The arrogance started from Chinatown

Chapter 781 Funding Plan
While Chen Zhengwei was thinking, Su Ya followed Li Xiwen in from outside.

"Brother Wei!" Su Ya's face was filled with smiles and high spirits.

"Su Ya, you have a dark face when you see me. Are you unhappy because I asked you to come back?" Chen Zhengwei said with a smile as he looked at Su Ya's bronze face.

"Brother Wei, stop teasing me. I dream of coming back! The sun over there is so strong, I'm getting sunburned!" Su Ya laughed.

"You've become a roast duck now!" Chen Zhengwei laughed loudly, stood up and patted Su Ya's shoulder, then took him in his arms and walked out: "Accompany me to the backyard to bask in the sun, and we can chat while we bask in the sun!"

The two men arrived at the backyard. Chen Zhengwei lay down on the chair under the parasol, picked up the cigar box from the table next to him, opened it and threw one to Su Ya.

A nanny came over and brought some chilled fruit.

"Brother Wei, this is what life is like!" Su Ya couldn't help but say as she looked at the lawn garden and swimming pool in the backyard and ate fruit.

"You can do whatever you want in Panama! It's just a house!"

Chen Zhengwei waved his hand casually: "Besides, isn't the purpose of making money to enjoy life?"

"You did a good job in Panama, I am very satisfied! Stay in Los Angeles for a few days to rest after you come back this time, and then go to Standard Oil to be my representative!" Chen Zhengwei said slowly.

"Energy is the lifeline of this world! Do you know what lifeline means? It is the blood vessels and arteries. Only with it can we live. If it is cut, we will die!"

“Oil is the most important of them all!”

"You know how much I value this, right?"

"I understand!" Su Ya nodded vigorously. Although he didn't know much about oil, he knew Chen Zhengwei's vision.

The fact that Chen Zhengwei attaches so much importance to it is enough to illustrate the value of oil.

Chen Zhengwei takes it seriously, and as a representative at Standard Oil, he is also taken seriously... and he also has to be more careful in what he does.

"When you arrive at Standard Oil, you must promote the expansion of Standard Oil! Standard Oil's oil fields are all in the United States. Although it is enough now, it will be far from enough in the future. Standard Oil must go out... to occupy oil fields in other countries."

"After Standard Oil went abroad, they needed someone to protect them. Our security company also went abroad through this channel, and we also have some other businesses..."

“So not only do you have to push Standard Oil to expand outward, but you also have to pay attention to this!”

When Chen Zhengwei does business, he rarely has a single purpose; he always prefers win-win situations.

"I understand, Brother Wei!" Su Ya nodded heavily.

Chen Zhengwei chatted with Su Ya for a long time and even invited Su Ya to have dinner in the evening.

Not only him, but also Zhan Tianyou and several others were called over.

When Su Ya came back this time, someone was transferred from Boston to replace him.

When Chen Zhengwei acquired shares in the telephone company, he sent people to Boston. They have done a good job in the past two years. Now that the situation in Panama is relatively stable, he transferred people there.

The person who took over in Boston was a young man named Song Jiashu. He was not tall and not good-looking, but he did a good job.

He worked as an apprentice under Chen Zhengwei in Boston and was gradually promoted.

……

"Mr. Chen, there is nothing wrong with this budget... The only problem is that there is not enough risk reserve. Normally, 20% of the project cost is needed, but here there is only 8%. If something goes wrong with the project, resulting in an increase in the budget, it is likely to lead to the failure of the project!"

"As for the specific plan, I haven't visited the site and don't know much about it. But from this information, I can see the professionalism of this team!"

The man in front of Chen Zhengwei took off his glasses, with a look of amazement in his eyes.

A $2.8 million project!
In front of the two of them was a thick stack of information.

Chen Zhengwei found a civil engineering team and it took them a week to calculate the budget.

"I understand!" Chen Zhengwei nodded expressionlessly.

In his opinion, since there was no big problem, they could start preparing.

As for risk reserves? Chen Zhengwei never needed those things, and he thought that the current budget could be reduced a little more.

He is always good at raising prices.

After the other party left, Chen Zhengwei called Rong Jiacai first: "Is the company registered?"

"Brother Wei, it has been registered a long time ago. The American Intercontinental Canal Company! Other companies have also been registered."

Although Chen Zhengwei was determined to complete the canal no matter what.

However, he still registered a number of companies, holding shares at different levels and isolating responsibilities.

This is the instinct of businessmen.

At the same time, it also makes it difficult for outsiders to understand the equity structure of this intercontinental canal company.

Chen Zhengwei nodded, hung up the phone, thought for a moment, and called Li Xiwen: "Go and make arrangements. I want to hold a press conference about the construction of the Panama Canal."

"Let's set the time for three days later."

"Send a telegram to the White House. I need the US government to help solve some funding problems and allocate 6000 million US dollars from the Treasury Department so that they can get some shares! Tell him that this is in the national strategic interest!" Chen Zhengwei's voice was very powerful when he said the words "national strategic interests".

Li Xiwen felt that the expression and tone Chen Zhengwei used when he said this... would make people think he was the President of the United States.

"Let Xu Yan go to Washington and visit members of Congress. I hope to issue $4 million worth of government-guaranteed bonds with an interest rate of %. Let them propose it in the name of bonds for the construction of the American Coastal Defense Project, the Two Oceans Strategic Channel, and national security needs."

"I gave him $150 million to get the bill passed."

"In addition, he should also visit Garfield. He will have a 1% stake in this project." The telegram to the White House was just a greeting.

Xu Yan's visit was the real way to discuss business.

In order to deal with the $2.8 million cost, Chen Zhengwei planned to get cash in several ways.

One is that the U.S. Department of Defense directly allocates funds for investment and then takes a portion of the shares. This part of the funds is, as he said, US$6000 million, or even lower.

After that, Chen Zhengwei can find a suitable opportunity to manipulate the stock price, and then persuade the president and members of Congress to buy back the shares at a low price.

Chen Zhengwei is very good at manipulating stock prices, and in this process, Chen Zhengwei, the president, and the congressmen all make money, and no one loses.

As mentioned above, he likes to achieve win-win results for all parties when doing business.

Another portion is government-guaranteed bonds, which not only makes it easier to distribute the bonds, but also provides many other options later on.

Even if something unexpected happened and caused the canal to fail, he and the US government had many means at their disposal.

After all... this is a government-guaranteed bond, what does it have to do with him? Go to the US government, the government is the first guarantor.

The U.S. government said at the outset: We will pay close attention, actively contact all parties for coordination, and seek solutions...

Then they delay time, shirk responsibility, and use some new focus to divert people's attention.

Wait until ordinary creditors can no longer bear it, then buy back at a low price to solve the problem and restore the government's reputation.

In this way, the problem can be solved with very little money. In theory, 5%-10% of the reserve price is enough.

A $100 million bond can be solved with $5 million to $10 million.

And it will be five million or ten million dollars in ten or even twenty years.

This part of the bond is worth $100 million.

In addition, the company is seeking investments from large financial institutions such as Morgan Bank and Bank of New York to raise US$5000 to 8000 million.

He had to do this. He couldn't just do it all on his own for such a big project. It was past the time for him to do so alone.

By then, these banks will want the canal project to succeed more than themselves.

Only then will some shares be taken out and put on the outside market...to be sold to individual investors.

Chen Zhengwei actually doesn't like this method very much because there are too many people.

With thousands or even tens of thousands of investors, it will be very troublesome to get these shares back in the future.

The final and worst operation was to issue the bonds of the Intercontinental Canal Company on the market.

It needs to be issued in the name of the company. The company is the primary responsible party and cannot shift the responsibility to the US government.

Moreover, the interest rate is too high. The interest rate for government-guaranteed bonds is only 4%, while the interest rate for corporate bonds is at least 8%.

If Fernand de Lesseps, the former French diplomat and president of the French Interoceanic Canal Company, had acted like Chen Zhengwei, he would have been able to get away with it even if the canal project failed completely.

Instead of the situation now, the canal project has not even started officially, but just because of the exposure of corruption, bribery and embezzlement of public funds, it has become the target of public criticism, restricted in its actions, and even has the possibility of imprisonment.

……

At the White House, Garfield has been in a good mood since returning from Los Angeles.

Now all aspects of the United States are developing steadily. His conversation with Chen Zhengwei was also very successful. Chen Zhengwei has not been doing anything recently.

The black movement was also gradually dying down.

Although the rift between blacks and whites has always existed, and this black movement has made many white people vigilant...but overall it is developing steadily.

In recent years, or to be more precise, in the two years of 1880 and 1881, various things have been happening in the United States.

Now I can finally feel a little more at ease.

"Sir, I'm sorry to bother you. A telegram from Los Angeles!" The president's secretary came over and handed the president a telegram.

"Panama Canal?" James Garfield smiled when he saw the last few words in the telegram: "This is a national strategic interest."

In fact, he and the cabinet had discussed the Panama Canal several times before.

The Panama Canal is indeed very important, so the United States has been trying to take control of the rights to build and operate the canal.

However, the construction was difficult and costly, so it had never been excavated. In addition, the United States had been focusing on internal development and pursuing isolationism in recent years, paying almost no attention to the outside world.

This ultimately led to Colombia going back on its word and taking back the rights to build the canal and handing them over to France.

And now that Chen Zhengwei is doing this, James Garfield is actually very optimistic about it.

Anyone in the United States, whether they like Chen Zhengwei or not, has to agree that Chen Zhengwei is an extremely capable person.

"Notify the Minister of Finance to come over!"

Two days later, Xu Yan came to Washington and visited the White House.

James Garfield also invited him to a meal at the White House.

Afterwards, Xu Yan began to move around in Washington, visiting members of Congress.

Chen Zhengwei also held a press conference in Los Angeles.

(End of this chapter)