of South Korea's economy, and the heads of Korean consortiums present also welcomed Chen Zhiwen to invest in South Korea.

In particular, Hong Kong successfully withstood the financial attack by international hot money led by Soros, causing Soros and others to suffer heavy losses.

Everyone knows that the main force in this is the Hong Kong government and the mainland, but Chen Zhiwen also played a big role in it.

"Mr. Chen, I don't know. Regarding some of the conditions we negotiated before, do you have any other requirements?" Li Jianxi said.

Now that South Korea is in a severe economic recession, the foundations of several major financial groups have also been severely impacted, and each of them is heavily in debt.

Although the International Monetary Fund has signed a loan package of up to 50 billion US dollars with the Korean government, this amount of money is still not enough.

In particular, if you want to get this money, you have to pay a lot of money.

Even if they don't want to take it due to some special reasons, it would definitely be more beneficial to them if they can get additional funds from other channels.

"In principle, there is no big problem." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, "However, I have an additional condition."

As early as a year ago, Chen Zhiwen actually arranged funds to acquire several major consortiums in the Korean stock market whose stock prices plummeted.

However, it is just a financial investment. It is impossible for him to really want to acquire these companies. For some reasons, it is impossible to succeed.

Moreover, Hong Kong was under attack by Soros at that time, and it was impossible for him to mobilize too much funds to hunt for bargains elsewhere.

Until the beginning of this month, the Hong Kong dollar won a big victory, and his funds were finally free, so he began to buy South Korea at the bottom on a large scale, because next year, the South Korean economy will take off again.

Before buying the bottom, he also sent people to communicate with some Korean consortiums. For pure financial investment, the Korean consortiums in crisis were naturally happy to accept it.

As a result, the two parties were engaged in business negotiations on many issues, and results soon came to fruition.

"Please tell me." Li Jianxi and others said.

Chen Zhiwen said: “We will deal with the number and price of shares of each investment company as we have negotiated before, and this is no problem.

However, I need to import a set of the most advanced LCD production lines from South Korea to the mainland. "

"LCD production line?" Li Jianxi and LG President Goo's expressions changed.

Chen Zhiwen didn't speak. After waiting for a while, LG's President Goo said: "Sheng Chen, according to some international treaties, the most advanced LCD production lines cannot be moved to the mainland."

"Really? But some companies in Japan don't seem to say that!" Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

"This..." President Gu and Li Jianxi looked at each other. They didn't know whether what Chen Zhiwen said was true.

Since the early 1990s, the United States has suppressed Japanese LCD and chip companies and indirectly supported Korean companies, causing their Japanese counterparts to suffer heavy losses over the years.

In addition, this financial crisis has also had a great impact on Japan. No one knows whether Japanese companies will have another "Toshiba incident" in 1985!

"If you can't sell the most advanced one, what about the 2.5-generation one? Isn't this a new technology?" Chen Zhiwen asked again.

In fact, its purpose is not to build the most advanced production line. Even if this thing really finds a way to be introduced into the country, there will be big problems with domestic technical reserves and after-sales maintenance spare parts.

Besides, at present, the main TV sets in China are still picture tubes, and Changhong is still launching a crazy price war. There is actually not much room in the LCD market.

The reason why I want to introduce them is mainly for my early domestic layout, self-production needs for export products, and the cultivation of talent reserves in this area.

"For the 2.5th generation, yes, I have an old production line under my command. However, this production line contains a lot of American technology, and entering the mainland requires the approval of the U.S. government." President Goo said.

"I will be responsible for this." Chen Zhiwen said.

He has had a lot of resources in the United States for many years. As long as it is not the most advanced equipment production line, it is still possible to convince the White House.

And he also has allies, many high-end equipment manufacturers. In fact, they want to do business in the mainland, but they are restricted.

Once an old production line goes in, it will be a breakthrough for them.

"Okay, but I still need to discuss this matter with our country's officials." President Gu thought for a while and said.

"Okay." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, "This transaction will be settled in cash in US dollars."

"Understood." President Gu nodded.

If LG also falls into a serious debt crisis, coupled with the depreciation of the Korean won, leading to further increase in foreign debt, they will also urgently need a large amount of US dollar cash.

Even though he knows that this sale may bring new competition troubles to him in the future, he has no choice. Besides, if he doesn't sell it, other companies may also sell it.

It is not the most advanced production line, but with so many consortiums working together, there is still a chance of success.

In fact, the mainland has also requested it, but it has not been successful.

This is not to say that it is absolutely impossible, but that as a mainland country, there are many types of high-tech production lines that need to be purchased, and they will make choices in the resources they invest.

The so-called technological blockade, as long as it is not the most cutting-edge technology that Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea attach great importance to, does not mean that it is absolutely impossible. In the end, it is just a matter of mutual benefit.

"We at Samsung also have a 2.5-generation production line and two 2.0-generation production lines." Li Jianxi said not to be outdone.

"Okay, we can talk about everything." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

Nowadays, notebook computers are selling well, and Midea has achieved good results in this market.

Only in mainland assembly plants, all LCD panels need to be purchased from South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan, which greatly increases costs.

Although BOE, which has invested by itself, has been investing in LCD research, no matter how hard it tries, it cannot catch up with so many foreign peers.

Therefore, Chen Zhiwen needs to give them another push and introduce a production line to them.

In fact, even if it does not intervene, BOE will still be able to introduce LCD production lines from South Korea in a few years.

But it would be good for me if I could do it a few years earlier.

"What about Midea Group's procurement from Samsung?" Li Jianxi asked again.

"No problem, just follow what we negotiated before." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

Although the Korean consortium is currently short of money, if you want to invest in large-scale shares, you don't just have to have money.

Midea Group's dominant position in the global electronics industry market is also one of the important conditions for success.

A large terminal civilian company's annual purchases are staggering. By placing targeted orders with South Korea, it can save thousands of Korean jobs.

Although Midea's production capacity is mainly in the mainland, there are also many electronic components that cannot be manufactured in the mainland. These are orders that many supplier companies in Europe, South Korea, Japan, and the United States are very jealous of.

Among these countries, South Korea's electronics industry has the most promising future. Coupled with the current economic debt crisis, Chen Zhiwen naturally negotiated the conditions for investment in US dollar cash + large orders.

Even if Wall Street will still control more than 50% of the shares of the Korean consortium, if they take a small part of the rest, they can still get a big share of the pie.

"Okay, then as long as we sign the contract, we can trade immediately." Li Jianxi said: "Mr. Chen, this matter is so important, how about we sign the contract at the Blue House?"

"Okay." Chen Zhiwen nodded.

He also knows that the Korean consortium and the government are trying to use his fame to alleviate South Korea's current economic crisis.

You know, since Hong Kong defeated Soros and others, Chen Zhiwen's reputation has become even more famous in the global market.

Wall Street calls him "the man who defeated Soros", although it feels a bit flattering.

But today, Chen Zhiwen, with one sentence, can cause the stock market to fluctuate significantly, and with one move of buying a house, housing prices in a city can rise.

The fundamental reason is that a large amount of hot money is staring at Chen Zhiwen and investing behind him.

Just like Soros a few years ago.

And Chen Zhiwen naturally gave the Korean consortium this face, because the Korean consortium recovered as soon as possible, and his investment could benefit more quickly.

PS: Happy New Year to everyone.