Return to 1958 and build a century-old giant

Chapter 819 Investing in Chrysler
A few hours later, Yang Wendong also learned of Li Zhaoji's reply, and the matter was basically successful.

Although he had taken away Li Zhaoji's company, he believed that the company would develop better under his control, and Li Zhaoji would not lose out.
Of course, for businessmen, profit is secondary; what matters most is how many resources they control. Li Zhaoji truly lost a public enterprise, and Yang Wendong could not possibly give it up either.
Another point is that many of Hong Kong's tycoons stay in their comfort zone, engaging in monopolies and collecting rent in Hong Kong, rarely expanding outwards, and becoming global tycoons by relying on Hong Kong.

The only exception is Li Ka-shing; from a purely business perspective, he has successfully internationalized his business.

The other three families mainly operate in Hong Kong, so the main factor contributing to Hong Kong's high property prices in the previous life was not Li Ka-shing, but these three families. However, Li Ka-shing likes to be famous, so he has to take the blame, although he also contributed to the situation.

Subsequently, Fang Xianming established a financial team and began to acquire shares of China Gas in the stock market. Although it was a monopoly, it was recognized as a sunset industry, so the stock price was very low and it did not cost much money.

With just a little time, once you have enough shares in hand, combined with the shares held by Li Ka-shing, you can easily control Hong Kong and China Gas.

Fang Xianming was quite confident about this and made a pledge, so Yang Wendong didn't pay much attention. He thought that when the stock he held reached the quota in a few months, he might not even need an acquisition battle and could take over peacefully, which would be the best outcome.

May arrived quickly, and Yang Wendong once again took a private jet to the United States. Now, his business in the United States is growing bigger and bigger, and more funds are being invested there. He also needs to travel to the United States frequently to make some big decisions.
After a day and a night of flying and refueling, Yang Wendong arrived in Washington, D.C., where he visited the U.S. political center.

The first thing was, of course, to meet again in secret with the future President Reagan. There wasn't much to say, since he wasn't an American and couldn't directly participate in the US election, and Reagan couldn't tell him many secrets.
The two sides only exchanged pleasantries and mutual flattery. Afterwards, Yang Wendong donated a million dollars through some legal means to help his campaign.

Reagan also made a verbal promise: after he became president, Yang Wendong could do business in the United States with peace of mind.

The US president of this era is different from the one decades later. Generally speaking, unless it involves major national security interests, his words still carry weight.

Yang Wendong was quite satisfied with such a response. He didn't need the US president to favor him. As long as he remained impartial, he could naturally thrive in the US with his prophetic abilities.
Of course, presidents also have terms, so this can only be considered a short-term solution that can stabilize the situation for eight years.
The long-term approach is to form a mutually beneficial relationship with political and business groups in the United States, prove one's worth to these people, and then one can naturally obtain longer-term protection.
This requires me to achieve results in the next 8 years, and then I can look for stable partners;
Of course, he could invest in other presidents in the future, but considering that he might have a ripple effect if he invests too much in the United States, the safest course of action is to stick with the Wall Street people, who are actually the permanent "masters" of the United States.

After meeting with Reagan, Yang Wendong returned to his hotel, where he met one of the most famous CEOs in American history, Lee Iacocca, the current CEO of Chrysler, one of the Big Three giants in the United States.

In later generations, the major American automobile companies, apart from Tesla, the electric vehicle giant born in the 21st century, were the three giants: General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler.

People in mainland China may be familiar with General Motors and Ford, but not so much with Chrysler. There are many reasons for this, but the main one is that Chrysler missed the opportunity to invest in mainland China, so it was marginalized there. However, in the 70s, it was one of the Big Three in the United States and one of the top ten automotive groups in the world.

Because of the cheap fuel prices in the past, cars in the United States used to be large-displacement and high-emission vehicles. It was common for ordinary family cars to use V8 or V12 engines, and their fuel consumption was enormous. You could say that every family car in the US was a Hummer of the future.
Two oil crises caused US oil prices to soar, and sometimes even money couldn't buy oil. Naturally, Americans voted with their feet, choosing cheaper Japanese cars, and even German cars were driven out of business.

In addition, several urban light pollution incidents have occurred in the United States in recent years. Even the richest and most powerful people cannot have special access to clean air. Therefore, in 1975, the US government passed the emission limit law, which made matters worse for the US auto industry. The hastily launched low-fuel-consumption and low-emission cars were very poor, and the market was lost very badly.

Even though the three giants put pressure on Congress together, they still couldn't stop the rise of Japanese cars. GM and Ford were relatively better off, with stronger foundations, while Chrysler couldn't hold on at all and was on the verge of bankruptcy. Even the White House wanted to use it as an example to force American automakers to develop new fuel-efficient technologies.

In a critical moment, former Ford vice president Lee Iacocca was hired by Chrysler as CEO to save a company on the verge of collapse.

Upon taking office, his first task was to find investors; otherwise, Chrysler would not have survived for more than three months.

So Yang Wendong was also found. After learning about this, Yang Wendong agreed to meet with Lee Iacocca, after all, he was the man who saved Chrysler and was known as one of the top 100 CEOs of the 20th century.

"Hello, Mr. Iacocca," Yang Wendong said politely upon seeing the visitor.

Lee Iacocca is almost 55 years old, but he looks like he's only in his early 40s. He smiled and shook hands with me, saying, "Mr. Yang, I've heard of you for a long time. I admire entrepreneurs like you who started from scratch."

"You flatter me, please have a seat," Yang Wendong said.

After the two sat down and exchanged a few casual words, they got down to business.
Lee Iacocca asked, "Mr. Yang, what are your thoughts on the current state of the American auto industry?"

"It's very dangerous. With the current oil crisis and excessively high oil prices, American cars are mostly large-displacement vehicles, which is clearly not the trend for the future," Yang Wendong said with a faint smile. "Moreover, even if oil prices remain the same as before, pollution is still a top priority, and every country will gradually restrict this aspect in the future."

In fact, the pollution from vehicle exhaust, in terms of sheer quantity, is not that much. Compared to the pollution from coal-fired power plants, various pollutants from chemical plants, and even methane released from cattle farming, it is much greater than vehicle exhaust.

The fatal problem is that other polluting factories are located far from populated areas and can discharge directly into the high atmosphere, so they won't harm residential areas if the wind blows. But cars are different. They are concentrated in town centers, where people live, which poses a huge threat to health, including to some political and business leaders.
Before the 70s, several cities experienced mass air poisoning incidents, forcing many countries to confront the environmental problems brought about by industrial development.

Humans engage in environmental protection not to protect the Earth, but simply to protect the environment in which they live.

Lee Iacocca said, "This is indeed a problem with American cars, but in terms of technology, our American auto industry is stronger. As long as we get through this period, we can also develop fuel-efficient and low-emission cars. At that time, we can drive Japanese car companies out of the market and even enter the Japanese and Asian markets." Yang Wendong laughed and said, "Mr. Iacocca, what you are saying is too vague. At present, I can't even see a shadow of it."

Even without the oil crisis, American cars would ultimately not have been able to compete with Japanese cars. The difference between the two was not only in fuel efficiency, but also in comfort, where the Americans could not compare with the Japanese or the Germans.
The reason why the three major American giants have continued to exist is because of the US market's long-standing internal protection policies.

“Alright, let’s get down to business,” Lee Iacocca said. “The oil crisis can’t last forever. With the strength of NATO countries, Iran will eventually resume normal global energy supply, or countries like Saudi Arabia will increase production. Oil prices will eventually return to their previous low levels, at least back to 77 levels.”

"That's hard to say. Polar bears aren't pushovers either; at the very least, they certainly hope oil prices stay high," Yang Wendong said. "When it comes to the national level, I still think it's better to be conservative."

As a time traveler, he naturally knew that global oil prices were very low in the 80s, which was a major reason why Chrysler was able to turn things around, and perhaps even more so than Lea Iacocca.
But this is a business negotiation, so he naturally wants to lower the other party's bargaining chips and undermine their potential advantages, which is in his best interest.

Lee Iacocca frowned slightly and asked, "Mr. Yang, it seems you don't believe in the power of the United States?"

“It’s not that I don’t believe you, but I won’t place my hopes on something uncertain,” Yang Wendong said. “Even if what you’re saying is true, people have already experienced two oil crises, and they’ve developed the habit of saving fuel. Even if oil prices drop in the future, they might not choose fuel-guzzling cars, right?”

Actually, Americans really do forget the pain once the wound heals. As soon as gas prices drop, they start driving large-displacement engines again. However, some of them really can't go back to their old ways. And Japanese cars are suitable for grocery shopping and picking up kids, so they do have their own advantages.

“Yes, so we will also develop fuel-efficient cars, but it will take time,” Lee Iacocca continued. “Chrysler has a stable production line and a mature technical team; it’s just that the oil crisis has caused some problems for the company.”
If Mr. Yang invests now, and we develop a suitable car model internally a few years later, I believe you will certainly reap a substantial return.

Yang Wendong did not answer directly, but asked, "I heard you are applying to Congress to borrow $15 billion from the US government?"

Historically, Chrysler was able to weather this period because Congress lent him this money;

It must be said that Lee Iacocca is truly capable. You know, the US government is also a free government and doesn't participate much in social enterprise investment or lending. Otherwise, every company that needs money would come to the government.

Before this, no company had ever received funding from Congress;

But Lee Iacocca went so far as to exaggerate the threat posed by Japanese companies and the unemployment of hundreds of thousands of people, which convinced the Diet to break its rules and provide a large sum of money.

This ability is also rare;

Similarly, Leah Iacocca was also very strong in operations, turning Chrysler around in three years and returning the money in the fourth year, which is why Yang Wendong intended to invest in Chrysler.

Lee Iacocca nodded and said, "Yes, I'm quite confident about this, but I still hope that other people can invest in Chrysler."

He was naturally not entirely confident;
In order to raise money, he has met with countless people during this period, including wealthy people in the United States, Europe, and even Saudi Arabia, all in an effort to get money, but all of them failed. When they saw Chrysler, they all ran away.

Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Okay, then tell me about Chrysler's future development plan. I don't need core secrets, but I need to know the general plan."

After all, the investment is so large that it's impossible for two people to make a decision after just one meeting. Even if he knows the future, if he really did that, wouldn't he be considered a fool?

Lee Iacocca said, "Okay, my plan is..."

Listening to Lee Iacocca describe his plans, Yang Wendong didn't ask until an hour later: "Are you planning to sell Chrysler's 336 car dealerships in the United States?"

“Yes, Mr. Yang is interested in this?” Li Aikoka immediately perked up;
In order to raise funds, Chrysler not only borrowed money from the government and banks and sought financing from other capital, but also prepared to sell a large number of its existing assets.

Not to mention car sales centers, Chrysler's tank manufacturing plant and European Chrysler operations are also seeking to be sold, but even so, it is still not enough to cover Chrysler's current losses.
The most urgent priority right now is to save Chrysler's core automotive business. Everything else can be sold, even if we know that selling some assets will have an impact on the future, such as the sales centers. But there's no other way; we have to act expediently in this urgent situation.

Yang Wendong nodded and said, "I'm somewhat interested, but we still need to investigate beforehand, right?"

“Of course,” Lee Iacocca nodded. It’s a business worth hundreds of millions of dollars; there’s no rush.

Yang Wendong said, "How about this? I will immediately arrange for someone to conduct an investigation at your company. It won't involve any core secrets; we just need to look at the finances. Also, what about these 300-plus car dealerships? How does that sound?"

PS: Please give me a monthly ticket
(End of this chapter)