"NBA?" Henry was stunned for a moment and didn't react.
"NBA is the basketball league in the United States." Chen Zhiwen said with a helpless smile. In the current United States, basketball is definitely not the most popular sports event. Before Jordan appeared, its popularity was too low.
"Oh, they, I know, but I didn't think of it at once." Henry said: "But basketball is not famous in the United States. It is useless for you to use them to increase the reputation of your product. It is better to consider baseball or How about rugby?”
"Are you sure you can buy these two popular teams?" Chen Zhiwen asked.
"This is indeed a bit difficult, and it may take a long time." Henry thought for a while and said.
"Let's consider basketball first. I know basketball is not popular in the United States, but it is somewhat famous 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 Europe. They always like to play different things from other countries. In terms of sports events, football is the most popular sport in the world, but the United States I always like rugby, while other countries don’t have the slightest interest in this sport.
Fortunately, after the mid-1980s, the American basketball league NBA began to develop, and then top players led 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 abroad, but it is still one of the most well-known games and has a large number of fans.
"Okay, anyway, a basketball team doesn't cost much. Do you have any teams you are more optimistic about? I'll ask." Henry said indifferently. A less famous competition team won't be worth much. Besides, many rich people buy sports teams just for fun. As an Asian, it is normal for Chen Zhiwen to like basketball.
"I'm not saying which one I have to choose. Basketball in the United States is based on cities. Just choose from big cities like New York and Los Angeles. It's okay to buy several companies." Chen Zhiwen said.
The current NBA teams are not doing well. He is purchasing now because the NBA is about to replace the league CEO. The next one will lead the rise of the entire NBA. Now is the best time, and some powerful stars in the future will be The number one player is naturally Jordan, but he should still be in school. Once he acquires the team, it won't be too late to find him.
"OK, leave this little thing to me." Henry Morgan nodded and said with a smile.
"There is one more thing. I may need your help." Chen Zhiwen said again.
"What's the matter?" Henry asked.
"Grain prices in the United States have plummeted this year, exports are unsaleable, and bank loan interest rates are still high. Theoretically, a large number of farms will not be able to support them. You should understand what I mean." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
"I understand, you want to acquire more farms, that's not a problem, I will arrange it." Henry Morgan nodded and said: "I didn't expect that the U.S. government's cunning operation, thinking of suppressing polar bears, almost killed the country's agriculture. "
"How can it be so easy to block the whole world?" Chen Zhiwen smiled and shook his head.
The natural environment of the United States can be said to be very friendly. There is an ocean to the east and west. 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 mechanization. Therefore, the annual grain production capacity is very high, and the domestic market of the United States is basically It cannot be fully digested and needs to rely heavily on the international market.
The oil crisis in the past few years has led to increased transportation costs, reduced international purchasing power, and increased loan costs. This has resulted in poor business for all U.S. farms. However, these are all factors that are included in the calculation, and there are also external factors.
As early as 1980, polar bears caused a large-scale reduction in grain production due to climate reasons, and it was estimated that more than 35 million tons of grain would need to be imported. When the U.S. government learned of this, it immediately summoned all the world's major grain exporting countries to absolutely ban polar bears. transport.
At this time, the polar bears were very terrifying in terms of strength. They were so powerful that the whole of Europe was trembling with fear. They could only rely on economic means to deal with the polar bears, and food was, to a certain extent, more important than the economy.
It's a pity that ideals are beautiful, but reality is cruel.
Argentina was the first country to breach the contract after signing the contract. This was actually because South America's own economy had been damaged by the United States. It was almost a sovereign breach of contract. Who cares about the embargo agreement? So, 4 million tons of grain were shipped openly. The products were sent to the polar bears, and due to the embargo, the price given by the polar bears was very high, which made Argentina earn a lot of money, which made other people jealous.
After this incident, Argentina was immediately punished by the United States and implemented various blockades. It was very miserable after the incident. Countries such as Canada and Australia were still very dependent on the United States. They did not dare to be disobedient, but the United States could control other countries. The country cannot control the big capitalists within its borders.
The grain trade in the United States is controlled by giants such as Bunge and Cargill. When they heard about the embargo, they immediately sent their grain to polar bears. After the embargo, it was transferred through Asia and continued to be sold to polar bears at high prices. The U.S. government has absolutely no control over it. This made Canada very unhappy and strongly demanded that the United States agree to an agreement to allow Canada to obtain more food quotas for exporting polar bears.
In order to stabilize this neighbor, and because it itself was not kind, the US government had no choice but to agree. At this time, Australia continued to remain silent.
But last year, the United States and China signed a $6 million grain export agreement, which suddenly made the kangaroo country jump, because in the past ten years, China has been Australia's main grain exporter, and it does not allow the export of polar bears. , and now he has stolen his own big customer?
This time the United States is in the wrong and can only acquiesce in Australia's continued export of food to polar bears. When many other small countries see this situation, they have also circumvented the embargo restrictions and exported to Warsaw Pact countries and then transferred polar bears. The entire embargo is in name only.
And the polar bear is worried that this kind of thing will happen again in the future, so in the past two years, it has purchased twice the usual amount.
At this time, American farms discovered that they could no longer sell their grain. Last year alone, there were 17 million tons of additional grain reserves in the country. The U.S. government had to pay a high price to buy them. Although it relied on its hegemony to force Japan and South Korea to , some Asian countries bought some, but most of it still had to be digested domestically, which caused domestic food prices in the United States to plummet.
Even in the following years, it was difficult to sell grain. Because of the two-year embargo, all customers of American grain in the international market were snatched away by Canada, Australia, Brazil, etc. This caused U.S. farm prices to plummet by half throughout the early 1980s.
Of course, polar bears that do not pay attention to food actually suffer heavy losses.
"Do you really want to achieve success in the agricultural market when you acquire so many farms?" Henry Morgan asked again. If you want to buy a farm 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 have been able to develop normally and generate a large amount of profits. These funds, in addition to further Investment needs to go elsewhere. Agricultural investment is one of them.
"I don't know if you know, Eric, that in the agricultural market, the most profitable thing is not the farm, but the several major trading giants that control the global grain trade." Henry Morgan said.
"I know this, and I will also be prepared 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 in the future. If I don't want to, I can also take advantage of high prices. If you take action, you won't lose no matter what." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
The returns from investing in farms are definitely not as good as those from some stocks or industries, but currently he can know the investment targets with high future returns, such as Hong Kong real estate, Japanese real estate, and some American technology company stocks. He is already making plans to invest in them. Farms do not affect these. Moreover, financial operations mainly use other people's money. To acquire large farms, only 10% or 20% of the funds may be his own, and the rest will go from banks. Otherwise, investment banks will not So willing to help you convince those farmers.
As for agricultural trade, the global market is basically saturated. It is relatively difficult to get a big share of the pie, and you need to figure it out slowly.
"Okay, it's good that you know." Henry said: "How long are you going to stay in the United States? This matter may be the same as Jason's, it will take some time to get a response."
"It won't be long. I'm going to California to meet someone, and when I'm done, I'm going to go back to Hong Kong." Chen Zhiwen said.
"Can it end so soon in Hong Kong?" Henry asked curiously.
"No, but the most popular time has passed. I can't always stop returning to Hong Kong." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
The situation in Hong Kong will take another two years to be determined. Although the situation has not yet reached its most serious stage, the early stage has basically passed. And this time he left Hong Kong at this time, his attitude was very clear. Don't want to participate.
For ordinary rich people, the British Hong Kong government may be able to help, but at Li Jiacheng's level, the Hong Kong government will basically not do anything. As long as it does not openly oppose the Hong Kong British, the same is true for the mainland, which remains neutral. If you have an attitude, that's fine.
"That's right, Britain, you still think you live before World War I, and you can't recognize your true situation, hahaha." Henry Morgan said with a laugh.
"That's what I say, but my company is still in their current territory, so I still have to give it some face." Chen Zhiwen said.
"You have to give face, forget about the rest." Henry nodded and said.
After negotiating with the two Morgans on matters that required cooperation, Chen Zhiwen stayed in New York for another two days.
At the same time, on the New York Stock Exchange, Chen Zhiwen's investment fund company Blackstone Fund in the United States officially announced that it already holds 5% of the stocks of Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola, which caused quite a stir. Everyone is trying to investigate who is behind this man who became the majority shareholder of two American food giants at the same time.
For the two Coke companies, it is not difficult to investigate this kind of thing. On the second day after the announcement, Chen Zhiwen received a call from the CEOs of the two Coke companies. Chen Zhiwen also very politely expressed that he was only interested in investing and was very optimistic about the two companies. There is no other idea about the future of the Coke Company.
There is nothing doubtful about this. Although Chen Zhiwen’s Red Bull Group has some competition with the two cola companies in the functional drink market, this is a very small segment. Before Red Bull grew into a giant, the relationship between the two parties was We can’t talk about competitors, because Red Bull is not worthy yet.
Liangle Company also welcomed pure investments. After a few polite conversations, they invited Chen Zhiwen to visit the company when he had time. Chen Zhiwen agreed and ended the phone call.
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.
After the incident in New York was over, Chen Zhiwen came to Los Angeles and met a Chinese here who would become one of the most influential Chinese in Asia in the future.
"Mr. Zhang, please take a seat." Chen Zhiwen waved his hand and said. The person meeting him was none other than Zhang Zhongmou, the future founder of TSMC.
"Thank you." Zhang Zhongmou then sat opposite Chen Zhiwen and asked, "I wonder why Mr. Chen asked me out?"
"I heard that Mr. Zhang is planning to return to Wanwan to start a business?" Chen Zhiwen asked calmly.
"Mr. Chen is really well-informed." Zhang Zhongmou said without denying that he had been having this idea for the past two years. Recently, he also looked for other Chinese colleagues and tried out ideas, but he never expected that such a thing would be reported to Chen Zhiwen, who was thousands of miles away. Discover.
"As Mr. Zhang is the most powerful Chinese technician in the semiconductor industry, we at Midea are naturally very concerned about it," said Chen Zhiwen.
"So Mr. Chen wants me to join the Midea Group?" Zhang Zhongmou asked. In fact, Midea had approached him a long time ago, first as a commissioned headhunter, and later as a senior executive of Midea 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. Such people will not be willing to work for others, so I come to you to support you in starting a business." Chen Zhiwen said.
In this world, the first echelon of talents are generally those successful entrepreneurs, and the second echelon is the emperor of working. People in the first echelon want them to work for themselves with peace of mind, unless they take the route of foreign technology companies, so that This is only possible because the CEO holds a large number of share awards, but Midea does not need this now.
"Do you want to invest in my startup company?" Zhang Zhongmou thought for a moment. This is a good thing. The chip industry, even for the most basic factories, requires millions of dollars in initial capital, and subsequent investments are even higher. It is indeed difficult to achieve anything with enough capital.
Chen Zhiwen nodded and said: "Yes, the chip industry in the United States has obviously begun to be squeezed by its Japanese chip counterparts. The memory sector has suffered a complete failure. It is only a matter of time before it enters the steel and automobile industries in the future. 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 R&D capabilities of engineers are not as good as that of Japan. In the long run, including your current company TI, the chip manufacturing business will undoubtedly die, and only R&D may be left. department.
Let’s not talk about defeating Japanese chips, let’s just say that if you want to obtain a stable market, the factory must be located in Asia, because only Asians have the potential to compete with their Japanese counterparts. As for the Chinese area, Hong Kong has too few professional talents, and various hardware The facilities are not up to par, and 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 person, I will only encounter a lot of problems. Many equipment may not be available. Although I also have a chip factory in Hong Kong, it is just In order to serve the home appliance industry or some initial R&D business services, there is no way to expand it, so I need to invest in someone who has the ability to build a world-class chip factory in Wanwan. This person is you, Mr. Zhang. . "
(End of chapter)
