As a mage, I just want to pursue the truth

Chapter 289 Investing in Rice Automobile
CERN has two main work locations, Meryin and Prevessin.

Zheng Li spends most of his time in Meyrin, where there are two restaurants, one in Switzerland and the other in France.

Meyrin straddles two countries.

Zheng Li sat on the side near Switzerland and ate breakfast. This body still had to eat to replenish the substances needed by the human body.

Opposite him was Zheng Li’s colleague at CERN, or rather, the colleague who often took the initiative to chat with Zheng Li—Kate.

Kate is English, with typical blonde and blue eyes. She often comes to chat with Zheng Li for no reason.

She has always admired a wise mind and has publicly stated that she does not accept men who are not as smart as she is.

However, Kate, who graduated with a Ph.D. from Trinity College, Cambridge University at the age of 23, has not yet met a man of the right age who can convince her.

Zheng Li is the only man she approves of.

However, although she acted very proactively, Zheng Li was not moved at all.

"On such a terrible day, the good news is that the criminal behind London's random deaths has been arrested.

It’s a blessing in disguise.”

Zheng Li sat opposite her and ate his usual chicken sandwich.

Zheng Li doesn't like changes in his diet. He has only eaten three fixed dishes at the R&D center of Sinovation Biotechnology in Singapore for more than two years.

This leads to the chefs at the Lion City R&D center striving for perfection in the three fixed dishes.

“That was a good day.

You don’t have to worry about your parents’ safety anymore.”

Kate's parents are in London.

Although London said that people can leave but not enter, in reality, London citizens are not allowed to leave London until the murderer is identified.

Kate leaned back in her chair and sighed, “It’s not that easy.

I saw on the news that only the main culprit and some of the other criminals have been caught so far, and many people have not been found yet.

Moreover, all citizens of London were learning magic, and the whole city was caught in a craze for magic.

The number of people who have learned magic and act recklessly, thinking they are different from ordinary people, and committing similar impulsive crimes has increased significantly.

There is now a sense that the police force across London is insufficient.”

Zheng Li replied: "You should have confidence in England.

It will always be properly resolved.

I saw the news, and the situation in London is not out of control yet, right? "

Kate sneered and said, “You can only trust 30% of the media reports.

Prices in London have tripled.

My parents should be considered middle class in this city, and they both complain about the current prices.

You can imagine the situation at the bottom of London. If this continues and the supply problem is not solved, the consequences will be disastrous.”

Zheng Li asked: "London has only banned flights, but daily trucks are still supplying goods, right?

Moreover, the technology of autonomous trucks is already quite mature and can fully supply goods to London 24 hours a day.”

Kate nodded and said, "You are right.

That's why prices have doubled, not tenfold.

If London had not maintained smooth logistics and supply, the prices would have been more than double.

Have you studied economics?

Zheng Li: “No.”

Kate held her chin with her hand and looked at Zheng Li and said, "I also studied for a bachelor's degree in economics while studying for my doctorate.

If I hadn't wanted to graduate with a PhD early, I might have pursued a PhD in economics.

The price of goods is not determined by the buyer, but by the seller.

The buyer can only decide whether to buy or not.

It is true that there are automatic trucks, but they can only deliver goods to logistics parks. Finally, manual delivery is still required from the logistics park to people's hands.

But the situation in London right now is that no one is interested in working.

People outside can't go in.

Labor costs are rising, and businesses are taking advantage of this to raise prices.”

"The English government won't do anything about it?" Zheng Li asked, because in his opinion, if something similar happened in China, the government would definitely take action.

Kate: “The government won’t regulate this kind of market behavior.

You have to know that this is purely market behavior and the government cannot directly interfere.

They can only indirectly alleviate the cost of living for Londoners by, for example, subsidizing businesses, reducing taxes, or giving money to citizens.

They absolutely cannot directly order merchants to lower prices through administrative means.

At most, it’s just a suggestion.”

For example, before, the price of refined oil products soared, and England Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell made amazing profits.

Then the English government and civil organizations could only put pressure on these oil giants to lower prices.

Zheng Li: "I see. All we can do is pray that the two months pass quickly."

Kate's brows showed a trace of sadness: "Merlin's arrival changed everything.

He brought the unknown and the chaos.”

Zheng Li noticed that the other party mentioned him, “Merlin seems to have hardly appeared in public.

There is currently no news claiming that Merlin is related to the magical events in London.

I think the changes Merlin brought about are neither good nor bad, it is human nature that caused all this to happen.

The world would be no better without Merlin."

Kate had rarely seen Zheng Li express his opinion on things on Blue Planet. She said in surprise: "I didn't realize you were a magic fanatic."

Zheng Li asked, "What is a magic fanatic?

Are you interested in magic?

I am far from being a fanatic about magic. Everything that humans can do now seems much more magical than magic in the past."

Kate explained: “It’s the people who support Merlin.

Merlin's arrival has led to two factions of public opinion.

The two sides attacked each other, and those who supported Merlin were labeled as magic fanatics.

Those who opposed Merlin were labeled Muggles."

Zheng Li said: “I am neither for Merlin nor against him.

It’s just that I think what he brought didn’t exceed our cognition.

It just slightly expanded the boundaries of our cognition.

He is only an external factor. The internal cause of the world's chaos and turmoil is ultimately human beings themselves."

Kate sighed, “Well, maybe what you said is okay.

But when something unexpected happens to my parents and my country, it’s hard to stay calm.”

"Okay, let's not talk about this anymore, it won't make me feel better.

Let’s talk about your paper being published soon. How do you feel about it now? ”

Zheng Li thought, isn’t it just published in Nature? I have published it a long time ago.

"Nature" is England's top scientific journal. As a product of the Europa Union, it will naturally be published in the journals of the member states of the Union.

"I heard that you will be unanimously nominated as this year's Nobel Prize winner, and it is very likely that you will be the only one to win the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Are you excited?" Zheng Li smiled and said nothing. He couldn't say, "I have won the Nobel Prize you mentioned before."

At that time, all the other winners were unable to receive their prizes.

I even single-handedly helped to ensure that the Nobel Prize ceremony received the highest ratings in history.

The problem is that I can’t tell you any of this.

"Why aren't you interested in anything?

It’s so boring.”

Zheng Li explained: “It’s not that I’m boring.

But my discovery does not add points because of these awards, but my discovery makes the Nobel Prize match his fame.

None of this means anything to me.”

He has even won the title of God of Mage from the Mage Alliance. The threshold for an honor like that from Blue Star is too low to excite Zheng Li.

Not to mention he'd won it once before.

8:30 in the morning in Geneva is 3:30 in the afternoon in China.

While Zheng Li was chatting with Kate, he was also talking to Lei Jun about cooperation-related matters at the headquarters in Gusu.

Lei Jun has frequently visited Gusu in recent years. Gusu has become the city where he spends the most time besides Yanjing.

"In fact, the range of new energy vehicles is almost the same as that of fuel vehicles.

Any new energy vehicle that uses Kechuang Bio's lithium metal positive electrode technology has a range of more than 2,000 kilometers, which can fully meet long-distance needs.

Currently, the market share of fuel vehicles has been reduced to below 50 percent for the first time this year.

The gold reversal has already occurred, and time is running out for Rice Auto.”

Lei Jun was very anxious. Building a car was more complicated than he thought.

Or in other words, commercial products have always been complicated.

New energy vehicles involve many more parts than smartphones, and there are also more upstream and downstream suppliers.

Smartphones can be sold purely online, relying on online marketing and pure online shopping in the early stages, but new energy vehicles cannot.

From manufacturing to laying out offline channels, a lot of resources and energy are required.

The registered capital of Dami Automobile that year was 10 billion RMB, and the paid-in capital was also 10 billion RMB.

The first Rice car was launched in 25 years, but only one year has passed and there is not enough money to buy the Rice car.

“But Rice Auto has its advantages.

Rice has very complete and mature supply chain experience.

Within the next year, we will be able to achieve a profit margin of 10 percent for each vehicle.

The goal is to achieve 30 percent in the next five years.

We need to achieve 50 percent in the next ten years.”

Tesla's goal is to achieve a 50 percent profit margin on each vehicle.

In 2021, their profit margin per vehicle was percent, a very exaggerated number.

Zheng Li nodded and said, "This goal is not easy to achieve, right?"

Lei Jun replied: “It’s definitely not that easy.

However, if most of the operations can be done unmanned, this goal may even be achieved ahead of schedule.

The implementation of artificial intelligence has developed very rapidly in the past two years.

The number of employees at Rice Auto’s factory is only 50 percent of what was previously estimated.

The emergence of industrial VR has saved engineers’ costs.

Thanks to these, we are confident that we can achieve a profit margin of 10% within a year." Lei Jun was very frank.

Because the purpose of his visit this time is to attract investment, Lei Jun hopes to transfer part of the shares of Rice Automobile to Kechuang Bio.

The most important purpose is not to raise funds, nor to introduce the technology of Ke Chuang Biotechnology and achieve a deep cooperative relationship.

These are secondary.

Even if Kechuang Biotechnology does not acquire shares, Dami Auto will still be able to obtain technology authorization from Kechuang Biotechnology and carry out technical cooperation.

The most important thing about Lei Jun’s move is to give confidence to the capital market.

The investment of Kechuang Bio will enable the primary and secondary markets to have greater confidence and more patience in Rice's car-making business.

Lian Kechuang Bio and Zheng Li are optimistic about DaMi Automobile, so we can hold DaMi shares and wait and see for a while.

During this period, the prices of Chinese stocks have fallen terribly, and rice is no exception.

At the same time, Dami will also carry out a subsequent private placement and complete the investment in Ke Chuang Bio before the private placement, which will also help to determine a good price for the subsequent private placement.

Mi mobile phone, Mi car, Mi smart home, the last one is a supplier product, the first two are self-operated by Mi, which consumes a lot of cash for Mi.

Especially since the cost of making cars can still be recovered in the distant future.

A profit margin of more than 10 percent per vehicle does not mean that the total revenue and expenses can be reversed.

If it weren't for its poor financial situation, Dami Auto would not have sold its shares in Kechuang Future.

“Brother, I believe you too. The maturity of rice in the supply chain can be seen through the large-scale production of brain-computer connection VR.

Rice is indeed very strong in supply chain integration.

I personally don't have much opinion on the matter of investing in Dami Auto.

In my opinion, investing in Dami Auto is just a capital operation. I can guarantee that we will not interfere with the specific operations of Dami Auto.

At most one external director may be appointed.

But we may need to have a good discussion with the people below about the specific price and shareholding ratio.”

The stone in Lei Jun's heart fell to the ground. As long as the other party was willing to invest, he would not lose anything.

With the support of Ke Chuang Biotechnology, the price of the subsequent private placement will be easier to negotiate.

A private placement is a targeted issuance of shares, issuing investment products such as bonds or stocks to some senior institutional investors or individuals.

This price is usually negotiated before the private placement.

The price of a private placement is generally lower than the price in the secondary market. If the company is in a downturn, the price of a private placement can be even lower.

Of course, it is not necessarily the case that those investors who participate in the private placement will gain an advantage.

Hillhouse Capital often participates in private placements in China, but they did not make any profit from their private placement of Gree Electric Appliances and even suffered a lot of losses.

The institutions participating in the private placement need to be optimistic about the long-term development of the company.

Rice is a company with a very awkward positioning. From the perspective of market share, it is worth more than this price, but from the perspective of profit and revenue, it is not worth this price.

The premiums enjoyed by home appliance sellers and technology manufacturing companies are vastly different.

Da Mi is in this middle ground. If it were to share the same pricing standard with BOE, its stock price would be cut in half again.

Rice's return on equity has been declining in recent years.

Lei Jun nodded and said, "No problem, we can talk about it later.

Don't worry, I will give you a price quote with great value for money.

Rice is famous for its cost-effectiveness.”

In fact, there is nothing wrong with the cost-effectiveness strategy.

A company like Ford initially adopted a cost-effective strategy, but later launched high-end brands such as Lincoln, Land Rover, and Aston Martin.

Of course, Land Rover and Aston Martin have now been sold to others.

Mi Auto also plans to take the cost-effective route first, and then move towards the high-end after gaining a firm foothold, which is the same route as Mi Mobile.

(End of this chapter)