Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 343 Just got rich, then poor again

Wu Jiesi, who has always been confident, has now encountered an academic dead end.

He was full of confidence when he first arrived, he was enthusiastic after two days, he was amazed at today's meeting, and now he is somewhat at a loss.

I feel like I can't keep up with their train of thought.

This company is too complicated.

How many business operations are there? How many research projects?

Most domestic companies with "technology" in their names are merely associated with advanced productivity.

He has seen real technology companies before, and even personally built a high-tech industrial park in Shenzhen. He has also visited many foreign companies.

An ordinary tech company with a core team that develops one or two technologies that are superior to its competitors, and a sales team that understands the market, can do quite well.

On a larger scale, if you focus your research on a specific industry, have several leading experts in different disciplines, and develop research in different laboratories, you can have a core industry outlook and some advanced concepts, produce some commercially valuable academic results, and then you can list your company overseas.

Even stronger companies, like Huawei and ZTE, can achieve top-tier status in a major industry and have multiple project teams, making them truly national treasures.

This guy is really into technology!
These are all cutting-edge technologies!

Moreover, it's not just one cutting-edge technology!

Is telecommunications big? Is the internet big? Is semiconductors big?

It's incredibly big!
Ordinary people might confuse these concepts when they are mixed together, but someone like him clearly distinguishes these industries. While there may be connections at the grassroots level, their top research directions are completely different!

In just two hours today, he heard about smartphone software, fundamental research in communications, new directions in panel semiconductors, and GPU chip design.

There are definitely others, such as the big data center that is currently negotiating with Shenzhen.

This is entirely a blank area in the domestic market.

Tech companies don't do that.

If it had already been accomplished, he would only applaud Chinese technology.

Some are still being done now, while others haven't even started yet. He just wants to advise Chen Xuebing not to do that.

They died very quickly.

But seeing Lu Weibing's troubled expression without uttering a word of rebuttal, he knew that persuading Chen Xuebing to leave was probably not so simple.

"Mr. Chen, how is your group's cash flow situation right now?"

“Very good.” Chen Xuebing gave him an unexpected answer without hesitation.

Wu Jiesi looked doubtful, glanced at Lu Weibing and Fan Renyong, and remained silent for a moment.

Chen Xuebing understood immediately, waved to the two men, and dismissed everyone around him.

The two of them stood up and left.

20 minute later.

Wu Jiesi sat behind his desk, staring at a pile of stock market data on his computer, speechless for a long time.

Is this the allure of the number one ranked fund company in the stock market?

Chen Xuebing also felt a bit emotional, noting that the stock market had risen too fast recently.

On December 6th, he was still in a meeting in Sichuan, saying that his stock market profits should reach 800 million yuan by the end of the month, enough to repay his loans.

In less than a week, the stock market surged from 2150 to 2300 points.

Stock market capitalization soared to 110 billion, with total unrealized gains of 24 billion, and Changzheng's unrealized gains approaching 9.5 million.

With daily trading volume exceeding 450 billion, and the market rising by two or three percentage points every day, the stocks in his hands are rising even more wildly. Six stocks have already hit the daily limit for two consecutive days, and one has hit the daily limit for three consecutive days. Today, the stock market has seen hundreds of stocks hit the daily limit, which is almost a cause for celebration.

New investors with a stubborn head love this kind of mentality, rushing in higher and higher as the stocks hit consecutive limit-up days, making a fortune in these stocks. Experienced investors, on the other hand, adhere to the principle of "retreating when others are going crazy," shorting stocks as soon as they make a little profit, initially feeling smug, and then regretting it later.

Institutions are getting a little scared of making money, so they keep withdrawing from overvalued sectors and rotating to undervalued sectors, missing out on the highest profits.

Long March Capital, on the other hand, remains remarkably stable.

Every morning, after the bidding ends, we leave work, following the chairman's three-word mantra: "Don't move."

A dozen or so people are managing stocks worth tens of billions of dollars, yet they have nothing to do all day; their only job is counting profits.

Yingma is exhausted.

With BOE's stock price already at 7.9 yuan and expected to break even by the end of March, he should be in an unprecedentedly comfortable position in the next few months.

His only worry was that the stock market was rising faster than he had anticipated. He might have altered the market's trajectory to some extent. He wondered whether the peak of 6124 points in his previous life would be halted prematurely or rise even higher.

"Mr. Chen, the stock market is ultimately driven by emotions. If you rely solely on stock market returns to support your technology empire, it will be difficult to maintain such high returns once the market sentiment shifts away, no matter how accurate your judgment is."

Wu Jiesi expressed the same concern.

"That's for sure. So we will gradually turn our attention to the primary market. High-tech companies are the future. We are the big fish in this ocean of technology. We come into contact with countless schools of fish every day, which will give us a deeper understanding of which companies are worth investing in. Our high-tech industry alliance will support a number of companies and discover many more. The bull market in the Chinese stock market will not always be a sentiment-driven bull market. In the future, it will become a technology-driven bull market and an industry-driven bull market. We need to lead a large number of high-quality emerging companies to support the bull market and dominate it, so that the stock market can become a true financial reservoir. Only then can we grow together with the Chinese economy."

At this point, Chen Xuebing smiled confidently: "Currently, our technology industry has already shown some of this trend, and Changzheng Capital has also gained a group of followers. Similarly, we will support a group of high-quality partners with R&D and iteration capabilities. In the future, our Gu'an Group will not be just one or two listed companies in the Chinese stock market, but an entire camp."

Huawei is not publicly listed, but there is a sector of dozens of companies with a market value of two trillion yuan that are Huawei concept stocks. Although the companies included in this sector are not controlled by Huawei, they have benefited from the Huawei concept and their market value has grown.

He wants to create a larger stock security concept stock sector, with his own company as the leader, and to drive a larger market.

Upon hearing this, Wu Jiesi vaguely understood Chen Xuebing's sentiments, and upon looking at the two words "Gu An," he realized that they had such a profound meaning.

"Using the stock market to drive growth sounds like a Taoist philosophy of going with the flow, but this goal cannot be achieved by the efforts of enterprises alone; it also requires the support of a large number of sound financial policies."

"Let's make efforts from multiple perspectives. The economy and the system always advance in tandem, and most of the time the economy drives policy."

Chen Xuebing's words revealed his ambition.

Wu Jiesi greatly admired this ambition.

"Mr. Chen, regarding your current development, let me give you three specific suggestions."

Chen Xuebing nodded with great interest.

Wu Jiesi sat up straight, organizing the information in his mind, and slowly said:

"First, you need to move your headquarters to Shanghai in the second quarter of next year. You need to build your own headquarters building as soon as possible to serve as the group's command center. I see that your office space is still fully leased, which is something you have overlooked."

"What you need most right now is not a technology park, but a headquarters building."

“I heard you plan to repay the bank's 7.5 million yuan and get a new loan approved. I think that's unnecessary. Credit policies have been greatly relaxed now. Of course, it's not easy to negotiate in Chongqing. You'll have to go to Shanghai, where financial policies are more advanced, to negotiate.” “The thing you should do most is buy a piece of land in Shanghai and build your headquarters.”

“Having a group headquarters in Shanghai gives you greater market recognition than a single company, which helps to form a brand matrix and allows your products to have higher added value.”

"Let me also do the math for you from an economic perspective. With a Shanghai headquarters and fixed assets, you can negotiate group credit lines with banks in Shanghai. Credit financing doesn't require collateral; it focuses more on your financial situation and creditworthiness, reducing costs by 1.5-2 percentage points. It's also more flexible, and you can dynamically increase credit lines through assets later, which will also be very helpful for your real estate development."

Chen Xuebing seemed to realize something upon hearing this.

With government assistance in Chongqing, he naturally assumed that applying for a loan in Chongqing would be the best option, never expecting that he would also experience information asymmetry.

"Buying land with money can also enhance creditworthiness for loans. If it really works, we can do it."

Chen Xuebing immediately approved the suggestion.

He was aware of the current land prices in Shanghai. The real estate market was recovering, and in several districts in the city center, the transaction price for Class C2 public facilities land (commercial and financial land) started at 50,000 yuan per square meter and went up to over 100,000 yuan.

At 80,000 yuan per square meter, one billion yuan would acquire 12500 square meters.

Based on the general floor area ratio of 5.0 and building coverage of 25% for office buildings, each floor is 2500 square meters, so 25 floors can be built, and the ceiling height of each floor can reach 4.5 meters.

112.5 meters.
He seems a bit short.

In order to avoid exceeding the special acceptance standards for super high-rise residential buildings of over 100 meters, many high-rise residential complexes in later generations have stuck to buildings under 100 meters.
Could it be that his headquarters building is more than ten meters taller than those high-rise residential buildings?

He thought for a moment and asked, "Does Shanghai have any preferential policies for headquarters construction?"

Wu Jiesi pondered for a moment and said, "I can ask for you, but even if there are any, they will definitely be in a relatively remote area. There are only seven districts in the city center of Shanghai. All seven districts combined are not even as big as Minhang District. Even if you add Lujiazui in Pudong, there isn't much space. Land prices in these areas are too high."

Chen Xuebing nodded with some emotion.

The commercial land I bought in Jiangbei, Chongqing, was only 68 million yuan for more than 35,000 square meters. That's less than 2000 yuan per square meter. With a plot ratio of 2.5, the land price per square meter was 800 yuan. The construction cost of more than 3,000 yuan was several times more expensive than the land price per square meter.

In Shanghai, commercial land, despite having twice the plot ratio, still costs 1.6 yuan per square meter, a full 20 times more expensive than in Jiangbei. Construction costs have become a secondary concern.

Although Jiangbei is still largely a rural area and hasn't yet demonstrated its commercial value, it's enough to highlight how precious every inch of land in Shanghai is.

Chen Xuebing gritted his teeth and said:

“If I want to build, I want to build a landmark, at least 250 to 260 meters tall. However, I have limited funds at the moment, with a maximum of 1 billion yuan to acquire land. If I want to build a super high-density and super high-rise building, I’m afraid I still have to negotiate.”

He said 250 meters, which sounded a bit off, so he added another 10 meters.

Wu Jiesi's eyes widened: "So tall?? How many people do you have at your headquarters? Can you even use them all? Even if you want to build a landmark, two hundred meters would be very tall, wouldn't it?"

"You can rent it out if you don't need it."

Chen Xuebing grinned and said familiarly:

"From a procedural standpoint, buildings exceeding 100 meters in height become a hurdle, requiring stricter fire safety standards and structural reviews."

"From a structural point of view, buildings over 60 meters in height must adopt a frame-core tube structure system."

"200 meters is another hurdle. The core tube should account for more than 28% of the total height. 200-280 meters is the optimal range for core tube efficiency. Therefore, 280 meters is the golden height for super high-rise buildings, with the highest cost-effectiveness ratio."

"Going further up, the core tube needs to be thickened to 100-120cm to resist wind loads and seismic forces, increasing the amount of steel used by more than 30%. At the same time, the seismic resistance level needs to be raised to the highest level, and giant columns and damping systems need to be added, as well as ultra-deep foundations of hundreds of meters. The cost increases non-linearly."

"In terms of cost, buildings within 280 meters can be controlled to cost less than 8000 yuan per square meter. In terms of construction period, it can be completed in one and a half to two years."

“The construction process is completely different for buildings over 300 meters long. Many pressure tests are required, the cost is several thousand yuan higher per square meter, and the completion time is at least two and a half years.”

"The 400-meter mark is another hurdle, which will significantly increase costs. Construction costs will exceed 25,000 yuan, maintenance costs will be 60% higher, energy consumption will be more than 25% higher, and the construction period will be at least four years."

Wu Jiesi was quite surprised after hearing this: "President Chen has such a deep understanding of this area?"

Chen Xuebing smiled and said, "This is my old profession."

Actually, he worked in civil engineering, building small bunkers, so he wouldn't know much about these things. However, the old man was very interested in high-rise buildings during his lifetime, believing them to be a symbol of a prosperous and strong country.

In fact, around 2021 in the previous life, the country restricted buildings to 150 meters and prohibited buildings over 500 meters, believing that the safety issues were too great, the operation and maintenance costs were too high, and that the buildings were prone to being abandoned, resulting in a huge waste of resources.

After his rebirth, he really wanted to build a super landmark like this, surpassing Taipei 101 (508 meters) and standing shoulder to shoulder with the Shanghai Tower (632 meters).

However, given the current situation, to build a 260-meter, 60-story building would require at least 15 square meters of floor space and construction costs of less than 12 billion yuan.

There's no limit to how much you can spend on renovations; you can do it for 500 yuan per square meter, or you can do it for 5000 yuan per square meter.

He doesn't want to build a mud bunker; to satisfy his idea, it has to be a luxury model costing over two thousand.
Add in office supplies, and that adds up to several hundred million.

Adding the land acquisition costs, three or four billion yuan was enough to send his once-wealthy wallet back into abject poverty.

Forget about the 500 meters, we'd be lucky to even finish half of it.

Upon hearing the figure of 260 meters, Wu Jiesi already thought that this Mr. Chen was incredibly ambitious, let alone knowing the extravagant renovation plans he had in mind. She quickly returned to the main topic and said:

"You need to consider the most fundamental use of the money. If you have a billion, you might as well buy a building first. It can be put into use immediately and also enhance your creditworthiness."

Chen Xuebing stroked his chin: "That works too."

Although he agreed, he had already entertained the idea, so how could he compromise like this?

His idea was to trade time for space, buy a small house, and build a large one.

"So, if there's a headquarters, then I'll mention the second point: the change in the headquarters' functions."

"Currently, your headquarters is basically your personal steward. The company has developed to this point, and it should have changed a long time ago."

"The finance department should split its functions and establish a planning department and a capital operation department, as well as business sub-centers. Real estate, technology, and finance should conduct macro-level research on sector strategies and synergy with subsidiaries to avoid business silos."

“Establishing a market liaison center can unify brand output.”

"Integrate administration and logistics into an administrative affairs center."

"Hiss," Chen Xuebing interrupted: "I have always been more willing to delegate authority to subsidiaries and I also advocate flat management. Adding more departments at headquarters is not conducive to the independence of subsidiaries, nor is it conducive to my direct decision-making."

This company has grown to its current state thanks to his decisions, and directly communicating with subsidiary leaders and even department heads is also part of his work habits.

Upon hearing this, Wu Jiesi's face gradually broke into a meaningful smile.

"Do you think you're the emperor?"

"He was a wise emperor."

"Would you like to hear me tell you the story of the Ming Emperor?"

(End of this chapter)