The Birth of Shanghai's First Conglomerate

Chen Pingsheng stayed in Hong Kong for a full week.

The CEO training program ended in three days; the main focus was on attending private gatherings.

The first day's game with the bookmaker was alright, but he had absolutely no interest in it.

The next day, Hui Pi-pi also came to Hong Kong and specially held a top-level private party there.

There were quite a few female celebrities accompanying them, and the girls in the song and dance troupe were all incredibly beautiful.

Hengda has invested a lot in football in recent years, but apart from fattening up a bunch of poached chickens, it's hard to say what other significance it has.

He, along with Ma Ying-jeou and Wang Jianlin, have taken turns holding the title of the richest man in recent years.

To say he was full of vigor and ambition would be an understatement; his status in both the business and political spheres was far beyond what he had achieved.

Chen Pingsheng watched as an outsider observed how, despite his shrewd maneuvering, he ultimately couldn't escape the pursuit of money.

However, Xu, with his belt-like status, is very good at using his advantages. He will never ask you for money; instead, he will take the initiative to make you bring money to him.

Teacher Ma also spent over a billion yuan to buy half of Hengda Football's shares.

Xu was very good at dealing with people; he didn't even negotiate the price, letting Teacher Ma say whatever he wanted.

Football was just a pretext; what he really cared about wasn't Mr. Ma's billion-plus fortune.

Instead, they hoped he would invest in Hengda Real Estate, as this was the only way to maximize profits.

What a pity, Teacher Ma is such a wise person.

In an interview with reporters, he publicly stated that he would never invest in real estate.

Xu Pidao's face also darkened on the spot.

He heard about this when he visited Teacher Ma in Hangzhou.

The two chatted for quite a while in Hangzhou.

It's quite surprising that Xu Daipi also wants to enter the new energy field.

However, his visit this time was primarily for Hengda Property.

They plan to spin off the property management business from the real estate sector and establish a separate listed company.

Hui Pi is very influential in Hong Kong. With Lau Tai-hung protecting him, it wouldn't be difficult for him to obtain tens or hundreds of billions of dollars.

Chen Pingsheng refused to give a single penny.

She had no intention of getting closer to him, mainly because as his wealth increased, he naturally knew more and more things.

For example, the massive debt that outsiders are unaware of is simply an astronomical figure.

No matter how prosperous it appears on the surface, it cannot hide the fact that its debt ratio is too high.

This kind of thing either doesn't explode at all, or if it does, it's absolutely earthquake-level.

Aside from government intervention, there's absolutely no way any private company could take over this business.

Even the combined might of BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) isn't enough; that's how big the problem is.

With the development of the real estate industry to this point, it can only be said that nine out of ten companies are like this.

Only the real estate tycoons in Hong Kong have maintained the most stable path.

Chen Pingsheng left after having two drinks. He would have preferred to spend more time at home with his wife and children.

In mid-November, after returning to Shanghai, Tong Zhelan came to see him.

They also brought 300 million yuan to sign an investment agreement with him for Yateng Short Drama, which was just a small amount of money.

Chen Pingsheng didn't care much at all; what he cared about was what Tong Zhelan said later.

"Old Chen, it's confirmed. Xu Pidai is also looking to get into new energy, and his funding is at least twice that of yours."

Chen Pingsheng wasn't too surprised; even professors from top business schools were starting to say that the real estate market was about to reach a turning point.

Xu Daipi himself knew perfectly well what was going on!

He knew it was one thing, but whether he could land safely was another.

With such a large debt, it's not something the boss can just walk away from.

Investing in new energy now is undoubtedly a more aggressive approach, attempting to leverage another fulcrum to attract more funds to support the market.

To put it bluntly, it's just another way of making money by robbing Peter to pay Paul.

"Aren't there plenty of people wanting to get into manufacturing new energy vehicles these past two years? You didn't come all this way just to remind me of that, did you?"

"Can Belt Bro be like other people? He's the richest man in China, listed on the Forbes list."

Tong Zhelan said, "Among all the current new energy companies, your Tengfei is undoubtedly the one with the most cash investment. More investment also means more risk. Of course, if it really succeeds, the benefits in the later stages will be incomparable to those companies that rely on OEM production."

"I really didn't expect that you would invest 50 billion in this all by yourself. I have to say that you took a bit too risky this time. But considering that your company has never been in debt, you are qualified to take this risk. The only pity is that your investment is too high, so high that we dare not take the risk with you."

"It's not bad."

Chen Pingsheng said calmly, "The main thing is that building cars is a complicated matter. I don't want to be influenced by others. I want to invest my own money and do whatever I want. Xu Pidai has done a lot of side businesses in recent years besides real estate. How many of them have he succeeded in?"

"That's true."

Tong Zhelan only reminded him that Xu Pidai really wanted to come in and build cars.

That means there's a formidable new energy competitor.

Little did he know that Chen Pingsheng didn't consider Belt Bro a rival at all.

In his view, the future of this industry will only have two competitors.

One is Tesla, which has not yet entered the Chinese market, and the other is Huawei.

Huawei's R&D capabilities are beyond doubt, and once it enters the field of new energy vehicle manufacturing, it will inevitably affect the entire industry landscape.

As for Tesla, it goes without saying that it is the world's leading player in the new energy vehicle market.

Aside from these two, only BYD is worth noting.

The reason he invested 50 billion yuan in the first year to establish eight research institutes was that

This is mainly to prepare for future competition from these three companies.

It can be said that he planned quite far ahead, and he never regarded the new forces of Internet car manufacturing as his opponents.

Not to mention Xu Pidao, who sells houses. Tong Zhelan saw that he was quite confident, so she didn't bother to say anything more.

Hearing that he invested 2.5 billion yuan in Meituan and got a 2% stake was quite astonishing.

He has invested in a total of three internet companies so far.

One is Pinduoduo, another is Meituan, and the third is Guazi Used Cars.

Investing is a rather tedious and boring business, and Chen Pingsheng didn't put much effort into it.

If you see someone suitable, invest in them; if you're not familiar with them at all, don't bother looking for them.

He definitely won't vote.

……

Tong Zhelan spent the morning here, and it's clear that Tengying Group is becoming increasingly powerful.

Besides its main business of entertainment, it has also made great strides in various investments.

No wonder Old Chen could ignore Xu Pidai so easily; he really has the power to back it up.

Besides investing 300 million yuan in Yateng Short Drama, the main reason she came here was to see if his new energy vehicle manufacturing sector needed to attract funds.

That is, to raise one or two hundred billion yuan from the capital market.

It's obvious that Chen Pingsheng doesn't need it at all right now.

Moreover, at this time, Tengfei New Energy's valuation simply cannot rise.

Even the 50 billion he invested might not come to fruition.

After Tong Zhelan left, Chen Pingsheng summoned his busty secretary, Zhang Wanyi, and instructed her to draft an investment contract.

Tencent Entertainment also invested 200 million RMB in cash to acquire a 20% stake in Yateng Short Drama.

With Tong Zhelan's 300 million yuan investment preceding it, the valuation of Yateng Short Drama is definitely 1 billion yuan.

The main reason for having Tencent Video Entertainment invest is to leverage the high revenue of Tencent Video's short dramas to propel Tencent Video Entertainment's market value to the hundreds of billions level.

Only in this way can his personal gains be maximized.

After all, the increase in revenue following the rise in stock price can easily be in the tens or hundreds of billions.

To date, the total investment in Yateng Short Drama from its inception to completion is only 30 million yuan.

Through these two rounds of financing, he also received a random increase of 4.7 million yuan.

Chen Pingsheng started rolling the dice again, but his luck was so bad that he rolled a small two.

940 million yuan was deposited into his bank account, while his wife received 500 million yuan of her initial investment.

The small wallet that had been emptied due to investing in Meituan is now bulging again.

good mood.

"Wanyi, show me the income that the art school students earned from filming short dramas."

Short dramas are very profitable, even more so than TV dramas.

This not only shocked the entire entertainment industry, but even he himself was deeply surprised.

Zhang Wanyi showed him a financial statement.

The cost of investing in and producing a short drama series is approximately one million.

The director's salary is the highest, followed by the salaries of professional editors and screenwriters.

In the realm of television dramas, the income of the lead actor accounts for the majority of the total cost, while in short dramas, it accounts for less than 10% of the total cost.

It's not just one or two main characters, but all the actors in the short drama combined earn less than 100,000 yuan.

In terms of cost control, short dramas have a huge advantage over TV dramas.

The biggest investment required to make a short drama profitable is still internet traffic generation.

For example, placing short dramas on the top pages of the three major video websites, or advertising them on Douyin and Kuaishou.

This is the highest cost.

It should account for roughly 20% to 30% of total income.

Even after deducting all costs, a short drama can still maintain a net income of over 50%.

The main problem was that the filming cost was too low.

Compared to TV dramas, which often require investments of hundreds of millions of yuan, the investment in short dramas is negligible.

From a financial perspective, YATeng Short Drama is undoubtedly a great success.

He has truly created yet another cash cow.

“Let’s increase the profit-sharing ratio for core personnel. Take out 10%, and you can draft the specific details of the profit-sharing ratio.”

Chen Pingsheng set the financial statement aside because he wanted to allocate a certain percentage of the profits as dividends.

The main point is to maintain his consistent business philosophy: let's all make money together.

For example, of the five short dramas that have been released so far, one of the female leads has acted in three of them.

Their total income is less than 50,000.

She must have been very excited, since the art school mainly recruited girls from rural areas.

Not only can they receive a fixed monthly salary of three thousand, but they can also earn tens of thousands a month by shooting short dramas.

Anyone would be unhappy in this situation!

However, her income is just a drop in the ocean compared to what their company earns.

Even if out of 10%, she, as the female lead, only gets 1% of the share.

That's a million or two in cash, which is far beyond what her meager salary could ever amount to.

He can't make a fortune while others can't even get a sip of soup.

That is not in the long-term interest at all.

(End of this chapter)