Chapter 342 Sky-high Price
Facing Lin Shuyi's ridicule, Lu Yiming's expression became serious. He said seriously, "To be precise, my assets should be only one-third and a half of Li Chaoren's. His current assets add up to about 1.2 trillion, of which the net assets are more than 700 billion. And this figure will increase by next year."
Lin Shuyi was very surprised: "I was just talking casually, and you actually showed me data? You know exactly how much money he has, and you still say you don't know each other?"
Lu Yiming said with a dark face, "We are really unfamiliar with each other!"
Lin Shuyi asked again: "Then you said that this data will be even larger next year. What basis do you have for saying that? What else do you know?"
Lu Yiming did not hide anything and spoke out what he knew: "In 1994, Li Chaoren sold Hutchison Whampoa and started his second attempt in the telecommunications industry - acquiring the French telecommunications company Orange. In the five years since the Li family acquired it, Orange's user base has expanded from three million to 35 million."
"With more than tenfold growth in subscribers, the company has become the third largest mobile operator in the UK."
The domestic telecommunications industry is a government-run monopoly, and private capital has no chance to intervene, so Lin Shuyi didn't know how amazing the profits of this business were. She immediately asked, "It's already third, isn't that good?"
Lu Yiming looked around and lowered his voice, "I heard that the British Vodafone Group and the German Mannesmann Group are very interested in the 'orange' in Li Chaoren's hands, so they both plan to invest in it."
These two companies happen to be the number one and number two in the British telecommunications market. It is no wonder that enemies often meet. Whoever can eat up the third-ranked "orange" will successfully reach the top.
Lin Shuyi gasped and looked shocked: "If the two families argue with each other, won't the price go through the roof?"
Lu Yiming calculated for a moment and nodded: "Not much, probably only about 100 billion. If the operation is good, it will be easy to make 150 billion."
In fact, Li Chaoren made a total of nearly HK$170 billion by "fleeing" Orange. He claimed that he would not make the last penny, but he was always able to do business to the extreme and empty the pockets of his opponents.
When it comes to doing business, Li Chaoren is truly gifted and no one can match him.
Today, Hong Kong has just experienced the 1997 Asian financial crisis. As the center of the vortex, Hong Kong's stock and property markets plummeted. The Hong Kong tycoons who made their fortunes in real estate and stocks all suffered a huge blow, and ordinary people also had a hard time.
However, at a time when almost all Hong Kong people had to tighten their belts and live a hard life, Superman Li led the entire Li family to go against the trend and began to deploy diversified investments a few years ago. Not only did he successfully avoid the impact of the financial crisis, but he also surpassed his old rival, the Li Zhaoji family, and reached the top in one fell swoop.
This shows how sophisticated his business acumen and skills are.
Lin Shuyi felt that Lu Yiming might understand Li Chaoren better than anyone else present.
After realizing this, Lin Shuyi became even more curious: "Since you know everything, how dare you say you want to surpass Li Chaoren?"
Lu Yiming looked at him with a carefree look: "You still have to have dreams, what if they come true?"
Lin Shuyi rolled her eyes at him, then recalled what Lu Yiming had just said, and immediately asked in a low voice: "Will Orange's stock price skyrocket next year?"
Lu Yiming nodded at her casually: "Yes, so I bought it a long time ago. Didn't I tell you before?"
Lin Shuyi pursed her lips, her silver teeth were about to break, and glared at Lu Yiming angrily: "No!"
Lu Yiming blinked: "Oh, now you know."
Lin Shuyi wanted to take off her high heels and give Lu Yiming two big slaps.
This guy is so annoying!
At the scene, the lights suddenly dimmed. Lu Yiming leaned back in his chair, looking relaxed: "The auction has begun."
The auction process was really unremarkable. There aren't that many accidents happening in this world.
Li Chaoren had already announced that he was determined to get Plot No. 1.
The people present now were far inferior to Li Chaoren in terms of financial resources and influence, so naturally no one could compete with him. However, a few real estate developers from the north did not want to come in vain, so they symbolically raised the price, but in the end, Plot No. 1 still fell into Li Chaoren's hands as expected.
Plot No. 1 is approximately 300,000 square meters, with a starting price of 800 million yuan and a final transaction price of 1.07 billion yuan.
This price made Lu Yiming unable to help but complain: "It's only a 20% premium. This land king is not very good. Can't he be more generous when bidding? He only increases the price by a few million each time. It's really embarrassing. If I hadn't been uninterested, I would have increased it by at least 100 million each time."
After hearing this, Lin Shuyi couldn't help but complain: "You guys, you don't know how expensive firewood and rice are until you run a household. Don't treat money as money. The land price is too high, it's not good for anyone."
Real estate developers are not fools. As businessmen, they naturally like to lower costs as much as possible. Who would be willing to spend more money on something that can cost less?
Therefore, during the bidding period, everyone actually maintained a certain degree of tacit understanding. If you win this time, it will be my turn next time. Everyone can make money, so there is no need to hurt the harmony.
Lu Yiming glanced at Lin Shuyi, then smiled and said, "In the future, the amount of land that the government will auction will decrease, and the starting price will get higher and higher. It will be hard to have a good day like today where everyone is in tacit agreement with each other."
Lin Shuyi was startled and became confused: "Huh? Is the government going to kill all of us real estate developers?"
For real estate companies, land is the foundation of everything. Without land, even if they have a thousand or ten thousand tricks, they won’t be able to use them. At that time, let alone making money, it may be difficult for them to even survive.
Seeing Lin Shuyi's ugly face, Lu Yiming shrugged his shoulders and spread his hands: "Why not? Land is a scarce resource. You are smart , but are the officials stupid? Wait a few years, in order to grab a piece of land, you real estate guys will probably have your brains beaten out of your heads. Still think that you, I and everyone else will be fine? You are dreaming."
This is the trend of the times. The real estate developers appear to be very powerful, but in fact, facing the makers of the rules of the game, the so-called rich people are nothing more than fat pigs to be slaughtered.
Although Lin Shuyi was very reluctant to believe Lu Yiming's words, she instinctively felt that things would inevitably develop in this direction.
Before Lin Shuyi could respond, Lu Yiming continued, "So, you should seriously consider the advice I gave you before. The sooner you start planning, the sooner you can seize the initiative."
Lin Shuyi frowned slightly, and began to worry about gains and losses: "Do you still think I should invest in high-tech industries?"
Lu Yiming nodded at her seriously, and his tone was very firm: "That's right, real estate is too dependent on relationships and policies, but officials have terms, and policies will change. Only technological progress is the eternal theme of human civilization. Embrace technology, and you can embrace the future. As a businessman, there is no need to put all your eggs in one basket when investing."
Originally, Lin Shuyi wanted to wait a few years, but according to Lu Yiming, investing in high-tech industries is indeed the sooner the better. After all, some things may fail if you wait too long.
"Okay, I'll discuss it with my dad when I get back."
As she was thinking about something, Lin Shuyi was a little absent-minded when Plot No. 2 was being auctioned.
She had previously thought about acquiring a large piece of land in Nanwan and then making a big splash, but at this moment, she no longer had the passion and ambition she had at the beginning. She kept pondering over what Lu Yiming had said in her heart, thinking about which direction Jingwan Group should go.
There is no doubt that the real estate industry is still booming. If Jingwan Group now shifts its business focus to the technology industry, it will mean giving up many businesses that can make money without doing anything and stepping out of its comfort zone.
This is a very difficult task for a company as large as Jingwan Group.
The key point is that the decline of the real estate industry is just Lu Yiming's words. What if Lu Yiming is lying?
Even if he is not lying, what if his prediction is wrong?
At that time, who will make up for Jingwan Group’s losses?
In recent months, Lu Yiming has indeed successfully bet on the right thing several times, but as long as he is still human, it is impossible for him to never make mistakes.
What's more, the previous few times were just small amounts of money spent by Jingwan Group. Even if it lost all of it, the company would not be seriously hurt. However, if Jingwan Group carried out investment transformation according to Lu Yiming's wishes, once a mistake was made, it would fall into an abyss from which there was no recovery.
Although Lin Shuyi had no intention of bidding, with Lu Yiming by her side, Li Chaoren did not compete with Lin Shuyi for the plot. In the end, Jingwan Group successfully won the plot No. 2 without any trouble.
Originally, the official news was about two plots of land, but because of the Wu family's operation, the official took out plot No. 3. Although the area of plot No. 3 is the smallest among the three, its geographical location is the most advantageous.
Therefore, when the news about Plot No. 3 was released, many people were eager to try it out.
Plot No. 1 was undoubtedly won by Li Chaoren.
Plot No. 2 was won by Jingwan Group after several confrontations.
Having gained nothing so far, everyone can only focus on Plot No. 3.
This resulted in very fierce bidding for Plot No. 3.
Li Kai was very dissatisfied with not being able to win Plot No. 2, so he bid very aggressively, increasing the price by a large margin, and drove away many people at once.
However, there were also many people who were unwilling to gain nothing, and they gritted their teeth and fought hard with Li Kai.
They thought that Cheung Kong Group had just spent 1 billion to buy Plot No. 1, so it was impossible for it to spend another large sum of money to buy Plot No. 3, right?
You know, although the area of Plot No. 2 is slightly smaller than that of Plot No. 1, Cheung Kong Group only asked for 700 million and stopped. It was eventually acquired by Jingwan Group for 800 million, a premium of 25%. It can be seen that both parties remained rational and had a tacit understanding.
Because most people think this way, they all believe they have a chance and compete more enthusiastically.
In the blink of an eye, the price of Plot No. 3, which had a starting price of 350 million yuan, has soared to 500 million yuan, with a premium of more than one-third.
A lot of the credit goes to Li Kai. With the secret support of Li Chaoren, he was the most aggressive in holding up the signs, fought the most fiercely, and spent money like water.
However, he was not doing this simply for the sake of face. He was mainly optimistic about the development of Xia State, especially the several cities along the southeastern coastal areas, which had unlimited potential.
For example, as the capital city of Guangdong Province, Baiyun's economic development momentum is extremely rapid, and it is showing a trend of catching up with Hong Kong.
The land in South Bay will become more and more valuable in the future driven by the economy. It can be said that buying it now is a good deal. Even if you do nothing with it, it will be more than enough to outperform inflation.
But Li Kai was happy, and according to the law of conservation of happiness, someone must be unhappy.
As the number of people holding signs decreased, Wu Changsheng in the crowd became more and more anxious. He kept looking in a certain direction, his eyes fixed on a figure.
Why hasn't he made a move yet?!
This "he" of course refers to Lu Yiming.
Wu Changsheng was extremely anxious and had put down the bait, but the big fish Lu Yiming was reluctant to take the bait. And Li Kai, who took the bait, was clearly a huge foreign shark, and the Wu family could do nothing about him.
At this moment, Wu Changsheng's heart was bleeding.
He is not the kind of person who likes to help others. The Wu family has gone to great lengths to operate secretly and put Plot No. 3 up for auction. It can't be that it is just for others to make money, right?
Seeing that Lu Yiming had not made any move, Wu Changsheng could only secretly call Wu Changmao for help: "Brother, that Lu guy didn't move at all, what should I do?"
On the other end of the phone, Wu Changmao, who had been waiting for news, was stunned when he learned about the situation at the bidding site. He hurriedly asked anxiously: "What is going on? This is different from what we agreed on before!"
Wu Changsheng was so anxious that he stamped his feet, wishing he could kick someone to death on the spot. He held his phone and cursed in a suppressed voice: "How do I know what the hell is wrong with that guy surnamed Lu? He doesn't even want the free money that was delivered to his door. He must be mentally ill!"
But no matter how much you curse, the problem must be resolved in the end.
Wu Changmao pinched his brows, and finally forced himself to calm down. He said in a deep voice: "No matter how much it costs, Plot No. 3 must be taken back. This land is not included in the official plan. If we can't get it back and the matter is exposed, even I will be in trouble."
Seeing that Li Kai was still happily bidding the price, Wu Changsheng wanted to pull out a pistol and shoot Li Kai to death.
"But how can we have so much money now?"
Wu Changmao gritted his teeth and gave Wu Changsheng an idea: "Just bid the price and get the land first. We can figure out the money later. Anyway, we don't have to pay off the money right away."
At this time, the growth rate of on-site auction prices finally began to slow down.
The voice of the MC echoed in the hall: "Five hundred and eighty million once... five hundred and eighty million twice..."
