Restart life

Chapter 331, March 0328th: ​​[Hundred Refinements Technology Distributes Profits]

Over the next period of time, Chen Guiliang subtly inquired about the matter.

Shouxin mobile phones don't have a good reputation. They don't have any major problems, but they have a lot of minor ones, and their quality control seems to be very poor.

Its only advantage is that its appearance design is acceptable.

Next, Chen Guiliang had Yang Shuo drive him to visit the Shouxin Mobile Phone factory. The industrial land there was in a price depression in the Beijing area.

I got off the bus and asked a few locals, and they all said that some kind of industrial zone was going to be built here, and that it would definitely be developed in the future. But they couldn't say exactly what kind of industrial zone it was.

This year, three towns jointly sold 140 million square meters of land, at a price of 44.7 yuan per mu.

There's also a town nearby selling warehouse land for only 28.1 yuan per mu. That's the lowest land price in Beijing this year!

When Pu Yuanbing says land prices are high, he's definitely not referring to the current price, but rather that they are likely to rise in the future.

But if international giants don't develop logistics parks, and Lenovo doesn't relocate its R&D center here, land prices here will hardly rise due to the airport alone. The industrial parks that ordinary people talk about are even more nonsense.

Seeing this situation, Chen Guiliang no longer wanted to acquire Shouxin's mobile phone business.

Why bother with all that effort? Just buy land nearby and build a factory; that way, you won't have to involve so many laid-off workers.

When acquiring industrial land, they promised to take in a small number of laid-off workers, taking the opportunity to further lower the land price. Local governments and state-owned enterprises should thank Chen Guiliang for his help!

Chen Guiliang then inquired with several town leaders and quickly understood what was going on.

The industrial land plots sold last year were all related to the expansion of the Capital Airport and the construction of new highways.

The land plot, priced at 44.7 yuan per mu, is located near the northern expressway of the Capital Airport. Later, Lenovo's R&D center, as well as many other high-tech industries, also relocated to this area.

The land parcel, priced at 28.1 yuan per mu (the lowest price in the city), is adjacent to Capital Airport East Road. It's closer to the airport but further from the city center.

During a casual conversation with town leaders, Chen Guiliang mentioned the industrial park that the villagers had been talking about. The town leaders all said they really wanted to build an industrial park, but when asked a few more questions, their statements became contradictory, and it was obvious that they were lying.

Only the area with a land price of 44.7 yuan per mu belongs to the airport industrial zone, which was approved in 1994. Companies such as Lenovo, Sony, and Panasonic have settled here in the past two years, but their main businesses have not been moved here. Currently, it is mainly occupied by printing plants and furniture factories, which are small enterprises with high pollution and low efficiency.

When the town leaders heard that Chen Guiliang was coming to invest in high-tech industries, they immediately assured him, "Mr. Chen, come as soon as possible. Just tell me which piece of land you're interested in. Even if you're interested in land that already has factories, as long as it's a highly polluting enterprise, I'll make them get out of there and clear the land for you!"

That's definitely just bragging.

But it is highly likely that it will actually happen in the next three or four years.

This area did indeed drive away highly polluting small businesses, which were later replaced by industries such as information technology, artificial intelligence, and new energy. Even China Minsheng Bank came here to build its headquarters.

After completing this round, Chen Guiliang had a basic understanding of the situation.

There's no need to acquire Shouxin Mobile's factory, and no need to get involved in the resettlement of laid-off workers.

As long as it is confirmed that the business is in a high-tech industry, the local government and industrial park are willing to offer land at a low price—even lower than the nearby plot with a unit price of 44.7 yuan, because that plot is used for warehousing and does not meet the characteristics of preferential land acquisition for high-tech enterprises.

I estimate the unit price could be around 30!
If it were during the 08 financial crisis, it would likely have been even less than 30.

The logic here is this: the local government and industrial park want to upgrade their industries, but high-tech companies are unwilling to move in, and a bunch of small, highly polluting businesses are still lingering. Lenovo has moved in, but its core operations haven't relocated. So, the local government and industrial park are using low-priced land sales to attract high-tech companies.

So, first there are low-priced land plots, then high-tech enterprises move in, which then drives up the land prices there.

Instead of knowing that land prices are going to rise and rushing there to grab cheap deals, companies are not doing so.

Although Pu Yuanbing was familiar with the mobile phone industry, he was unaware of the land prices in Beijing, and he didn't know where he had heard that land prices in Shunyi were going to rise.

As for mobile phone licenses, the current policy is outrageous.

Previously, licenses were issued in batches, but this was later changed to an approval system. This means that companies that meet the standards (such as meeting funding and R&D requirements) can apply for a mobile phone license.

In theory, Chen Guiliang could apply for a license anytime, anywhere, as long as he could produce a mobile phone. The problem is that this year, licenses were completely suspended; not a single mobile phone license was issued because domestic mobile phone brands have become too numerous.

Back in the city, Chen Guiliang treated a junior leader from the Ministry of Information Industry to dinner; he had met him at an Internet conference before.

“There’s no way we’ll issue a mobile phone license,” the junior manager said. “If Mr. Chen wants to make mobile phones, he should just buy a license. The mobile phone industry has been classified as having overcapacity, and the suspension of license issuance is part of macro-control. No matter who you contact, you can’t get it done.”

Overcapacity?

Chen Guiliang's eyes lit up: "You're talking about overcapacity in traditional mobile phones, right? What if I make smartphones?"

"The Apple kind?" the junior manager asked.

Chen Guiliang nodded: "Yes."

The junior manager chuckled, "Then you don't need to worry. As long as you develop the smartphone, you're guaranteed to get a license; the Ministry of Information Industry will be scrambling to give it to you!"

Hearing this, Chen Guiliang was both amused and exasperated.

The mobile phone license issue that had been bothering him turned out to be so easy to resolve.

Perhaps this is how Meizu obtained its mobile phone license.

Speaking of Meizu, when can I go and check it out, and maybe have a chat and dinner with Huang Zhang while I'm at it?

With the land issue resolved and the mobile phone license no longer a concern, Chen Guiliang temporarily put the matter aside. He kept an eye on the mobile phone industry while waiting for the 08 financial crisis to arrive.

Before the final exams, Chen Guiliang flew to Hangzhou again to attend the shareholders' meeting of Bailian Technology.

The three partners who started the business with Tao Chenggang have started arguing about their share of the profits.

This game company is not currently going public, yet it has already become incredibly profitable. This year, it hasn't made any major moves, only acquiring a studio in Rongcheng, while simultaneously developing two new games: one developed in-house by Bailian Technology, and another by the newly acquired studio.

The partners felt that the company had enough funds for development and that they should enjoy themselves. So they wanted to amend the company's articles of association to determine how much of the profits would be distributed as dividends each year.

At the shareholders' meeting, Tao Chenggang read out the main information from the financial report: "This year, the company's total revenue was 9.76 million yuan, and net profit was 6.85 million yuan..."

That's fucking profitable!

Tao Chenggang said, "Besides developing two new games, my next plan is to build our own server room. Renting other people's server rooms is sometimes unstable, and there have even been data leaks at other companies. But since the shareholders want to distribute dividends, I respect everyone's choice... How about distributing 20% ​​of the net profit as dividends every year? This year, we'll distribute the entire year's amount in one lump sum. Starting next year, we'll distribute dividends every six months."

One of the startup shareholders said, "The data center can still be built; I know the company has more than enough funds."

After a long discussion, the shareholders voted.

Bian Guanyue had also invested in the project, and Chen Guiliang voted on her behalf. The resolution was unanimously passed.

Even Tao Chenggang himself agreed; he's a very loyal person. Unless there's a fundamental conflict, he won't clash with his partners. He hadn't been distributing dividends before because he was holding onto the funds to find projects, such as acquiring a few more companies.

After the shareholders' meeting, the company's articles of association need to be amended, especially the provisions concerning dividends.

Chen Guiliang drank with Tao Chenggang alone: ​​"Your three partners haven't caused any trouble, have they?"

Tao Chenggang sighed, "You know, I'm usually a righteous person, but I can be a bit domineering when it comes to doing things. I don't accept many of their suggestions if I think they're problematic. I also force things to be done. They must have some resentment. Besides, after the company grew, they wanted to put people in the company. Relatives and friends all came knocking on the door."

"Is things getting a bit tense?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Tao Chenggang said, "It's alright. I personally oversee everyone they put into the company. If they're truly capable, I'm willing to accept them. If they're not very capable, I resolutely refuse to accept them, or I assign them to very low-level positions. A while ago, I fired one of the shareholders' brother-in-laws. That damn brother-in-law actually stole and sold the company's game recharge cards! I'm being lenient by not calling the police right away!"

Chen Guiliang said, "As long as you still have complete control of the company, the fixed annual dividends are not bad. Once the founding shareholders receive their dividends, they should be able to shut up. They'll also have more confidence to put more people into the company and deal with them later."

“That’s what I thought too,” Tao Chenggang cursed. “Damn it, I should have proactively distributed dividends six months ago to avoid all this mess. Isn’t it easy for a game company to go public in the US?”

Chen Guiliang shook his head with a smile: "You missed the opportunity to go public. The US stock market has already started to crash, and even Chinese concept stocks can't hold on. ByteDance's stock price has been falling for half a month."

All Chinese concept stocks, including Baidu, Shanda, Sina, Giant Interactive, Perfect World, etc., have been falling for the past two weeks.

However, compared to the sharp drop in US stocks, Chinese concept stocks did not fall particularly sharply.

ByteDance's stock price has fallen back to $11.8, which is still some distance from its IPO price of $10.5.

Tao Chenggang was a little lost: "Besides developing two new games and building our own server room, I don't know what to do with the rest of the money. I originally wanted to create a Web 2.0-style game community, but Web 2.0 seems to be failing. I see that e-commerce is very popular, but I think it's unreliable for everyone to rush into it."

Chen Guiliang said, "While Web 2.0 may not work, we can still build a game community."

Tao Chenggang exhaled a smoke ring: "YY Voice is planning its Series A funding round. Although it's a bit expensive, I'd like to invest."

"This is a good decision," Chen Guiliang said.

In fact, at that time, Tencent Voice had the highest market share, with more than ten times the number of users as YY Voice.

But outsiders can't get involved in Tencent Voice, so they can only choose to invest in YY Voice.

Tao Chenggang wanted to invest in this because many players in the national war mode of "Quan Yu Tian Xia" use voice chat while playing the game.

Currently, YY Voice only has Lei Jun (CEO of Xiaomi) investing in its angel round, while its Series A funding is still in the preparation and initial negotiation stages.

Lei Jun's high valuation of YY Voice has deterred many venture capital firms.

“Then let’s invest,” Tao Chenggang said with a smile. “I was still hesitating, but your judgment has always been accurate. If you say it’s okay, then it’s definitely okay.”

After chatting for a while, Chen Guiliang stayed in Hangzhou for two more days until the company's articles of association were revised before leaving.

In Bailian Technology's shareholding structure, Chen Guiliang and Bian Guanyue each hold 3.6% of the shares, while ByteDance holds 25%.

按2007纯利润的20%来分红，分红金额如下：陈贵良493万元、边关月493万元、字节跳动3425万元。

With over 3000 million yuan in cash coming in, ByteDance's financial report looks much better, and it should slow down the rate of stock price decline.

When he flew back to Beijing, Chen Guiliang called Bian Guanyue and said, "Check your bank account."

More than half an hour later, Bian Guanyue sent a text message: "???"

Chen Guiliang replied, "Haha, Bailian Technology has distributed dividends. Didn't you ask me to act as your agent? I've signed off on the shareholder meeting and the dividend distribution for you."

(End of this chapter)