The Birth of Shanghai's First Conglomerate

April spring, rainy season.

The temperature was also rather humid, and there was a faint smell of rain in the air.

Chen Pingsheng drove his newly bought Aston Martin home; he hadn't driven such a sports car in a long time.

Compared to Ferrari and Lamborghini, Aston Martin is clearly more comfortable.

The lower a sports car is, the less comfortable it is to drive.

Of course, the higher the price, the better.

He doesn't really like driving those super low-slung sports cars anymore, and as a result, his wife only likes driving Bentley supercars.

The house is still as noisy as ever. With two kids, how can life not be lively?

My little girl is almost three years old, and she still prefers to wear overalls.

Her face was still a bit chubby, and her legs were thick and short. When she ran with small steps, her face was still plump.

"Baba!"

"Xiaoxinyi, did you memorize the Three Hundred Tang Poems today?"

"Yes, I can recite 'The Moonlight Before My Bed' backwards now."

She said she was reciting it backwards, and she really was reciting it backwards.

Chen Pingsheng held the adorable little girl in his arms; her older sister was about to start fourth grade.

They also need to be nine years old, which is the age when even dogs would dislike their naughtiness.

"You're really amazing, much better than your sister."

"is it?"

The little girl tilted her head and fantasized, "Doesn't my sister always get a perfect score?"
She's even more amazing; she doesn't have to get 101 when she grows up.

"Daddy, my sister says I'm not very smart."

He pinched her little nose, and Song Yanxi came over to call him. The two went upstairs to discuss something.

Song Jun's girlfriend, Zhang Sitong, only mentioned it briefly. The main concern was that Song Yanxi was worried about the little girl's education when she grew up.

Little Pipi has never had a concept of money since she was little; she buys whatever she likes whenever she goes out.

They don't even look at the price.

That's secondary; the main problem is that she's too far removed from ordinary people.

This is not conducive to developing sound values.

The big kid's grades aren't good, but that's not a problem.

Chen Pingsheng said, "You don't need to worry too much. When she gets a little older, I plan to take them to work on the farm for two months every summer."

"Do you have the time? The company is already so big."

"No matter how busy you are, you still have to make time to be with your children as they grow up."

Chen Pingsheng helped her lie comfortably on the sofa. "You know, we work so hard to earn money so that our children can have a good future and won't have to worry about money like we did when we were young. If we neglect their growth after we have money, we might regret it when we get old."

Song Yanxi thought about it and realized that some things are just like that after becoming a parent.

Many things should be considered from the child's perspective.

When they get old, if their children are not raised well enough, then no amount of money can make up for it.

“Honey, if our unborn child is a boy, I want to send him to be raised in the countryside.”

"Rural area?"

Chen Pingsheng understood what she meant perfectly well; they were both raised in the countryside.

Despite its many drawbacks, the countryside still holds some significance for a child's childhood.

Especially families like theirs.

"No rush. We'll wait until the baby is at least a year old before we talk about it."

Song Yanxi nodded. "Honey, your self-built Tengying Town, including the land purchase, must have cost over 20 billion yuan, right?"

“Yes,” Chen Pingsheng said, “There’s nothing we can do about it. Housing prices in the city center are getting higher and higher. Last year, you could still buy a house in a good location for an average price of 150,000 yuan, but that’s not the case this year. Tomson Riviera and those other good neighborhoods have already broken the 200,000 yuan per square meter mark.”

"Many people in our group earn a million yuan a year, which seems like a good income. But when you ask them about their actual situation, they all have more than ten million yuan in debt, which easily exceeds twenty million yuan with interest."

“If our group can continue to be this stable, their loan repayments will naturally not be a problem. But if our group encounters some problems, such as unstable operations and forced salary reductions, do you think these mortgages could crush a large number of high-income people?”

"We should be prepared for unforeseen circumstances. Perhaps we should move our headquarters to the suburbs where housing prices are lower."

Song Yanxi thought about it and agreed; housing prices are a problem for ordinary people, let alone ordinary people.

Even the wealthy at this stage feel that the bubble has become outrageously large.

An annual salary of one million is definitely the mark of a top-tier worker.

Yet, one still has to toil away for most of one's life for a simple, square set of reinforced concrete, without eating or drinking.

This is too scary.

Even for the sake of its employees, a good company should prioritize choosing the most livable location.

After all, when employees buy a house, their first consideration is still proximity to home.

Not to mention his side, even Huawei, which he knew, moved to Songshan Lake in Dongguan City because of high housing prices.

Staying away from high housing prices is not just a choice for ordinary people.

Even mega-corporations like theirs face this same choice.

“I went there and saw that if we build apartments on the entire 180 acres of land, we can probably build 18 buildings, which can house 15,000 to 20,000 people without much problem. If our family has the ability in the second half of the year, I would like to bid for an even larger residential land there and build our own high-end Tengying community, which can at least house 10,000 people!”
"To better attract talent in the future, we must first address their concerns about their future."

Chen Pingsheng thought about it and realized that there were more and more places to spend money at home.

He certainly wouldn't give the houses he built to his employees for free; he would just sell them to them at cost price.

Installment payments are also an option, but without the need for loan interest.

That would solve the housing needs of tens of thousands of people. If word got out, their family would be recognized as a truly benevolent family.

A boss's kindness is simply providing employees with a decent job and a considerable income.

Ideally, their basic survival needs could also be met; this would actually make most employees quite satisfied.

The construction of Tengying Town is still in the planning stage.

Detailed drawings from an architectural design firm are required before a state-owned infrastructure unit can be formally invited to undertake the construction.

To this end, Chen Pingsheng specifically secured a special construction fund for the Tengying Town.

The first batch of funds invested amounted to nine billion, including six billion from the increase provided by his "golden finger" master.

This also includes his initial investment of 3 billion.

With this 9 billion yuan in funding, all work is progressing at an accelerated pace.

On April 12th, Tengying Group officially held an investment promotion and design conference for Tengying Town in Shanghai.

During this period, a total of 39 top design firms from home and abroad came and competed for the design contract of Tengying Town.

Some have proposed building a future city, with everything based on science fiction.

Some have suggested building a European-style town, adopting the style of a European-style street, and creating a top-notch design that includes European castles and European towns.

This plan has garnered widespread approval.

The suggestion was made by one of the top design firms abroad.

The advantage of European towns is that they are particularly beautiful and impressive, but the disadvantage is that they reduce the space available for headquarters.

It could originally accommodate 50,000 people, but because it was built in a European style, it can only accommodate about 20,000 people working online at the same time.

There was another representative whose identity was quite special.

Zhang Sitong, representing their design firm, actually spoke in such a high-level circle.

She herself was extremely surprised, but her boss had specifically brought her along alone.

The main reason for this is definitely because Song Yanxi invited her to her home for a meal alone.

Zhang Sitong's design proposal is also quite simple, titled "Shangri-La in the City".

Her design didn't take into account the funding issues of the Tengying Group at all; the main plan was simply to use those 700 acres of land.

By combining modern technology with natural scenery, and through the extensive transplantation of famous mountains and trees from both domestic and international locations, Tengying Town will be transformed into an excellent destination integrating modern offices, leisure, and tranquility.

The area in this plan that most needs funding is not the trees on the periphery at all.

Instead, each headquarters building will combine the styles of modern buildings with those of a primeval forest.

This requires cultivating all sorts of famous flowers and trees inside the building.

The project's expected funding is between 180 billion and 240 billion.

This does not include any land purchase costs.

In other words, to build such a modern forest as a headquarters in the city would require at least 280 billion to 300 billion yuan.

Undoubtedly, this is an extremely exaggerated number.

Ultimately, the only person in the group who can make the final decision is Chen Pingsheng himself.

It must be said that her plan has no drawbacks other than being expensive.

Who wouldn't want to enjoy some natural scenery and experience the raw charm of nature while working?

After listening to everyone's reports, Chu Qiuyan, Yang Qian, Chang Fu, and Gao Hu unanimously agreed.

We'll still use the design from Zhang Sitong's family.

When the final decision was made, Zhang Sitong felt like she was dreaming.

Of course, she didn't come up with this solution by herself.

She didn't have that ability either. This plan was finally discussed and finalized by their boss and all the firm's capable staff over ten days.

It was also because he knew that Tengying Town had plans to transplant a large number of oak trees into Tengying headquarters.

This led to the ingenious idea of ​​a modern forest town.

Of course, he must have taken a huge risk.

Because everyone knows that the goal is to create a perfect natural landscape inside a modern headquarters building.

That's basically burning money.

Every second is burning through huge amounts of money.

As a top designer, who wouldn't want to take on such a design project?

In the future, whenever someone visits Tengying Town, everyone will think of their design firm.

It also allows you to make a name for yourself in the design community.

The headquarters town, built at a cost of tens of billions of yuan, is destined to become famous in the industry with its design.

It will also make countless people scramble to grab it.

When Zhang Sitong got home that evening, the whole company was holding a celebration party for her.

At that moment, all she wanted to do was cry.

They also felt more deeply the boundless influence that wealthy families have on ordinary people like them.

For Tengying Group, this was only a preliminary approved design proposal.

For architects like them, it is indeed a great honor to leave their mark on history within the renowned domestic architectural circles.

This is what a wealthy family is like.

Their every word, action, and expression can evoke endless sorrow and tears in ordinary people's lives.

Such a large design project naturally cannot be completed by one or two people.

For the next few months, their entire design firm will be busy with the Tengying Future Town project.

As for Zhang Sitong herself, she received a bonus of five million yuan.

It was because she provided inside information about the oak tree transplantation that the boss was able to propose the forest design.

Therefore, design solutions at their level are mostly comparable.

There are basically no people who are significantly better than others.

The key is who can design something that better suits the boss's mindset.

The design fee of 1.8 million yuan also brings fame in the entire design industry.

This is undoubtedly a super order.

……

The initial plan was determined, but it still required several months of effort from a group of people.

Only then can the final design scheme be determined.

It is estimated that it will take another two years from the start of construction to its complete completion.

This is the effect of having plenty of money. If money were scarce, the project would start and stop frequently, and there would be no specific date.

The expectation of over 25 billion also exceeded everyone's imagination.

Everyone is quite looking forward to it and pinning their hopes on the day they move to the new headquarters.

As for Chen Pingsheng himself, after selling 25% of the listed shares of Ling Shi Kuai Pao.

Of all the listed companies, he currently holds the largest stake in Tencent Entertainment.

There's still 40%.

Based on the current valuation, it's probably still worth 500 billion.

In addition, Teng Hui Department Store also holds a 24% stake.

The remaining companies, such as Deer Antler Coffee, Bobo Milk Tea, and Boiling Sheep, have already completed their IPOs and cashed out.

Only the last 5% remains.

The need for money came quickly and suddenly, so Chen Pingsheng asked Tong Zhelan to find buyers in Hong Kong.

They hope to sell 19% of Teng Hui Department Store's shares to raise 3 billion yuan.

The current stock price of Teng Hui is 220 billion.

His private search for investors to take over the company naturally led to a 20% discount on the stock price.

Teng Hui Department Store doesn't have many hypermarkets, but its strength lies in its stable operation, with all storefronts being self-owned.

Stable assets are what people in Hong Kong like the most.

No matter how the hypermarket industry changes in the future, this will remain very stable.

In particular, they have now bought four super storefronts in Hong Kong and built four Teng Hui hypermarkets.

Valuing one-fifth of the shares for 3 billion is not too high.

Ultimately, someone else took over; Guo Ziyi wanted to buy his 19% stake.

However, there is one additional condition: they also want to purchase 10% of Xinteng Live's shares.

With the rise of short videos, Tenghui Department Store has another major advantage.

That is, they partnered with Xin Teng Live, which accounts for half of Kuaishou's business, to establish Global Selection.

Online channels can comprehensively solve the problems of offline inventory and offline sales.

The combination of these two factors is the main reason why Teng Hui Department Store's valuation exceeds 20 billion yuan.

After all, its commercial assets have been spun off into Tengchao Commercial Management.

Chen Pingsheng thought about it and agreed.

Actually, there is another important reason: Xin Teng Live is already on the path to going public.

If successful, Guo Ziyi's investment will yield a very high return.

Teng Hui Department Store's 19% stake, plus Xin Teng Live's 10%.

The two together are valued at four billion RMB.

Since these shares are held by Teng Hui Capital, the transaction naturally has to take place in Hong Kong.

He also rushed to Hong Kong to prepare for the signing ceremony.

(End of this chapter)