2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 844 "Why don't you come work for me?"

In addition to a large number of CEOs and managers of physical enterprises, many friends from the investment circle attended the full-month celebration for Boss Tan's daughter.

While business owners might consider their relationship with Mr. Tan, those in the investment world don't care about such things; it's just a red envelope, after all.

Zhang Sanshi is such a "new friend".

After news of Horizon Robotics' need for funding spread in a limited circle, Zhang Sanshi personally visited the company through Pony Ma's introduction, accompanied by Shen Nanpeng.

"Mr. Zhang rarely participates in early rounds of financing, so we are very grateful for your support this time."

Zhang Sanshi's Gaoling Capital is most famous for going all-in on Tencent during its most difficult period, and this single investment made him a fortune.

However, this is all in hindsight. If Tencent hadn't survived, he would have been completely ruined.

"We rarely participate, but that's only because of Mr. Tan's reputation. Otherwise, given Horizon's current positioning, we really wouldn't dare to invest. Don't be angry if I say that, Mr. Yu."

Yu Kai smiled and indicated that he didn't mind. Indeed, as Zhang Sanshi said, Horizon Robotics currently has many problems, including an unclear track record and an overvaluation.

For any tech startup, there's a phase they all have to go through: when their product is still in the R&D stage, the downstream market isn't mature enough, and their grand visions and business ideas are mainly presented in PowerPoint presentations.

This is commonly known as "drawing a pie in the sky." If the pie is successfully drawn, it's impressive; if it fails, it's fair to call the person a fraud.

The saying that many science and technology innovation companies are fraudulent is not just a casual remark. The fraudulent subsidy schemes in the semiconductor chip industry are far more rampant than those in the new energy vehicle industry.

“Mr. Zhang is right. There are indeed very few institutions that dare to follow this track right now. If it weren’t for Mr. Tan’s consistently amazing performance, we would also choose to wait and see, and enter the market when the track becomes clearer.”

"I just didn't expect the owners of these car companies to be so enthusiastic."

Shen Nanpeng was one of the earliest investors from the Wall Street group to get in touch with Tan Jincheng. He witnessed Tan Jincheng's various legends starting with Orange Technology. Now, when he goes out to give speeches, he often brings up Orange Technology and Weilai Group as two major cases to boast.

There's no need to elaborate on his own investments. The most crucial point is that, as an entrepreneur, Tan Jincheng, although sometimes cunning, can also do abstract things like asking investors for money.

However, as an investor, Tan Jincheng is very responsible and serious from the perspective of running a business. In addition to strictly controlling the power of speech, he does not play games with investors, nor does he use investors' money to enjoy life.

In terms of industry, Mr. Tan currently has four main entities, two of which do not have overseas capital participation: Shanchi Group and Leichi New Energy. Shanchi Electric Vehicles under Shanchi Group and Leichi New Energy's old man's cars both have the largest market share in the country.

Especially the elderly car, a seemingly insignificant segment with almost no room for survival in the city, and a particularly low-end market, no one expected that its market leader would actually be controlled by one of the hottest young entrepreneurs in China.

The key is that this thing is quite profitable. If he could invest, he really wouldn't mind taking a shot. It's a pity he can't get in.

Speaking of which, Mr. Ying of Zhongtai is really lucky. He had the opportunity to invest in Leichi by chance.

The two companies, open to all capital, are currently the world's largest new energy vehicle manufacturer and the third largest vertical shopping website in China. All four entities are operating very successfully.

If we consider a person's life, during childhood and adolescence they might wear clothing brands under Jinpeng Industrial, during university they might use a mobile phone invested in by ByteDance to play games developed by TiMi Studio, and at the same time they might have the opportunity to shop on Orange Shopping Mall.

After entering the workforce, one might buy a Flash Electric car or a car produced by Weilai. Even when one gets old, there is an opportunity to buy a Leichi-made electric car for the elderly.

It can be said that throughout a consumer's life, there is an opportunity to be inseparable from the entire consumer system established by Tan Jincheng.

The seemingly chaotic layout actually contains a complete consumer system, and such entrepreneurs are certainly worth investing in.

“One difference between domestic and foreign investment institutions is that domestic investment institutions do not focus on absolute returns. They talk about a broader perspective, which you two should be aware of.”

Wall Street capital pursues absolute returns, even at the expense of national interests, but domestic capital cannot do that; they also value a broader perspective.

These behaviors, which may seem unprofessional to foreigners, are actually somewhat inevitable.

Capital knows no borders, but capitalists do. When you're in a local area, you have to follow the rules, or you won't be able to get by. Shen Nanpeng clearly understands this principle better than Zhang Sanshi.

Before his rebirth, this guy took over Gree when the home appliance industry was clearly stagnant, which was also a way of protecting himself after understanding the market situation.

The reason why these car manufacturers and OEMs are so proactive is because of SAIC's attitude.

These bosses and their representatives may not understand investment, but they are shrewd. The SAIC representative stated that the company leadership had instructed them to continue investing round after round, and the boatman also stated that he would invest. They don't care about these things.

Even if we fail, we can still gain a favor from Boss Tan.

SAIC has its own considerations, while Chuanfuge has his own ideas. As one of the first batch of new energy vehicle brands recognized by the higher authorities, along with Weilai, it has received attention and inspection from higher authorities.

Whether in terms of historical background, corporate scale, or the timing of its involvement in new energy, BYD has obvious advantages over Weilai. However, this company, which was not favored by the market at the beginning, has now become the leading new energy company in China.

Mr. Wang, who has always been known as a tech fanatic, felt the pressure from WILAI during last year's Internet Conference. To be honest, at that time, he and other companies that were determined to develop new energy vehicles were also a little panicked.

In terms of intelligent driving, Weilai is in a dominant position. If they maintain this advantage and enter the period of full-scale development of new energy vehicles, it will be extremely disadvantageous for them.

To this end, this group of people did not hesitate to use administrative power, and he personally went to persuade them, so that Wei gave his colleagues six months.

However, it seems that six months has been of little use, and we still can't catch up.

As for the previously mentioned opportunity to invest in Horizon Robotics, it has been repeatedly postponed this year for various reasons. Now that such an opportunity has finally come, he certainly will not give it up.

If you can't do it yourself, then borrow the strength of your opponent.

Regardless of whether Wei Lai truly granted them full or partial authorization, they had no reason to refuse.

However, based on his understanding of Tan Jincheng, if he said he was not afraid of competition, then he really wasn't afraid of competition, and might even say that he welcomed competition.

That's the confidence of young people.

"What am I afraid of? I can outlast them even if I have to. Currently, most of the leaders of independent brands are ten or twenty years older than me, or even more. I have a huge advantage in terms of age alone."

The full moon celebration lasted a whole day, and the heads and executives of the major car companies were all very busy. After finalizing the cooperation details, they left in a hurry.

The same applies to professional investment institutions.

SAIC Motor directly and forcefully subscribed to half of the 20% stake, while the remaining half was divided among various interested car companies and investors. Gao Ling and Sequoia Capital took the lion's share of this stake.

Gao Ling, who was entering Tan's investment circle for the first time, was treated very well by both Tan Jincheng and Shen Nanpeng, who gave them 5% of the shares in one go. As for Sequoia, they received 3% of the shares.

The remaining 2% will be divided among the major automakers. They don't care how much it is; as long as they have the title of shareholder and a basis for cooperation, that's enough for them.

In its initial round of funding, venture capitalist Tan Jincheng valued Horizon Robotics at $5000 million. With this Series A funding round, Horizon Robotics' valuation has now reached $6.1 million, representing a 12-fold increase.

As Mr. Tan said, although the current shares of Horizon are mainly concentrated in his hands, after rounds of financing, the shares of this company will definitely be very dispersed. It would be good if he could still hold 20% at the time of the IPO.

Horizon Robotics' main business is a complete set of intelligent vehicle solutions, including advanced intelligent driving, L2 intelligent driving, and automotive chip design, etc.

In layman's terms, you can think of it as a "design company." Since it's a design firm, once the product is finalized, the gross profit margin is incredibly high, but the investment during the development phase is also staggering.

Given Tan Jincheng's financial resources, with a small amount of financing and support from state-owned enterprises, supporting the development of Horizon Robotics' product line shouldn't be a major problem.

But if you get all the benefits, then no one else will want to play with you, and Horizon Robotics will only be able to provide automotive solutions to companies like Weilai.

Just like BYD Semiconductor.

Tan Jincheng's vision for Horizon Robotics is clearly different. He wants to use the company to connect with people and the entire automotive industry chain, and SAIC's proactive approach this time is an excellent sign.

As for worrying about competition? Tan Jincheng really isn't worried about that.

“Sounds perfectly fine, but they sound so awkward coming from you.”

On the hotel balcony, Tan and Zhang held beer in their hands, with barbecue on the table, gazing at the night view of the confluence of the three rivers.

Since it was just the two of them, they didn't have as many reservations about what they said. Zhang Xupeng was just as busy as Tan Jincheng today.

"Damn it, all you see on TV and in novels is red wine, steak and beautiful women. You're offering to treat me to late-night snacks with beer and barbecue? Where's the air of a billionaire?"

"What's wrong? You look down on beer and barbecue? That's the true essence of life! You've forgotten your roots, haven't you? Of course, when we first started our business, we didn't dare order too much barbecue."

"Bullshit."

Tan Jincheng has a net worth of hundreds of billions, and Zhang Xupeng's net worth is also not low. In the October Forbes Rich List, Zhang Xupeng ranked 118th with a net worth of 115.3 billion yuan. Ahead of him is the CEO of Meiya Optoelectronics, the richest man in Anhui Province.

The significant increase in net worth is due not only to rising industry valuations but also to equity investments.

During this year's stock market crash, he, as the CEO of Flash Group, increased his holdings of Flash Technology shares, and also increased his holdings of Weilai shares as a person acting in concert.

Both stocks saw varying degrees of price increases in September, October, and even November, significantly boosting Zhang Xupeng's net worth.

"But what you said does make sense. We are all too old to outlast these people. Our only weakness is that our product line is weaker than that of car companies like BYD."

“This is not a weakness. I don’t intend to make my product line too complicated.” Zhang Xupeng was referring to the Weilai product line. Weilai’s main models are still SUVs. The Aion series does have sedan models, but the main focus is still on the Weilai brand.

Ride-hailing services are the main sales driver for the Aion series, but the profit margin is not as high as that of the Weilai series; it's just a way to boost sales volume.

The main model of the Weilai series is currently an SUV, and it will continue to be an SUV in the future. Currently, a range-extended electric vehicle is under development, and a new model of the Weilai ES6 is also about to be launched.

The ES7 and ES8 are also in the product line plan, as well as the EC series, which is mainly for coupes. As for the planned ET series, it will be a sports sedan.

The Weilai series will naturally develop sedans, but in any case, SUVs are the core product, just like the Yuechi series.

"The product line doesn't need to be too complicated. Just like our Flash, we only have three major brands. We can do things under these three brands."

To be precise, FlashChe only has two major brands: FlashChe and Fengchi. Fengchi is further divided into the Feiyi series and the Guanneng series. The logic is very clear, without any fancy or gimmicky features.

“An overly complex product line will certainly increase sales to some extent, but it is not suitable for all companies.”

BYD's current Dynasty series, its future Ocean series, and the Denza series, which is currently in cooperation with Daimler but will become independent in the future, are all based on BYD's unique strategy of building a large workforce.

This approach isn't suitable for all businesses.

Furthermore, making the product line too complex is not necessarily a good thing. BYD, Chery, and Geely have all suffered from this, especially Geely, which almost went bankrupt.

There's another reason that can't be mentioned: Tan Jincheng knows about the changes that have occurred since 2019.

The changing economic situation was already evident before 2018, and even as early as the end of 2015. The investment environment in the investment circle has changed significantly this year. For example, professional investment institutions such as ByteDance and Sequoia Capital have actually been scaling back.

What appears to be a profusion of flowers is actually a scene of intense heat and scorching oil.

The giants certainly have their own ways of dealing with the economic downturn, including Jingdong and Ali who bet on the economic upturn. Their think tanks must have specific plans.

However, no matter how they planned, they could not have foreseen the dramatic changes in the international situation in 2018 and the events that occurred in 2019.

That's why they can't beat Pinduoduo.

Why is Dizi's reputation getting worse and worse?
It's because the company is getting bigger and bigger, and it can't stop the expansion. So it has to save costs in other ways.

It's not true that the bigger the company, the better. When it comes to the automotive business, Tan Jincheng's idea is the same as Orange Technology: to create a "small but beautiful" automotive company.

"Damn it, a company with a market value of 2000 billion, and you say you want to be small and beautiful? You're really shameless."

After revealing his plans for Weilai to his best friend, Zhang Xupeng couldn't resist taking a sip of beer.

"That's just the automotive business. Saying it's small and beautiful is only in comparison to large car companies and international car companies. It's not that it's actually small."

"You can think of us as the domestic version of Tesla."

Tesla doesn't have many models, and its product line is nowhere near that of multinational automakers like Volkswagen and Toyota, or even Wolverhampton Wanderers. Yet, no one can ignore its existence.

Although Tesla's sales in the first three quarters fell short of expectations, its sales this year are still expected to exceed 5 units. Even without the Chinese market, Tesla is a very strong company.

"Besides, I'm only talking about the complete vehicle business. We also have an auto parts business, with power batteries as the main component. Don't underestimate this part; it might be doing even better than the complete vehicle business."

If Wei Lai's power battery business can reach the level of the former King Ning, it would truly be a golden egg hidden beneath the automobile manufacturing business.

That night, Tan Jincheng and Zhang Xupeng talked a lot, and both of them were a little drunk.

The two hadn't talked like this in a long time, and it had been a long time since they had been able to sit together and chat quietly like tonight.

Early the next morning.

Half asleep, Tan and Zhang were pulled back to Beicang by Lai Yiu-fai, as there was something very important to do today.

Tan Jincheng felt that there wouldn't be any major problems with Horizon's financing, and indeed, just as he expected, 20% of the shares were snapped up.

Even Great Wall Motors, which has never paid much attention to the new energy vehicle business, subscribed to 0.2% of the shares. Mr. Wei entrusted Wang Fengying to sign a preliminary subscription agreement with Yu Kai.

The reason Tan Jincheng rushed back was because Wang Fengying was still in Beicang.

After the initial agreement was signed, Wang Fengying did not rush back like other car company executives. Instead, she went with Zhang Li to their villa in the Beicang Shanchi residential area under the pretext of spending time with her husband.

This was a rare opportunity for Tan Jincheng.

Although he intended to cultivate Zhao Xinyi into a figure like Wang Fengying, this would take time. The Iron Lady Wang Fengying's abilities were not only reflected in her iron-fisted policies, but she was also very strong in sales.

Even if there was only the slightest chance, Tan Jincheng would want to poach her.

"Go back and catch up on your sleep later. I'm going to the company now. I have an appointment with Mr. Wang from Great Wall to visit the factory today."

Zhang Xupeng rubbed his head: "How could I possibly have a chance to sleep? I need to go back and prepare for my trip to the capital."

"What are you going to the capital for? Is there something urgent you need to take care of?"

“A certain group is going to build its own delivery team, and the requirements are higher than those currently on the market. This is a big order, and we have to win it for them.”

Although it is a strategic partner and one of the shareholders of a certain group, it is not true that the customized electric vehicle orders of a certain group must be handed over to FlashChe. Other companies such as Yadi, Aima, Xinri, or even Luyuan can complete the order.

To secure this order, we definitely need to make certain concessions and show sincerity.

"Hmm? They've built their own delivery team? Looks like Wang Xin is planning a big push after getting the money."

On the 10th of this month, Wang Xin sent an internal email stating that he would no longer serve as co-chairman. Compared to the gradual withdrawal of Express and Didi, Wang Xin's actions are obviously much faster.

This self-built delivery team should be the same one that appears on the food delivery app as the "Meituan Delivery" service, right?

"That's right. He just received $10 billion from Tencent and got rid of Ali. Mr. Wang is in high spirits lately."

Ali withdrew its investment, and Tencent injected capital. Tencent is now the largest shareholder of Meituan. It may seem that Wang Xincheng is working for Pony Ma, but that's not the case. Meituan adopts the same AB equity model as Xiaomi.

Besides helping founders maximize their control over the company, the biggest advantage of this model is that it allows for multiple rounds of financing, ensuring the company always has cash flow and can bring in new partners.

In addition, unlike Ah Li who wanted to gain control, Pony Ma was much more magnanimous in this regard. Although he was the largest shareholder of a certain group, he signed a concerted action agreement with Wang Xin.

The agreement stipulated that Tencent must stand with Wang Xin in voting rights and unconditionally support any decision Wang Xin makes.

The combined voting rights of the two parties reached 70%, meaning that even if all the minority shareholders joined together, they would only have 30%, which was far from enough to achieve a veto. The group remained under Wang Xin's control.

"Besides the normal discounts, why don't you sign a concerted action agreement with Wang Xin? We don't really need the voting rights anyway, so just consider it a favor. It should make it easier to close the deal."

"That's what I was thinking too. That's why I'm going back to have the legal department prepare the necessary documents."

Tan Jincheng nodded and said nothing more. Horizon also uses an AB share structure, so even if his shares are diluted to a very small amount in the future, it will only affect his financial income rather than him losing control of Horizon.

It has to be said that this thing is indeed very useful in the world of fame and fortune, where some people want companies and others want money.

Wang Xin is the one who wants the company, and it's only a matter of time before he and Ali part ways. In essence, Tan Jincheng and Wang Xin are the same type of people, both having an absolute desire to control the businesses they have created.

In the Yulai Chunxiao Industrial Park, one of the production bases for the Yuechi series, Wang Fengying, accompanied by Yulai's founder and president Tan Jincheng and her husband, visited Yulai's production line.

The employees on the production line were very familiar with Zhang Li and greeted him warmly.

This shows that Zhang Li is very approachable at work. At least he often goes down to the production line. Otherwise, the employees wouldn't be so familiar with him. In large companies, it's rare to find someone who doesn't know the boss, but there are plenty of grassroots employees who don't know the senior executives.

"Mr. Wang, you see, Mr. Zhang manages the manufacturing plant very well. He is an indispensable talent for our Weilai. This year, the Yuechi series has been able to consistently outperform Haval, and he deserves a lot of credit for that."

Wang Fengying smiled and nodded, clearly not expecting her husband to be so popular at the grassroots level, nor did she expect his work style to change so drastically.

Wang Fengying was in a good mood. After a good night's sleep, the elderly couple reminisced about the past.

She was naturally happy that Tan Jincheng praised her husband so highly.

"The only downside is that we live apart, which I feel a little bad about. Why don't you come and work for us in Wei?"

Boss Tan's straightforwardness silenced the surroundings.

Fortunately, he had made preparations in advance, and had Zhao Xinyi arrange for her entourage to separate the ordinary employees. Zeng Jixiang also found a way to get rid of Wang Fengying's entourage.

Zhang Li's eyelids twitched. He was impressed by his boss's directness and also wanted to hear his wife's answer.

(End of this chapter)