The Industrial Giant Reborn

"NBA?" Henry froze for a moment, but didn't react.

"NBA is the basketball league of the United States." Chen Zhiwen said with a helpless smile. In the current United States, basketball is definitely not the most popular sporting event. Before Jordan appeared, the popularity was too low.

"Oh, they, I know, but I didn't remember it all at once." Henry said: "But basketball is not well-known in the United States. It is useless if you want to use them to increase the reputation of your product. You might as well consider baseball or How about football?"

"Are you sure you can acquire these two popular teams?" Chen Zhiwen asked back.

"This is indeed a bit difficult, and it may take a long time." Henry said after thinking about it.

"Let's think about basketball first. I know that basketball is not popular in the United States, but it is well-known internationally. My products must also consider the global market. The football and baseball you mentioned are basically useless outside the United States." Chen Zhiwen shrugged and said that the United States, a country far away from the Eurasian continent, has many cultures that are completely different from those in Europe. They always like to play different things in other countries. In terms of sports events, football is the most popular sport in the world, but the United States Always liked rugby, while other countries have no interest in this sport at all.

Fortunately, after the mid-1980s, the American Basketball League NBA began to develop vigorously, and then the top players headed by Jordan began to make basketball famous, not only in the United States, but also abroad, although in the end it was still incomparable in the United States Rugby is not as good as football in foreign countries, but it is also one of the most well-known games and has a large number of fans.

"That's all right. Anyway, a basketball team doesn't cost much. What team do you have a better view on? Let me ask." Henry said indifferently. A team that is not well-known is not worth much money. Besides, many rich people buy football teams just for the sake of hobbies. As an Asian, it is normal for Chen Zhiwen to like basketball.

"I didn't say which one to choose. The American basketball game is based on the city. Just choose from big cities like New York and Los Angeles. It's okay to buy a few." Chen Zhiwen said.

The current NBA team is not very good. He is buying it now because the NBA is about to change the CEO of the league. The next one will lead the rise of the entire NBA. Now is the best time. The number one is naturally Jordan, but he should still be in school at the moment, and it won't be too late to look for him when he acquires the team.

"OK, leave this kind of trivial matter to me." Henry Morgan nodded and smiled.

"There is one more thing that may need your help." Chen Zhiwen said again.

"What's the matter?" Henry asked.

"This year, grain prices in the United States have plummeted, exports are unsalable, and interest rates on bank loans are still high. In theory, a large number of farms will not be able to support them. You should understand what I mean." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

"Understood, you want to buy more farms, that's not a problem, I'll arrange it." Henry Morgan nodded and said, "I didn't expect the U.S. government to play tricks, thinking of suppressing polar bears, and almost killed their country's agriculture in the end. "

"It's not that easy to block the whole world together." Chen Zhiwen smiled and shook his head.

The natural environment of the United States can be said to be very friendly. The east and west are oceans. Except for a few places, there is no shortage of rain in other places. The entire continent is a plain, which is very suitable for agricultural mechanized planting. Therefore, the annual grain production capacity is very high, and the domestic market in the United States is fundamental. It can't be digested completely, and it needs to rely heavily on the international market.

The oil crisis in the past few years led to increased transportation costs, reduced purchasing power of international parties, and increased loan costs, which led to poor business for all farms in the United States. However, these are all calculated reasons, and there are also external factors.

As early as 1980, polar bears caused a large-scale reduction in food production due to climate reasons, and it was estimated that they would need to import more than 35 million tons of food. After this was known to the US government, it immediately summoned all major food exporting countries in the world and absolutely banned polar bears. transport.

The polar bears at this time are very terrifying in terms of strength. They are so strong that the whole of Europe is trembling. They can only rely on economic means to deal with polar bears, and food is more important than the economy to a certain extent.

It's a pity that the ideal is beautiful, but the reality is cruel.

After signing the contract, Argentina was the first to breach the contract. It was because the economy of South America was damaged by the United States, and it was almost in breach of sovereignty. Who cares about your embargo agreement? Some of them were sent to the polar bear, and because of the embargo, the price given by the polar bear was very high, which made Argentina's profits soft, which made other people jealous.

After this incident, Argentina was immediately cleaned up by the United States. All kinds of blockades were dealt with badly afterwards. Countries such as Canada and Australia are still very dependent on the United States, so they dare not be really disobedient, but the United States can control others The country can't control the big capitalists in its own territory.

The food trade in the United States is controlled by Bunge and Cargill. When they heard about the embargo, they immediately sent the food to polar bears. After the embargo, they passed through Asia and continued to sell it to polar bears at a high price. The US government has no control over it. This made Canada very unhappy, and strongly demanded that the United States agree to allow Canada to obtain more food quotas for exporting polar bears.

In order to stabilize this neighbor, and he himself is not kind, the US government can only agree. At this time, Australia still remains silent.

But last year, the United States signed a 6 million grain export agreement with Huaguo, which suddenly made the Kangaroo country jump, because in the past ten years, Huaguo has been Australia's main grain exporter, and it does not allow the export of polar bears. , and now he has robbed his big client?

This time the United States was at a loss, so it could only acquiesce in Australia’s continued export of food to polar bears. Seeing this situation, many other small countries have also bypassed the embargo restrictions, exporting to Warsaw Pact countries and then transferring to polar bears. The entire embargo exists in name only.

And polar bears are worried that this kind of thing will reappear in the future, so in the past two years, they have purchased twice the usual amount.

At this time, American farms discovered that their grain could not be sold. Last year alone, there were 17 million tons of stored grain in the country, and the US government had to pay a high price to buy it. Although relying on hegemony to force Japan and South Korea , Some Asian countries bought some, but most of them still had to be digested in their own country, which led to a sharp drop in domestic food prices in the United States.

Even in the following years, it was difficult to sell grain, because of the two-year embargo, the customers of American grain in the international market were taken away by Canada, Australia, Brazil, etc. This caused U.S. farm prices to plummet in half throughout the early 1980s.

Of course, polar bears who don't pay attention to food actually suffer heavy losses.

"You bought so many farms, do you really want to make a difference in the agricultural market?" Henry Morgan asked again. If you want to buy farms for fun, a few are enough, but what Chen Zhiwen wants is obviously different.

"Yes, I have this idea." Chen Zhiwen nodded. At present, his major industries such as electronics, beverage and food, infrastructure real estate, and financial investment can develop normally on their own, and can generate a lot of profits. To invest, there needs to be other places to go. Agricultural investment is one of them.

"I don't know Eric, do you know that in the agricultural market, the most profitable is not the farm, but the major trading giants that control the global grain trade." Henry Morgan said.

"I know this. I will also prepare to do trade, but this does not prevent me from buying large farms at low prices, so that I can hold them myself if I want to own them in the future. If I don't want to, I can also take advantage of high prices. If you make a move, you won't lose money no matter what." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

Investing in farms, this kind of income is definitely not as good as some stocks or industries, but at present, he can know the investment targets with high future income, such as Hong Kong real estate, Japanese real estate, and stocks of some technology companies in the United States. The farm does not affect these. Moreover, financial operations mainly use other people's money. When buying a large farm, maybe 10 to 20% of the funds are his own, and the rest will go from the bank. Otherwise, the investment bank will not So happy to help you convince those farmers.

As for agricultural trade, the global market is basically saturated, and it is relatively difficult to get a share of the big pie, and you need to figure it out slowly.

"Okay, as long as you know." Henry said, "How long are you going to stay in the United States? This matter may be the same as Jason's side. It will take a while to get a response."

"It won't be long, I'm going to meet someone in California, and I'm going back to Hong Kong when I'm done," Chen Zhiwen said.

"Can Hong Kong end so soon?" Henry asked curiously.

"No, but the most popular time has passed, I can't go back to Hong Kong forever." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

The situation in Hong Kong will take another two years to decide. Although the situation has not yet reached its worst point, the initial period has basically passed, and this time he left Hong Kong at this time, and his attitude is very clear. do not want to participate.

Ordinary rich people, maybe the Hong Kong British government can still make a move, but at the level of Li Ka-shing, the Hong Kong government will basically do nothing, as long as it does not openly oppose Hong Kong British, the same is true for the mainland, and it is neutral Attitude is all right.

"That's right, Britain, you thought you were living before the First World War, and you couldn't recognize your real situation, hahaha." Henry Morgan laughed and said.

"That's what I said, but my company is still in his current territory, so I still have to give some face." Chen Zhiwen said.

"If you want to save face, forget about the rest." Henry nodded and said.

After negotiating with the two Morgans about the need for cooperation, Chen Zhiwen stayed in New York for another 2 days.

At the same time, in the New York Stock Exchange, Blackstone Fund, an investment fund company under Chen Zhiwen in the United States, officially announced that it has held 5% of the shares of Coca-Cola and Pepsi, which caused quite a stir. Everyone is trying to find out who is behind the man who is also the major shareholder of two American food giants.

For the two cola companies, it is not difficult to find out this kind of thing. On the second day after the announcement, Chen Zhiwen received calls from the CEOs of the two cola companies. The future of the Coke Company, and nothing else.

There is nothing doubtful about this point. Although Chen Zhiwen’s Red Bull Group has a little competition with the two cola companies in the functional drink market, this is a very small segment. Before Red Bull has grown into a giant, the relationship between the two Can't talk about competitors, because Red Bull is not worthy yet.

For pure investment, Erle Company also welcomed it. After a few polite conversations, they invited Chen Zhiwen to visit the company when he was free. Chen Zhiwen ended the call after agreeing.

Later, the market also knew that Chen Zhiwen was behind it, and it was only for investment purposes, and the stock price returned to normal afterward.

After the events in New York were over, Chen Zhiwen came to Los Angeles and met a Chinese here, who will be one of the most influential Chinese in Asia in the future.

"Mr. Zhang, please sit down." Chen Zhiwen waved his hand and said, the person who met him was Zhang Zhongmou, the future founder of TSMC.

"Thank you." Zhang Zhongmou then sat opposite Chen Zhiwen and asked, "I don't know why Mr. Chen invited me out?"

"I heard that Mr. Zhang is going back to Wanwan to start a business?" Chen Zhiwen asked calmly.

"Mr. Chen is really well-informed." Zhang Zhongmou said without denying that he had always had this idea for the past two years, and recently he had also searched for other Chinese colleagues to test his ideas, but he didn't expect that such a thing would be reported by Chen Zhiwen, who was thousands of miles away. Discover.

"Mr. Zhang, as the most powerful Chinese technician in the semiconductor industry, we at Midea are naturally very concerned." Chen Zhiwen said.

"Then Mr. Chen wants me to join the Midea Group?" Zhang Zhongmou asked. In fact, Midea approached him a long time ago. At first, he commissioned a headhunter. Later, Midea's senior management came to him in person, but he rejected them all. Unexpectedly, Chen Zhiwen would come in person.

"No, I know you have the idea of ​​starting a business. This kind of people would not be willing to work for others, so I came to you to support you in starting a business." Chen Zhiwen said.

In this world, the talents in the first echelon are generally those successful entrepreneurs, and the second echelon are the working emperors. People in the first echelon want them to work for themselves with peace of mind, unless they follow the route of foreign technology companies and let them It is possible for the CEO to hold a large number of share rewards, but the current Midea does not need this.

"You want to invest in my start-up company?" Zhang Zhongmou paused in his heart. This is a good thing. The chip industry, even the most rudimentary factory, needs millions of dollars in the initial capital, and the follow-up investment is even higher. Sufficient capital is indeed difficult to accomplish.

Chen Zhiwen nodded and said: "Yes, the chip industry in the United States has obviously been squeezed by the Japanese chip industry, and the memory sector has suffered a complete defeat. It is only a matter of time before it enters the steel and automobile industries. This is the most fundamental thing. The reason is that the working ability of American workers is far inferior to that of Japan, and the research and development ability of engineers is not as good. If it goes on for a long time, the chip manufacturing business, including your current company Texas Instruments, will undoubtedly die. department.

Not to mention defeating Japanese chips, but to obtain a stable market, the factory must be located in Asia, because only Asians have the potential to compete with Japanese counterparts. In terms of Chinese regions, there are too few professionals in Hong Kong. All kinds of hardware The facilities can't keep up, only Wanwan is the most suitable place.

But the chip industry is very sensitive. You should also know something about the situation in Hong Kong. If I invest in myself, I will only encounter a lot of problems, and many equipment may not be available. Although I also have a chip factory in Hong Kong, it is only For the home appliance industry, or for some initial R\u0026D business services, there is no way to make it bigger, so I need to invest in someone who is capable and can build a world-class chip factory in Wanwan. This person is you, Mr. Zhang. . "