The Birth of Shanghai's First Conglomerate

Muddy Waters shorts Deer Antler Coffee.

Faced with short-selling giants, this Chinese company was utterly powerless, and its stock price plummeted.

US media used a lot of fancy words to report on this short-selling incident.

Countless local retail investors gritted their teeth, once again suffering a bloodbath at the hands of Wall Street short-selling giants.

Individual investors cannot borrow shares from investment institutions to short sell if they cannot provide sufficient proof of assets or a guarantor for the loan.

Every time they encounter a short-selling giant, they are the ones who actually suffer the biggest losses.

Chen Pingsheng listed his newly purchased single-story headquarters building under the name of Tenghui Capital.

It mainly involves investment and stock trading.

In addition to the team he brought with him, he also advertised and hired some graduates from prestigious universities.

He mainly interacts with international students, since he himself doesn't speak foreign languages, so it's much easier for him to communicate with international students from China.

Very few people who have studied in the US are willing to return to China to find a job.

Unless your parents have a business to inherit.

Working five days on and two days off, an eight-hour workday, and still getting a high salary—in mainland China, you'd probably only be able to do that by taking the civil service exam.

In just a few days, he also set up a North American branch on Wall Street.

Tong Zhelan often came up and asked for his opinion on the Muddy Waters short selling, but Chen Pingsheng's opinion was that he had no opinion.

Tong Zhelan immediately understood. No wonder Hong Kong kept releasing trivial news without making any clarifications.

It turns out that Chen Pingsheng himself was also plotting to plunder retail investors.

Alright, let Muddy Waters drive down the stock price then.

When the stock price of Deer Antler Coffee falls below the issue price, she plans to spend several hundred million to buy some back.

Deer Antler Coffee has developed very well in the country, and now it mainly focuses on the global market.

They plan to open stores in several other developed countries simultaneously, which is probably to compete with Starbucks.

Chen Pingsheng was checking international news in his CEO office, and taking the opportunity to learn about English Premier League clubs.

To be fair, football is still very appealing.

The best way to make a brand quickly become known worldwide is to directly acquire a Premier League club.

But that thing is incredibly expensive; only the truly wealthy can afford it.

Chen Pingsheng had an even more far-reaching idea: could he try to acquire a Premier League club and then select some outstanding young football players from China to train?

Only by bypassing the domestic football system and starting training directly from abroad can Chinese football have any hope of rising again.

This is the same path that Lao Wang once walked, and it turns out that he was right.

The only pity is that I shouldn't have played ball domestically.

Chen Pingsheng had already discussed his idea of ​​buying a Premier League club with Tong Zhelan, since established, prestigious clubs are generally not for sale.

It's different for those non-elite clubs. If a player from one of them is even slightly talented, he will immediately be bought by the top clubs.

You absolutely cannot play football if you don't have money.

He is also prepared to spend several billion to buy a Premier League club as a long-term investment.

After all, that guy Ali bought an NBA team.

Tong Zhelan asked around for advice and actually found a suitable Premier League club.

That is Leicester, located in England.

Last year, this team miraculously won the Premier League title two rounds early.

Afterwards, those star players were quickly bought up by major established clubs.

Of course, this is also the most profitable way for clubs to make money, as star player transfers often require paying high transfer fees.

The owner of Leicester City is also of Asian nationality.

His successful management of Leicester City has led to a rapid increase in his personal wealth in just a few years.

It reached approximately two billion US dollars.

Net worth encompasses many things, including the value of shares, the value of a business, and personal assets.

A boss with a net worth of two billion cannot possibly build a top-tier club.

Didn't you see that right after winning the championship, Leicester City's star players were immediately bought out?

Kante and Drinkwater were both bought by Chelsea, while Mahrez was sold to Manchester City.

It's normal for many players to want to join top clubs.

Tong Zhelan had only contacted the owner who was willing to sell; the specific price and other details still needed to be negotiated.

"Old Chen, with your wealth, you could totally start a top-tier club!"

A top-tier club means spending money like crazy to buy things everywhere.

The transfer fee for a top-quality player is usually no less than 30 million pounds.

As for those top-tier stars, it's obviously even more outrageous, easily reaching 500 to 600 million RMB.

It's simply impossible to build a top-tier club without investing tens or hundreds of billions of dollars.

"Let's put that aside for now. The key is to buy the club first."

"alright."

Tong Zhelan said, "I'll have my team go and make contact. Anyway, you're not short of money. Once you've built a top-tier club, it will be a huge help to Deer Antler Coffee's global expansion!"

This is significant not only to Deer Antler Coffee, but also to the entire Tengying Group.

This means that he is about to officially step from the domestic market into the global market.

Negotiations are nothing more than a matter of price.

Leicester City's owners have made hundreds of millions of dollars from the club over the years, and they just won the league title last year.

This is when the team's offer is at its highest.

Unfortunately, half of the star players on his team transferred out.

The current offer is £2.5 million.

In 14, its club was valued at only £3900 million.

It rose to £1 million in 16 years.

Now they're offering a price of £2.5 million, which is equivalent to 23 billion RMB.

The price is acceptable, but Tong Zhelan suggests we discuss it further.

To be honest, Leicester City isn't worth that much money after losing Kanté and the likes.

Chen Pingsheng didn't hesitate much and chose to sign the contract.

He flew directly from New York to England on his own private plane.

With his current abilities, he is capable of supporting a semi-top-tier elite club.

On the day of the signing, important financial news and football news were also released.

Chen Pingsheng didn't need a loan, so there was no need for him to hesitate or fuss.

They acquired absolute control of the club by paying all payments in US dollars.

He didn't touch the club's management team, after all, he considered himself a complete novice.

just.

He also offered his own financial encouragement.

After all, with a new boss in charge, it's bound to make a splash.

His rules were very simple, and in the following 17-18 years of the English Premier League.

Whoever scores a goal will be awarded 10 million RMB.

In addition, if a team can make it into the top three, the management team will split the 100 million yuan bonus.

The teams will split the 100 million yuan equally.

He learned this from Xu Pi, who believed that a generous reward would surely bring forth brave men.

Besides.

He also announced that he would allocate £4.5 billion to build a super stadium in England.

To put it bluntly, he doesn't lack money now; what he lacks is global influence.

And a brand channel that allows his brands to quickly go global.

Compared to the money he wants to earn, the money invested in the club is nothing.

Tong Zhelan knew him well enough to know that he would shower the country with gold coins once he arrived.

Compared to Leicester City's former owner, Chen Pingsheng's net worth is significantly higher.

Besides rewarding players for scoring goals, the fastest way to improve performance quickly is undoubtedly to buy some top stars from other clubs at high prices.

Every club has scouts, and Leicester City is no exception.

In other words, it involves analyzing other clubs to identify potential winners.

Of course, you need to have real talent to buy established star players.

In the past, Leicester City's combined valuation wouldn't have been enough to pay for Cristiano Ronaldo's transfer fee.

Things are different now. Now that Chen Pingsheng has entered the football field, he is bound to invest heavily.

You can't do a good job in football with small-scale, half-hearted efforts.

He instructed Charlie, the club's scouting expert, to boldly seek out top stars.

Price is not an issue.

After the team changed hands, the new owner exudes an air of nouveau riche wealth.

Most importantly, he doesn't interfere with team management at all.

Just like with group management, professional tasks are left to professionals. Compared to buying teams domestically, his decision to directly buy a Premier League club is far more impressive.

Various news stories emerged in China, but Chen Pingsheng ignored them.

He's made this trip, first spending $1.2 million to buy the headquarters in Manhattan, then spending £2.5 million to buy Leicester City Football Club, and now spending £45 billion to build a super stadium in England.

This can be considered as the initial completion of capital expansion in overseas markets.

He stayed at the club for three days, and Charlie, the club's talent scout, actually offered to poach a young French player, Mbappe.

Mbappe played for the French national team at last year's European Championship.

Unfortunately, he missed his penalty in the shootout, becoming the first player in that European Championship to miss a penalty in a shootout.

It was just a small mistake, but it cannot overshadow the brilliance of this young French player.

Charlie believes their club desperately needs a fast and aggressive center forward like him.

Chen Pingsheng didn't have many objections and told him to go ahead and talk.

Mbappé can hardly be considered a famous star; at best, he's a promising talent with great potential.

At this point, negotiating a transfer won't cost much money at all.

Because of his penalty kick miss, the club couldn't offer him a high price.

Sure enough, the price quote came out in just two days.

The Monaco Football Club youth team has demanded a staggering £50 million transfer fee.

Chen Pingsheng didn't hesitate for long and agreed immediately.

It would be meaningless for him if he couldn't build a world-class powerhouse club.

Charlie was incredibly excited; his new boss was so generous!

They wouldn't even blink an eye at tens of millions of pounds.

Mbappe is still a young player and cannot directly enhance Leicester City's global profile.

Charlie also suggested buying a world-renowned football star.

That's Tintin, Kevin De Bruyne.

This one will be hard to buy, firstly because he has a very high reputation.

The second reason is that his club is the powerhouse Manchester City.

To buy a player from a football club that has plenty of money, you would undoubtedly have to pay an extremely high transfer fee.

In July 2015, De Bruyne was named German Footballer of the Year.

In August of the same year, De Bruyne joined Manchester City Football Club for a base transfer fee of €74 million.

He wants to buy it, but he'll have to pay at least 100 million euros.

Of course, if Leicester City can acquire this Ballon d'Or winner, their influence will rise three levels.

Chen Pingsheng tapped the table and thought for a moment, but ultimately decided to spend the money.

A club without top-tier stars is significantly less influential.

What Leicester City lacks is top-tier star players.

One hundred million euros is less than eight hundred million RMB, which he can still afford.

To be honest, he also wanted to buy Cristiano Ronaldo.

The main reason is his immense influence in China and the world.

With him on the team, Leicester City has no trouble selling tickets.

This player's transfer fee will undoubtedly be higher, estimated to be at least 100 million euros.

Besides transfer fees, annual salary is also a major issue.

If too many top-tier stars are poached at once, the team's valuation will definitely rise rapidly, and the team's losses will also be immeasurable.

Team valuations are incredibly unreliable.

If you don't think about selling it, it's something you can't cash out.

However, the cash payments made were real.

He's already poached a center, so he also needs to consider excellent players for other positions.

After all, football is a team sport.

Running a football club means money just keeps flowing out of the club.

Hopefully, spending so much money will yield good results.

That's all Chen Pingsheng could wish for; his Tengfei New Energy Vehicles are expected to go into mass production in 19.

So far, they haven't done any advertising.

Let's start with this football club, first establish our reputation abroad, and then return to China as a globally renowned brand.

The brand value must immediately become high-end and sophisticated.

This is why he was willing to spend a lot of money to acquire a football club.

Who isn't ultimately aiming for commercial success?
Chen Pingsheng also pointed out that he would use Leicester City to transform his Tengfei New Energy Vehicles into a globally renowned car brand.

However, he also wants to acquire a well-known new energy vehicle manufacturer in the United States.

It's not because its cars are so good, but mainly because it possesses the new energy chassis technology that it desperately desires.

Once the amount of capital reaches a certain level, acquisitions will undoubtedly be the fastest way to expand technologically.

This needs to be done gradually; let's focus on running the club well first.

Mbappe has been acquired, but negotiations with De Bruyne are still ongoing, and there probably won't be much news for a while.

After all, Manchester United is a top club, and those clubs that can be called top clubs are naturally not short of money.

We can also make contact with Cristiano Ronaldo; we only need to acquire one of them.

Therefore, he would have to pay at least 600 to 700 million RMB in transfer fees.

This is all small money.

Chen Pingsheng established a Leicester City development fund in England and invested US$15 billion into it in one go.

Whether it's the 45 billion RMB spent on building the super stadium or the 2.5 million pounds spent on acquiring the club.

And the £50 million transfer fee for acquiring Mbappe is also included in this.

Later on, it also included buying De Bruyne and Cristiano Ronaldo, and the club paying salaries.

All of these funds were provided by this foundation.

He didn't have time to stay in England for long, so he hired a professional investor to manage things here.

The controlling shareholder of Leicester City Fund is still Teng Hui Capital, located in the North American branch.

Chen Pingsheng returned to Shanghai with Tong Zhelan on his private jet near the end of February.

Dark clouds were gathering outside, clearly indicating that a heavy rain was about to fall.

Chen Pingsheng frowned. "Things aren't peaceful these days."

"You said that in such a sarcastic way, are you implying something?"

Tong Zhelan asked him with a strange laugh.

"It was indeed pointed at."

Chen Pingsheng put down the curtain in his hand. "I felt uneasy after returning from Manhattan this time. Our country is undergoing a major transformation in its economy. If we continue to develop like this for a few more years, it will inevitably lead to huge industrial conflicts with New York."

"You can see it too."

Tong Zhelan said: "Actually, since the reform and opening up in the 1980s, our area has been a complete industrial chain cluster, doing everything."

"But everything they did was relatively low-end. In the 1990s, they proposed exchanging market access for technology, which attracted a large number of joint ventures, but the technology was still truly in the hands of those developed countries."

"The country is now vigorously developing new energy sources, supporting technological entrepreneurship, and strongly advocating that enterprises conduct their own research and development. The purpose of this is to seek overall industrial upgrading."

"The shift from low-end manufacturing to high-end technology industries is precisely the biggest advantage of the United States and other developed countries."

"You think it can just sit back and watch us steadily make our way into the high-end market, and then go and steal their business?"

"really."

Before 2010, China was known as the world's manufacturing hub.

The so-called contract manufacturers are basically those that use cheap labor to pick up leftovers.

The real bulk of the profits are mostly taken by large companies that possess the technology or core technologies.

They are responsible for the technology and design.

We are responsible for the contract manufacturing, and then we vigorously promote these products to the domestic market.

The profit-sharing ratio has always been 10% for us and 90% for others.

This cannot continue indefinitely.

Chen Pingsheng said, "If we try every means to break through, others will inevitably surround and block us. This is a contradiction in itself."

"The key is that we have the world's largest consumer market. Domestic demand alone can support a number of core technology companies with a market value of over 100 billion US dollars. This will make everyone very vigilant."

For Chen Pingsheng, investing in a football club was clearly not as nerve-wracking as this kind of big trend.

Whether a $15 billion investment in football can be successful depends entirely on luck.

Compared to the overall trend, football is merely an inspiring sport.

To become a moderately successful businessman, all you need is a bit of luck and a keen eye.

Chen Pingsheng felt that the battle between the two strong forces might not be long before it began.

This is bound to affect the entire global economy, as well as the future economic situation in the country.

This is what he should really be paying attention to.

(End of this chapter)