Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 407 Mr. Chen has money everywhere.
By day, it's a bustling tech road; by night, it's a real estate adventure where people sit back and rake in profits.

At 7:30 p.m., the Bund lights came on, illuminating the Roosevelt Mansion.

In addition to Fosun, Zendai, Dahua, Shanghai Industrial Holdings, China Resources Land, and Greenland Group, Shimao and Wharf Holdings have been added to the list.

Nine real estate tycoons discussed development plans before dinner and enjoyed cigars afterwards.

"Mr. Chen, I'd like to ask about the construction details. Is it feasible to excavate four layers underground through the Shikumen tunnels, which you mentioned? The tunnels in Shikumen are narrow, and large machinery can't get in. If this plan can't be done, then this development project is out of the question."

Xu, the richest man in Shanghai and the head of Shimao Group, looked Chen Xuebing over and said leisurely.

He hadn't seen Chen Xuebing for half a year and noticed the changes in Chen Xuebing most clearly, from the subtle sharpness and sensitivity of that time to the ease and humor of today.

In the past six months, this young man has not only entered the real estate industry, but also moved into his territory, aiming to build the largest luxury residential complex in Shanghai.

Instead of developing upwards, it goes downwards, which is rare in the history of Chinese architecture, and it is the first time it has been used for residential buildings.

Chen Xuebing exhaled a puff of smoke and replied calmly:

"Actually, each company has structural experts. Everyone can take the technical part of this plan back and verify it. Kajima Corporation of Japan completed the four underground floors of the Marunouchi Building in Tokyo in 2005, with a tunnel width of only four meters. They also participated in the pile foundation project of the Shanghai World Financial Center and are familiar with the characteristics of soft soil in Shanghai. This company actually uses the segmented tunneling method of subway technology. We first contacted Kajima Corporation, and then went to Japan, where the relevant technology is more mature, to compare prices and introduce the team with the best cost performance. Not only can we complete the project, but the construction speed will also be very fast."

He stood up and walked to the window of the private room.

“Shanghai wants to build luxury homes to drive up housing prices and reshape the land value of China’s first-tier cities. I know everyone is secretly grateful to Tomson Riviera. Although they can’t sell their properties, it also proves the value of Shanghai’s land and provides a reason for everyone to raise housing prices.”

"But people won't buy into the hype by simply using Lujiazui's financial district advantage. A piece of Pudong land that was all farmland a decade ago has been used to build such a tall building. It's just that the large apartments have a bit more space. It's not unique. Plus, there's the shared area, so the usable floor area ratio is less than 85%. Why should it be sold at such a high price?"

“In Shanghai, the land with culture and connotation is still in Puxi. We will upgrade the Shikumen alleyways from historical specimens into livable works of art, benchmarking London’s Mayfair and New York’s Upper East Side. Through underground space development and customized property rights, we will multiply the value of each unit of land, circumvent the restrictions on plot ratio. Above, there are the historical and cultural features of Shikumen gates, dormer windows and old Shanghai courtyards. Below, there are water features, temperature-controlled wine cellars, private cinemas and smart garages.”

“We aim to create luxury homes that break the 100,000 yuan per square meter mark, but more importantly, we want to create luxury homes that people are willing to buy. With 400 square meters of property rights and 600 square meters of actual private space, it occupies a prime central location in Shanghai, yet offers a rare tranquility in a big city, and possesses irreplaceable cultural attributes. Its future appreciation potential is obvious. This is the new standard for China's top luxury homes.”

"By working together to create the first truly widely accepted luxury residential project priced at 100,000 yuan per square meter, we are endowing our company with a new luxury residential culture, which will definitely help our future development."

In terms of conceptual output, no one present can surpass him.

Most people have only heard of, or have had little exposure to, the new luxury home concept, but he came directly from that era.

Smart homes, sky villas, exclusive community customization, cultural symbols, underground space revolution—he's talking about these things to everyone, but no one really understands them or can implement them effectively.

However, from the perspective of asset hedging, everyone understands this.

Converting old cultural courtyards into villas and opening up wells to tap into the value of underground space creates at least detached villas, which sounds much more valuable than Tomson Riviera.

Integrating subway technology into real estate redevelopment was a concept that people had considered briefly in the past, but dared not actually put into practice.

How expensive is it to bring in a subway team? That's something only a municipal government would dare to do.

But looking at this plan, it's not expensive at all. It includes small tunnel boring machines and segmented tunneling and grouting, some of which some people have never even heard of.

People's understanding of technological development is not as good as this young man's.

If a large number of Shikumen buildings in Shanghai could be renovated in this way, it would indeed have enormous economic value.

“The world ultimately belongs to the young people,” Xu Rongmao sighed, somewhat tempted. “But Mr. Chen, I inquired before coming here, and this project hasn’t been discussed or even submitted to the city government yet, right? Shanghai has new leaders now, and many things are more formalized than before. You’ve called us here now, are you planning to raise funds first and then apply for approval?”

"Mr. Xu is right, it wasn't submitted to the meeting, but the city is not unaware of it. After all, this project involves the Shikumen protected area, and it's our first time developing in Shanghai. The leaders are bound to be worried. I need to prepare the plan and organize the team before we go to discuss it. We can't fight a battle unprepared. It's better to be fully prepared and then fail than to be questioned at the project meeting. This is the reason why our company has successfully cooperated with governments in many places."

Chen Xuebing's composed demeanor once again won everyone's approval.

They certainly have the right to say that. Without going into too much detail, BOE's case is now famous throughout the country.

The collaboration between the government and private financial institutions to make equity investments in mega-projects is unprecedented these days, especially the second round of financing. The first domestically developed large-screen production line in the country was achieved in Hefei, something that Shenzhen couldn't accomplish. I heard that the whole process didn't cost much money, and they've already broken even.

This is a major political achievement. Although it hasn't generated much buzz among the public, it's already a textbook example at the government level, making many places eager to try it out.

It can be said that Chen Xuebing can leverage this incident to find governments to cooperate with, and they will be welcomed wherever he goes.

Almost everyone here knows these things.

When Chen Xuebing arrived in Shanghai, many people were curious about his background, and there was a reason why everyone treated him with such courtesy.

His family background is not difficult to find out. Some media outlets have even mentioned it in their profiles. He is the descendant of a model worker. When people talk about topics like "Chen Xuebing is so young, what does his family do?" they always bring up his background. The news spreads very quickly within the industry.

Since his background and success did not originate from his family, some people naturally inquired about his history of how he made his fortune.

From this perspective, things get complicated.

At least half of Chongqing's wealthy are his clients. The extent of his popularity is evident from the fact that he "raised 20 billion yuan in three days and attracted 200 clients."

The interest group formed by so many people is terrifying. With such qualifications, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that he could wield immense power in Chongqing.

Upon further inquiry, it was discovered that the Chongqing government and he had many other collaborations.

In that mountain city, while it's not exactly teeming with weapons, the people are definitely not to be trifled with. If you dare mess with their money god, they'll take your life.

As a municipality directly under the central government, it holds a unique position.

Based on this factor, coupled with the gratitude Anhui owes him, many people have a sense of awe towards him based on these obvious facts alone.

He's a legitimate business owner with no scandals to date, and his public image is generally positive. He also does business with the government, so he's a partner with both strength and principles.

Chen Xuebing was actually aware of how others perceived him, but he had never received any unreasonable or abnormal treatment in government cooperation.

He helped in Chongqing, Sichuan, and Hefei, and the treatment he received was what he deserved.

When he arrived in Shanghai, Mayor Yan received special treatment because he had acquired a controlling stake in Spreadtrum Communications and had also moved his headquarters to Shanghai.

He doesn't have much business elsewhere either.

Is Shenzhen, the only city with some ulterior motives, really that good because of the BOE issue?
However, he knew that these connections had indeed deterred many petty thieves. In terms of his profits, many people must have tried to take advantage of him, but the more they learned about him, the less they dared to touch him.

Besides those local connections, he also has the support of the Ministry of Information Industry, and bets from social security and Central Huijin. It would be good enough if he didn't become a ruthless bandit threatening others everywhere. Even if the average second-generation rich kid and white-collar worker were itching to make money, would they dare to threaten him to help them make money?

If they dare to come, he'll just chuckle and say, "Call your dad to talk."

Some people who tried to curry favor with him were also turned down by Kan Zhidong. Old Kan is a politically conscious man. Even if someone offered to reduce their share of the profits, he would never touch the money.

Unless someone actively asks for help, no one else can really get into the Long March Fund.

As for those with powerful backgrounds, as long as they maintain their upright and righteous image, and their influence continues to shine upon them, their investment returns will likely remain stable.

As long as he doesn't mess things up, his invincibility will only grow stronger in the future.

Back to the present, Xu Rongmao frowned as he calculated the time.

"Mr. Chen, it will take quite a while for you to bring in a Japanese team, right? How long will it take to talk to the government? We want to invest money, so we need to know your project timeline, right?"

“It won’t be long,” Chen Xuebing said with a smile. “I have a friend in Japan who has a lot of connections. We’re going to have some collaborations soon. Once the collaborations are finalized, I’ll talk to him. Bringing in an engineering team shouldn’t be a problem. It should be done by July at the latest.”

He had timed it perfectly. He planned to enter the project's performance-based agreement around autumn, using the "two-year average land price purchase" method that Mayor Yan favored. This would allow him to keep the average land acquisition price within the impact of the financial crisis.

“Land prices in Shanghai have been rising sharply recently, we shouldn’t delay,” Guo Guangchang suddenly said.

"Mr. Guo, have you heard about the Property Law? The government is going to grant ownership rights to parking spaces in underground parking lots. The current parking space ratio on Nanjing West Road and Huaihai Road is close to 0.3 per 100 square meters, while the international standard is 1.2. It can be said that there is a serious shortage of parking spaces. Julu Road is right in the middle. Our plan is to excavate four underground levels in the Shikumen area. There are so many parking spaces that the owners definitely cannot use them all. Whether they are sold or used to build public parking lots, it is an absolutely high-profit project. Shouldn't we wait for the policy to be implemented?" Chen Xuebing said leisurely, and everyone's eyes lit up again.

How much do those parking spaces cost?

"Hey, if they can be sold, they'll be worth a lot of money, at least three or four hundred thousand each."

"Not only that, but with such a high concentration of office buildings on Huaihai Road, the total number of parking spaces is extremely limited. A single parking space can cost five or six hundred thousand yuan, and there are plenty of people willing to buy them."

"His-"

Everyone started talking at once and realized that this was another good business opportunity.

If a 70,000-square-meter area in the Shikumen district were to have a single-story garage dug out, how many parking spaces would that require?

If there's enough space, you could probably make over two thousand, right?
That's nearly a billion in profits!
Wouldn't the high costs of tunneling through subway lines be recouped immediately? And then you could even make a considerable profit!

Moreover, that area of ​​land has already been developed. Parking spaces couldn't be sold before, and there were few private cars, so no one was interested in building it. Now the market is good, but that area is originally soft soil, and the building foundation can't be touched. In other words, once the project is sold, the developer has no right to make any changes. It would be extremely difficult to build such a large garage again.

Only those living in Shikumen (stone-gate houses) had this opportunity.

And it's not so easy to dig. This technical solution involves digging and patching at the same time. It includes things like fiber optic settlement detection, micro-tunnel boring machine segmented excavation, and a fully enclosed steel support system. Everyone can tell at a glance that it's very expensive. If there's no underground space development in the real estate industry to support the profits, digging a parking lot out of thin air is more like digging a huge pit to bury yourself.

Thinking about it this way, the future supply of parking spaces in the Huaihai Road business district will be almost zero, while the number of cars will increase, making parking spaces even more valuable.

If you hoard it, the price might even go up.

Mr. Chen really understood this layered approach.

This plan is well done and has a promising future.

Even Guo Guangchang, who had previously expressed many doubts, was tempted.

"Mr. Chen, this project is 150,000 square meters. Last time you calculated it to be 13 billion yuan, and then there was a discount of more than 1 billion yuan for the Nanjing West Road location, right? So that makes the land price 12 billion yuan?"

"Yes, that's how it works now. We pay 40% of the land acquisition price to the government, the government starts the demolition, and two years later we get the land based on the average land price during the demolition period. The final land price is flexible."

"The initial funding will be five billion. How much are you prepared to contribute?"

"Yes, how much are you short?" Seeing Guo Guangchang becoming more attentive, Xu Rongmao also took the initiative to speak.

At this moment, Dai Zhikang suddenly burst into laughter.

"Mr. Chen is certainly not short of money, is he? Last time, Mr. Xie from Shenyin Wanguo Securities revealed that Mr. Chen earned 17 billion yuan before the Lunar New Year. With BOE's stock price soaring this time, how much of his stock did Mr. Chen sell? BOE is now at 6 yuan. Mr. Chen, you and Hefei invested 16 billion yuan, and you bought in at 2.45 yuan. You've made more than six times your initial investment."

BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd. has hit the daily limit up five times in the past seven trading days, and closed at 17.6 yuan today.

A new 50 billion yuan market cap has emerged, approaching the size of Kweichow Moutai, and market sentiment is going crazy.

He, who shorted Chen Xuebing back then, was naturally well aware of Chen Xuebing's entry price.

He was afraid he wouldn't be able to get rid of the three yuan, so he begged Chen Xuebing to let him go. Later, he sold it for an average price of four yuan and fifty cents and was quite pleased with himself for a while.

Unexpectedly, the bull market arrived just like that, and BOE Technology Group became one of the most volatile stocks in this bull market.

Chen Xuebing is not only good at managing operations, but he can also provide BOE with a massive amount of orders, securing over 600 million yuan worth of orders in one go—and that's just for March and April! The profits are incredibly high!

BOE's announcement of contract orders became one of the biggest positive news releases among listed companies recently, causing its stock price to skyrocket and making it impossible to buy shares. How can anyone justify this?
He sold out and was so angry he had a headache, but all he could do now was make a few sarcastic remarks.

Upon hearing this, Chen Xuebing could only chuckle and say, "Don't be angry, Mr. Dai. We're selling it again, we're selling it again."

BOE's pre-order price was above 18 yuan, but the trading market was good today, with large buyers taking over. He ordered the sale of more than 2 billion yuan worth of shares.

Half of them are from Hefei, and only about a billion yuan of that goes into the TMT fund.

However, judging from the market conditions, we can continue to sell tomorrow and the day after.

TMT funds are also acquiring shares in China Minsheng Bank.

According to Minsheng's company articles of association, shares acquired the previous day can be counted as voting rights the following day.

Minsheng Bank will hold a shareholders' meeting on the 20th, and he promised Liu Yonghao to purchase 2% of Minsheng Bank's shares. It should be completed within the 19th.

TMT funds are private equity funds, and the voting rights of the purchased shares need to be stipulated in the contract. TMT funds have specifically prepared authorization contracts.

However, this is not necessary for private securities funds.

Private securities funds assume that the manager has full voting rights, so they can use the money from Changzheng Securities Fund No. 1-3 to buy Minsheng Securities instead of TMT equity funds.

His securities fund and 3G fund have grown from a total of 43 billion yuan after New Year's Day to more than 20 billion yuan now, and are heading towards a scale of 70 billion yuan.

He could buy 2% or even 3% of Minsheng Bank without any problem, and investors wouldn't object. So he was always confident about this.

However, if he uses money from securities, he will have to sell his stocks, which will ultimately result in losses. The stocks he holds have higher returns than BOE Technology Group.

For example, Suning shares were bought at around 2 yuan in early 2006, then increased significantly after the new year to 12 yuan, and are now worth 20 yuan.

Therefore, he was quite pleased that he could smoothly sell BOE shares and buy Minsheng shares in the TMT sector without affecting the securities sector's fundamentals.

His joy was palpable.

Mr. Dai's face darkened even more.

The others were somewhat shocked.

Made money again??

Mr. Chen's speed in making money is truly remarkable.

Guo Guangchang grinned when he thought of Chen Xuebing's $300 million overseas investments: "Since Mr. Chen has so much money, is he just messing with us by calling us here today?"

Chen Xuebing waved his hand with a smile: "I did make some money, but I have more investment projects. So I plan to use trust financing to invest in this project. Everyone can invest more or less. I will raise the rest from the trust market. When we officially acquire the land and start construction, I will invest my own funds to complete the project."

“The money in the trust always has to pay interest. Even if it is borrowed from the bank, it will be two or three percentage points higher than the 5% guaranteed return I promised to everyone. So I am happy for everyone to invest more.”

After this explanation, Xu Rongmao's eyes looked somewhat puzzled.

This Mr. Chen has money of his own, money from his fund, and he can even get bank loans?
Why is there money everywhere?

Who is the richest person in Shanghai?

"Mr. Chen, it's not easy to raise billions of yuan from banks," Song Weiping of Greentown sighed.

This year alone, they raised 3 billion yuan from ICBC through Zhongtai Trust, which came at a considerable cost.

These words, however, hit Mr. Chen's sweet spot.

As a bank shareholder, do you think I'm the same as you?
However, details regarding the investment in Minsheng Bank cannot be disclosed at this time.

"Hehe, there's still plenty of money in the market. It won't be difficult for me to get some."

(End of this chapter)