Return to 1958 and build a century-old giant

Chapter 846 Best Buy's Refinancing and IPO Plans
Yang Wendong probably knows a little about what's happening in Hong Kong. After Apple goes public, and with his several major industries in the United States also growing in scale, and even the industries he operates may raise funds and go public, then Hong Kong, mainland China, and Asia will all know about these situations.
This is inevitable. When a person's career develops too much, it is impossible to hide it from the public. After all, many industries around the world are listed companies, and the financial reports of listed companies need to be made public. Even if they try to hide it through various means, there will still be many traces.

Yang Wendong had no intention of hiding it; there was no need. His industrial scale in Asia was already large enough, and adding another American industry wouldn't make much difference. Moreover, the presence of so many industries in the United States would greatly help his future investments and influence there.
As for the $5 million worth of Apple stock that I just acquired, although it's nothing compared to the income from gold futures, it's a publicly available asset with high liquidity, which will be of great help to my career.

After Apple went public, Yang Wendong immediately left Los Angeles and went straight to New York City.

Her eldest son is studying business administration at Columbia University in New York, and she can only see him once every few months these days.

This was Yang Wendong's first time visiting Columbia University. American universities in this era were still quite wonderful, with countless handsome men and beautiful women strolling around on the lawn.

"Zhiwen, do you have a girlfriend here in the US?" Yang Wendong suddenly asked on the grass.

Yang Zhiwen shook his head and said, "Not yet, but I have some feelings for a white girl. However, you once said that the heir of our Yang family must be Chinese, so..."

“The main business of the Yang family must be inherited by a Chinese person, but it doesn’t matter if there are white descendants in the European and American industries,” Yang Wendong said. “But no matter what, you are the future heir to the group, and your wife on the surface must be Chinese. I don’t want to explain this to you anymore; you should understand what I mean.”

“I understand, which is why I’m so conflicted,” Yang Zhiwen said, looking troubled.

Yang Wendong laughed and said, "Zhiwen, you've grown up. I can only say that as long as it's not illegal, it's fine. People in the Yang family can't touch drugs or gambling, but there aren't many other restrictions."

Children will understand some things on their own; it's their instinct, and he doesn't want to say too much.

Yang Zhiwen was naturally very clever and said, "Okay, I understand, Daddy."

"Yes, also, be careful and avoid certain diseases," Yang Wendong warned again.

AIDS is actually already prevalent in the United States, but the number of infected people is not large, and the symptoms of death are different, so it has not attracted much attention.
This is also the most terrifying aspect of this virus: it attacks the immune system, and many people die from other diseases because it is difficult to detect in the early stages.
Fortunately, its transmission efficiency is not very high, and the probability of encountering it in the very early stages of this period is extremely low, but precautions should still be taken. In fact, there are other viruses in this regard as well.
He also forgot which year AIDS was publicly reported. If it had been publicly reported, he could have appropriately promoted research in this area. Even if he didn't develop a cure, he could at least understand its characteristics and improve public safety control. That would have given him and his family, who came from all of humanity, more security.
Unfortunately, this thing is beyond human control. Otherwise, spending some money to eradicate this virus would be a great act of kindness, but it's simply impossible to do so.

Yang Wendong will not interfere too much in his son's life. As long as his safety is guaranteed, he can be free to do whatever he wants during his university years. When he is ready to take over the family business in the future, he can actually have more fun during university. When he returns to Hong Kong to inherit the family business, it will be really tough.

There are still a few years left, so there's no rush.
Upon arriving in New York, he naturally needed to meet with the bigwigs of Wall Street;

So, on May 10, he arrived at the headquarters of Goldman Sachs, a company that has been a part of global financial history and has been involved in many major financial events over the past century.
"Eric, congratulations! Your Apple company has become one of the most successful IPOs in the United States," Goldman Sachs Vice President Barney said with a smile as he shook hands with Yang Wendong.

"Haha, Apple isn't mine." Yang Wendong shook his head and said, "I'm just a major shareholder."

Barney said, "Haha, this major shareholder is the one who profits the most, Eric. I really want to ask you how you see the potential in these companies."

Early investments like Walmart, Intel, and Nike, and more recently Apple—for any Wall Street investment fund, investing in just one of these would be a lifetime achievement. You've invested in five or six; that can't be a coincidence, can it?

"Haha, all I can say is that I invest in people, not companies." Yang Wendong naturally made up a story: "Talent is the most crucial factor for a company's success."

Actually, this isn't entirely untrue. Any company that succeeds is largely thanks to its founder; it's just that he knew about these people beforehand.

Barney nodded and said, "That makes sense, but how do we find these people? When you invested in Nike and Apple, their founders were just small fry, right?"

This is also quite strange. When Walmart, Intel, and other companies received investment, they were at least somewhat small in scale, so it's not surprising that they were chosen by investors.
But when Yang Wendong invested in Apple and Nike, one was a garage and the other had only a few stores. There are hundreds of thousands of such people in the United States, if not millions. How did he select them from so many people?

Ironically, these companies eventually developed into giant corporations, which is something Wall Street can't understand.

Yang Wendong laughed and said, "That's probably just God blessing me; I'm just lucky."

"Well, it seems you're quite the lucky one." Barney didn't press the issue further, knowing it couldn't be that simple, but since Yang Wendong wasn't going to elaborate, he didn't press him too much.

After exchanging pleasantries for a while, Barney also showed Yang Wendong around Goldman Sachs and introduced some of Goldman Sachs' public projects. These projects were not confidential, and someone of Yang Wendong's level could find out if he wanted to.

After listening, Yang Wendong couldn't help but sigh. These people in finance were really good at using money. They could make one hundred million US dollars seem like ten billion US dollars and profit from the market through various securities and financial means.

They completely disregarded the financial risks at the national level, as long as they could make money.

Historically, many financial crises were caused by these same people. Of course, those politicians were certainly involved as well. It's a cycle of administration after administration, each betting that their term will be smooth sailing and that any problems in the next term are none of their concern.
Yang Wendong then went to the top floor of the Goldman Sachs building and said with a smile, "The view here is really beautiful."

“Haha, if you like it, you can totally buy a building in a similar location in New York.” Barney handed over a glass of red wine and said, “If you’re willing, I can definitely buy you a building you’re happy with.”

Yang Wendong shook his head and said, "Forget it, the US real estate market is too complicated. I'd better not get involved." The US real estate market can certainly be profitable in the future, but as a highly developed country with property taxes, the price increases over the next few decades will be limited, far less than in Hong Kong, mainland China, or even many other Asian countries.
He has the funds, so he might as well invest in the mainland. He's not like those stupid Japanese who, as soon as they have money, think about buying super-large buildings in the US just to save face, only to end up getting ripped off.

Barney said, "New York is different. It's the global economic center, and future real estate price increases are bound to be substantial."

"Let's not discuss this anymore, let's get down to business." Yang Wendong didn't press the matter further.

New York is indeed a bit better than other parts of the United States, but it doesn't really matter; real estate in developed countries wouldn't be a target of his interest.

“Alright then.” Barney nodded and asked, “Is Best Buy preparing for a second round of financing?”

“Yes, although the money from the last round of financing hasn’t been spent yet, I plan to continue investing in a more aggressive way, so I need more funds,” Yang Wendong said. “As you know, now that Apple has gone public, the IT industry has become a hot sector, and funds from many traditional industries have also begun to enter the field of electronic terminal sales, including some traditional supermarkets. So I urgently need to further capture more market share and optimize the logistics process.”

Before the mid-70s, Best Buy was basically the only professional electronic retail supermarket. It is estimated that only a few people could understand Best Buy's intentions, but they dared not participate in the high-stakes gamble.

But now the electronics industry is rising, and the personal computer industry is said to be even larger than the home appliance market. Add to that game consoles, portable music players, new home appliances, and so on, and the potential of the electronics retail market is soaring. Anyone can see that the future will definitely be a red ocean market.

In this situation, a lot of capital naturally gets involved.

Best Buy may have started early, but the US market is too large to cover. The current financing is to obtain more funds for development, gain support from Wall Street, and prevent Wall Street capital from over-investing in its competitors. No matter how strong its financial resources are, it does not expect to be able to compete with Wall Street.

"Haha, okay, so what's the valuation of Best Buy this time? How much are you planning to raise?" Barney asked with a smile.

Yang Wendong said, "As for the valuation, I think it's $25 billion. As for the amount of financing, we'll have to see. I estimate it will be around 15%."

“$25 billion, isn’t that too much?” Barney asked, his expression unchanged.

"Is it a lot?" Yang Wendong countered. "Judging from the feedback on Apple's IPO, after the electronics industry explodes in the future, Best Buy's future is limitless. The only goal now is to monopolize the market as soon as possible. Once this goal is achieved, both Apple and IBM will absolutely rely on our sales and after-sales service."

It's impossible to call it a monopoly, as this industry doesn't have monopolies, but it can definitely become a giant, like Walmart in the future. It's not a monopoly, but it already occupies half of the market.

Whether Best Buy can achieve this is hard to say, but naturally, they need to exaggerate their claims now, and Wall Street itself likes to do so.

And this isn't exactly deception. After all, Best Buy's market value in the past was over $300 billion, and now they've developed nearly 20 years ahead of time. The first-mover advantage is huge, and they basically control after-sales service. It wouldn't be surprising if the stock price were two or three times higher than in the past, or even higher.

In addition, from a property perspective, Best Buy already has supermarkets in 200 cities, and all of them are self-owned, which saves a lot of rent, making it much better than other supermarkets. The value of these properties alone is not low.

Barney thought for a moment and said, "Okay, I'll discuss this with the company. We also hope to reach a long-term cooperation with you, Eric."

“Okay.” Yang Wendong nodded, then added, “There’s one more thing. After this round of financing, I plan to take Best Buy public. We might cooperate again then.”

"What? It's going public?" Barney was overjoyed. This was the kind of business that investment companies like theirs loved the most.

The commission for an IPO of such a large company is definitely substantial; the bidding war for Apple's IPO was fierce.

"Yes, after the IPO, I plan to expand beyond the US to Canada, Europe, and even Asia, which will require more funding," Yang Wendong said with a smile.
After all, it's a business that makes money in the US, so it will have to go public sooner or later. Only by going public and binding a large number of US shareholders, and by reaching a large enough scale, can the security of the government be guaranteed.

Of course, this is also because Best Buy is just an ordinary retail supermarket, not a company involved in high technology; otherwise, it wouldn't make any difference.

The United States in this era still values ​​the free flow of capital and is not willing to embarrass itself for an industry that does not affect national defense.

In addition, while Best Buy is expanding in the United States, it also needs to start going global. Although this will be difficult, it is worth trying. In this case, having the background of a US listed company will make it much easier to do business in other countries.

Barney laughed and said, "Okay, so when is that?"

Yang Wendong said, "After this round of financing, we will submit an application. Which stock do you think is better to list on? Dow Jones or Nasdaq?"

“Best Buy is a traditional industry, but it also has a lot to do with electronics.” Barney wasn’t sure for a moment, so he said, “How about this, I’ll ask both of them for you and see who can offer better terms.”

“Alright, then I’ll entrust this matter to you for now,” Yang Wendong said. “Also, spread the word about the financing and see which funds are willing to invest.”

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