The Birth of Shanghai's First Conglomerate

Chapter 673 Transfer and Acquisition

There are two main reasons why Boiling Sheep suffered losses.

One reason is the high salaries of employees, and the other is mainly market factors.

In the very early days, food delivery apps did indeed solve some of the customer flow problems for the catering industry.

However, over time, especially after food delivery apps have undergone initial capital expansion and consolidation, eventually forming a monopoly, things have changed.

The golden age for the catering industry is basically over.

No matter how big the store is, you'll find an amazing fact: the big store next door can serve a three-person set meal with two meat dishes and one vegetable dish for only 70 or 80 yuan.

The entire industry has fallen into a frenzied state of involution.

In its early days, Boiling Sheep relied on high cost-effectiveness to start its business. Now, however, rent is getting higher and higher while wages are not decreasing, in addition to the well-known three-year illness.

Over four years, Chen Pingsheng personally contributed more than 2 billion yuan in losses to this company.

It can be said that he has done everything he could, and his personal shareholding has increased from 5% to 30%.

The market value of Boiling Sheep is only about six billion yuan, which is the same as when it was first listed.

In the entire catering industry, apart from Haidilao, which relies on its special service to generate high customer prices, there are only a few exceptions.

Other large companies are facing almost the same problem: heavy losses.

What he needs to do now is find a new buyer for Boiling Sheep. After learning that Tengying Group was going to sell Boiling Sheep, Gao Hu came over immediately, bringing Chang Fu with him.

He spoke earnestly, hoping to be given another chance to take over the reins of Boiling Sheep.

As for selling it to him, no matter how much Gao Hu wants it, he doesn't have the capability. After all, the market value of Boiling Sheep is what it is, and it still has more than a thousand directly operated stores.

It can only go as low as this.

Chang Fu said, "Old Chen, Fei Yangyang was built up by Gao Hu and you through hard work. It's been so many years. If he wants to take it back, you can give him a chance."

"Let's settle accounts clearly first, even if we're brothers."

Chen Pingsheng said, "You are well aware of the net losses that Boiling Sheep has suffered in the past few years. Although I am currently distracted and unable to take care of things there, if Gao Hu wants to take over, he will need to prepare at least four or five hundred million in working capital. Otherwise, how will he make up for the losses?"

It's a very real problem: if your boss can't come up with the money when the company is losing money, it will definitely cause a huge mess.

If employees don't receive their wages for more than three months, they will definitely cause trouble.

The reason why Boiling Sheep has been safe and sound all this time is mainly because he has enough funds to cover the loophole.

But Qian Gaohu doesn't have this money, so how can he catch Fei Yangyang?

It's impossible to expect him to subsidize 400-500 million yuan every year; that's unrealistic for any boss.

Chang Fu thought about it and realized that this was indeed the most difficult part for Gao Hu. It was obvious that Chen Pingsheng no longer wanted to spend money to subsidize Fei Yangyang.

His method was simple: package up Boiling Sheep and sell it to other catering giants.

Gao Hu's current idea is to contract independently and be responsible for his own profits and losses. Since things are already like this, it shouldn't be a big problem for him to take over the contract.

The key issue is that he can't afford to pay that amount of loss.

Even the best relationships wouldn't work without at least 700-800 million in cash.

Chang Fu himself was willing but unable. He did have money, but it was impossible for him to come up with so much money to guarantee Gao Hu's loan.

His wife, Yang Qian, would definitely not agree.

For Gao Hu, all sorts of regrets came rushing in. The most glorious moment of his life was definitely not when he was a live streamer.

Rather, it was the moment when Boiling Sheep went public that made it the brightest star in the entire catering industry.

This is not just about financial freedom, but also about a sentiment that a man can never forget.

Unfortunately, he missed his chance.

No money is no money, and no matter how much you want to take over Boiling Sheep, it's impossible.

Chen Pingsheng continued to seek buyers, or rather, partners, from the outside world, as always.

Buyers can either acquire the entire company as a package deal or purchase a large number of shares.

Acquiring a listed company outright is no easy feat; one must possess exceptional strength.

Before he could find a suitable buyer for Boiling Sheep, Old Wang called again.

Wanda Commercial Management failed its third attempt to go public. Due to the failure of the IPO, the money that Wanda had initially received as part of a performance-based agreement had to be repurchased with interest.

This was already stipulated in the financing agreement.

If the IPO is successful, everyone will be happy. But if the IPO fails, Lao Wang will have to foot the bill for all the capital.

It's a very real situation; Old Wang has undoubtedly failed this time.

The once-glorious richest man in China has also begun to look haggard, and his son has started to settle down and live a quiet life.

His legend may still linger in the martial arts world, but he is certainly not the most glamorous one anymore.

A renowned entrepreneur is about to officially retire from the historical stage.

Wanda, the world's most famous urban complex, is destined to find a new buyer.

There aren't many companies in China that dare to directly offer 1200 billion and can readily provide that amount of funding.

Wanda Commercial Management has about 500 branches in China, and its highest valuation once reached 500 billion yuan.

Now only 1200 billion remains, which is the same 1200 billion he offered.

Chen Pingsheng led the group's finance team, legal department, secretariat, and other personnel to the headquarters of Wanda Commercial Management to conduct acquisition negotiations.

This time, Lao Wang relinquished approximately 60% of the shares, which means he gave up his absolute controlling stake.

The entire finance team, legal team, and secretarial group brought by Tengying Group were all busy with this.

The liquidation of Wanda Commercial Management's core assets, as well as debt restructuring, includes various taxes.

This is a very large undertaking.

Of course, these details are handled by the group's employees.

Chen Pingsheng himself was also filled with regret. When he was still setting up a street stall, the man in front of him was already enjoying immense success.

Wanda Plaza has opened all over the country, and his son is known online as a national-level son-in-law.

Ten years have passed in the blink of an eye, and this huge commercial real estate is about to fall into his hands.

He was able to use this to open his Tengfei New Energy offline self-operated stores all over the country.

It allows for the rapid establishment of a comprehensive department store system, coupled with brand advantages.

It's fair to say that the acquisition of Wanda Plaza is of great significance to the stars of Tencent Entertainment.

Not to mention he also has so many cinemas offline.

In short, if you have the money, this is an extremely worthwhile investment.

He then cashed out his 1.5% stake in Nvidia.

In exchange, they received tens of billions of US dollars to acquire a 60% controlling stake in Wanda.

This acquisition was three years overdue for him, and whether he liked it or not, the news still caused a huge uproar in the financial world.

It's important to understand that we're no longer in the real estate era. If it were still the real estate era, this acquisition wouldn't have been this extravagant.

Because many real estate developers like to take out bank loans to make big investments here and build new cities there.

In today's market, everyone is tightening credit and no one dares to let large amounts of cash flow out of their companies. Let alone him taking out 720 billion yuan in one go for the acquisition without using any bank loans.

When the news broke, people weren't shocked that Tencent Pictures had acquired a controlling stake in Wanda, but rather that it didn't require any bank loans.

How much cash flow would you need to achieve that?
It would be difficult for Chen Pingsheng not to become famous, but this time the acquisition was still made using the Teng Hui Investment Fund registered in Hong Kong.

The list of shareholders consists of overseas companies, which would be difficult for the average person to find, but those with connections would naturally be able to find out.

This is a capital company registered in Hong Kong by Tencent Holdings Limited.

No matter how convoluted or roundabout it may be, it is still a major asset under the Tengying Group.

Further investigation revealed that between 2021 and 2022 alone, Tencent Holdings cashed out nearly 30 billion US dollars from its investment in Tesla shares.

In addition, it is one of the largest shareholders of Nvidia and Google, and in just ten years, it has quietly made a net profit of four to five hundred billion US dollars through investments.

It's not surprising that it can come up with more than 70 billion in cash.

They started investing heavily in the new energy and AI industries as early as 16.

He has invested in almost every new energy vehicle company in China that is able to go public.

Tesla has become a major shareholder, and it is itself a leading domestic new energy vehicle company.

All I can say is that when Tencent Pictures Group put up 72 billion yuan in cash to complete this acquisition.

The whole world basically knows that he is extremely rich, far beyond what ordinary large enterprises can compare to.

However, as the saying goes, a tall tree catches the wind, which is never a good thing.

Especially given the strong winds, Chen Pingsheng frankly addressed a problem after returning to Shanghai.

He has indeed made a lot of money from investments in Tesla, Google, and Nvidia.

Compared to that, his own traditional listed companies are nothing.

As for those rumored half-sleeved bosses in the entertainment industry, they are not worth mentioning to him.

Chen Pingsheng also used his actions to quickly eliminate those who wanted to target him with malicious intent.

He made the announcement directly when he held a press conference in Shanghai.

If Nvidia's market value ever exceeds $800 billion, he will donate more than 5 billion RMB annually to three top universities in Shanghai.

The duration is twenty years.

If Nvidia's market value ever exceeds one trillion US dollars, he will donate an additional 3 billion RMB to Shanghai every year.

The duration is also twenty years. What does that mean?

Once Nvidia's market value exceeds $800 billion, he will donate $5 billion annually to Shanghai University.

Once the total exceeds one trillion US dollars, he will donate eight billion dollars to Shanghai every year.

This period will last for twenty years.

Many people don't understand why he did this; only those at his level can understand how wise and far-sighted his decision was.

The simplest explanation is that all of his Nvidia shares are overseas. If something happens to him within twenty years, this agreement will simply be canceled immediately.

If nothing goes wrong, he will have to donate 8 billion yuan to Shanghai every year, which would amount to 160 billion yuan over 20 years.

Even if Nvidia ever reaches a market capitalization of over one trillion US dollars, its remaining 4.5% would be equivalent to donating about half of its value.

No one could say anything anymore.

It's even less likely that they would harm him because of this; if that were the case, Shanghai would be the first to disagree.

What does it mean to pay money for peace of mind? This is the ultimate level of peace of mind.

There was no doubt that he had to do it.

Otherwise, there would be far too many people eyeing an overseas asset worth over 40 billion US dollars.

Now it's all good; he's essentially donated half to Shanghai, only the timeframe is twenty years.

Given all this, who would dare to secretly plot against him?

It can be said that Chen Pingsheng never hesitates when it comes to important matters.

Whether or not he acquires Wanda, this step is something he will have to take sooner or later.

Instead of dragging your feet, it's better to be decisive.

No sooner had he made the announcement than Shanghai came to his rescue.

Various financial news reports from Shanghai have praised his entrepreneurial style.

Anyone with eyes can see what's going on.

As a result, Chen Pingsheng became a well-known philanthropist in Shanghai, and even in the entire domestic charity sector, he can be considered one of the top figures.

When this money is fully repaid in twenty years, he will be the private entrepreneur with the highest donation amount in the entire country.

Slogans can't be shouted in vain. In the first year, he cashed out another 0.5% of Nvidia's shares, obtaining $35 billion, which is about 240 billion RMB, and registered a charity fund called Tencent Shanghai Special Donation Fund.

This money is specifically used to fulfill his personal donation pledge.

It can be said that he handled this matter very decisively and directly.

They announced the donation method one day and then immediately donated over 20 billion yuan.

Who else could be as sincere as him?
The donations had a significant effect, with three universities in Shanghai holding special classes for him as a genius.

This is also an ultimate recognition of his identity, and at the same time, a great reward for his personal reputation.

To be fair, after taking this step, both his wife and he felt much more at ease.

Just like in the stock market, big fish eat small fish, and small fish eat shrimp.

In the eyes of a higher being, he was nothing more than a slightly larger little fish.

Being able to withdraw unscathed after becoming wealthy is definitely a higher level of business acumen.

Outsiders only know that he donated a lot of money, but they have no idea what the significance of his donation is.

If Nvidia ever surpasses two trillion US dollars, he will not hesitate to donate nearly 20 billion US dollars to Shanghai every year.

By then, anyone who dares to talk to him about the law in this place will be a younger brother.

I just don't know if that day will ever come.

Back to reality, he really doesn't lack money; he already owns enough personal business assets.

The future will certainly not be about making money, but about a better life and fulfilling a man's ultimate dream.

Build your own technological empire.

Aside from that, it's hard to imagine what else he can't do.

Give him another twenty years, and he will be able to truly develop the Chen family into a large, deeply rooted and flourishing clan.

All of this can only be described as having been prepared in advance.

Rather than choosing to settle abroad like others, he still prefers to stay in China.

Making money from this land and then giving it back to this land is also a form of corporate social responsibility.

(End of this chapter)