Chapter 20: It’s really time for investors to come

After the Spring Festival, a frenzy of deepening the reform process was launched in China.

Not only is the surge in means of production that has allowed people to see a new wave of construction brewing in China, but foreign capital has also devoted all its efforts to seize the mainland market. China's attitude of accelerating reform and opening up has greatly relieved Americans and Europeans. Over the past three years, the mist of distrust that has spread between China and the Western world has gradually dissipated.

Multinational companies can't wait to increase their investment in China. Investments of GM, Motorola, DuPont, and other companies that were stranded have recovered. Chrysler is discussing expanding operations of Beijing Jeep. Manufacturers such as Boeing, HP and General Electric are launching large-scale sales in all directions. Under Bill Gates' personal supervision, Microsoft has opened an office in Beijing. A product manager in Avon said they have signed 8,000 sales ladies, while Procter & Gamble said their business in China is increasing at a rate of 50%.

At almost the same time, domestic economic system reform is struggling, especially where state-owned enterprises that are on the verge of bankruptcy should go, which is even more troublesome. Almost every province has many state-owned enterprises that are on the verge of bankruptcy and cannot continue to operate. For such enterprises, even if they continue to increase capital investment and policy support, they will only survive for a while.

Under such circumstances, many economists have called for the complete relaxation of state-owned enterprises, revitalization of enterprises, or to directly push these enterprises into the capital market.

Fan Wubing recently noticed a problem. Some Chinese capitals in Southeast Asia have gone to the mainland to test the waters in the name of serving the motherland, trying to obtain controlling stake in the entire enterprise by restructuring some domestically-run companies. The most eye-catching of one is a Hong Kong company called Huace, which is acquiring domestic companies.

In just a few months, Huace Company acquired dozens of large and small companies in the mainland, and exchanged about 400 million US dollars for absolute controlling stake in these companies, and planned to integrate them into a large group company and take them overseas to list as a whole.

Fan Wubing sent someone to investigate the Huace company and found that his boss was an Indonesian Chinese. In this Huace company, he only had less than 20% of the shares. Behind him are Li Ka-shing's Hutchison Company, Jinguang Group and Morgan Stanley, the United States. In addition, this person also has close relationships with Japan's Itochu Consortium, and his capital background is very complicated. Obviously, the capital tycoons hidden behind him all want to rely on Huang Hongnian's assault to obtain benefits.

Fan Wubing studied the other party’s investment strategy and quickly understood their intentions.

Judging from most of the acquisition scenarios, Huace's acquisition is basically a mayor project. It first communicates directly with the top leaders of the government, uses the political card to take advantage of the south tour, and plays high, and builds momentum with energy. Huace, who is constantly working, acquires enterprises everywhere like cutting rice, specifically selects key national backbone enterprises with good capital quality and profit prospects, and has made plans to package and sell them from the beginning.

Huace focused its acquisitions on two major industries: rubber tires and beer. It first included two rubber factories under the name of China Tire Holdings Company registered in the Bermuda Islands, and then issued new shares and listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Then, it purchased three tire rubber factories with US$100 million from the fundraising. Three of the five factories obtained by Huace are designated manufacturers in the domestic tire industry. In the beer industry, Zhongce acquired several breweries and established a China Beer Holdings Company registered in Bermuda. It has plans to issue a listing in Toronto, Canada.

At first, Fan Wubing was very surprised that the government would allow foreign capital to acquire high-quality domestic enterprises. After researching it, he found that behind this series of actions, there were big capital behind the scenes that were secretly promoting it.

While Huace Company was making big acquisitions in various places, followed by a huge cheerleader team composed of people from the theoretical and media circles. His appearance made reformist theorists seem to see the dawn of getting state-owned enterprises out of the old system, so the praise of it was a bit exaggerated. Many economists believe that the Huace phenomenon is an effective model for the restructuring of state-owned enterprises and a product of the era of deepening China's economic system reform. Huace's merger and acquisition finally allowed state-owned enterprises to achieve property rights diversification without breakthroughs in many years, which will enable state-owned enterprises to completely break out of the old path of reform in the cage.

Under the influence of this media trend, senior executives also believe that Huace Company can use the principles and channels for listing foreign companies to transform some state-owned enterprises into international companies after reorganization, and then list abroad one after another, attracting more foreign funds to invest in the development of domestic companies.

Fan Wubing made a rough calculation. In fact, Huace Company will not invest more than 500 million US dollars in the acquisition projects, but if it is successfully listed, its profit will be more than 3 billion US dollars, which is indeed a good plan. From the beginning to the end, Huace Company did not really plan to make these companies bigger and stronger. They just hope to take advantage of Deng Gong’s southern tour to make a fortune in the reform of state-owned enterprises in China.

Basically, this is just a business model where officials and businessmen use each other. By introducing foreign capital, the local government transformed several state-owned enterprises into foreign-funded enterprises, and since then they broke away from government control and achieved their own political achievements in promoting economic system reform. Huace Company took the opportunity to make money and packaged and sold the acquired enterprises overseas to make huge profits, which is just what each person needs.

"I think it's time for me to do something." Fan Wubing felt that it was a shame to allow these people to plunder high-quality domestic resources like locusts in front of him.

Therefore, he decided to do something to show his existence and remind them that if he blindly introduces foreign capital in this way, he will regret it in the end.

The Plain Factory is the first step he wants to use to realize his strategic layout on the big chessboard in China.

Although the Spring Festival holiday is not long, according to local customs, visiting relatives is indispensable. After a walk around the family and eating and treating a few more times, it will be until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. When people from all units calm down and come to work, they will basically be almost done in the first lunar month.

The country is promoting reform and opening up. As for the Rock, there is something that is talked about recently. Our small Rock has attracted foreign investors now. Although it is just an investment intention, it has made everyone feel a little excited. After all, in an inland province, being able to attract golden phoenixes means that we have sycamore trees here!

Of course, people are willing to invest and will not have no goals. It is said that the investor is a young and beautiful Indonesian female overseas Chinese, and what she is interested in is the newly discovered high-quality mineral water source in Malan Village, Panshi City.

Li Mingjiu, the director of Pingyuan Factory, naturally heard about this news within the first time, and his thoughts were immediately aroused.

According to his original idea, he wanted to build the mineral water factory in the name of the plain factory, and then slowly make losses through business methods, and finally sell it to his relevant equity owners at a low price. Finally, he reorganized it and changed the brand to continue to market.

You should know that this will take a year or two to delay time, but the key is safety. Li Mingjiu doesn't care about this year and half a year. But now the situation has changed, and some foreign investors have set their sights on this project. If the government supports it, in the current environment of deepening reforms and vigorously introducing foreign investment, he may not be competitive.

Especially now, Malan Village and its own plain factory are not giving in to each other on water sources, and they have an advantage in the local area. If the government lets go, there will definitely be nothing to do about it.

After thinking about it, Li Mingjiu always couldn't let others take away the fat meat that came to his mouth.

"It seems that we have to start first!" Li Mingjiu decided to contact this female overseas Chinese in the name of the Plain Factory first, and strive to negotiate this matter, even if it makes some concessions, it is appropriate.

After all, Li Mingjiu is also a factory in Pingyuan Factory, a cadre at the department level and a leader of four or five thousand employees. He wanted to meet with an overseas Chinese who had just returned to China to invest, so on the day after he asked someone to pass the message, the other party agreed and made an appointment to meet in Pingyuan Factory's hotel.

The hotel of the Pingyuan Factory was built with an investment of more than 1.5 million yuan. Although the area is not large and there are only more than 40 rooms, the factory itself has the work and materials, so its configuration is still very high-end. In terms of hardware conditions, it is completely better than a three-star hotel.

Early in the morning, Ma Xin, the manager of Pingyuan Hotel, led the staff to clean the hotel up and down, and arranged the places where flowers should be placed. The small garden in front and behind the hotel also found a car with the fire brigade to spray it twice. The cement road before the hotel was almost spotless, so clean that it was hard to bear to step on it.

"Everyone, be careful. Today, the foreign guest is coming to discuss business with Director Li. This is related to the future development plan of our factory. You must not be careless!" Ma Xindu stood at the big iron gate in front of the hotel with his waist on his waist, shouting to the busy employees coming and going.

The employees were still a little afraid of Manager Ma. This person was deeply favored by Director Li. It is said that the two had a good personal relationship. Some people also rumored that he was just a pimp. He used the high-quality waiter resources in the hotel to curry favor with several leaders and was deeply despised.

However, unless someone stands up to identify such things, or catches the current situation, everyone will just say a few words behind their backs. It will not work if you put them on the surface. If you don’t have evidence, just say nonsense. That’s a false accusation.

But one thing is that no matter how difficult the situation in the factory is, the investment in the capital with the hotel is not less than a penny. The waiters in the hotel are even more beautiful and have a few coquettish products, which seems to be able to prove everyone's guess from a certain aspect.

After a while, the factory manager's car drove into the yard. Li Mingjiu got out of the car with a serious expression. He walked around the yard with his hands behind his back and nodded, as if he was quite satisfied. He went into the small conference room he specially packed out and looked at it. After finding the ashtray on the table, he frowned, and then said to Ma Xindu, who was with him, "Old Ma, this is not needed anymore. He is a woman, and our people cannot smoke here. Remember to explain one by one later. Don't forget it."

"Yes, I will definitely notify you." Ma Xindu nodded and said with a smile.

Li Mingjiu walked around the guest room again, ordered two smart waiters to take care of him, and then walked down and drove out again, probably to welcome the female overseas Chinese.

After seeing Li Mingjiu's car leave, Ma Xindu turned back and re-arranged the matters in the hotel. Even though he was a little worried, he checked it out himself.

At 10:30 in the morning, the female overseas Chinese convoy finally arrived, with a total of four cars, and the first one was a Mercedes-Benz. Anyone with well-informed people recognized it as the car of Mayor Fan Heng's young master, and there were two Audis later, and the last one was Li Mingjiu's Santana.

Ma Xindu personally opened the door for the leading Mercedes-Benz. The leaders of the Plain Factory waiting at the entrance of the hotel were smiling and applauding to welcome the arrival of the female overseas Chinese.

Shen Manhua was wearing a fashionable outfit and walked out of the Mercedes-Benz in a graceful outfit. His eyes were covered by a pair of wide sunglasses, and he could not see the true face of Lushan.

Among the people who followed, there were some leaders of the municipal government, but none of them appeared, such as the Standing Committee and the Deputy Mayor, which made people in the Pingyuan Factory a little puzzled.

Logically speaking, Li Mingjiu's banquet for female overseas Chinese was naturally aimed at the mineral water source. The Panshi Municipal Government cannot ignore it from the standpoint of maintaining Malan Village. Could it be that they have given up the dispute over water source?

But it doesn't seem likely! Until yesterday, the two sides were still having a big fight over the city government about who the water source belonged to. There is no reason to be so calm today.

Li Mingjiu rushed up from behind, and he felt a little frustrated. It was not that he suffered a secret loss from the municipal government, but because the female overseas Chinese did not get into his car. But among the few cars he was traveling with, his own car was the worst. He couldn't blame others for this. Who made the situation in the Plain Factory now have a bad situation?

Although Li Mingjiu has money in his private treasury, isn’t he going to change cars at this critical moment? Although he is quite arrogant, he still knows the importance of these things. If he arouses opposition from the entire factory, even if he has strong support from the department, he will not be able to survive.

The driver of the Mercedes-Benz was none other than Fan Wubing. At this moment, he was walking side by side with Chen Manhua with a smile, looking as if no one else was around, which made Li Mingjiu feel quite jealous, "Who do he think of this little hairy child? Even if he comes here, he is not so arrogant!"

But he knew a little bit, Fan Heng's son seemed to be very rich and had some contact with foreigners, but Li Mingjiu didn't know much about the specific things.

After all, Li Mingjiu is just an outsider, and Fan Heng and his family have left Panshi for many years before they have returned to be the mayor. If it weren't for the people involved, not many people would have remembered Fan Wubing's amazing actions before, and not many people were willing to spread the news that they had been defeated all over the world.

Time is the best weapon to kill everything, and Li Mingjiu naturally had no way of knowing how capable the little kid he hated was. He just felt that this kid looked a little ungrateful.

"This place used to be a wasteland-" Fan Wubing pointed a garden near the hotel to Chen Manhua and said, "I remember when I was young, there were two woods here and there. In summer, I often brought a bunch of children to catch cicadas. The park you can see now was a big garbage pit, but later in the factory, in order to beautify the environment, it specially filled the big pit and built the park on it, which was to find a place for the employees to rest and play. It was just some things that had died after the dead cats and dogs, and there was no place to throw them away."

"Die cat and dog?" Chen Manhua asked in confusion.

"Well, it's the big pit below the park. It used to be thrown out these things. It is said that some people have thrown out dead children, but I have never seen them with my own eyes." Fan Wubing replied seriously.

"Oh——" Chen Manhua tightened the mink coat on his body and surrounded the fur collar. After Fan Wubing said this, he seemed to have seen it with his own eyes, and a small piece of sand appeared on his skin.

"How can this happen? Our Plain Factory has been an advanced civilized unit for many years." Li Mingjiu could not help but argue when he heard Fan Wubing maliciously slandering the park he built with one hand.

It took about three million yuan to build a park, and there were also a lot of manpower and material resources. The benefits Li Mingjiu gained from it were not small, so the thing he least wanted to hear was that someone said in front of him how the park was.

The group walked into the hotel and, under the guidance of the waiter, entered the small conference room.

Although it is closed and the cold winter just passed, there is no feeling of depression in the house. Yesterday, Ma Xin asked someone to clean the house thoroughly, and the doors and windows were opened and ventilated. The heating was very suitable at this time. The temperature inside the house was at 18 or 9 degrees, neither lukewarm nor hot, and the flowers on the four corners also emitted bursts of fragrance, refreshing the heart.

Fan Wubing rushed to pull a chair for Chen Manhua, watched her sit down, then pulled a chair for herself, and sat down on her own.

Li Mingjiu's face became even worse. He thought to himself that the female overseas Chinese talked with Fan Wubing, it seemed that the two of them were very familiar with each other! So how successful is there in today's negotiation?

Fan Wubing is Fan Heng's son, Fan Heng is the mayor of Panshi, and Malan Village is under Panshi's rule, and the mineral water source is in Malan Village. After all, Fan Wubing is obviously sent by Fan Heng to monitor the negotiations between the female overseas Chinese and her! Under such circumstances, how should he start the negotiations? How can he communicate his trump card with the female overseas Chinese in front of Fan Wubing?

As the hotel manager, Ma Xindu first expressed a warm welcome to Chen Manhua's entry, and then asked the factory director Li Mingjiu to speak.

Li Mingjiu was polite and said, "Today I am honored to invite Miss Chen Manhua, an overseas Chinese in Indonesia. Our Plain Factory is very happy! The ancients said that it would be a pleasure to have friends from afar? This is a portrayal of our current mood. Being able to discuss the common development plan with Miss Chen is a major event for our Plain Factory, and it is also in line with the country's general policy of deepening reform and opening up policies."

Chen Manhua smiled slightly and said, "I am very grateful for your welcome and Director Li's love. This time I returned to China mainly to make some contribution to the domestic economic development, and also to find some good projects suitable for development for our local overseas Chinese in Indonesia. I happened to hear that Panshi City has discovered high-quality mineral water sources, so I came to take a look. As for me, I still hope that we can cooperate successfully."

Li Mingjiu's eyes lit up when he heard this. Just when he was about to agree, Chen Manhua might as well add, "But I heard that there seems to be some disputes about the ownership of water sources?"

As soon as this was said, the people in the room stopped talking, and their originally hypocritical smile suddenly became a little embarrassed.

Li Mingjiu's expression remained unchanged. He looked at Fan Wubing, who was sitting next to Shen Manhua and was drinking tea. He said to Chen Manhua, "Ms. Chen misunderstood. There is no dispute about the issue of the water source belonging to the place of the water source. Even the position where Malan Village is sitting now belongs to our plain factory. Therefore, the power to dispose of the water source is completely determined by our plain factory. There is no need to repeat this. We met with Miss Chen today, which means we have a very sincere cooperation attitude, hoping to promote the completion of this joint venture water plant."

In fact, after thinking for a few days, Li Mingjiu also turned this corner. Since he could not eat alone, he might as well take the road of saving the country. As long as he successfully cooperated with foreign investors and attracted investment in place, he would have his own political achievements. Whether he was working in the head office or directly into the department, he would be enough. Even if he stayed in the plain factory and continued to be the factory director, he was also the factory director of the joint venture factory. His status was very different from before. It had all benefits but no harm. More importantly, through this cooperation, he could put a halo of courage to explore and innovate, which would be of great benefit to his future career.

Moreover, he has also studied the reaction of Panshi Municipal Government. With the appearance of Malan Village alone, the conditions for joint ventures with foreign investors are too poor. Even if the municipal government wants to support it, the investment required is too high and it is not worth the loss. Therefore, if they see that the plain factory has great determination, they will probably not be so strict in opposition.

As long as you give Malan Village some sweetness or make some compromises to the municipal government, Li Mingjiu believes that the joint venture will definitely fall on the Pingyuan Factory. After all, this is also a great political achievement project for the Panshi Municipal Government. If Fan Heng doesn't like him, he will not miss this good opportunity to make achievements.

Another point is that the lineup of the municipal government attending the negotiations today is obviously accompaniment. Otherwise, what qualifications would a young boy like Fan Wubing have to be opposite him? Could it be that this is also a sign of concession?

Li Mingjiu's head has been circling for a long time, and he always feels that today's things have a lot to do.

Sure enough, after Li Mingjiu finished speaking, a deputy director of the mayor's office in the municipal government said, "The words of Director Li are also a bit inappropriate. In the past, these lands were owned by the Plain Factory, but now the Malan Village has been established for more than ten years and has formed a fait accompli. You must not refuse to admit this situation."

"We have approval for the land." A leader of the Plain Factory immediately retorted.

"What's the use of approval documents?" said the deputy director disdainfully, "Our villagers built large buildings on it, and no one has ever been concerned about it for more than ten years, so these naturally became collective industries. Just like before, the land of the Russians was west of the Volga River, but where did they go now? If approval documents are useful, can we take out the territory map of the Qing Dynasty and bring back such a large area of ​​land?"

"You, are you just making a point!" The leader of the Pingyuan Factory was so angry.

Li Mingjiu frowned and said, "These words are meaningless. As the largest state-owned enterprise in Panshi City, we should always receive some policy support from the city! Even if there is no support, you should not drag us down! Does the conditions of Malan Village have the ability to attract investment? In the future, we will build a mineral water plant, but what do they know? You can't bring in inferior resources and fool a patriotic overseas Chinese like Miss Shen who serves the country! This is unreasonable!"

Shen Manhua didn't say anything, but just watched the two sides argue there with amusing, very interesting.

Fan Wubing coughed and interrupted the dispute between the two sides. "No one needs to argue. This matter is actually a historical issue. It is meaningless for us to argue here. Ms. Shen is just a joke. Mr. Deng also said that we should be bolder and take faster steps. If we quarrel like us, how much time will it take? How slow will the development of our Panshi City be compared to brother provinces and cities? Therefore, we should still talk about this matter based on the principle of joint development and shelving disputes." At the end, he turned his head and asked Shen Manhua, "Miss Shen, do you think so?"

Shen Manhua nodded and smiled, "I agree with what Mr. Fan said. You should come up with a clear charter and talk to me about investment."

Li Mingjiu thought to himself that it seemed that if we did not make any concessions, the city would not easily give up the treasure pot of mineral water sources, so he asked, "What are the requirements of Malan Village? You can also make it. If our plain factory has the ability to meet it, it can also agree."

The deputy director who was speaking just now frowned and said, "What else will farmers want? Of course it's land!"

Fan Wubing then said, "We have never considered this statement before. I have a suggestion. I wonder if you are interested in listening to it?"

Li Mingjiu thought to himself, aren’t you the private representative of Mayor Fan? Otherwise, how could a furry child be qualified to sit here? So he replied, “Haha, everyone can express their opinions. Let’s focus on your ideas. It’s always no harm if we listen to it more.”

Fan Wubing nodded and said, "Malan Village occupied the land of the Plain Factory, which is already a fait accompli, and it cannot be changed. However, the Plain Factory hopes to obtain mineral water sources for development. This is reasonable. As a municipal government, we should not ignore each other."

Li Mingjiu nodded and said to himself that this is still human words, that land belongs to us.
Chapter completed!