Volume 5: The Age of Storms Chapter 0731 Potential Investment Targets
"The person greeting Mr. Patera is Goyati Devi, a princess from the Jaipur state. When she was young, she was known as the most beautiful woman in India. Now she is the owner of a diamond jewelry company. She uses the name of the royal family to make money as a nouveau riche."
Nan Yi held the wine glass in Akshay's direction and said, "Tell me about the representative figures among these princes and princesses."
"There are many representative figures. Before India's independence, 565 princes controlled one-third of India's land. They had the power of life and death, possessed a lot of wealth, and lived an extremely extravagant life.
After 1970, the privileges of princes and nobles were stripped away, most of their assets were confiscated, and the era of the so-called princely aristocracy came to an end in India.
Today, the lives of the royal descendants are also changing. Some are impoverished, some are prominent in politics, and some have become Bollywood super idols.
Most royal families have declined, and those who are a little more flexible use their ancestors' palaces and names to make money from tourists. For example, in Rajasthan, tourist attractions mainly featuring palaces are all run by the descendants of the royal family.
However, there are also many descendants of princes who would rather starve than work because they cannot let go of their royal status, and their situation is very miserable.
In the remote suburbs of Delhi, there is a century-old wooden house. Walking into the house, you will see pigeons flying between the hand-carved wooden beams and a middle-aged woman sitting on a moldy Persian carpet, meditating in the dark.
She is Princess Sakina. Her family once ruled a large territory in central India. The ancestral palace has now turned into a pile of rocks. Sakina's current home is deep in the woods. It is a wooden house where her parents used to rest and store sundries when hunting. There is no door, no water or electricity, black mold covers the walls, and the roof is overgrown with weeds.
But Sakina is still a princess. This is how the adults have educated her and her brothers and sisters since they were young. Their noble bloodline will not be reduced by poverty, and they cannot face the real society.
Sakina is not an exception. Many royal descendants are in the same situation. They first lost their privileges and territories, and then lost government subsidies. In order to make a living, they sold boxes of jewelry, Rolls-Royce cars and antique hunting rifles.
They may still have some influence in the areas ruled by their fathers , but in big cities, no one knows who they are. Many descendants of princes and nobles cannot accept this reality, so even though they have received higher education, they would rather give up their future and return to their hometown to live a semi-royal life, just to have someone call them "Your Majesty" when they walk on the street.
Pride and poverty made the former princes and nobles feel at a loss. Princess Sakina and her brother Prince Riyaz have always been single. They never read newspapers or watched TV, and rarely even left the wooden house.
The brother and sister did not trust anyone and mocked the common people as inferior people. They rarely spoke to the servants unless they had to. To them, the world was clearly divided into two halves - royal and non-royal, and whether they were rich or not could not change this definition.
Their only companions were a few giant mastiffs and a few leftover antiques.
Despite the fact that the economy was barely sustainable, Sakina and Riaz did not plan to work. Riaz once said: "We don't want to deal with servants. If I die first, Princess Sakina will end it without hesitation. She is a courageous person, but I don't have courage. If she dies first, I really don't know what to do."
"Common people are only satisfied with ordinary life. It is not their fault to be born as common people, but it is a sin to be willing to be ordinary. We will not ask anyone for help. My mother, Princess Willyate, did not get any help from anyone until her death." These words were said by Sakina.
Wilayat has passed away. When she was alive, Sakina and Riaz always called her Your Majesty and never called her mother. Wilayat also never called her children by their names, but always called them princess and prince.
In 1975, Willyatt, along with her son, daughter, five servants and 12 dogs, broke into the New Delhi Railway Station and lived there for nine years, first setting up camp on the platform and then moving into the VIP waiting room, until the government had to agree to her request and return one of her ancestors' palaces to her.
But Willea soon discovered that the so-called palace was nothing more than a simple hunting lodge. She felt greatly insulted and eventually chose to commit suicide.
Priyanka sighed as she said this and seemed very touched.
Nan Yi, however, thought that these descendants of the fallen local kings should actually be of some use, as long as someone still recognized their identities.
"Of course, there are also a small number of royal descendants who have found a new balance in modern society and even entered politics. The most famous of these is the Scindia family, descendants of the former Gwalior princely state king.
There are many members of the Scindia family active in politics today, the most famous of whom are Vijaya Raj Scindia, the wife of the old Gwalior princely state king, and his son and daughter.
Vijaya Raj Scindia was born in 1919 into an exiled Nepalese royal family. After receiving a university education, she married the then king of the Gwalior state in 1941 and gave birth to one son and four daughters.
Vijaya entered politics in 1957 and was successfully elected as a member of parliament from Madhya Pradesh as a candidate of the Congress Party. He was subsequently elected as a member of parliament five times. In 1967, Vijaya withdrew from the Congress Party and joined the BJP, and served as a senior leader of the BJP.
There are many successful politicians among Vijaya's children. Her son and daughter are both climbing up the career ladder and should be able to reach relatively high positions in the near future.
Mansoor Ali Khan Pathodi inherited the title of the late eighth Maharaja, who was very well-known in India, in 1952 at the age of 11.
Mansoor graduated from Oxford University and was once a national cricket player and captain of the Indian national cricket team. Indians are more crazy and obsessed with cricket than they are with movies. In 1969, Mansoor married Sharmila Tagore, a famous Bollywood actress at the time and a relative of Tagore.
..."
Priyanka told Nan Yi a lot about the descendants of the princely state royal family, but what Nan Yi was most concerned about was Sakina. He planned to find time to meet this princess and evaluate whether it was worth letting her live the life of a "princess".
At this moment, there was a commotion at the door of the conference hall, and the sound of camera shutters was also heard.
Nan Yi looked in the direction of the sound and saw a middle-aged man in his fifties walking in front with his head held high. Behind them were two young men in their thirties following closely. Judging from their facial features, the three men should be father and son.
Without looking at their faces, Nan Yi could recognize who these three people were: Dhirubhai Ambani of Reliance Industries and his two sons Anil and Mukesh.
It seems as if Mukesh has never been young. His face looks no different from that of 20 or 30 years later. Conversely, it can be said that he will not age in a few decades.
“Since Dhirubhai is here, it seems that J.R.D will support Ratan this time.”
At some point, Akshay had walked up to Nan Yi and the other man. "This is the first important figure tonight. With Dhrubaiken of Reliance Industries coming in person, Ratan's status as the heir is at least halfway confirmed. Little Priyanka, I'll take you over to say hello later."
Sonu's purpose in arranging for Priyanka to attend the annual meeting of the Tata Group was very simple. He just wanted Priyanka to restore her noble high-caste status.
If she wants to restore her identity, she just needs to get the recognition of the "big guys". It doesn't matter what the ordinary people outside think. Whether the ordinary people agree or not will not affect Priyanka.
Akshay waited very quickly as he said, and after more than two minutes, there was a brief vacuum around Dhirubhai and the other two, and Akshay walked over with his granddaughter and Priyanka.
Nan Yi was not traveling with him. He was walking towards another person.
"Hello, Mr. Mittal."
"Hello."
Lakshmi Mittal looked at Nan Yi who appeared in front of him, with a look of confusion and thought on his face.
"Mr. Mittal, don't doubt your memory. This is probably the first time you meet me. Let me introduce myself. I'm Adam Smith, the president of Green Core Development. I've heard of Mr. Mittal's majestic presence in Aceh Province, Indonesia, so I came here to say hello."
As soon as Nan Yi mentioned Aceh Province, Lakshmi's pupils dilated slightly, and she kept wondering in her mind which force in Indonesia Nan Yi represented.
"I am not from Indonesia. One of GreenCore's shareholders is Scarlett Investment Holdings."
Lakshmi Mittal comes from the Mittal family, which is not a very prominent family in India. His family was very poor when he was young. The family's conditions did not improve until his father became a shareholder of a steel plant.
In 1976, the Mittal family established its own steelmaking business, and the family truly rose to prominence. In other words, the family began to develop at about the same stage as Nan Yi.
Lakshmi is currently helping out in his family's steel company, responsible for international business. However, he is probably dissatisfied with the family's business model and is actively seeking to start his own business.
For example, in Aceh province, in addition to helping his family expand their business, he also established a small steel company for himself, using a lot of shady means in the process of establishing it.
As for why Nan Yi knew it so clearly, it was because Scarlett Mining Group had been rooted in Aceh Province for many years. Adhering to Nan Yi's consistent style of being willing to share, Aceh was filled with shareholders of Scarlett Mining Group's Aceh Mining Company. Matters related to Aceh and mines could not escape the eyes of "Aceh Mining".
"Hello, Mr. Adam, this is my daughter Vanessa."
After hearing Nan Yi's self-introduction, Lakshmi immediately understood the purpose of Nan Yi coming over to say hello.
"Hello, Princess Vanessa, please accept the salute from your most loyal knight." Nan Yi smiled and held Vanessa's little hand, giving her a knight's etiquette.
Nan Yi has always had a preference for little girls. No matter whether they are close to him or not, he is always full of love and patience towards little girls. Even though Vanessa in front of him is a little dark, he still likes her.
Vanessa giggled and said, "Hello, Your Highness the Knight."
"Your Highness, can I take up your father's office for a few minutes?"
"Can."
Vanessa nodded.
Nan Yi straightened up, looked at Lakshmi and said, "Your daughter is very cute."
"Thanks."
"Mr. Mittal, let me introduce you to Green Core Development's business policy. It's actually very simple. Green Core Development invests in all promising companies in Asia. Of course, the investment is based on voluntariness and fairness.
We at Green Core Development are not interested in interfering in the specific affairs of the company. We are only interested in getting the dividends we deserve on a regular basis.
If, and I mean if, Mr. Mittal needs investment, you can contact me. I have been staying in Mumbai during this period. This is my business card. "
Nan Yi said as he took out a business card from his pocket and handed it to Lakshmi with both hands.
In fact, according to Nan Yi's current identity, he no longer needs to care too much about this kind of business etiquette. It's okay to be casual. Maybe he has become accustomed to wearing the mask for too long. Once he gets to the business stage, his hypocrisy will naturally spread throughout his body and emanate from every pore.
Lakshmi took the business card and took a look at it. There was only an English name, Adam Smith, and a strange phone number on it, nothing else.
After putting away the business card, Lakshmi also gave Nan Yi one of her own business cards, "I will definitely visit Mr. Adam one day."
"Mr. Mittal is always welcome at Peacock Villa." Nan Yi welcomed him, and then immediately said apologetically, "Sorry, my female companion Priyanka Sharma is over there, I have to go back to accompany her first, and we will meet again if there is a chance."
"Okay, feel free to do as you please."
Lakshmi just needs to say hello and make an appointment. It is not advisable to talk too deeply on the first meeting. Lakshmi may take the initiative to find Nan Yi, but it will definitely not be too fast. Nan Yi is mentally prepared for a long wait.
Nan Yi had heard of Lakshmi Mittal in his previous life. In a few years, he would grow up to be the steel tycoon of India and then the steel tycoon of the world. His Mittal Steel Company would acquire several steel giants through friendly and hostile takeovers time and time again and become the largest steel group in the world.
But now he is just a small character who is helping out his family and has just started to think about starting his own business. Investing in him at this time will definitely bring rich returns. Even if Nan Yi is unlucky and Lakshmi is fanned by the butterfly's wings, it doesn't matter. No investment is 100% successful. If you can succeed halfway, you are a very good investor.
"But I still hope there won't be any butterfly effect. Lakshmi is still the rich man who spent tens of millions of pounds to give his daughter the most luxurious wedding of the century."
Nan Yi thought silently in his mind and walked back to Priyanka who had already greeted the Ambani family.
“Has Dhrubhai released his kindness to you?”
"Dhirubhai and Mukesh are very friendly, only Anil is not very friendly. He speaks to me in a teasing and sarcastic manner." Priyanka said with a bad face.
"A gentleman's revenge is never too late, but a villain's revenge takes place from morning till night. Do you want to be a gentleman or a villain?"
"Do you need to behave like a lady to your enemies?" Priyanka asked rhetorically.
"No need, but let's not resort to painless revenge. Learn from Cobra's style, wait for the opportunity, and strike at the most critical moment to bite his vitals."
"Inheritance?"
"Well, you're growing up fast."
Nan Yi nodded and gave a friendly smile to Mukesh who saluted him.
No matter how much discord there is within the Tata Group, it is impossible to show it in front of outsiders. Therefore, when the annual meeting officially began, there was no quarreling scene for the guests to watch. There was only harmony, and J.R.D announced to the guests and shareholders the brilliant achievements made by the Tata Group this year.
Latan has always been following J.R.D., being visible but not overly presenting himself.
Seeing Ratan's calmness, even though Nan Yi had no memories of his previous life, he was more inclined to believe that Ratan would win the battle for power. If he had to choose between the two, he would definitely support Ratan.
After the announcement of the annual meeting's achievements, it was time for the guests to walk around. One by one, the guests walked around the conference hall with wine glasses in hand, expanding their personal connections and social circles.
Nan Yi is little known, and Priyanka's identity is awkward, so it is not convenient for both of them to move around. They can only rely on Akshay, follow him, and get to know the "big shots" in India.
