Chapter 242 Investment
Far away in Yanjing, Song Yuanchao continued his college life.
A few days after returning to Yanjing from Yangcheng, Song Yuanchao started his sophomore year, and Lin Yan also entered his senior year, which was his last year in college.
After returning to Yanjing, Song Yuanchao first went to the courtyard house that was under renovation. When he stepped into the courtyard house again, he could not believe what he saw for a moment. The entire courtyard had changed greatly from when he left. Although the renovation was still going on, the overall structure of the courtyard had been restored and it was no longer the same as it was when he first saw it.
Professor Yao is indeed a professional, and the team he leads can be said to be one of the best in the country. Thanks to their efforts, the courtyard house has been initially restored to its original appearance, which surprised Song Yuanchao.
After spending a whole day in the courtyard, inspecting the site, chatting with Professor Yao and his assistants, and listening carefully to their progress and reports on the renovation work, Song Yuanchao booked a table at a nearby restaurant and treated everyone to a good meal to thank them for their hard work over the past few days.
The subsequent renovation work will continue. According to Professor Yao’s plan, the overall renovation will be carried out until around mid-November, and the specific time will depend on weather changes.
Because by November, Yanjing will gradually enter winter, and construction in winter is inconvenient, so the overall renovation will be completed before winter as much as possible. After the overall renovation is completed, the next step is to improve and repair some details indoors, which is a delicate job.
Judging from these plans, if nothing goes wrong the courtyard house will be completely renovated before June next year, and their work will be completed by then.
The matter of the Siheyuan was put aside for the time being and naturally Professor Yao and others would handle it. All Song Yuanchao, the hands-off boss, could do was to provide financial guarantees, which was easy for him.
A few days after school started, Song Yuanchao received a call from Qin Zhengguo, who reported to him about his contacts with Pengcheng Special Economic Zone.
What surprised Song Yuanchao was that Qin Zhengguo told him on the phone that he was not the first Hong Kong businessman to contact the Pengcheng Special Administrative Region Government. As early as last year, a Hong Kong real estate tycoon had contacted Pengcheng and signed a preliminary agreement to invest in Pengcheng.
This wealthy businessman is Lao Liu, the boss of the Hong Kong Miracle Group. To be honest, Song Yuanchao has never heard of Lao Liu's name. In his impression, the famous wealthy people in Hong Kong, especially those in real estate, are nothing more than Li Chaoren and others, and Lao Liu's name has never existed in Song Yuanchao's memory.
But Qin Zhengguo is different. After spending so much time in Hong Kong, he has some understanding of some of the famous company groups in Hong Kong. The Hermès Group is also very famous in Hong Kong. Hermès started out as a shoe manufacturer and later got involved in department stores and real estate. Its founder, Lao Liu, is even more wealthy.
It is normal that Song Yuanchao has never heard of Lao Liu's name, because Lao Liu went bankrupt in 1984 due to investment mistakes. The Hermès Group changed hands and was later renamed Belle. This once prominent figure in Hong Kong's business world left the business world because he was completely disheartened after the bankruptcy and immigrated abroad to enjoy his old age. At that time, Song Yuanchao was still working at Shanghai Telecommunications Company.
Lao Liu can be said to be the first Hong Kong businessman to take the plunge in Pengcheng. He is very courageous. Last year, he signed an investment intention agreement with Pengcheng, directly investing 15 million yuan in Pengcheng's real estate and hotel industries.
The first hotel in Pengcheng's history, Zhuyuan Hotel, was invested by Lao Liu. So when Qin Zhengguo learned that Zhuyuan Hotel already had an investor, and that the investor was actually Miaoli's Lao Liu, he was surprised and directly gave up the idea of negotiating hotel investment with the Special Administrative Region, and instead discussed the matter of building a factory in the Special Administrative Region.
Song Yuanchao was also very surprised by Qin Zhengguo's report. He didn't expect that he was not the first person to pay attention to Pengcheng, nor the first investor in Pengcheng.
Lao Liu can succeed in the business world and has such a huge influence. His vision and courage are difficult for ordinary people to surpass. Song Yuanchao just took advantage of the innate advantages. Compared with Lao Liu, he is just a "cheater" who has seen through other people's cards long ago, while Lao Liu is the real "gambler king", a strong man who relies on his vision and ability to sit at the card table.
One has to admire such a businessman. At the same time, Song Yuanchao also wanted to have the opportunity to meet Lao Liu, this extraordinary person, in person.
Since Lao Liu has already taken action, the originally planned hotel business has been temporarily shelved. The key is still the factory in Pengcheng.
After Qin Zhengguo announced his investment intention to Pengcheng, he was immediately warmly received by Pengcheng, which sent high-level officials to negotiate.
Under such circumstances, Qin Zhengguo made smooth progress. It didn't take him long to finalize the investment and factory construction. He also proposed the three links and other requirements regarding land and taxation to Pengcheng in accordance with Song Yuanchao's wishes.
The Pengcheng of today is not the Pengcheng of later generations. The place is very enthusiastic and expectant towards Qin Zhengguo, the first batch of patriotic businessmen from Hong Kong who were found by the place itself. It also offers preferential treatment in many policies, including land transfer and taxation.
Originally, Qin Zhengguo planned to acquire a piece of land to build a small factory with a total investment of no more than one million. After Song Yuanchao learned the specific situation, he thought about it for a night and called Qin Zhengguo directly the next day to explain it to him in detail. After hearing Song Yuanchao's explanation on the phone, Qin Zhengguo was really shocked and asked Song Yuanchao if he was joking.
Song Yuanchao told Qin Zhengguo seriously that this was definitely not a joke. At present, everything in the special zone has just started. Many policies and preferential conditions will never be available again once they are missed. In addition, there are big crocodiles like Lao Liu in front. If Qin Zhengguo does not show some strength and courage, not only will the limelight be suppressed, but also a certain effect will not be achieved. More importantly, opportunities are rare and now is the best opportunity. The slightly conservative strategy before must be adjusted.
After listening to Song Yuanchao's explanation, although Qin Zhengguo had some doubts, he finally accepted Song Yuanchao's opinion and renegotiated with the Special Administrative Region on investment.
During this negotiation, Qin Zhengguo finally made Shenghua Company's requirements clear to the SAR government. When they learned that Shenghua Company's investment amount was so huge and its determination was so great, the SAR government was surprised and also extremely excited. After careful discussion, they basically agreed to Shenghua Company's requirements and formally signed the agreement.
Finally, Shenghua Company requested 300 acres of land from the SAR government to build a factory. 300 acres of land is not small. Converted into square meters, it is a full 200,000 square meters. Not to mention building a factory, it is enough to build a small industrial park.
In fact, Song Yuanchao's intention was to build a small industrial park. Apart from the 100 acres of land for his own use, Song Yuanchao would plan and build the remaining 200 acres in accordance with Hong Kong's traditional factory areas. After construction, these factory buildings and facilities would be directly rented out to Hong Kong's small and medium-sized factory owners who later invested and built factories in Pengcheng for their use.
To put it bluntly, this operation is equivalent to Shenghua Company acting as a landlord, and at the same time it can also attract popularity for its own small industrial zone. In addition, a commercial land will be reserved nearby to build an ordinary guesthouse and hotel to meet the daily needs of this area.
As for taxation, Qin Zhengguo easily obtained the local preferential conditions of two exemptions and three reductions by half. Such preferential treatment only exists in the special administrative regions across the country. The policy of two exemptions and three reductions by half can enable the factories in the special administrative regions to gain great cost advantages, thereby enhancing the competitiveness of their products.
Calculated in this way, the total investment funds far exceed the initial expectation. Although Xiangjiang Shenghua Company is currently making a lot of money relying on the mainland and overseas markets and has sufficient funds, it is simply impossible to get such a large sum of money at once.
Not to mention other things, the investment in the construction of the factory and facilities on this 300-acre land alone is huge, and there is a serious funding gap. But this is not a problem at all for Song Yuanchao. Although Song Yuanchao had never carried out capital operations in his previous life, he still had a good understanding of the basics of capital operations. In addition, with the current loose policies and the urgent need for foreign investment in the special zone, these gaps can be easily solved.
First of all, the capital investment was not a one-time investment. The funds from Xiangjiang were in place in batches according to the agreement. After acquiring the land, Qin Zhengguo first invested part of the funds in the name of Xiangjiang Shenghua Company as land transfer fee and early construction needs, and then directly pledged the land and project, and obtained loans from the four major banks in the mainland, using large loans to meet later needs.
To put it bluntly, this is equivalent to using the bank's money for investment, and the mortgage is only the worthless land and the foreign exchange in the bank. Compared with the entire project investment, the funds obtained are far higher than this amount. In the words of later generations, it is equivalent to fleecing the bank and the local government, but in this era it is a very formal operation.
With this calculation, the total investment amount exceeded 18 million, surpassing Hermione's Old Liu to become the Hong Kong business community's largest investor in Pengcheng.
The actual amount of money Shenghua Company spent on this project was only 4.5 million Hong Kong dollars, which is equivalent to about 1 million yuan. Using 1 million to leverage an investment of 18 million, Song Yuanchao's courage made Qin Zhengguo tremble with fear.
Compared to Qin Zhengguo who was worried, Song Yuanchao was not worried at all. Because the entire investment scale sounded impressive, but the investment cycle was not achieved overnight. The entire cycle would take about three years to complete. However, after the first foreign exchange of Shenghua Company was transferred to the domestic account, the bank could issue a loan with a low interest rate, which meant that Shenghua Company had obtained a huge amount of funds with a return of more than ten times from the very beginning.
What can't be done with such a large sum of money? In addition, Shenghua Company was originally engaged in industry, and it had land. Why worry about not making money after the factory was built? This deal was easy to calculate. As time went by, as long as Song Yuanchao and his men didn't take the money to gamble in Australia, there would be no problem paying off the loan in three years.
