The film and television city starts from the courtyard

Chapter 2207 Pricing Power

A few days later, Zhao Shucheng brought Dai Jiaofeng to Hong Kong, preparing to set off from here to Australia.

It was Dai Jiaofeng's first time in Hong Kong. Looking at the tall buildings on the roadside and even the clothes worn by pedestrians on the street, and then at her own clothes, she immediately lowered her head in shame.

Zhao Shucheng couldn't help but smile and said, "Okay, don't feel embarrassed. They also develop step by step. After we settle down, I will take you to buy clothes first. Then you won't be able to tell."

"Brother Lei, you are so nice!"

Zhao Shucheng couldn't help but smile, but he didn't flirt with Dai Jiaofeng. Instead, he looked at the tall buildings outside and fell into deep thought.

It was not a simple matter for him to inspect the mine this time. After all, his total wealth was only a few hundred million US dollars, so it was still a drop in the bucket to acquire a mining company. If he just bought a mine, then development and transportation would be a big problem.

Of course, Zhao Shucheng is not without any preparation. He plans to make money out of nothing, or buy low and sell high to accumulate funds, or simply exchange shares to gain a certain voice.

In fact, Zhao Shucheng learned this trick from the island country. As early as the 60s, they began to develop the iron ore industry and invested in mines in Australia or Brazil, thereby controlling core assets within the three mining groups and having a certain voice.

Therefore, when the island country's steel production ranked first in the world, the price of iron ore basically did not change much. But when the domestic steel mills expanded and began to export steel products, the island country began to teach the country a profound lesson.

Theoretically, the island country is the master of the domestic steel industry, but it has not taught everything it knows, and has hidden a trick of climbing a tree. Although it seems that the world's high-quality iron ore is concentrated in the hands of three iron ore producers, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, and Vale of Brazil. In fact, they have already started to lay out, and directly or indirectly own the rights and interests of local iron ore companies. When the domestic steel production exceeded that of the island country, and after replacing the island country as the largest iron ore importer, it immediately triggered a surge in the price of international iron ore.

In 2005, the island nation of Nippon Steel reached a unilateral agreement with the world's largest iron ore trader, Brazil's Vale. That year, the price of iron ore increased by percent. Because the international ore trading adopted a long-term contract pricing mechanism, the costs of domestic steel companies soared rapidly, and they had to accept this price.

Zhao Shucheng naturally couldn't accept being forced to buy high-priced iron ore, so he needed to plan for foreign iron ore companies early. Even if he had to accept high-priced ore, the income from the iron ore was enough to make up for the loss, which was nothing more than transferring money from one hand to the other. Of course, there was another way, that is, the rights and interests in the mines, which could directly allow the steel mills to purchase iron ore in the form of equity mines, and this part of the equity mines would not face the threat of price increases.

Of course, Zhao Shucheng will not participate in the investment in the name of a domestic enterprise at the beginning. Instead, he will make acquisitions or acquire shares under a disguise to avoid risks as much as possible.

After all, the approval process of the Foreign Investment Review Committee takes a relatively long time, and because the investment is from China, it may even be more stringent, and may even directly reject requests for acquisition or equity investment.

This time, Zhao Shucheng went directly to HSBC and entrusted them to find a suitable professional manager for him, and then set up a new company to carry out investment operations.

The other party was indeed very considerate and quickly found a suitable professional manager, Macbeth, for Zhao Shucheng.

After Zhao Shucheng met Macbeth, the two had a brief chat and finally decided to let the other party handle the acquisition of the mine and the investment in the iron ore company, while he would provide financial support in Hong Kong.

Of course, Zhao Shucheng’s own funds are definitely not enough, but Zhao Shucheng can make profits from the island country’s stock market, thereby providing ammunition support for his acquisition.

Zhuang Shaoqiang didn't expect to be able to trade with Zhao Shucheng for the second time so soon, and he was suddenly a little excited. The two worked together to take advantage of the rapid recovery of the island country's stock market after the economic crisis and the opportunity of rising stock prices to quickly grab foreign exchange, thereby providing Macbeth with sufficient financial ammunition.

Therefore, Zhao Shucheng quickly invested in 16 of the 24 major mining companies in Australia and took a stake in the other eight. The reason why he did not invest in all of them was because those eight companies were the focus of investment by the island country companies, and Zhao Shucheng did not want to alert the enemy.

In addition, Zhao Shucheng also invested in large and small iron ore companies in Brazil, and even directly acquired 20% of the shares of Vale's mines at a 50% premium. Vale occupies 18 of the 22 iron mines in Brazil, which is equivalent to controlling the shares of the vast majority of iron ore companies.

It’s not that Zhao Shucheng doesn’t want to own more shares, but Vale’s identity is different from that of later generations. It is still under the direct jurisdiction of the government, so it is a blessing to be able to get shares.

However, Zhao Shucheng is not in a hurry. A few years later in 1997, the controlling rights of Vale will be transferred from the Brazilian government to a Vale holding company. At that time, Zhao Shucheng can use these shares to invest and then re-purchase shares to gain more voice.

Of course, Zhao Shucheng invested more funds in the share acquisition of BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. Although these two companies are international iron ore giants, their equity is relatively dispersed and they can be freely acquired in the capital market.

Of course, owning shares in the mine is not enough, there is another key step, that is, shipping channels. After all, most of the global iron ore shipping is in the hands of the Mitsui Group. Zhao Shucheng does not want to be strangled, so he can only contact the Hong Kong Dong family, hoping that the other party can provide iron ore transport ships, and signed an agreement with the other party to transport at least 2 million tons per year.

At this moment, the Dong family was struggling to maintain their family shipping company due to the global shipping depression. Now that they got such a big order, they were naturally happy to sign the agreement.

After three months of turnover, Zhao Shucheng finally achieved his goal. When Zhao Shucheng called Director Li, the other party was so excited that he didn't know what to say. After all, there is no need for foreign exchange, only RMB can be used to import minerals. Where can you find such a good thing?

However, when Director Li learned that the iron ores were actually purchased in foreign exchange and Zhao Shucheng just used Xiao Lei's family's overseas account to circulate them, and Zhao Shucheng asked him not to publicize it, he immediately realized that such matters were best kept secret.

After all, if other companies knew about this and started to pester Zhao Shucheng, wouldn’t the Lei family be under a lot of pressure and might even offend people in the future? That would not be worth it.

When Zhao Shucheng was about to return to China, Dai Jiaofeng said, "Brother Lei, are you going back just like this?"

"What else? Now that everything has been resolved, I naturally have to choose to go back."

"But your company is here, aren't you worried..."

Zhao Shucheng couldn't help but smile when he saw Dai Jiaofeng's expression, and said, "Don't worry, the other party is a professional manager, and I also control the company. If there is anything, the other party will call me."

"But if you don't send someone to watch here, what if something happens?"

Zhao Shucheng looked at the other person with amusement and said, "Xiaofeng, do you want to stay here?"

Dai Jiaofeng smiled shyly and said, "Yes, Brother Lei, I hope to stay here and help you look after the company. Although I can't sit in the back like Sister Pingping, I can help you keep an eye on things here. Just come and see me often, okay?" Zhao Shucheng smiled and said, "No problem. By the way, you can live in this villa. Take some time to learn how to drive, and I'll leave the car to you."

"Brother Lei, do you think I am a Western worshiper?"

Zhao Shucheng shook his head and said, "Not really. After all, this place will soon be returned to China, and we will still be citizens of one country. But people like beautiful things. This place is indeed a little more developed than China, so it's normal to like staying here. But I am confident that China will also develop very well in the future, and it may not be much worse than here."

"Yeah, I know. I just want to learn more here so that I can help you when the time comes."

"You have the final say. By the way, Xiaofeng, why don't you tell your family if you stay here?"

Dai Jiaofeng hesitated for a moment and said, "I only have my grandparents. I can just write them a letter when the time comes."

When Zhao Shucheng saw Dai Jiaofeng's expression, he didn't ask her where her parents had gone, but just hugged her silently.

A few days later, Zhao Shucheng returned to Xiao Lei's home.

Song Yunping was very happy to see Zhao Shucheng come back, but while they were hugging each other, she secretly smelled something with her nose.

Zhao Shucheng noticed her movements and said with amusement, "No, what are you sniffing like a puppy? Is there any smell on me?"

"I'll check to see if you have any traces of the fox on you, but it looks like you don't."

Zhao Shucheng said, "You just don't trust me?"

"Do I not trust you or do you have a bad conduct?"

Zhao Shucheng was a little surprised when he heard this. He had not had any involvement with other people since he came back from Hong Kong. Why did he feel like there was something he didn't know?

"What happened to Pingping?"

Seeing that Zhao Shucheng really didn't know, Song Yunping handed him a newspaper. This was a Hong Kong newspaper, and the headline was a photo of Zhao Shucheng and Dai Jiaofeng. However, Dai Jiaofeng was right in front of Zhao Shucheng at the time, so he could only see her profile. People who were not very familiar with her would not recognize her as Dai Jiaofeng.

It read: "New stock market tycoons kiss passionately in public, billions of dollars in assets may have an heir."

Zhao Shucheng couldn't help but sneer and said, "Pingping, you don't believe the nonsense these paparazzi say, do you?"

"It doesn't matter whether you believe it or not. Shouldn't you explain what a stock market tycoon is and what a billionaire is? You should know that this newspaper was brought back by someone from our village who went to the Canton Fair. Many people even talked about it, wondering if you were embezzling money from the village."

Zhao Shucheng couldn't help but shook his head and said, "These people have problems with their brains. If they really embezzled so much money, do you think I would be able to stand here safely?"

"But you have to give an explanation to the villagers, otherwise people will be uneasy and gossip will inevitably spread."

After Zhao Shucheng pondered for a moment, he said, "Okay, I'll go to the village committee and call a meeting of all the villagers through the loudspeaker to make this matter clear, so that no one will talk nonsense in the future."

After arriving at the village committee, Zhao Shucheng asked the village committee members to turn on the loudspeaker. Unexpectedly, the new village committee member directly refused and repeatedly stated that Zhao Shucheng did not have this right.

Zhao Shucheng couldn't help but glare at the other party, but he also knew that they came here to pick peaches, but they didn't expect to get nothing and could only do some ordinary work, so they had complaints. He didn't care about the other party's attitude and turned around and left the village committee.

He went directly to the headquarters of Xiao Leijia Group and asked people to find Lao Wu, Lei Shigen, Shi Hongwei, Sibao, Siyan and others, and then summoned all the villagers to hold a meeting outside the group company.

Shi Hongwei and others were also very excited to see Zhao Shucheng return. Of course, they also wanted to know whether Zhao Shucheng was really as described in the news, and whether his 10 billion yuan fortune was true.

Zhao Shucheng simply waved his hand and said, "Okay, don't ask anything now, don't say anything. When everyone is here, we will discuss any issues face to face."

Shi Hongwei wanted to say something but was pulled away by Lei Shigen. Sibao and others also went out and drove to the factory to call people.

After all the villagers had gathered, Zhao Shucheng looked at the chattering crowd, patted the loudspeaker he had brought out, and then said, "Everyone, be quiet!"

When the villagers heard Zhao Shucheng's voice, they suddenly quieted down and stared at him, as if waiting for something.

Zhao Shucheng coughed and continued, "I was out there for a while and dealt with the raw material problem at the steel plant. But when I came back, I found out that there was something that the villagers had been talking about, so I will answer it for everyone today to avoid any concerns."

"Dongbao, is what the newspaper said true? Are you really a Chen Shimei and have a net worth of 10 billion?"

Zhao Shucheng smiled and said, "Of course it's not true. If I were Chen Shimei, I wouldn't have returned to Xiao Lei's house. The photo in the newspaper is misplaced. That's my employee in Hong Kong. We were talking about something, but they caught us taking the photo."

The old Party Secretary said, "Dongbao, what's the matter with that 10 billion worth of assets? Don't try to avoid the main point."

Zhao Shucheng smiled, looked at the old branch secretary, then looked at the others who were just staring at him, and said, "If I say it's true, will you believe it?"