1977: The beginning of the blind date with the daughter of the king

Chapter 556: A weapon to harvest the middle class!
"Mr. Victor, the minister actually gave me instructions this time."

"36 dollars a barrel, a quarter of the yen payment share, one dollar higher than the offer to Bank of America. This is the offer the minister gave you."

"But this time, we can't give you commercial land in the country."

"You probably know that the domestic control over real estate companies is very strict, and the approval for foreign investment in the real estate industry is very strict."

"Last time, due to special circumstances, we gave Mr. Victor a special approval, but this kind of approval is not often available, and therefore this time, we can no longer provide Mr. Victor with commercial real estate."

At this time, Kobayashi Shunpei continued to lower his head and speak tactfully.

Li Changhe frowned when he heard this.

"That is to say, your country is restricting my investment direction this time. What about the stock market?"

“Can my funds enter the stock market?”

At this moment, Kobayashi Shunpei showed an embarrassment on his face.

"Mr. Victor, in theory, our stock market does not accept external funds. This is a rule set by the state, and we have no other choice."

"But considering that Mr. Victor has a lot of money, we discussed before we came here that we could allow Mr. Victor to invest part of his money in the stock market, but this money must be handed over to the securities company we designate for operation, and can only be invested long-term, and the investment period must be more than two years."

Japan has not opened its financial market yet, so its stock market is still for internal entertainment and has no external international funds.

In fact, the same is true for the real estate industry, which basically owns real estate companies of the six major conglomerates.

Today's Japan is actually a country with very strict trade protectionism, and now, these trade protection regulations have become a weapon for the other party to fight back.

"In other words, the yen obtained from this transaction will either be given to a designated securities company to invest in the stock market, or invested in accordance with your normal investment license scope, right?"

Li Changhe said calmly at this moment.

Kobayashi Shunpei nodded with a guilty look on his face: "Yes, Mr. Victor."

"I'm sorry to offer you such an offer, but this time, we have really tried our best."

"But because of what happened before, we are now blocked from many permissions, so we can't offer you better conditions."

"But before I came here, the minister had already seriously instructed me to try my best to meet all of Mr. Victor's requests within my ability."

Kobayashi Shunpei did not say anything final, but instead gave a sweet treat, saying that he could let Li Changhe propose conditions within a certain range.

Of course, he has the final say on what range this certain range is.

After listening to this, Li Changhe couldn't help but smile.

"Mr. Kobayashi, you guys have a very clear plan."

"Based on my understanding of your country, the investment scope you leave for foreign investors is actually not very large."

“For those premium industries and high-profit industries, you have almost all kinds of protection clauses.”

“That’s why you are now called an investment desert. The yen has no value at all overseas.”

"Even if we get yen to invest in your country, we can't actually enter those high-quality industries, so no one is willing to accept your yen payment conditions."

"Under this circumstance, I am willing to accept payment in Japanese yen, but you still impose many restrictions on it. Do you think it is appropriate?"

"Given the current investment environment in Japan, do you think I must invest?"

"I am optimistic about the future economic development of Japan, but that doesn't mean I'm a fool to invest in your desert industry."

"If you have fixed these terms, then I don't want to get involved in this business."

"There is no benefit to me, why should I promote your cooperation?"

Li Changhe said with a sneer.

When Kobayashi Shunping heard what Li Changhe said, he sighed in his heart.

Mr. Victor is very determined!

Withdraw from this negotiation?
Is this a step backward to advance?

Kobayashi Shunpei felt that this was actually Li Changhe's trick, but after thinking about it, he didn't want to bet on this possibility.

The reason is simple, because they also want to make this deal.

In addition to the reasons mentioned above, another point is that the oil held by Bank of America and Wells Fargo is West Texas Intermediate Oil.

The quality of West Texas Intermediate crude oil is also very good. It is a light crude oil with a very low sulfur content, not much worse than Saudi crude oil.

The quality of crude oil on the market today is: Saudi crude oil, followed by West Texas crude oil, and then North Sea Brent crude oil.

It can be said that West Texas Crude Oil is a high-end product on the market, and such high-quality crude oil is also needed by Japan.

Their relationship with Saudi Arabia is average, and most of Saudi Arabia's crude oil sales channels are currently in the hands of Americans.

But they have almost no bargaining power in that channel and can only follow the market.

So in this case, this batch of West Texas oil is actually a good commodity for them that they can buy at a low price.

However, they originally wanted to lower the price, but they didn't expect that no one would accept payment in Japanese yen, and Li Changhe is now the only businessman in the world who is willing to negotiate with them.

"Mr. Victor, I know the conditions this time are a bit harsh, so feel free to tell me what you think."

"We are here to discuss business, after all. Since we are here to discuss business, there should be give and take. You can put forward your conditions, and I can also report them to China. I think the significance of our meeting is that we can both find a direction for win-win cooperation as soon as possible."

Kobayashi Shunping continued to lower his posture and spoke to Li Changhe in a tactful manner.

He was already indicating that Li Changhe could put forward his conditions.

After listening to this, Li Changhe did not speak, but fell into thought.

He actually already had a direction in mind, but at this moment, he couldn't bring it up immediately.

After thinking for almost ten minutes, Li Changhe slowly spoke.

"Mr. Xiaolin, first of all, I am here to discuss cooperation with you with sincerity, because we had a very pleasant cooperation last time, and this time, I also hope that we can continue to achieve cooperation."

"Yes, Mr. Victor, we think so too."

Kobayashi Shunpei quickly echoed.

Li Changhe waved his hand: "Don't worry, I haven't finished speaking yet."

"I understand your restrictions on real estate. After all, real estate is a pillar industry for the nation. You can restrict foreign investment, but such a complete restriction on the stock market is somewhat unnecessary."

"Well, let's change the approach. You can remove restrictions on the stock market and let my employees do the operation. We can then negotiate an appropriate amount of funds."

"For example, how about I put 1000 billion yen into the stock market?"

"All this is actually just over 400 million US dollars. I don't think this amount of money will cause much trouble in your stock market!"

Li Changhe said calmly.

As for the stock market, he must take the initiative, at least get his own team involved, first understand the Japanese stock market and various regulations in advance, lay a solid foundation, and then he can make a fortune in the era of stock market boom in the next few years.

Of course, you don’t need a lot of money. Three to four hundred million US dollars is enough. Choose the base position in advance and practice at the same time.

After all, before 1985, or even before 1987, Japan's stock market did not experience much fluctuation.

After listening to this, Kobayashi Shunpei thought for a while. Although the Japanese stock market is not open to the outside world, it does not mean that their stock market has no funds.

Each of the six major chaebols and their respective securities companies can put out 500 million or even more than 1 billion US dollars to enter the stock market, not to mention giants like the Bank of Japan and Nippon Life Insurance.

So theoretically speaking, Victor's hundreds of millions of dollars will not cause much waves in the stock market.

Kobayashi Shunpei was not surprised by such conditions and felt that he could agree to them.

But he was in no hurry.

"Mr. Victor, since you said that, there must be other conditions. After all, you have more capital in Japan than this."

"I want to know, what are you going to do with the remaining hundreds of billions of yen?"

“Continue to buy second-hand properties?”

At this time, Kobayashi Shunpei "inadvertently" revealed another piece of news.

It was only after investigation that they discovered that as early as the beginning of the 80s, Mr. Victor had transferred a sum of money to Japan and had kept it there.

The other party used the money to buy up a large number of second-hand properties in Tokyo, and now owns thousands of high-quality properties.

And this is only part of the funding.

If the subsequent oil funds are included, the other party already has more than 500 billion yen in their hands, which is definitely a huge amount of money.

This is also the ironclad evidence for some people to attack Li Changhe.

In a sense, Kobayashi Shunpei was not deliberately suppressing Li Changhe. Their Ministry of International Trade and Industry was also shocked after discovering these things during the investigation. Not only were they blamed, but they also felt a little panicked.

Li Changhe smiled, it seemed that the other party had discovered it.

Of course, he did not expect that this operation could be concealed from the Japanese government. In this era, any business operation would leave some traces, especially for a financially closed country like Japan.

"In fact, I have another investment direction that I have been researching recently. I think your country will not restrict this direction."

After listening to Li Changhe, a hint of doubt appeared on Kobayashi Junping's face.

"I wonder what Mr. Victor is talking about?"

“Sports industry!”

Li Changhe said calmly.

"Sports industry?"

"Football? Basketball? Baseball?"

Kobayashi Shunping was a little surprised. He didn't expect that Li Changhe would say this.

But on second thought, he found it quite interesting.

According to the news sent back by Jun'ichi Misugi from the United States, Mr. Victor seems to be very passionate about the sports industry.

Not only did it acquire a well-known basketball team in Los Angeles and become their second largest shareholder, but it is also said to be involved in the sports equipment industry.

Does the other party want sports equipment?

But it is not impossible. At present, the sports equipment industry in Japan is not inferior to that of the United States, not to mention the price advantage.

Kobayashi Shunping kept thinking in his mind, but he didn't expect Li Changhe to mention an industry that surprised him.

"Neither. What I want to invest in is a golf course."

"Since your country is unwilling to give me commercial real estate, I want to invest in a few golf courses. That should be no problem, right?"

"I have done some research and found that your people have a strong interest in golf. In my opinion, this is a sport with great potential in the future."

"I'd rather invest in golf courses. I wonder if this direction is within your restrictions?"

Li Changhe said with a smile.

After hearing this, Kobayashi Shunpei was a little surprised.

golf course?
He did know about golf and had played it, but not often because it was too expensive.

This kind of sport can almost be said to be an aristocratic sport, and only the wealthy will consume it.

Even though he is a government employee, he would not be willing to go to a banquet if no one invites him.

The other party actually wants to invest in a golf course?
Seeing Kobayashi Junping thinking there, Li Changhe did not urge him, but continued to wait with a smile.

In fact, after learning about Japan’s restrictions on real estate, Li Changhe thought of the golf course route.

The reason is simple, simply because this thing is a powerful tool for harvesting the middle class in Japan.

As Japan's economy boomed, the most powerful group of people were actually the middle class.

Li Changhe remembers that after the Plaza Accord, the two major sports that the Japanese loved most were skiing and golf.

Let’s not talk about skiing, just talking about golf. He remembered that golf courses were being built everywhere in Japan at that time, even in Southeast Asia.

In order to play golf, I went abroad to play and show my strength.

In those years, this sport was decentralized from the so-called "aristocratic sport" to the middle class, and a set of high-end three-piece golf clubs could be sold at a sky-high price of 100 million yen.

According to the exchange rate at the time, it converted into US dollars would be more than 800,000 US dollars.

Even if this is an exception, it can be seen that the luxury nature of this sport at that time.

What's more, he has no shortage of high-end things. If he just asks Dior to co-brand a model with some golf clubs, he can become the top sports equipment.

In addition to sports equipment, what attracted more money at that time was the golf membership.

There are many top golf clubs with annual membership fees exceeding one million US dollars, and there are even golf clubs with membership fees as high as two million US dollars per year.

At that time, the best way for men to show off their wealth in Japan was to show off their membership card of a certain golf course to demonstrate their status and style.

In addition, the golf course also has the attributes of a hotel. To a certain extent, it is also a commercial property, but it belongs to the sports industry.

Moreover, the mountain land for building golf courses is much cheaper than the land in urban areas.

When it comes to harvesting a country's wealth, the best class to harvest is the middle class. This group of people neither has the financial moat of the wealthy class nor the ability of the poor to suppress their desires.

They will be the most direct beneficiaries of the country's wealth explosion, but they will also be the ones who work hardest to upgrade their consumption levels.

The golf course is a powerful tool for harvesting middle-class men.

Li Changhe felt that the Japanese government should not impose any restrictions on this industry. After all, this is a "sports industry".

In fact, Kobayashi Shunpei's thoughts at this moment were exactly what Li Changhe was expecting.

He didn't expect that Li Changhe would want to play a niche sport like golf.

This sport is quite luxurious, but on the other hand, the customer base is also small, basically mostly wealthy people, and it does not have much impact on ordinary people.

Moreover, investments in golf courses are generally in mountainous areas. Isn't this a sure way to boost employment and local investment?

Thinking of this, Kobayashi Shunpei began to have an inclination in his mind.

(End of this chapter)