Return to 1958 and build a century-old giant

Chapter 908 Investment in Rio Tinto and Cooperation

"A giant iron ore deposit has been discovered in Australia, giving Hong Kong's Yang family a new fortune worth billions of dollars."

Similar headlines appeared in some Hong Kong newspapers, once again shocking countless people across the city.
"Yang Wendong's net worth is already several billion US dollars in the United States, and probably about the same in Hong Kong. How come he discovered such a super iron ore mine in Australia?"

“This is what you call God’s blessing on the Chinese. Jardine Matheson started buying land and searching for minerals all over the world decades ago, spending billions of Hong Kong dollars but finding nothing. But when it’s the turn of Chinese capital to go out, they find something immediately.”

"It's a pity that this mine hasn't helped Hong Kong's economy much."

"How could it not be big? Yang Wendong has made money elsewhere, so maybe he'll increase his investment in Hong Kong instead?"

"Are you dreaming? Yang Wendong is basically no longer active in the real estate market; his factories have already started to relocate."

“Those low-end factories can be moved, that’s fine. Hong Kong will have enough electronics and food industries in the future.”

Not only in Hong Kong, but also at the same time, news media in Australia, the United States, and Europe began to report on this matter.
However, since it doesn't involve those countries, the news report wouldn't be featured on the front page, but rather in the middle, but that's enough for relevant people to know about it.

Interior of the Kang Le Building:

“Okay, I understand, Ms. Thatcher. If the conditions are right, I am also willing to develop this iron ore mine with the British consortium.” Yang Wendong answered the phone politely, and hung up after a while.
Fang Xianming said, "Even Prime Minister Thatcher called personally. It seems that the influence of this iron ore mine is even greater than we imagined."

Yang Wendong laughed and said, "Of course. At the national level, steel is the second most important mineral after oil. Any industry, construction industry, or infrastructure industry cannot do without steel."

If oil is the lifeblood of a country, then steel is its skeleton.

Fang Xianming said, "Many conglomerates in Europe and America have already contacted us, and even Japanese conglomerates have expressed interest. We can now wait for the right price to go."

“Yes, let’s get in touch with them and then confirm the exact figures for the Christmas Creek iron ore mine.” Yang Wendong nodded in satisfaction, then added, “However, this opportunity has also shown us the power of News Corporation. We should cooperate with Murdoch more in the future.”

In his early years, knowing that he had almost no chance of controlling public opinion in Europe and America, Yang Wendong began to cultivate a relationship with Rupert Murdoch, the future head of News Corporation.

This acquisition of a super-large mine may be big news for Hong Kong, but it's nothing special for foreign countries. So, the challenge is to quickly spread the news, inform the whole society, and get relevant companies to know about it.

Murdoch's News Corporation, on the other hand, seems to have solved this problem quite easily;

Fang Xianming said: "Yes, in recent years, Murdoch has been buying up newspapers and news television stations of various top brands in Europe and America, and his influence in the media has indeed become stronger and stronger."

And this guy doesn't seem to be giving up yet. He even tried to get a job at TVB, but was rejected by Tsang Sang's side. Then he went to negotiate with Singapore, but it seems that didn't work out either.

“That’s interesting. Ask him again if he needs funds. If he does, we can invest some,” Yang Wendong said.

News Corp., in terms of return on investment alone, surpasses not only some IT companies, but even companies like Coca-Cola and General Electric.

But what's most terrifying is his terrifying influence on public opinion. If a strategic cooperation can be achieved, it would be of great significance to him. With his current wealth, not all of his investments were solely for making money. Money has become just a number to him. To protect this number, he would have to start from several other aspects.

Fang Xianming said, "I have asked Murdoch more than once before, and he has said that he does not lack funds and will not accept our investment. It seems that he has no shortage of American financial groups behind him."

“It’s normal for those American conglomerates to think of the same things we can think of.” Yang Wendong nodded and said, “They definitely want to use Murdoch’s abilities to manipulate global public opinion, just like I would.”

Western capitalists, especially representatives of a certain type of soft-bodied creature, inevitably want to control global public opinion;

However, to achieve this, not only is enormous wealth required, but also the emergence of a capable person;

Before Murdoch emerged, European and American capital was certainly already operating in this field, but Murdoch's capabilities made it easier, simpler, and more efficient; therefore, Murdoch must have had no shortage of capital behind him.

Fang Xianming continued, "If we want to invest in News Corporation, we can wait for it to go public. After it goes public, we can acquire its outstanding shares on the stock market."

“For a global media giant like News Corporation, it’s easy to make economic investments, but it would be very difficult to gain any real influence. The US government and domestic capital will inevitably interfere, so purely economic investment is meaningless.” Yang Wendong shook his head and said, “Let’s talk about it when the time comes. For now, let’s just maintain our personal relationship with Murdoch.”

Fang Xianming said, "That's no problem. News Corporation's core is controlling public opinion, but as a group that is invested in by Wall Street, it also needs to pursue economic returns."

"Many of our group's businesses have advertising budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars annually in the United States, making us one of News Corp.'s largest clients. Murdoch's willingness to help so readily this time is also due to this consideration."

"Okay, then let's keep it like this." Yang Wendong nodded and said;
Controlling capital doesn't necessarily require investment; as a customer, you can often have sufficient influence over your suppliers.

Even at the national level, some wealthy countries without military strength have no choice but to purchase large quantities of products or military weapons from powerful countries in order to avoid being attacked. These are ostensibly normal trade, but in reality, they are protection fees.
Of course, this wouldn't be the case between companies; normal trade would suffice.

The news of the discovery of a giant iron ore mine by the Changxing Group in Australia has been a hot topic in Hong Kong for several days.

Even Hong Kong's stock and property markets saw slight increases as a result; in the stock market, the main increase was driven by Hutchison Whampoa, with market rumors that Hutchison Whampoa would participate in the development of an Australian iron ore mine, and Cheung Hing Group did not come out to refute the rumors.

Regarding the real estate market, the reason for the price increase is unclear, but it is estimated that after Yang Wendong's assets skyrocketed, he is likely to continue investing in Hong Kong, or he may have his own iron ore mine, which would reduce the cost of Hong Kong's construction industry. Even Yang Wendong himself did not understand the connection between the two, but in the market, as long as there is even a little bit of positive news, it will be used by people with ulterior motives to cause market fluctuations and profit from them.
However, Yang Wendong did not get involved in these matters. There were too many rumors in the Hong Kong market, and if he were to get involved in them all, he would be too busy to handle them.

Two more months passed quickly;

Over the past two months, the details of the iron ore mines in Australia have gradually become clear. Changxing Group has been quite generous, publicly inviting many large foreign mining companies to come and conduct joint exploration.
Ultimately, the reserves of this mine were confirmed to be approximately 18 billion tons.

Yang Wendong didn't pay much attention when he learned about it. It seemed to be different from the reserves he remembered, but that was normal. Such assessments were all rough estimates. In reality, after actual mining, the actual reserves could be several times different from the early estimates.
This phenomenon occurs in various mineral deposits, including metal mines, coal mines, and oil and gas mines. In particular, some oil and gas mines have been operating for decades, yet the underground oil and gas reserves continue to increase, and it is unknown whether they have flowed in from other unknown sources.

However, one thing is certain: the quality of the iron ore, that is, the iron content, is about 55%-65%, and the mining cost is not very high. These two figures combined are enough to attract global capital.

Many mining giants have sent representatives to Hong Kong, and even some countries have done so.
In early June, Yang Wendong met with Brian, a representative of Rio Tinto from the UK, in Hong Kong.
"Hello, Mr. Brian," Yang Wendong said politely. "Please have a seat."

“Mr. Yang, hello. I heard about you back in England.” Brian smiled. “When I was young, the first car I bought was a Mini. Now, my daughter also drives a Mini.”

"Mr. Brian, you're very welcome using the Mini, haha," Yang Wendong said with a smile.

Brian said, "Mini is doing very well now. It seems that Mr. Yang's acquisition of Mini is a very good investment."

Yang Wendong said, "My goal is also to achieve a win-win situation, so naturally I hope that Mini can succeed."

Currently, Yang Wendong's car retail stores worldwide have reached 1700. Except for a few, most of them have started selling Mini cars. With such a large number, even if each store sells only one or two cars a month, the total number of stable orders gathered at the UK headquarters is an astonishing amount.

For the Mini car factory in the UK, which originally could only sell 40,000 to 50,000 cars a year, this naturally meant a huge increase in profits.

This even made Thatcher a successful example of privatizing state-owned enterprises, helping her to push for government reforms;
Of course, Yang Wendong will benefit the most, not only economically, but also because if he continues to acquire European and American companies in the future, this will be a very successful case.

Brian said, "Mr. Yang, I am here on behalf of Rio Tinto to visit your company because I am thinking that we can cooperate on the Christmas Creek iron ore mine in Australia."
Although you possess high-quality iron ore and substantial capital, you lack experience in mining operations. Furthermore, cooperating with Rio Tinto in rail transportation would be far more convenient.

“Mr. Brian, you’re absolutely right.” Yang Wendong nodded and said, “However, you’re not the only company with mining operations and railways. If I were to cooperate with BHP Billiton, we would at least have a greater advantage in the railway sector, right?”

“From the perspective of the railway alone, that’s true, but that’s only part of the cooperation,” Brian said. “Our cooperation may require more investment in the railway, but that’s not the decisive factor. How we cooperate in other aspects also needs to be discussed in more detail.”
Furthermore, since BHP Billiton is an Australian company, if you were to have a conflict with them, you probably wouldn't gain anything, would you?

"I suppose it's the same for you? You probably have quite a few resources in Australia as well," Yang Wendong countered.
Australia is home to one of the world's largest mining countries, and many global mining giants have long established operations there. Compared to them, even though Changxing Group has comparable financial resources, it still lacks an advantage in this regard.
Brian laughed and said, "Yes, but we also have common interests. After all, you are already a shareholder of Rio Tinto, right?"

"It seems you already know about this." Yang Wendong didn't seem very surprised.
My financial investments in the UK are mainly in Standard Chartered and Rio Tinto, and relatively speaking, compared to my earlier acquisition of Wharf Holdings shares, I did not maintain absolute secrecy.
More importantly, that's Britain's home turf, and Yang Wendong doesn't know much about that area. Too much financial manipulation is hard to completely erase the traces, and giants like Rio Tinto or Standard Chartered are more or less likely to find something out.
Of course, Yang Wendong was not afraid, because he had no intention of acquiring the other party, unlike Wharf Holdings in its early days, which was discovered, and that was just a normal economic investment.

Brian said, “You did a good job, we didn’t notice it, but we discovered this anomaly when we had a third-party organization audit our finances and stock market.”
Then, following the clues, we discovered that it was actually your doing.

“My acquisition of your stake is not high, probably less than 5%, so you don’t need to worry,” Yang Wendong said.

Brian said, “We know that, so we didn’t say anything, but now is the perfect reason for us to cooperate, right? Rio Tinto benefits from the cooperation, and your financial investment will also be rewarded.”

Yang Wendong thought for a moment and said, "We still need to discuss the details. I can only say that I can arrange for a team to negotiate with you, but there is one more condition."

"Please speak," Brian asked quickly;

Yang Wendong said, "I hope to further our cooperation with Rio Tinto, that is, to engage in financing cooperation with you again, whether in cash or in the form of equity in Christmas Creek. Furthermore, I need a seat on Rio Tinto's board of directors."

As his global fame grows, what he needs to do now is completely the opposite of what he used to do;
In the past, he needed to keep a low profile, but now he can't afford to be. So he's going to be high-profile instead, aiming to have a huge influence in multiple fields and countries around the world.
In this way, one's decision can affect the employment of tens of thousands of people, thus becoming a guest of honor in many countries and receiving greater attention.

"You want to invest more in Rio Tinto?" Brian's expression changed. "How much do you need?"

Rio Tinto Group does not dare to underestimate this Asian tycoon; his total assets in the United States alone exceed Rio Tinto's market value.

Yang Wendong said, "About 15%."

“This will make me Rio Tinto’s largest shareholder,” Brian said. “I can’t make that decision myself; it has to be left to the board of directors to discuss.”

"Okay." Yang Wendong nodded.

Whether it's the collaboration with Christmas Creek or my own investment, these are extremely important matters and cannot be finalized quickly.

PS: Please give me a monthly ticket
(End of this chapter)