Winner Takes It All, Resurrection 2009

Chapter 728: The Logic of Investment by Big Investors
"Without strength, everything you say is fake."

Li Zehua highly advocates this saying. For example, at the moment, the big households only have money but no strength. When the old owner Ou Meng began to retreat, all the neighbors around it fell into chaos.

Originally, they wanted to gain protection by making friends with American capital, but they never expected that American capital would ask for a higher price and be more ruthless. They would easily take a large piece of meat from the funds that big investors had taken as a token of their investment.

This frightened Salman greatly, for he feared that American capital only wanted money and was unwilling to provide the necessary protection for the big players.

Therefore, when necessary, getting closer to the University of Tokyo and introducing the power of the University of Tokyo to check and balance American capital becomes his best option. Apart from this, he has no other choice.

Because of the relationship between Baixiang and Babutie, as well as its cooperation with Youtai Capital, the big households are afraid; the big cat in the north is the original export competitor of the big households.

In addition, because of its always aggressive nature and its support for Persia's expansion in West Asia, which seriously threatened the interests of the big families, Salman was not interested in the big cats, especially at a time when Europe was shrinking globally.

Only Todai can provide protection for it.

Salman made full preparations for Qingyun's visit and agreed to Qingyun's trade plan of selling Gou 10 to Babti.

He then naturally mentioned the issue of investing in Tsing Yun Holdings, "Referring to the conditions when Lee Ka Po Temasek invested in Tsing Yun, the price of 5% of the shares is entirely up to you, Mr. Lee.

In addition, a large sovereign fund has a large amount of idle funds in Switzerland, not much, US$60 billion, and wants to entrust Qingyun Investment to manage it on its behalf.

If Mr. Li doesn’t mind, we are also very interested in the investment share of Qingyun Industrial Fund.”

He proposed three most critical conditions for exchanging interests in one breath, targeting Qingyun's core resources, which made Li Zehua very difficult.

It’s not that they don’t want to take the opportunity to set a sky-high price and fool a large amount of funds, but that the big investors are not qualified. All they rely on is crude oil resources, although they are very important to Dongda.

But for the entire Qingyun system, there are many alternatives. For example, due to the dramatic changes in the international situation in the future, Big Cat will definitely open oil pipelines eastwards from Big Cat to Northeast China, North China, and Northwest China.

In the future, when the United States finds that it cannot completely suppress Eastern capital, it will definitely find ways to restrict Eastern capital's free navigation at major strategic nodes around the world, such as Suez and Panama.

But as long as it cannot take Malacca, it will be difficult to truly grasp the lifeline of Southeast Asia. As the three South American powers and Southeast Asia get closer, once the major transportation artery running through the Amazon basin is built.

Crude oil from Venezuela, the country with the world's largest energy reserves, will also be transported to the University of Tokyo via the Pacific route.

Therefore, the chips of big investors are not unique.

It would be too hurtful to say it directly, but it was impossible not to say it. After Li Zehua euphemistically expressed that it was like a boss, Salman behaved very rationally and nodded, "That's true."

Li Zehua was confused. How could he agree with his opponent's opinions when doing business?
Even if what the other party says is correct, shouldn't we still find a lot of faults? For example, the Big Cat East China Oil Pipeline and the Amazon's main transportation artery cannot be built, and there are great uncertainties and risks.

In the short term, does the University of East China still have to rely on energy from West Asia to overcome economic development difficulties?
Then the two sides got entangled in the issue, each saying his own thing, and ultimately, unfortunately, they were unable to reach an agreement.

No one will suffer losses until Dongda Capital overcomes numerous difficulties and actually builds two major energy arteries. By then, the international situation will change again, and the core power held by Dongda will be greatly enhanced.

Big investors are more dependent on Dongda and have fewer chips, and are forced to accept the sky-high chips offered by Dongda and have to accept it with a pinch of their noses.

But Salman didn't think so, because West Asia did not have a brilliant, long-standing, highly developed culture like East Asia. Since the day they were established, they have been accustomed to relying on the strong.

From Britain, Hans, Gaul, Tsarist Russia, and later American capital, this region is always accustomed to submitting to the strongest. They support whoever is powerful.

It’s just that the appetite of American capital is a bit too big. Not only does it break the rules and trample on traditions, it also directly uses force to threaten neighboring countries, including the big households themselves, who are harvested from time to time.

The most crucial thing is that American capital is now expanding overseas, and Squid Capital is in charge. This is the natural enemy of the big players. Once they compromise too much, they are bound to explode internally.

Whether from the perspective of personal feelings and personal interests, or from the perspective of the entire West Asian group at the economic level, Salman cannot accept a world order dominated by Pacific capital.

Therefore, for a long time before, West Asian oil-producing countries, including major ones, tried to introduce European capital to counter American capital. It was only because European capital went too far that American capital became the only dominant force.

Now the consequences have emerged. Wall Street simply does not take the big investors seriously, and traditional American capital has also taken advantage of the situation. Every time they reach out, it is not tens of billions of dollars, but hundreds of billions.

This includes requiring large investors to publicly purchase long-term, low-interest U.S. Treasury bonds through three channels: Wall Street, Switzerland, and London.

The big households were required to share a proportion of the US funds each year for special operations in West Asia, under the euphemistic pretext that this was an operation to protect the big households from invasion in the Mesopotamian region.

But Salman swore that he had never thought of using money to allow the mold to rob the local people north of the Golan Heights of their wheat and oil, on which they depended for their survival.

What made Salman most dissatisfied was yet to come. He even used the most vicious words to curse, "Wall Street even condoned the big cats and continued to expand their influence in Persia, trying to use it to break up the entire West Asian family.

The white elephants in the east also took the opportunity to gain a foothold in the UAE. They are a hundred times more terrifying than the poisonous snakes in the desert. No matter what, we cannot accept this kind of blackmail.

American capital is behind all this, and they are trying to use the threat of the big cats to force us to make further compromises.

Behind the support for White Elephant is an even more terrifying plan. The intelligence agencies have intercepted information passed by the US to White Elephant more than once, and they are ambitiously proposing a replacement plan.

Really, you can't even imagine that it is already the civilized 21st century, but the American thinking is still stuck in the colonial era of the 19th century.

They actually want to use the huge population size advantage of white elephants to dilute our smaller economies through various means such as immigration and technical visas and secret transfers.

Then they replaced us perfectly and legally with one person for each person, which is simply an appalling and unforgivable crime!!!"

When Li Zehua heard this, he immediately expressed his indignation and understanding, but privately, he remained silent.

Every strong economy is qualified to formulate its own strategic plan to lead the world.

For example, Hans established the foundation for returning to a superpower after the merger of the East and the West, especially after the establishment of Ou Meng, relying on the advantages of almost zero tariffs and complementary resources between each other.

Relying on Western Europe's high-quality talents, huge consumer market, and advantages in high-tech manufacturing, Daiying supported Eastern Europe's mid- and low-end manufacturing industries through funding, thereby strengthening Daiying's financial attributes.

With a complete and flawless unified European economy without any shortcomings, and with unrivaled advantages, we will peacefully regain control of the world order from American capital.

For example, the path chosen by White Elephant is just like not eating and shouting slogans 70 years ago. It is full of ridiculousness, but we have to admit that it really saves costs.

In short, it doesn’t matter whether White Elephant is strong locally or not, it does not rely on its own construction to gain world leadership!

If you lack something, you can just parasitize it. In short, by getting involved with Squid Capital and having the latter's attention and support, the execution of White Elephant's plan went very smoothly.

With it and the big cat working together in the south and the north, it seems that the plan has a very high chance of success, because the big cat will do its best to cooperate with the white elephant. This is its only way to reach the top of the world again.

Big Cat has always been an overly pragmatic economy. It understands its current situation. The whole reason is that American capital needs to set a target, a reason to control Europe that requires the active intervention of American capital.

Therefore, it spared no effort to get close to American capital and get close to Squid Capital in an attempt to get forgiveness. It never intended to accept its fate. Whether it followed Ou Meng or Dongda, that was not the result it wanted.

For example, Hans integrated Ou Meng and successfully created a mid- and low-end industrial chain in Eastern Europe, forming complementary advantages with high-end Western Europe. West Asia and South America became bases for the supply of cheap raw materials and energy.

By then, the whole world will crawl at the feet of Europe and be dominated for another two hundred years or even longer. However, within this system, the status of the big cat will be extremely compressed, let alone compared with Gaul and England.

Even the status of Bolan, Da Hu and Husky is slightly stronger than it. At best, in this new order, their status is equal to that of Italy.

Big Cat definitely couldn't do that, so among the people who took the lead in plotting against Hans and Ou Meng, Big Cat simply refused on the surface, but in fact he was more active than anyone else.

Turning to support Dongda, completing alternative complementary advantages, becoming Dongda's representative of Oumeng's interests, and restraining and suppressing Oumeng's pawn, the status is not much higher. Don't think about anything else. Once Dongda breaks through the restrictions of the US capital order and successfully reaches the top, Jiaobenji will inevitably be the first to surrender, out of consideration for the interests of buying a horse with a huge sum of money and consolidating the basic base.

The foot basin chicken is definitely in the third place and is expected to be the second.

The other is the Association of Southeast Asian Economic Groups. After Southeast Asia fully develops its high-end manufacturing industry, Southeast Asia will become an important supplement to it.

And out of consideration for the future strategy of the Indian Ocean Rim, White Elephants will also be given the necessary respect within this system.

How will the big cats cope with the situation then?

Perhaps its status is not as good as Samba, the most important team in Tokyo University's layout in South America.

The strategies of these major powers are basically open and transparent. It is like if the United States and Japan go to war all out, the first one to get anxious will definitely be like the chicken in the basin. It is inevitable and cannot be changed by the will of any individual or group.

The same is true for big investors. They just want to make money and enjoy life quietly. If they can take advantage of the transition from the old to the new and become the de facto leader in West Asia and North Africa, that would be fine too.

No, it doesn't force it, because with a population of 20 to 30 million and more than half of its land area being desert, it is basically unable to develop a complete industrial system, which would not allow it to participate in international economic exchanges.

Very pragmatic.

That is, it will follow whoever can provide it with perfect security. If Ou Meng is powerful, it will recognize Ou Meng.

American capital is powerful, um, this won’t work. American capital has too big an appetite. They want to uproot everything and not leave even a sip of soup for the big investors. Therefore, the big investors must do this without completely offending American capital.

Find a new big brother to come in and restrain the increasingly arrogant American capital. Dongda is the new target they collectively choose. It would be better if it were a little stronger.

"So, please don't reject our friendship, Mr. Li. As long as you make an offer and are willing to accept a large sovereign fund to become a major shareholder of Qingyun Holdings, we are willing to pay no matter how many billions it is."

When Salman blatantly disregarded the rules and was ready to spend money violently, Li Zehua was confused. It was also the first time for him to encounter such a domineering and unreasonable opponent, or friend.

But Qingyun’s high-quality resources cannot be given away easily, otherwise he will not be able to explain to the existing group and friendly businesses, and he may end up being attacked by everyone.

So he could only reluctantly give up and firmly refuse, and at the same time put forward a seemingly impossible condition, "I heard that Aramco has been working hard to take back all its overseas mining rights recently?"

I thought that this involves the lifeblood of a big client, so this can't be exchanged, right?

But he still underestimated Salman's determination to curry favor with others, "Mr. Li, are you also interested in the oil mining rights?
There is absolutely no problem, look at this."

As he spoke, he picked up the oil mining planning map that had been prepared long ago for the big family, pointed to two large areas and said excitedly: “If Mr. Li is willing, the map has proven reserves.

The mining rights of the most conservative oil reserves of more than one trillion US dollars can all be given to Qingyun Group as a gift, as long as you agree to enter the new energy industry chain and the photovoltaic industry.

As well as the core technology company resources controlled by Qingyun Holdings, we will cooperate with them for mutual benefit. Yes, that’s what you often say, getting rich together…”

“No, no, no, you may have misunderstood me. I think if Aramco’s shares are twice as much as this, and there is a veto power over Dongda’s energy business, it will be in line with the principle of equal transactions.”

Salman finally showed a serious look for the first time. "Double, 10% of the shares and veto power on major matters?"

"Yes, this is a prerequisite. You have to agree to it before we can talk."

Li Zehua finally breathed a sigh of relief. He was not lucky enough to enjoy the happiness of being targeted by a big investor!

The value of the assets held by Qingyun Holdings today is more than one trillion yuan. The most important thing is that friendly business groups are watching it all the time, and every second someone proposes to bundle and exchange other core resources.

He has been dragging his feet on dealing with it, but sooner or later, he will have to give up some of his interests in exchange for things like the Southeast Asian hydropower infrastructure controlled by Nandian and the global ports and shipping resources controlled by China Merchants Group.

As well as the many core resources controlled by Libao and Runhua, these are the basis for the group to maintain its long-term prosperity. This can only be achieved when we gather enough strong allies to safeguard common interests together.

Only in this way can you effectively avoid pressure from all sides. Trying to eat alone will lead to a bad ending.

But there are many powerful players, but they definitely do not include the big players, because they have nothing but energy chips. The most pitiful thing is that half of the limited energy chips are not in their hands.

Europe and the United States will never allow this easily. As for the big players, it would be difficult to do so even if they were unprecedentedly united.

Salman was indeed frightened, because even with his status, he did not dare to easily agree on issues involving the core interests of large households.

However, Li Zehua still underestimated his courage. "Mr. Li, can you guarantee the credibility of this statement?"

Li Zehua responded with a smile, "Of course."

He simply didn't believe that once it went public, the market value of Aramco would reach 2 trillion US dollars, and that Aramco controlled more than half of the core oil resources of major oil companies and had total assets (total proven reserves) of more than trillions of US dollars.

No one would believe it if they told me that they would open the door to investment to me or sell it at a low price.

If the deal is really successful, combined with Qingyun's presence in Southeast Asia and South America, Qingyun might even have to set up a special energy group to manage these oil mines.

They are not afraid of becoming a laughing stock if the news gets out. For example, the annual crude oil production ranks among the highest in the world, and the crude oil refining capacity exceeds 100 million tons.

(There are nearly 7000 million tons of quotas in the country, with crude oil provided by the two major oil companies and CNOOC.)
Qingyun, which also controls oil sales in many places in Southeast Asia, Africa and Central Asia and has a business scale that is catching up with the two oil giants, doesn’t even have a dedicated energy business group?

That is simply the most ridiculous thing in the world.

Thus, the crown prince, who had no belief that the deal could be concluded and who was ready to actively lobby the royal family of the economic entity, happily reached another strategic cooperation.

However, the parties involved obviously have not yet figured out what kind of shock the agreement will bring to the whole world when it is released.

The biggest problem has been put aside (according to Li Zehua), and there will naturally be no obstacles for the remaining $60 billion in escrow funds to enter Qingyun Investment's account.

However, some problems arose at Qingyun Industrial Investment Fund because the industrial fund was undergoing large-scale internal integration at that time.

Qingyun Industrial Fund, which was benchmarked against BlackRock and became the world's largest fund manager, had already expanded beyond recognition at that time, especially after it merged with Zhongxin Bank (now Zhongxin Financial Group) to form the old Zhongxin Group.

The resources it has taken in at one go are too many and too diverse. The market value of its holdings in the mainland stock market alone is as high as 150 billion RMB, and its investment portfolio covers any company listed on the mainland.

In Hong Kong, the market value of holdings transferred by the Zhongxin Group also reached more than HK$600 billion (only the part that Qingyun received), plus its original holdings.

At this time, the original structure of Qingyun Industrial Fund could no longer meet the current scale of management, so Lin Wenhui and Yao Xiangjun were preparing to carry out drastic internal reforms.

The first step is to integrate resources by industry, and then establish a horizontal regional management system. For example, in the semiconductor field, set up a semiconductor business investment group to uniformly manage old investment shares and discover and invest in new potential companies.

At the same time, the Dongda Investment Business Group, America, Europe, Southeast Asia, East Asia and other horizontal business groups were set up. They are responsible for the management of the entire area and make up for the lack of one-line management of the semiconductor business group.

Therefore, before the internal reform is completed, Li Zehua can only temporarily close the financing channels. However, he said that as long as the internal integration is completed, he will immediately seek external financing.

After all, the long-term investment plan of buying all the high-quality listed group shares in the world, embracing the development of the global economy, and enjoying the dividends of the development of the times requires continuous inflow of foreign funds...

(End of this chapter)