After divorce, I can hear the voice of the future

Chapter 704 Fintech
Is it really impossible for battery swapping stations to develop?

Li Bing muttered to himself, for a long time he had regarded the battery swapping station project as more important than the trolleybuses.

Especially with the explosive sales of DeepBlue S7, Tianxing's market share in the car infotainment system has once again experienced explosive growth, attracting many competitors to seek cooperation.

In Li Bing's vision, NIO's battery swapping station project will be a super project that can rival or even surpass the Tianxing vehicle system.

He has been saying this to others for so many years that he has come to believe it himself and is determined to dedicate his life to this project.

At this point, Lu Liang suddenly said that the battery swapping project was difficult to develop, and it would be better to wait for the right opportunity to cash out and leave.

For a moment, Li Bing felt a little dizzy, and he vaguely heard the sound of a mirror breaking, which seemed to be his Dao heart and his perseverance.

Lu Liang remained silent, drinking tea alone.

Everyone has emotions and desires. Even those who are solely driven by profit will occasionally shed what the public considers crocodile tears.

But all sentimentality is only temporary. When faced with a choice, they always abandon their emotions and make rational decisions.

Just like Lu Liang separating Erii and her daughter who depended on each other for survival, he would feel guilty and reluctant, but he would not be driven by emotion to make a change.

Li Bing took a deep breath, picked up the teacup in front of him, and Lu Liang said, "The tea is cold, let's get another cup."

"Herbal tea is better for reducing internal heat," Li Bing said softly, downing the drink in one gulp and savoring the bitterness in his mouth.

He thought for a long time: "I want to hold on a little longer."

Lu Liang looked up and met Li Bing's gaze. A slight smile appeared on his lips as he praised, "That's how it should be."

Previously, Li Bing was so immersed in the role that he even tried to recruit him, but now he no longer has that same obsession.

After all, for the sake of investors and their own interests, even if they have doubts about NIO's battery swapping project, they cannot show it.

Because NIO cars, which cost 400,000 to 500,000 or even 700,000 to 800,000 yuan, have no market competitiveness except for their relatively good-looking models. Apart from the battery swapping project, NIO has no story to tell.

Companies without a compelling story are like apples in the refrigerator in the capital market—they're neither particularly appealing nor disliked, and while you can force yourself to eat them, you're unlikely to choose them willingly. Moreover, NIO is a potentially poisoned apple.

Li Bing smiled wryly. Sure enough, nothing could be hidden from Lu Liang. He then said, "I plan to spin off the battery swapping project."

"Let's take it slow for now."

Lu Liang pondered for a moment and then offered his opinion: "The intention to become independent now is too obvious. At least wait until we are not short of money."

Independent projects can be a good thing or a bad thing. For example, the independence of overseas TianShu is a good thing because they plan to go public in the future. However, the independence of NIO's battery swapping stations clearly shows that they do not want NIO cars to be affected by this.

Li Bing looked resentful and shameless, hoping Lu Liang could come up with a solution: "With battery swapping as an outlet, funds keep flowing out. When will we ever be able to stop being short of money?"

Lu Liang sighed and said helplessly, "When Tianxing Auto raises funds in a while, come over here. I'll introduce you to a few friends who can take the lead. NIO's fundraising in the market should go very smoothly."

The announcement of Tianxing Motors' valuation of $300 billion is a long-term strategy.

Before the camels even took the bait, they caught several unexpected, yet predictable, large fish.

BlackRock, Vanguard, JPMorgan Chase, and General Motors have all expressed strong interest, but the price still needs to be negotiated.

The former should think like investing in Alibaba and Tencent, raising funds round after round and eventually becoming one of the top shareholders.

The latter probably wants to strengthen the relationship, since JPMorgan Chase needs to prepare enough positive news before the Q3 report to ensure everything goes smoothly. General Motors is not satisfied with just controlling GM Tianxing, but also wants to hold shares in Tianxing Auto, since China is Tianxing's home market.

"I can finally get a good night's sleep tonight."

Li Bing was overjoyed. With Lu Liang's words, his trip these past few days had not been in vain.

Because Lu Liang said the same thing last time.

Then NIO received a $500 million investment from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, which gave it a huge boost and enabled it to successfully survive until its IPO.

"Anything else?" Lu Liang glanced at Li Bing, picked up his teacup, and made it clear that he wanted to see the guest out.

Li Bingxin understood and said with a smile, "Mr. Lu, if there's nothing else, I'll take my leave now."

"I'll give it to you."

"No, no, please wait."

Lu Liang stood at the company entrance, a smile on his face, watching Li Bing leave in the elevator.

As soon as he turned around, Xiao Wang couldn't contain himself and walked out of the reception room. He looked at the direction Li Bing had left with a face full of curiosity: "Is President Li here to persuade you to build that battery swapping station again?"

He followed Lu Liang's instructions and invested in Kunpeng Fast Charging, only to be given a pep talk by Meng Changkun.

This has led to the belief that fast charging, supercharging, and even flash charging are the mainstream energy replenishment methods for the future electric vehicle market.

Swapping batteries is a dead end.

Meng Changkun followed closely behind and walked out of the reception room, smiling and saying, "I can tell that President Li has been very anxious lately."

"Battery swapping projects require huge investments but yield minimal returns, and there's no turning back. How can we not be anxious? Unless the government sets standards and invests massive amounts of money to popularize this project nationwide, like gas stations, no one can afford it."

As Lu Liang walked, he opened the office door, returned to his still-warm seat, and intended to continue the conversation.

The two of them arrived half an hour earlier than Li Bing, but Li Bing came to visit them before they had finished discussing some matters.

In the past few days, Li Bing has been coming over very frequently. As soon as he wags his tail, Lu Liang knows what he's up to and has already figured out how to deal with him.

Therefore, the two of them were asked to leave first.
His discussion with Li Bing should be over soon.

“Wanda also wants to take a stake,” Xiao Wang quickly said.

After investing in NIO and Li Auto, Lu Liang has once again become the co-founder of a startup after many years.

This gimmick alone is enough to make Kunpeng Fast Charging, with a paid-in capital of 300 million yuan, see its valuation skyrocket tenfold.

Last year, Wanda suffered a double blow in both its stocks and bonds. After a year of selling off assets, it finally recovered.

Wanda Group urgently needs a piece of good news to stimulate the market and restore investor confidence.

When Lao Wang learned that Xiao Wang, Lu Liang, and Meng Changkun were planning to enter the charging pile industry, he unusually called to express his hope that Wanda would take a stake, even if it was just a nominal investment.

Lu Liang did not give an immediate answer, but instead looked at Meng Changkun and asked, "What do you think?"

He has a clear understanding of his role: a mascot responsible for endorsing and standing up to cheer when appropriate.

Lu Liang hoped that Xiao Wang would also recognize his own position, as Kunpeng Fast Charging is a company headed by Meng Changkun.

Meng Changkun was delighted and felt respected. After a moment of contemplation, he replied, "Kunpeng Fast Charging can be introduced to Wanda. Although Wanda suffered a major blow last year, its influence has not been damaged too much. However, it would be best to connect with Wanda Property."

Although Wanda Property is under the Wanda Group, it is an independently operated subsidiary and is not under the same management system as Wanda Real Estate and Wanda Plaza.

The longer a group has been established and the larger its scale, the more common it is to make cooperation between its various departments or subsidiaries more difficult than cooperation with outsiders.

The procedures are extremely cumbersome and the process is incredibly long. They claim it's to avoid any appearance of impropriety, but in reality, it's just passing the buck. Besides, it's a property management company; basically, each residential complex and shopping mall is a subsidiary of a subsidiary.

If Wanda Group were to invest directly, the property management company would likely just go through the motions without putting in any real effort.

Because the group company invests, the money goes directly into the group's account and is then distributed to the property management company by the group company.

Although the property management company has to hand over the profits to the group company, the first-hand money has far more room for manipulation than the second-hand money.

Just like when you make money, shouldn't you give out bonuses? Should you raise salaries? Should you buy new equipment? Should you hire more staff? These are all opportunities for personal gain and power.

Only when the property management company has made its full profit will it hand over a certain percentage of the remaining profits to the group company.

If Wanda Group were to take a stake, it would require them to instruct property management companies to cooperate with them, adding an extra step to the process. It would be better to let the property management companies take a stake.

The current charging pile industry is like the shared bicycle industry a few years ago, with the market growing rapidly and various brands springing up like mushrooms after rain.

The faster you act, the better position you can secure and the more market share you can capture. Meng Changkun didn't want to waste time on meaningless processes.

Old Meng's reasoned analysis of the pros and cons brought a smile to Lu Liang's lips as he looked at Xiao Wang: "Have you learned it?"

Xiao Wang turned his head to the side, indicating his dissatisfaction, but then went to the side and called Lao Wang to tell him Meng Changkun's thoughts.

After a while, he came back and said, "Just let Wanda Property take a stake. Lao Meng, you can talk to them."

Meng Changkun smiled and nodded, then asked Lu Liang if he had anything to add. Lu Liang shook his head: "You decide for yourself, don't worry about me, I've been quite busy lately."

He gestured with his chin and looked at the invitation on the table. The Bund Financial Summit would be held tomorrow.

The event lasted three days and included 31 topics, six closed-door seminars, and two open discussions.

Lu Liang was invited to participate in two closed-door meetings on different topics: the Science and Technology Innovation Board research group and the discussion group on adjusting the daily price fluctuation limits of the ChiNext board.

Judging from the names of these two topics, it's clear that breaking the 10% daily price fluctuation limit is already a done deal, but whether or not the Science and Technology Innovation Board should be established still needs to be discussed.

"It's as if no one was invited."

Xiao Wang was beaming with pride, saying that he was also an invitee to the Fintech Open Conference.

I never expected that he would be invited to such a high-profile meeting.

Although the invitation came rather late, unlike Lu Liang who received it months ago, it felt like a last-minute decision to call him over to make up the numbers.

But at least he was invited, which means that in the minds of the conference organizers, he, Wang, is also a member of the fintech field.

"If you're going to lend money, then why the 'financial technology' part? What a damn clever name."

Lu Liang's face was full of disdain. Although his initial capital for making a fortune came from online loans, credit cards, and mortgage payments, it didn't stop him from looking down on this stuff.

A few years ago, if someone had asked what the end of technology was, there would have been many different opinions.

But now, there is a definite answer to this question: the end of technology is lending.

These days, any company that's even remotely connected to the internet, even if it only has an app, has launched lending or loan assistance features.

It's euphemistically called Fintech.

This concept was proposed by Lao Ma five years ago.

Undeniably, the emergence of Ant Financial has helped many small and micro enterprises, and even medium-sized enterprises, in China, pulling them back from the brink of bankruptcy.

After all, even a loan of 100,000 or 500,000 yuan can solve the urgent needs of small and micro enterprises.

Before Ant Financial was founded, they could only turn to banks, but banks are notorious for their misconduct—providing an umbrella on a sunny day and taking it away on a rainy day.

They would rather lend a billion dollars to companies with debt ratios of 100%, 200%, or even more.

We would never lend 100,000 yuan to small and micro enterprises. It was the emergence of Ant Financial that solved this problem.

But Jack Ma shouldn't have a double standard, constantly praising it as financial technology and a groundbreaking invention.

Using their influence, they tore open a loophole in the imperfect legal system, allowing a large influx of hot money.

This leads to teenagers lacking self-control accumulating a lot of debt at a young age, and also gives rise to derivative products such as naked loans, campus loans, and violent debt collection.

Although there's a saying that it takes two to tango, slapping someone will still make a sound, and it will be especially crisp.

Lu Liang glanced at Xiao Wang, a playful smile appearing on his lips: "You don't actually think being invited is a good thing, do you?"

With the financial summit approaching, he received increasingly detailed information and vaguely guessed why Xiao Wang had been invited to the conference.

For these people who were invited at the last minute, the fintech open meeting was more like a torture trap.

"Could it be something bad?" Xiao Wang wondered.

Panda Interactive Entertainment's establishment of a loan department is simply following the trend; after all, if others are doing it, there's no reason for them not to.

But it must be said that the money came really fast, and he finally experienced the joy of Zhou Hongwei.

No wonder 360 was so rich back then; it had been deeply involved in the fintech field for a long time.

Lu Liang left half the story untold, intentionally keeping everyone in suspense, and said with a smile, "You'll find out tomorrow. What's meant to be will be."

"Damn it, say it or not, take it or leave it." Xiao Wang said angrily.

Having known each other for several years, he knew Lu Liang's character well and knew that even if Lu Liang knelt down and begged him, it would be in vain. It was better to be firm.

If it really turns out to be a trap, he'll just do whatever everyone else does. After all, if the sky falls, someone else will hold it up; he's just there to make up the numbers.

Meng Changkun coughed a few times, looking resentful: "Gentlemen, please pay attention, there is someone here who was not invited."

With the lending industry booming in recent years, he naturally couldn't miss out and invested in several companies.

However, the companies he invested in were somewhat shady, so he didn't use his own name or the company's name.

"Sorry sorry."

Lu Liang and Xiao Wang exchanged a smile.

The three of them had an in-depth discussion about the charging station project until the early hours of the morning.

　It's been resolved; the process is simple, but also troublesome.

　　Although it was a one-sided responsibility and I didn't have to argue with others, waiting for the traffic police, waiting for the insurance company, and going to the traffic police brigade to get a certificate and assess the damage still took up a whole day.

　　……

　　There's only one chapter today; I'll make up for it tomorrow.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)