The Birth of Shanghai's First Conglomerate

Chapter 177 The Prosperity of Shanghai
Chen Pingsheng borrowed 200 million yuan from his wife to make ends meet.

This is intended to accelerate the development of Tengsheng Fresh Food.

In addition to the profits he receives on the 15th of each month, his wife also receives 15 days' worth of operating capital for Shuiyunjian and a 30% risk fund.

The 15-day operating capital requirement is easy to understand; it simply means that this money is not paid out from the 1st to the 15th.

Only dividends from the 1st to the 30th of last month will be paid.

All traditional stores retain at least ten days' worth of cash.

As for the 30% risk fund, that needs to be reserved every month.

The same goes for Tengsheng Fruits, for example, with a monthly profit of 100,000.

Only 70,000 will be allocated, and the remaining 30,000 will be used as a risk fund.

This money is not usually needed, but it can be used in the event of major market changes or policy shifts.

Risk funds can help companies weather a dangerous period.

The more risk reserves a company accumulates, the stronger its ability to withstand risks.

He was a little short of money.

The presidents of the three banks came to us at the same time.

"Mr. Chen, when will you take care of my business? Five to one billion yuan. As long as you use Shuiyunjian's shares as collateral, I guarantee I'll give it to you within three days."

“I can also give you 500 million, you just need to use Tencent's shares as collateral.”

Many people think that you have to please the bank to get a loan, but that's a mistake.

For truly high-quality companies, banks are practically begging to lend them money.

Forget about currying favor with the bank manager, the bank manager is definitely trying to curry favor with him.

Chen Pingsheng kindly invited them to have a meal before they left.

He himself is not short of money, and the funds he can mobilize at any time are no less than 500 million.

Both Shuiyunjian and Tengsheng Fruit have substantial venture capital investments.

Borrow money from a bank?

When things are going well, there's no problem, but once things go wrong, this money becomes a deadly curse.

He has always done as much as he has in terms of money.

We have never used bank leverage to speculate on real estate, storefronts, or develop companies.

Although the pace of development may be a little slower, it is stable.

When the market is booming, those business owners who use high leverage to develop their companies naturally enjoy great success.

Once the market starts to decline, these people are the fastest to run away.

Not running is tantamount to waiting to die.

He doesn't need to. If the market really deteriorates to that point, whichever company can't hold on will collapse.

He refused to believe that none of the many companies could survive.

When that day comes, there will only be one possibility: war will break out.

Otherwise, he would adopt a conservative development approach, not caring about small risks at all, and being able to withstand large risks for a period of time with risk funds.

There will never be a day when Qiqi can't hold on.

The market is unpredictable, and no one knows what the future holds.

The best thing Chen Pingsheng could do was to avoid being rash and impulsive.

The money I borrowed from my wife also needs to be repaid.

We must not let it affect Shuiyunjian's own development.

It's already late May.

Tong Zhelan called him and asked him to go to Shanghai.

In Beijing, one's official rank is low; in Shanghai, one's wealth is limited.

If your net worth isn't in the tens of billions over there, who would dare call themselves a tycoon?
Boiling Sheep's Series C funding round is about to begin, along with the launch of Bobo Milk Tea and the sales plan for Hua Qian Gu's merchandise.

He has to go there in person.

The journey from Beijing to Shanghai is 1200 kilometers, and it only takes about two hours by plane.

Chen Pingsheng brought two bodyguards and a top lawyer with him, and headed straight to Shanghai.

Tong Zhelan's Honglan Capital is located on the Bund, in a magnificent building with a Republican-era style.

Only by visiting the Bund can one truly understand what it means to be a bustling financial hub.

This place exudes an air of luxury.

If you have money, this place is paradise.

Even the most remote little hotel costs 300 yuan a night if you don't have money.

This truly illustrates what extreme wealth inequality means.

When Chen Pingsheng got off the plane, Tong Zhelan was the one who came to pick him up at the airport.

She was riding in an extended Rolls-Royce Phantom, driven by a chauffeur.

There was also an Alphard following behind.

His bodyguards and lawyers all rode in the car behind.

The extended Phantom offers excellent privacy; you can barely hear any outside noise while sitting in it.

It felt like the scenery was receding while they were moving forward.

As I walked from Hongqiao Airport to the famous Nanjing Street, even the air smelled of perfume.

Unlike the understated style of Guangdong, Shanghai is all about the petit-bourgeois lifestyle.

Commonly known as "style" or "pretentious manner".

This area also has the most coffee shops; they're everywhere, along the streets and in the center of the city.

Sitting there having a couple of drinks when you have nothing to do, you can't imagine how bourgeois you are.

Tong Zhelan led him all the way to her Honglan Capital, mainly to introduce him to a few people.

The middle-aged man wearing glasses and a sharp suit was none other than Shen Nanpeng.

They claim to have invested in half of the internet industry.

It manages investment funds amounting to hundreds of billions.

The jeweled woman to his left is Xu Xin, the investment queen who rose to fame by investing in Jingdong.

There were two other people beside him, one of whom was a descendant of the famous Kwok family in Hong Kong.

They belong to the third generation of a family heir, a top-tier wealthy family.

Another one is the Xu tycoon, who is known as the "God of the Stock Market" here.

So many wealthy people weren't there specifically to wait for him.

Instead, they are waiting for a rising star in the internet industry, specializing in content distribution and short video recommendations.

According to him, what he makes perfectly fits the fragmented time of modern people.

With its superior information processing capabilities, it allows users to browse their favorite information or short video content.

Don't be fooled by how simple this sounds; to actually do it is as difficult as climbing to the heavens.

It needs to quickly identify each customer's favorite content based on their habits.

Then, the content is distributed and recommended from this massive amount of information.

Ultimately, what he liked was presented to the client.

The computing power required for this is beyond imagination.

of course.

A project that can gather so many big names must be something special.

The introduction lasted for more than ten minutes, and I asked a lot of questions before and after.

When it came time to finally reveal their valuation, everyone hesitated.

A project less than three years old has a valuation of seven billion US dollars.

This could dilute 30% of the shares and raise $21 billion, or about 150 billion RMB.

Shanghai is truly Shanghai; the scale of this project is beyond even Chen Pingsheng's wildest imagination.

Compared to what he did, his valuation is truly beyond imagination.

They all have ideas to invest, but they all feel the valuation is too high.

150 billion is a huge sum of money for anyone.

Even if Chen Pingsheng wanted to invest, he simply couldn't afford it.

I definitely can't afford to invest right now.

Tong Zhelan is similar; her family is wealthy, but she herself is not.

The projects we've invested in haven't reached their return period yet.

A project valued at seven billion US dollars is something that only Tencent and Alibaba can easily swallow up; no one else can do it so easily.

She could only brush past them.

As for Shen Nanpeng and Xu Xin, they do have the ability, but they still feel that the project's valuation is too high.

A perfect missed opportunity.

That's the nature of investing; you never know what you might miss.

They had no idea whether the thing they had picked up would ever amount to anything.

If you can make a successful investment like Masayoshi Son's investment in Alibaba, then you'll be a god in the investment world.

Such people are one in a million; most people will miss out on opportunities.

It's like you're already rich, and someone uses this concept to get you to invest 15 billion. Who knows how many people would dare to invest in it in the future?
The founder of Douyin, known for his refined and cultured personality, has left us.

……

I've come to Shanghai.

Chen Pingsheng finally experienced what a high-end project is like.

A project that can be valued at $70 billion in less than three years. Compared to his others, it is indeed far superior.

It's a pity that he doesn't have the capability to participate in such projects right now.

Of course, those with the ability also missed out.

Tong Zhelan invited him over, not to participate in this kind of project investment.

Bobo Milk Tea is currently experiencing a very good development trend.

With the broadcast of "The Legend of Hua Qian Gu" scheduled for June, all that's needed then is to release a co-branded product.

The franchise sector is bound to make further progress.

According to her prediction, if Bobo Milk Tea continues to develop in this way...

A valuation of 2 billion to 2.5 billion yuan for an IPO by the end of the year is definitely achievable.

When the IPO process begins, she will be able to cash out hundreds of millions of dollars from her shares and leave.

With an investment of less than 20 million, you can get back 300 to 400 million in a year.

This was undoubtedly a great success.

At least Tong Zhelan is now quite satisfied with the development of Bobo Milk Tea.

Therefore, she also took the initiative to take on the responsibility of completing the Series C financing of Boiling Sheep.

Currently, Fei Yang Yang has more than 80 self-operated stores in Beijing and more than 50 stores in Shacheng.

In total, that makes about 140 directly operated stores.

In addition, there are headquarters training institutions in four major first-tier cities.

The monthly turnover is consistently over 1.2 million, with annual revenue around 15 billion.

It's already a fairly large catering group.

With such a scale, achieving a valuation of 1.5 billion should not be difficult.

The catering industry doesn't have the same kind of boom as internet companies.

Otherwise, based on its financial statements showing a net profit of over 50 million yuan this year, it would be valued at several billion yuan in the internet industry.

The restaurant industry is clearly not making much progress.

She approached four or five venture capital firms, and after Chen Pingsheng made a private introduction, she easily raised the 4.5 million yuan.

The price is a 30% dilution of the shares.

He originally owned 49% of the shares, but after this round, his shareholding has dropped to 34%.

The key is that Boiling Sheep's financial report is indeed quite good. With such financial report support, the company can still achieve stable income while it is developing rapidly.

That proves that the management is very effective.

It has the potential for further development.

Even if it cannot be listed within the stipulated period, as long as it makes a profit and does not lose money.

They can easily endure a few more years.

As the saying goes, it's easier to make money if you don't lack it.

For those who are short of money, the capital market is quite selective.

Not to mention those that lose money; in the early stages, no internet company made a profit.

Tencent Pictures has not yet officially gone public, so its financial reports are not publicly disclosed.

But Tong Zhelan knew very well that Tencent's financial report this year would definitely not be bad.

There were quite a few projects invested in last year, and they will start to yield results this year.

Once Tencent Pictures embarks on its path to going public, this company will undoubtedly become Chen Pingsheng's most valuable corporate asset.

He took 90% of it all by himself.

The 5% payment given to Yang Mi and Zhao Liying will only need to be honored ten years later.

That means it will be 2024.

Once this company is worth tens of billions, then Chen Pingsheng will be considered a prominent figure in the capital market.

Even in this metropolis of Shanghai, its status is definitely not weak.

The investment in Bobo Milk Tea was an attempt at a quick-fix project.

The so-called "fast-track project" refers to a project that requires minimal investment, develops rapidly, and goes public quickly.

Once Bobo Milk Tea succeeds, Tong Zhelan suggests that Chen Pingsheng switch to making dry coffee.

The milk tea market is prone to overly fierce competition due to its low entry barriers.

A coffee shop is a high-barrier-to-entry business venture, and such ventures don't have many customers.

Most of them are elites or white-collar workers.

The most popular coffee shop in China right now is undoubtedly Starbucks.

A milk tea business might only be worth a few billion, but a coffee business would be worth at least tens of billions.

This is the difference.

Of course, this is a story.

We're just talking about the coffee market right now.

In fact, Tong Zhelan invested most in internet projects, but unfortunately Chen Pingsheng didn't work on any internet projects.

Even when I tried to persuade him to turn Shuiyunjian's door-to-door service into an internet project, he refused.

Then she wouldn't talk about the internet in front of him anymore.

Because Chen Pingsheng mainly focuses his energy on traditional industries, Bobo Milk Tea is just an attempt to enter the consumer market for young people.

It turns out that if he can sell fresh fruit well, he can also sell milk tea well.

There are not many industry barriers.

With Tencent's star resources, he can easily overcome these industry barriers.

Tong Zhelan found it quite interesting when he told her about separating Tengsheng Fresh Food into an independent entity.

It is clear.

Tengsheng Fruit, which has branches all over Beijing, will now focus on developing its own fruit supermarkets and community fruit stores.

The spun-off Tengsheng Fresh Food will focus on developing products such as chicken, duck, fish, meat, vegetables, and fruits.

Chen Pingsheng showed Tong Zhelan the financial statements of Tengsheng Fresh Food.

Tong Zhelan was startled.

Tengsheng Fresh's single-store turnover has been consistently above 200,000 yuan every day.

Even the lowest monthly sales for a single store are around seven million.

There is indeed a huge market for all categories of fresh produce.

The flow of people is extremely large.

It can almost completely drain the fruit shops and small vegetable shops within a one-kilometer radius.

The net profit margin of stores remained at around 5%.

According to this financial report, the profit of a single store is around five million a year.

You can recoup your investment in less than a year.

The bigger the investment, the bigger the return.

If Tengsheng Fruits hadn't wanted to develop its own fruit plantations, it wouldn't have separated this area for independent development.

It can only be said that there is indeed a huge market demand for fresh produce.

If we can do this well, things will definitely be good in the future.

Chen Pingsheng has just invested 100 million yuan and aims to open about 25 more stores in Beijing, so he is not short of money for the time being.

Therefore, there is no need to raise funds by diluting shares.

Even if Tong Zhelan wanted to invest in him, she would have to wait until he was short of money or wanted to raise funds.

This is a high-quality project!

He doesn't lack money at all, unless you can help him in some way.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have accepted your investment.

Good projects are always sought after by investors.

She felt it was a real pity.

As his fresh produce dried better and better, the costs for Boiling Sheep's business were reduced.

He also plans to cooperate with He Bijun to develop his own agricultural breeding base next year.

Specializing in agricultural breeding.

They contracted large amounts of wasteland in rural areas to raise organic vegetables and high-quality chickens, ducks, fish, and cattle.

I definitely won't do the cheapest kind; the profit margin is too low.

It's like some vegetables in the countryside; you work hard to grow them all year, but when the wholesalers come to quote prices the following year...

It was only a few cents per pound.

You could grow this vegetable until you die, and you still wouldn't get rich.

If they grow vegetables, they must be able to grow a single cabbage that can fetch twenty yuan per kilogram.

Just label it organic and all-natural, isn't that enough?

Rural people don't eat it, but wealthy city dwellers who value health and wellness prefer to eat this kind of high-end vegetable.

That's exactly what they're going to do.

Anyway, I would never grow anything that's too cheap.

He's now fully committed to developing agricultural projects, and these areas are bound to be entered sooner or later.

Anyway, we sell what we grow ourselves.

There's no such thing as not making money.

(End of this chapter)