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

Chapter 608 Opportunities in the automotive industry!
"Congratulations, Mr. Wells. From now on, Chateau Latour is your property!"

The Bosen Group responded quickly. When Wells agreed to their offer, he immediately came to Paris with the contract.

For them, it is a rare thing to be able to sell Château Latour at such a high price.

Indeed, there is no difficulty in selling Château Latour's wines. It can even be said that they are easily sold out every year.

However, its profitability is average. After deducting the wages of workers and team members, its annual profit is only about 8 million US dollars. After all, a winery can only produce so much per year, at most 20,000 to 30,000 boxes.

The price of each box is right there. After all, it's just alcohol. On average, it's only about four or five hundred dollars a box.

Therefore, since they were able to sell at such a high price at one time, the Bosen Group was determined to seize this sucker.

This incoming capital can help their group alleviate the pressure they have been under in recent years.

After signing on behalf of Li Changhe, Weiersi put the document away, then shook hands with the representative of Bosen Group with a smile.

At this moment, a group of reporters below immediately surrounded them, and their flash cameras kept flashing.

"Mr. Wells, may I ask if you acquired Chateau Latour this time in order to expand the business of the Bossac Group?"

“Is the Bosak Group going to enter the wine market next?”

“Should the Bosak Group transform itself at the business level?”

A group of reporters surrounded Wei Er Si and started asking questions.

And Wells smiled.

"Everyone, first of all, let me make it clear that this acquisition is not the business of the Bosak Group. I was entrusted by someone to help him sign the purchase agreement."

“This time, Château Latour is a private investment, not a group investment.”

“But we intend to bring French wine to the East in the future.”

Wells talks to the camera.

This picture of him soon appeared in major newspapers.

"Guobao Winery has changed hands again, and the Eastern Shipping King Family has acquired it."

“With a sky-high price of 400 million francs, Bordeaux winery creates another legend.”

“How many French national treasures will this young rich man from the East take away?”

There are all kinds of reports in the newspapers, some are objective, some are sour, some are divisive, and so on. There are all kinds of news.

“Oh my God, Vic, did you really buy Chateau Latour?”

In a villa in District 17, Ajani looked at the news in the newspaper and asked Li Changhe in shock.

On the one hand, this is Château Latour, one of the top wineries in the entire Bordeaux region. It is no exaggeration to call it a national treasure of France.

On the other hand, according to the news, the winery's transaction volume was as high as 400 million francs.

Four hundred million francs!
Best of all, this is a private purchase!
Although she is not a business elite, she can be considered a wealthy person now, and can still distinguish between corporate purchases and private purchases.

The financial resources represented here are incomparable.

For Ajani, this was another time she intuitively felt the enormous wealth of Li Changhe.

"Yes, I thought the other party's offer was okay, so I bought it."

"By the way, I'm going to arrange for someone to buy a few cars. Do you want to?"

"Ferrari? Lamborghini? Maserati? Porsche? Or a business car like Bentley or Rolls-Royce?"

Li Changhe was reading a car magazine at that time, and asked Ajani casually.

"Ok?"

"Buy a car?"

“Are you going to buy any of these supercars?”

Ajani asked Li Changhe in surprise.

Li Changhe nodded: "Yes, some of them are needed, but I see these models are all too ugly."

Li Changhe put down the car magazine in his hand and complained helplessly.

Having been tempered by the aesthetic taste of later generations, he finds many of today's supercars really an eyesore.

The shapes are all strange and there is no mechanical beauty at all.

"How about buying a Lamborghini Countach?"

“I think that car is super cool!”

Ajani became interested at this time and spoke excitedly to Li Changhe.

"You mean this one?"

Li Changhe opened the magazine again and found the countach on it!

"Yeah, don't you think it looks like something from another planet? Those two doors are super cool!"

In recent years, science fiction themes have become popular in Europe and the United States, and many luxury cars have also begun to appear with such elements.

Lamborghini's Countach is considered the best among them, especially the scissor doors, which is a first for supercars.

Li Changhe had also seen it just now. To be honest, this car is really good-looking, with a very alien-like sense of technology, and it looks a bit like a supercar from later generations.

But it has a major flaw, which is that it is too short.

The car is four meters long and two meters wide, but less than one meter and one meter high. The seats inside the car are not adjustable. For someone of Li Changhe's height, sitting in it is a torture.

But for a woman of Anjani's height, it's not bad.

"As long as you like it, I'll ask my assistant to order one for you. What color do you want? Red? White? Or yellow?"

"Red, please."

"Thank you dear."

"But, dear, if you want to buy this car, I'm afraid you'll need to spend a little effort!"

Ajani said softly at this time.

In fact, it's not that Anjani herself can't afford this car. The price of a regular model is only $15. Even though the pay for French art films is not very high nowadays and cannot be compared with Hollywood, Anjani can still afford $.

The only problem is that she can't buy it.

"Why, is this car difficult to buy?"

Li Changhe asked in surprise.

"Yes, it's impossible to decide. In fact, I wanted to pay for it last year, but I couldn't buy it."

"Lamborghini's factory has limited production capacity and produces a small number of cars each year, so they can't take too many orders."

"More importantly, I heard that their company was not doing well and went bankrupt last year."

"Bankrupt?"

Li Changhe was a little surprised when he heard what Ajani said.

"Yes, I remember when I wanted to buy it, their company went bankrupt, and then they told me that they couldn't place an order now." "I don't know if I can buy it now."

Ajani said softly.

After listening to this, Li Changhe fell into deep thought.

Lamborghini went bankrupt last year?
Doesn't that mean there's a chance to buy it?
Today's Lamborghini is not expensive. It is not the super luxury car brand worth tens of billions in the future. Today's Lamborghini is just a supercar company that has been established for less than 20 years.

Such car companies may not be everywhere in Europe, but there is no shortage of them.

According to the review in the car magazine just now, Lamborghini is now just a new upstart in the supercar world.

Such a car company is really not expensive. According to Li Changhe's estimation, the current market value of Lamborghini is at most 10 million US dollars.

After all, it now produces at most a hundred supercars a year, and each car costs $100,000 to $150,000. Its annual turnover is only about 10 or 20 million, so its valuation is definitely not that high.

(Chrysler bought Lamborghini, which had gone bankrupt for the second time, for $1987 million in 2500.)
For Li Changhe, this amount of money is at most pocket money, and it can be used to make a few months’ profit from the U.S. stock market.

But if he could get Lamborghini, it would be of great benefit to Li Changhe. This kind of supercar is not about how much money he can make, but about using this supercar to add prestige to his car company.

The automotive industry is the second key industry that Li Changhe plans to develop in addition to the electronics industry.

Whether from the perspective of national industrial needs or personal industrial layout, the automotive industry is something Li Changhe cannot miss.

Li Changhe had originally planned to start with the UK, because with the Iron Lady coming to power, the British government began to sell off and privatize all state-owned assets, including a large number of British car brands.

Lotus, Bentley, Jetta, Land Rover, Mini, Rolls-Royce, etc. are all being sold off.

This is the opportunity that Li Changhe has spotted. Not to mention Rolls-Royce and Bentley, but car companies like Land Rover, Lotus, and MG can be bought and then started over again to create a brand.

But it is still early now. The British privatization has just begun and it is not yet at its hottest. Li Changhe is not in a hurry to take action.

Li Changhe originally planned to re-enter the automotive industry in two years, but plans cannot keep up with changes.

At this moment, Li Changhe did not expect that he would unexpectedly hear the news of Lamborghini's bankruptcy.

For Li Changhe, it might not be a bad thing if he could spend some money and get Lamborghini first.

Even if he continued to invest in the future, Li Changhe could afford it. After all, there were too many opportunities to make money in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. All he had to consider was how to spend the money.

Thinking of this, Li Changhe couldn't help but feel a little emotional.

In this era, as long as the original accumulation of capital is completed, there is too much wealth to be consumed.

"Let me ask my assistant and see."

"Even if they go bankrupt, I believe they will not refuse to accept orders. They will just refuse ordinary orders. As long as the money is paid, queue jumping is not a big deal at all."

Li Changhe said with a chuckle.

Don’t talk about corporate ethics. Few of those who run luxury brands have any ethics. For luxury products, often the treatment is based on the price paid.

After staying in Ajani's villa for two days, Li Changhe prepared to return to the Athena Hotel.

Because people from Hong Kong Island were gradually arriving in Paris at this time, the next step was to prepare for a meeting with Mitterrand's representatives.

"Old Wei, how about I give you a few days off?"

"How about sending you on vacation to Italy?"

In the room, Li Changhe called Wei Ersi again and said to him with a smile.

"Send me on vacation to Italy?"

"Vic, do you have any new ideas?"

Wei Er Si looked at Li Changhe suspiciously at this moment, with disbelief on his face.

He believed that his boss wanted to give him a holiday, but if he specifically asked Le to go on vacation to Italy, then there was something fishy.

"It's not a big deal. I'm sending you to Italy so I can ask you to inspect Lamborghini Automobile Company on my behalf and see how they are doing. They should have gone bankrupt last year, and I don't know if they've found a buyer yet."

"and many more!"

Hearing Li Changhe's words, Weiersi stretched out his hand and stopped Li Changhe from speaking.

"You want me to go to Italy to inspect Lamborghini?"

"You want to buy this supercar?"

"Let me have a whirl!"

"You buy Swiss watches, luxury brands like Cartier, and Chateau Latour. I think these are daily life related to the top rich people, and are also related to the urban complex concept of Landmark."

"But now you want to buy a sports car company? Is this also related to the urban complex?"

Wei Er Si looked at Li Changhe speechlessly.

Li Changhe smiled and said, "Of course, since it is an urban complex and can sell high-end watches and bags, it also requires a supercar store."

"Supercar store?"

"you."

"Sands also has car dealerships under its umbrella. Previously, Jardine Matheson had its own Jardine Motors and car dealerships."

Li Changhe responded with a smile.

But then, Li Changhe continued, "Come on, I won't talk nonsense with you anymore. I want to buy a Lamborghini, not for some urban complex, but simply to enter the automotive industry."

“Into the automotive industry?”

"Vic, are you kidding me?"

"This industry is not something that can be run just by having money. It requires a lot of technology and professional talent. In addition, the supercar market is actually very narrow. Not to mention Lamborghini, even Ferrari is having a hard time right now."

"Their distributors in the United States sell to me every day."

“Are you sure you want to get into the supercar business?”

Wells still thought that what Li Changhe called the automotive industry was supercars.

Li Changhe just shook his head at him and said, "Lao Wei, it's not supercars, it's the entire automotive industry. I want to build a car company like Toyota, Honda, and Ford."

"Lamborghini is just the first attempt to enter this industry."

"I am not afraid to tell you that, as far as I know, the Iron Lady of the United Kingdom and the President of the United States both believe in the same economic philosophy, namely the neo-liberal economic philosophy, which roughly means a small government model, that is, the government minimally interferes with business operations and does not intervene in the commercial market."

"Under this concept, the UK is about to start a big sale of state-owned enterprises. As far as I know, all corporate assets currently held by the UK government may be sold, including military industry."

"For the world's top billionaires, this will be a feast for the eyes."

"My goal is to buy a car brand and transform it into our own industrial brand."

"Lamborghini is just an appetizer for me to get involved in this race now."

Li Changhe didn't mind giving Weiers some inside information at this time. After all, the UK had started selling off state-owned enterprises starting this year.

Li Changhe is always paying attention to this information and has arranged a group of people to be stationed in London.

After hearing what Li Changhe said, Weiers was stunned. Wow, so this is why you want to get into the automotive industry?

Take away an entire car brand from the UK?
(End of this chapter)