Chapter 465: Forbes Rich List
In November of 1987, Shirakawa Feng was busy with the future financing of SIC.
One day at the end of the month, he even took time out to attend Keyence's listing ceremony.
KEYENCE is the company that has been cooperating with Shirakawa Electric on the Lead motor for CD player laser heads.
It was renamed Keyence last year and officially listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange this year.
Shirakawa Electric, which has had in-depth cooperation with Keyence since the beginning of its development, has also become one of Keyence's financing shareholders.
However, the real investor is the investment company under Shirakawa Holdings, after negotiations with Mitsubishi and others.
In the end, Shirakawa Holdings acquired 10.7% of Keyence's shares for 12 billion yen, but after the listing this figure has been diluted to around 8%.
However, thanks to Japan's inflated stock market, Keyence's stock price soared 34.7% on its first day of listing.
Tsk, he made billions of yen on the first day. It's true that money can be made quickly in the financial industry.
Not to mention that Kitato Bank is also one of Keyence's underwriters, and it makes a lot of money.
It is even cash, not the share data held by Shirakawa Holdings.
Just as everyone in Japan agrees at this moment, Japan's stock market will never fall.
Even the "Black Monday" in the global stock market in July could not affect the Japanese stock market in the slightest.
Doesn’t this prove the saying that “the Japanese stock market will never fall”?
So no matter what kind of company you are, as long as it is listed, the stock price will rise.
Those fanatical stock investors watch the two major trading sections of the Tokyo Stock Exchange every day.
As long as there are new stocks, everyone will rush in. In less than half a day, the stock price will be raised to a point that will make the president of the newly listed company grin from ear to ear.
Although such a market is morbid and abnormal, it is indeed exciting.
And it doesn’t matter even if the stock price is inflated. As long as there are people who take the shares and transactions are going on in the stock market, someone will definitely make money.
So although Neon's stock market has been soaring, it has also been unusually active.
A big part of the reason for this phenomenon is that the stock market is supported by the real estate market.
Everyone firmly believes that the land price in Neon will never fall.
Neon has a small territory and a limited amount of developable land. As the population grows, the available land will become less and less.
Under this cognitive psychology, land prices in Tokyo have increased by 94.7% compared to last year, almost doubling.
Just near Ginza in Chuo Ward, the most expensive land in Neon history has been created, costing more than 100 million yen per tsubo.
A space of a little over three square meters was sold for more than 100 million yen, which even Shirakawa Kaede was amazed.
House prices, land prices and the economy of an entire country are closely related. It is obvious that the land prices in Neon are now out of touch with people's consumption and income.
However, because there are too many people copying the land and too many people speculating in stocks, they do not feel there is a problem with collective participation.
Also because of the rise in both the real estate and stock markets, although Shirakawa Electric's export trade was affected, its market value went straight to 7 trillion yen.
However, although the market value has increased a lot, the ranking has dropped. Now Shirakawa Electric's market value ranking is almost falling back to tenth place.
It's magical, right? The market value has increased significantly, but the ranking has declined. Instead, the market value of financial institutions has expanded rapidly.
For example, Nomura Securities, a leader in the financial field, has the highest operating profit in Japan this year.
In November, reporters from all major media outlets reported on this news. Stimulated by this news, the market value of Nomura Securities exceeded 15 trillion yen in one fell swoop.
Thanks to its extremely high market value, Nomura Securities now ranks second among Japan's top 100 companies, following Toyota Motor.
This shows how outrageous the bonus to market value of the financial industry is due to the stimulation of the stock market.
However, when it comes to market value, Baichuan Feng has indeed shown his face in front of people all over the world this year.
That’s right, the whole world, not just Neon.
How did this face show up? We need to look at the new list of the world's richest people released by Forbes magazine this year.
Forbes's list of the world's richest people was first released in 1987, and the cover character of this issue of the magazine was Shirakawa Kaede.
To be honest, when someone held a magazine and told him that he had become the richest man on earth, Baichuan Feng himself was confused.
Because Forbes hadn't discussed this with him before, but...it can't be said that he hadn't discussed it.
The editors of Forbes contacted me a long time ago, and they told Shirakawa Kaede their intentions.
For the first time this year, Forbes plans to compile a list of the world's richest people based on personal wealth.
Forbes' editors explained that while the wealthy people on the list can demonstrate their wealth, they can also bring various invisible benefits to their future business activities.
To put it bluntly, Forbes is promoting Shirakawa Kaede, and the latter also needs to cooperate with Forbes to provide various proofs of his assets.
When Forbes came to him, Baichuan Feng refused without a second thought.
He doesn't want to be famous, nor does he want to show off his wealth. Wouldn't it be better to make a fortune quietly?
Moreover, according to the Japanese tradition, being low-key is the mainstream. No chaebol would advertise their wealth like a nouveau riche.
However, although Forbes rejected it, it does not mean that Forbes gave up the idea.
Forbes' team of reporters began tracking the activities of the world's richest people a year ago.
For example, when Shirakawa Kaede attended some charity parties, the things he casually photographed were worth hundreds of millions of yen, and these scenes were seen by the people at Forbes.
There is also the Dassault private jet he bought earlier and the custom-made luxury yacht.
Although he did not publicize it himself, he could not hide it from the eyes of these reporters.
After confirming who is qualified to be on the Forbes Rich List, they will invite the relevant people for interviews and also hand over the approximate data of their investigation.
Baichuan Feng had no interest in the so-called rich list, so he just glanced at the data and laughed it off.
But it is obvious that Forbes has not given up its plan. Although Baichuan Feng refused, they still based their decision on their own investigation and previous media reports.
He began to make a rough estimate of the companies, land, houses and luxury goods under Shirakawa Kaede's name.
However, because the land prices in Neon are too outrageous at the moment, Forbes is temporarily using the land prices in the United States as a reference for this part of the calculation.
Shirakawa Kaede's most famous assets are the title of "4.2 billion couple" and the listed company Shirakawa Electric.
However, after Shirakawa Electric issued several rounds of new shares, Shirakawa Holdings' shareholding has been reduced to about 30%, and the rest is under the small account.
Although Shirakawa Kaede is the absolute controller behind Shirakawa Holdings, Forbes does not know whether there are other investors.
How many of these belong to Baichuan Feng personally is another mystery.
Finally, based on its own rough calculations, Forbes believes that the value of Shirakawa Electric's shares held by Shirakawa Kaede personally is approximately US$14 billion.
SIC's market value was converted to approximately US$2 billion, which is an estimated result based on one-third of Intel's market value.
There is no doubt that this underestimates the value of SIC, because Intel's market value has already plummeted due to the US stock market crash in 1987.
But Forbes is not responsible for the data anyway, so just make a rough calculation.
As for the more famous companies such as Kitato Bank and HAL, together with a number of less well-known subsidiaries, the overall valuation is around US$5 billion.
Adding the world-famous $4.2 billion, Shirakawa Kaede's personal assets are roughly $25.2 billion.
Although Baichuan Feng scoffed after looking at this set of figures, none of Forbes' calculations could be considered accurate.
But there is no doubt that in 1987, this number still crushed the vast majority of the world's richest people.
In the eyes of Forbes, 25.2 billion US dollars is undoubtedly ranked first in the world.
Therefore, as soon as this issue of the magazine was released, it caused a sensation around the world.
The richest man in the world is under 30 years old and is from Japan.
What is even less convincing is that the second on the rich list is still Yoshiaki Tsutsumi from the Neon Seibu Group.
His personal assets mainly come from land, and Forbes estimates him to be $20 billion.
The first and second place on the rich list are both Japanese, which really makes people doubt the accuracy of Forbes data.
In addition, this is the first time the rich list is being held, and its authority remains to be verified.
So most people are skeptical about this set of numbers.
Especially the domestic media in Japan, they believe that if the land prices in Japan are really calculated, Yoshiaki Tsutsumi should undoubtedly be ranked first on the rich list.
Because Seibu Group currently owns nearly one-sixth of the total developable land in Japan, according to current prices, Yoshiaki Tsutsumi's net worth should be around US$150 billion.
Theoretically, these lands are indeed worth that much money.
After all, the land in Japan is not unsalable. On the contrary, there are many people participating in the transaction.
If Yoshiaki Tsutsumi can find enough people to take over, he might indeed be worth over 100 billion US dollars.
More than 100 billion US dollars in 1987. This number was a bit beyond Forbes' imagination .
So when Forbes finally calculated the land price in Neon, it did not calculate it based on the crazy land price in Neon at the moment.
Because this is too ridiculous, even Forbes, who likes to make blind calculations, finds it ridiculous.
150 billion US dollars, who would believe it if I told them?
This figure is higher than the net assets of many countries, and it is truly rich enough to rival a country.
So in order to avoid making its first rich list a joke, Forbes had to lower Japan’s land prices to the same level as the United States.
Therefore, the current data was obtained, and Shirakawa Kaede, who mainly engages in industry, naturally came from behind and won the first place with 25 billion US dollars.
However, although many people question the Forbes Rich List, the outside world also believes that Shirakawa Kaede's assets are even less than 25 billion US dollars.
But there is still 18 billion. After all, Japan's real estate and stock markets are too inflated, and the market value of Shirakawa Electric has also been invisibly overestimated.
Therefore, 18 billion US dollars is a number that everyone can accept. At least Shirakawa Kaede’s assets are not supported by land.
In addition, although his worth was underestimated a lot, many people admired Baichuan Feng more and more.
The $18 billion recognized by everyone is much more convincing than the $25 billion boasted by Forbes.
Many people have no idea what this kind of wealth is, and their impression of it is merely a number.
After all, I can't earn $100 million in several lifetimes, and 18 billion is indeed beyond my understanding.
Because of the sudden emergence of Forbes magazine, Shirakawa Kaede also attracted many reporters in Neon.
There was no other way, during this period of time Shirakawa Kaede even secretly hid in his hometown in Akita.
Baichuan Feng really wanted to say don't listen to Forbes' nonsense, those chaebols have much more wealth than him, they are the real super rich.
However, the wealth of the chaebol is not concentrated in one person, and Shirakawa Kaede, as the founder of Shirakawa Holdings, is still too prominent.
However, soon at the end of the year, the outside world's attention shifted to another matter, and Shirakawa Kaede had to return to Tokyo and visit the Imperial Palace.
