Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 151 A Fleeting Month

While we waited, good news kept coming in.

Within two weeks, Emerson had already made contact with Liu Chiping.

Furthermore, based on Chen Xuebing's interests, and at the same price, a suitable candidate was found for him to serve as the group's president.

His name is Cai Zhijian.

Born in Hong Kong in 1978, he moved to Canada with his family at the age of 12 to study. He holds a CPA degree from the University of Waterloo and is currently pursuing a Juris Doctor degree at the same university. In addition, due to the different academic system, he began working in auditing during his university years and was already a senior manager in the audit department of PricewaterhouseCoopers' Hong Kong and BJ offices before graduation.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is one of the Big Four accounting firms in the world, and now it ranks first among the Big Four, so its prestige is self-evident.

Now, Cai Zhijian has just joined Citigroup as an executive director in the investment banking division and chief strategic cooperation officer for China.

This position looks extremely prestigious, and I shouldn't be working for a small company like Gu'an.

There's always a "but".

Citibank's business in China is not extensive, making growth difficult. Moreover, this position is due to the collaboration between PwC and Citibank, meaning that he is likely to be transferred back to PwC in the near future, though his position may not be very high.

However, this resume is extremely similar to Liu Chiping's life experience. This is Emerson's backup plan to earn this commission, and it is also the "peer pressure" they create for Liu Chiping, which is their bargaining power.

In order to attract these two senior executives, Jiang Yunzhou specially flew to Shenzhen with his assistant and talked with Chen Xuebing for several hours, creating a grand vision for the relatively inexperienced Gu'an Group.

Three years of dedicated cultivation, five years to go public, building a financial empire, etc., basically just boasting about their current strengths.

In addition, Jiang Yunzhou came to negotiate the price and create altruistic factors.

Because Chen Xuebing was quite satisfied with this backup candidate plan, Jiang Yunzhou persuaded Chen Xuebing to offer a 200 million yuan buyout fee and pay him six months' salary in one lump sum. In other words, he would have to pay 350 million yuan the moment the talent joined the company.

Furthermore, Emerson's commission has also increased to 100 million yuan. The reason is that the cost of infiltrating Tencent during the process of contacting Liu Chiping was not low. They bribed three employees, which created a cost risk.

Chen Xuebing was amazed by their infiltration capabilities, which allowed them to riddle Tencent with bullets. Out of curiosity, he agreed to the price increase and promised to pay 20 yuan even if they failed, but he asked them to provide details of the operation afterward.

Jiang Yunzhou smiled and praised Chairman Chen for paying a worthwhile tuition fee, and promised that one of the two of them would definitely succeed.

Chen Xuebing suspected that they had already reached an agreement with Cai Zhijian.

However, Cai Zhijian's experience may make him more adaptable than Liu Chiping.

During my five years at PwC, I participated in the annual audits of many Chinese and foreign banks in China, including the audits of large Chinese financial institutions such as Bank of Communications, Bank of China and Bank of China (Hong Kong), China Minsheng Bank, and JPMorgan Chase China. I was also deeply involved in the early reforms and restructuring of Chinese financial institutions.

What Chen Xuebing needs is a president who is a financial partner, similar to Cai Chongxin of Alibaba, Liu Chiping of Tencent, Cao Guowei of Sina, and Xu Ran of JD.com. These people have extensive communication channels with international and domestic capital, and at the same time have strong management capabilities in strategic planning, finance, and investment. They can handle almost all matters in the process of a company's listing.

Without such a person, even if he had the ability to see the future, facing the listing of at least three companies, tons of trivial matters would still make his head spin.

This kind of person is also the source of a company's international perspective.

No matter the price, we have to hire them.

In terms of timing, the earlier the better.

As for funding…

……

10 month 28 day.

January passed quickly.

The office on the fourth floor of Henggang Building is spacious, over 50 square meters.

Chen Xuebing flipped through a document, took a deep breath, and felt somewhat refreshed.

The original sliding glass windows of the old building weren't very attractive, but the installation of metallic blinds improved the interior visual appeal considerably. The office furniture was minimalist, with the only decoration on the wide metal desk being a small white hourglass.

Chen Xuebing really liked that hourglass. It was small, with only 20 minutes, a metaphor for the preciousness of time, and also the perfect amount of time for a conversation. He started practicing turning the hourglass upside down whenever he called someone over to talk, controlling the pace of the conversation and cultivating the ability to discuss something thoroughly within 20 minutes.

Yang Qingyue bought it for him.

Xiao Yang fulfilled her promise and spent two days after the holiday setting up the office for Chen Xuebing, but she rarely came over after that.

But the bottle of leafy wood fragrance from Summer Green Perfume, which was placed in the corner by the curtains, was something Chen Xuebing often reminisced about.

"Chairman, the R&D team I recently found through connections is here, 15 people. How's your funding situation?"

Lu Weibing sat opposite him and asked tentatively.

Chen Xuebing didn't look up, his eyes still fixed on the documents, and smiled, "The fund has already started operating... The company's harvest this month is pretty good, and we've taken out another 500 million loan. What, have you spent it all?"

After a long wait of a month and a half, the stock market fluctuated downwards several times. It opened at 1119.43 the day before yesterday and continued to decline, finally touching Chen Xuebing's iron bottom of 1100 points, and closing at 1097.16.

The market fell another round number, and there was widespread despair.

New York 45, however, was in high spirits and notified CITIC Securities and investors that the funds would be officially closed and operations would begin on November 1, and that the current funds would be used for leveraged investment.

As expected, after several fluctuations yesterday, the closing time was just as Chen Xuebing predicted. No matter how much the price was pushed down, it couldn't be pushed down any further, closing at 1097.78, which was even a slight increase.

For more than a month, investors watched the stock market drop from 1200 to 1100 points, and dared not deliver the funds as agreed. With their own funds plus 30 million from Everbright, the actual funds raised were just over 110 million. As a result, yesterday, as soon as they heard that Changzheng Capital had just entered the market, the market turned red for the first time. Everyone called him a master. Before the market opened today, they had already received more than 20 million.

The total amount in the securities accounts is 1.33 million.

With his biggest project already underway, Chen Xuebing felt much more confident and immediately notified Lu Weibing to come over early in the morning so the R&D team could continue recruiting.

However, Chen Xuebing did not arrange for the 400 million yuan from selling sand in Taohuaxi to be transferred. Instead, he invested 150 million yuan in the stock market and kept the rest to deal with the recruitment of a president.

“This month, our sales team contacted shopping malls and stores in surrounding provinces, and sales performance has indeed improved. However, personnel expenses are also very high. I have set the first payroll date for the 20th of next month. The personnel salaries are 58 yuan, the EDA authorization fee is 166 million yuan, and other office and miscellaneous expenses are close to 50 yuan. The factory has expanded two production lines at a cost of 38 yuan. All this adds up to 310 million yuan. Next month's expenses will not be less than 150 million yuan. If you still want to hire people, the financial safety line will not be enough.”

Lu Weibing began by doing some calculations for him, then said with a worried expression:

"Also, there's the issue of suppliers... I really don't dare to talk to them if I don't have the money."

"There's still 400 million left." Chen Xuebing did a rough calculation. The funds in the account plus the 500 million loan should be more than 700 million. However, the personnel expenses were so high that tens of thousands were spent every day as soon as he opened his eyes, which made him gasp.

But if you want people to get things done, you still need to give them confidence.

"Don't worry, I'll transfer 20 million to you after the New Year. The company is mine, what are you afraid of?"

As long as the fund is profitable, he can control the timing of dividend distribution at any time.

If it weren't for the numerous urgent matters at hand, he really wouldn't want to withdraw the profits; keeping them there to accumulate interest would be the best way to maximize his returns.

But now, even if he were willing to give up the interests of the fund, he wouldn't have enough money. Since he started dealing with Emerson, the speed at which talent has been accumulated has far exceeded his expectations. With people, things need to be done, and the speed at which money is spent has also far exceeded his imagination.

If we only want to straighten out the mobile phone business, the money earned from the fund is more than enough, but when we add the funds needed to take over the cement plant in Pengshui, it's still far from enough.

No one knew better than him how tight the building materials market would be afterward. Although cement prices did not rise significantly, there was no shortage of buyers.

With an annual output of one million tons and a market price of around 300 yuan per ton, the current production cost is no more than 120 yuan, and the comprehensive cost is no more than 150 yuan. As long as sales are not a problem, the annual profit is 1.5 million yuan. The key is the abundant mineral reserves and the advantage of water transportation surrounded by rivers on three sides, which makes the price of ore cheap. Sand and gravel aggregates will be extremely profitable in the future, a lifeline for the cement industry. As long as a good relationship is maintained with the local government, it will be very easy to expand aggregate production lines or increase cement clinker production capacity in the future.

He had already planned out the development strategy.

Bull markets don't happen every year, but for the next ten years or so, Jinbiao Cement Plant was a goose that kept laying golden eggs.

He has to persevere so that he can have a better life in the future.

"Trading time for space."

Chen Xuebing pondered for a moment, then a sudden inspiration struck him, and he murmured to himself.

"Hmm?" Lu Weibing paused for a moment, then nodded thoughtfully and smiled, "Trading time for space, you're right."

Chen Xuebing snapped out of his daze and chuckled, "I'm not saying this to you. Singularity Technology, just go all out."

Just then, the phone on the table rang.

Chen Xuebing glanced at the incoming call, answered it, and asked, "Old Xu, what's up?"

After listening for a couple of sentences, the smile on his face froze a bit. He waved to Lu Weibing and turned on his computer.

Lu Weibing tactfully got up and left.

A few minutes later, Chen Xuebing looked at the green screen on his computer, took a deep breath, put the phone on speakerphone, and placed it on the table.

Wow, damn it.

If these lines were on an electrocardiogram, they'd look like a critical illness notice.

"I saw."

The market fluctuated and fell by a full three percentage points, reaching 1068.

"Chairman... should we still go in now?" Xu Jin, who was usually very composed, sounded unusually heavy today.

Chen Xuebing did not expect that his 1100-point bottom line would be breached, and the market actually dropped sharply by 3 points in just one morning, with the SSE 50 index generally falling by more than 4%.

If such a sharp decline had happened in the US stock market, it would have been a major news story that would have made headlines.

If Chen Xuebing hadn't known the future trajectory, this wave of emotions would have exploded.

How much capital do you have on hand?

"Yesterday I invested 50 million yuan and allocated it to 13 stocks. Now two of them have hit the daily limit down. The others are doing okay. The loss is less than 2 million yuan. However, out of 1350 stocks on the market, 1280 are falling. The market sentiment is terrible."

Chen Xuebing checked the data and said, "Don't panic. The trading volume is not large, and the price is falling on low volume. Someone is trying to manipulate the market sentiment and enter at a low price."

"Hmm... I know, but I don't know how far they're going to push the emotions. We've already incurred losses, and today is Friday. Once the market closes, Monday will be the 31st. Some investors are still watching and waiting. The 1100-point support level that we've been advocating for has been completely breached. If we continue to operate at a loss, it could very well affect the fundraising sentiment in the future."

"MLGB," Chen Xuebing cursed under his breath.

This A-share market is constantly manipulated by a bunch of sentimental speculators. It only cares about rising prices and doesn't care about falling prices. It's really unworthy of the rising domestic economic market.

This was the first time he'd suffered such a large loss, and he was quite upset, muttering curses as he said:
"Go all in! It's already at 1070, the best entry point. What's there to think about? Seize the opportunity to make money! As for the remaining 4000 million, tell those investors who are still watching that our next fund won't be launched until at least the middle of next year, and from then on, if you want to invest in our fund, you'll have to wait in line and enter a lottery!"

Xu Jin clicked his tongue in amazement.

When everyone else is running a fund, they have to beg and plead with everyone. Only Mr. Chen would dare to be so arrogant towards investors.

"Are we going to launch another fund next year? By the middle of next year? In the middle, or in the end?"

Chen Xuebing said in an unfriendly tone, "Let them guess for themselves."

"...Really?"

Chen Xuebing hesitated for a moment, then said, "Forget it."

Xu Jin breathed a sigh of relief: "The investors still want..."

Chen Xuebing interrupted, "No need to tell them. I'll tell them myself when I get back."

...

The stock market rebounded in the afternoon.

The closing price was 1082, a pullback of more than 1 point.

With the significant increase in holdings at the bottom, most of the 200 million yuan loss from the morning was recovered.

Chen Xuebing felt that there had been a slight misjudgment of the market bottom, so he advised them to hold on and only add positions at low levels. They should only do T+0 trading on stocks with large fluctuations and not sell stable stocks easily, waiting for the main upward wave.

Then, I called Jiang Yunzhou and told him that he would be going back to Chongqing next Monday.

The fund will be officially launched on November 1st and will enter a one-year closed period. The district government has already replied that District Chief Hong will attend the ceremony.

Changzheng Capital is registered in Jiefangbei, which is in the core of Yuzhong District, the mother city. The district head actually came in person, so he had to go.

Upon learning of the situation, Jiang Yunzhou said he would try to arrange a meeting this weekend.

……

Lan Hanwen is the head of Emerson's Shenzhen office.

Chen Xuebing never expected that he, as the boss of the client, would have to arrive at their meeting room half an hour early to wait for Liu Chiping.

Furthermore, some unreasonable demands were made against them.

“Chairman Chen, I think you should change into something else,” Lan Hanwen said, pointing to several suits on a row of clothes racks.

"Why am I dressed less formally?" Chen Xuebing asked in surprise, pointing to the golf shirt he had specially chosen when he left home.

"Today is a formal occasion, and we have put a lot of effort into preparing for this meeting, so you have to listen to us."

Lan Hanwen clearly didn't have Jiang Yunzhou's easygoing personality; his tone was a bit rigid.

Chen Xuebing smacked his lips, his eyes showing a hint of disdain.

"You should have told me in advance. I could have bought them myself. What am I supposed to do with the clothes you provide?"

"Don't worry, this is a sample garment that we borrowed from a specialized tailor shop, based on your height and body shape. The maintenance fee is very high after wearing it once, and they also have a stylist for you. In addition, we have booked a private room for you to eat and prepared a bottle of 03 Dom Pérignon. We hope you will find it useful."

Upon hearing about the complete preparations, Chen Xuebing raised his eyebrows and stood up.

"Okay, I also hope I can pay for all your preparations in full."

(End of this chapter)