Reborn Russia As An Oligarch

In 2005, Penguin had already emerged, especially in the online instant messaging industry, occupying the vast majority of the domestic market share.

However, many people still feel that the future of this company is worrying, and it is definitely not comparable to the Internet giants such as Sina, Alibaba, and Baidu that have grown up!

Because instant messaging software like Penguin is facing a very serious problem that cannot be solved.

That’s how to monetize traffic!

Penguin's "predecessor", ICQ, couldn't solve this problem, so it had no choice but to "sell" to other companies.

Although the price is quite high, reaching two to three billion US dollars, this also shows that the ceiling of the online instant messaging industry is so high...

No matter how you look at it, Penguin cannot compare to ICQ.

Not to mention whether it will be released sooner or later, or who will copy whom, but in terms of popularity, ICQ is popular all over the world!

And penguins can only "live" in China...

Therefore, many people are not optimistic about the prospects of penguins.

Only Wang Ye is firmly optimistic about this company, and even every round of Penguin’s financing is led by Polar Bear Investment Company and gives a high valuation!

By the time Wang Ye came to Pengcheng this time, Polar Bear Investment Company had already become Penguin's largest shareholder, holding nearly 60% of Penguin's shares!

This is the equity structure after several rounds of financing...

Therefore, it is not an exaggeration at all for Wang Ye to say that he is Penguin's largest shareholder.

Because Brother Ma and several founders now hold far less shares than Wang Ye.

Brother Ma currently only holds 12% of Penguin's shares, and the other founders are even lower, each holding less than 5%!

The total share of the founder team is 20%.

The remaining 20% ​​is reserved for other new investors.

Of course, this share ratio will be further adjusted when Penguin is actually listed.

Major shareholders like Polar Bear Investment will also give up part of their shares as employee incentives or tradable shares, and the proportion of shares may drop to less than 50% by then.

However, Wang Ye has a requirement in this regard, that is, the minimum proportion of Polar Bear Investment's shares in Penguin must be 40%, and cannot be lower than this proportion.

Because currently only he knows how terrifying the penguins will grow to in the future!

As far as he knows, Penguin's highest market value was in early 2021, with a market value of more than 900 billion!

Beautiful knife!

Almost entered the trillion-dollar club...

Look at the companies that rank before Penguin in terms of market capitalization, Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, JPMorgan Chase, no more...

Oh, among these companies with a market value of over one trillion US dollars, Wang Ye has invested in four of them, including Penguin, there are five...

Therefore, among the many large group companies under Wangye, perhaps the most eye-catching ones now are energy giants such as Yukos and Gazprom.

Or companies with more political significance such as Crimea Investments, United Airlines Group, and Gazprom.

But only Wang Ye knows that his real "core asset" is precisely the polar bear investment that is currently inconspicuous and even often ignored by others!

It is no exaggeration to say that Wang Ye has quietly returned to him ten or even a hundred times the "gifts" Hovchenko has given Wang Ye.

It's just that Hovchenko hasn't noticed yet...

Of course, not only did Hovchenko not understand the potential of the companies Wang Ye invested in, Mayor Zhang also didn't understand either.

So now when he heard Wang Ye say that Penguin's market value would exceed one trillion in the future, his jaw almost dropped!

You know, in 2005, no company in the country had such a high market value, including those state-owned giants...

Wang Ye was afraid of scaring him, so he didn't say the last two words "beautiful knife"!

Otherwise, Mayor Zhang would probably jump up at this moment...

In the previous life, without Wang Ye's participation, Penguin achieved a market value of more than 900 billion U.S. dollars. Now with his promotion, there should be no suspense about Penguin's market value exceeding one trillion U.S. dollars!

After all, Wang Ye has arranged for Facebook to hand over all operating rights in the mainland to Penguin, without even taking a controlling stake in the joint venture!

Of course, this is just to circumvent corresponding domestic regulations...

It is equivalent to adding another "insurance" to Penguin Company, which has almost monopolized the domestic Internet social networking!

Penguin + Facebook, competitors will feel despair when looking at such a combination...

…………

"This... Mr. Mikhail is so optimistic about Penguin Company? It seems that I still lack enough understanding of these emerging industries. I pay too little attention to them. I will have to make up for them in the future."

After coming back to his senses, Mayor Zhang said repeatedly.

He did not question what Wang Ye said, because since the other party dared to say it with such certainty and invested real money, it meant that he was really optimistic about Penguin.

Plus what he learned about the giant companies owned by Mikhail.

For someone who can achieve this level in the business field, no smart person would question his judgment...

Originally, Mayor Zhang wanted Wang Ye to spend more money to invest in Pengcheng, but it turned out that he had already made two large investments.

Although he didn't know exactly how much money Wang Ye invested in Penguin, it was definitely not a small amount. Otherwise, it wouldn't be worthy of Wang Ye's trillion-dollar valuation of Penguin...

Coupled with Joy City's investment of several billion yuan, Wang Ye may have invested tens of billions of funds in Pengcheng, which is not a small amount.

Therefore, if Mayor Zhang wants to attract more investment, he is a little bit speechless...

…………

He was embarrassed to say it, but Wang Ye said it for him.

"Mayor Zhang, I actually have an investment plan in China. I'm considering which city to put it in. Are you interested in hearing about it?" Wang Ye said with a smile.

Mayor Zhang is so interested!

His eyes suddenly shone and he said impatiently: "Mr. Mikhail, please speak! As long as you want to invest in Pengcheng, our local government will definitely cooperate to the greatest extent and will provide you with what we can." The utmost sincerity!”

Speaking of this project, it was actually not Wang Ye’s impromptu idea, but it had already been planned.

This is a project of Russian Automobile Group, which is to build a large-scale automobile production base in China.

After all, starting last year, the three major brands of the Russian Automobile Group, Land Rover, Jaguar and Volvo, all began to officially enter the domestic market.

But these three brands are all produced overseas by foreign brands, so domestic sales face a big problem.

That means import tariffs are high!

Coupled with the high transportation costs, for example, a Land Rover that costs US$100,000 abroad has to double its price when it arrives in China to avoid losing money...

This price is very high!

Although considering the positioning of Land Rover and Jaguar, it is normal to sell millions of dollars, and other high-end brands also operate this way.

At that time, joint venture brands produced in China, including BBA, only brought low-end cars to joint venture production. High-end models were always produced abroad and then imported.

So the price of Land Rover Jaguar is not outrageous.

In addition, during marketing, the "British royal blood" of Land Rover and Jaguar was emphasized. In addition, there are indeed many European royal families and senior officials from Da Mao driving Land Rover and Jaguar.

Therefore, after these two brands entered the country, they sold quite well, especially the Range Rover. Even though the price was as high as 17.8 million, they were still sold out!

However, Volvo is a bit embarrassed.

This car is originally positioned as a mid-range car. Although it is not a cheap car like Japan, it is not that expensive abroad.

Now in China, the price seems a bit high after including customs duties, transportation fees, etc., which is similar to the price of BBA.

But this brand does not have the same influence as BBA, so sales are relatively poor.

Some time ago, Katya discussed with Wang Ye to build a production base in China to localize Volvo production.

However, according to domestic regulations at the time, if foreign car brands wanted to produce and sell domestically, they had to establish joint ventures, and Chinese capital had to account for the majority, so that they could be localized.

Katya was a little hesitant. She didn't want to hand over the controlling rights to others, because then the dominance would be in the hands of others. She could only provide technology and funds, and could only share a small part of the profits. A bit taken advantage of...

I have also contacted several large domestic automobile groups, such as FAW Group, GAC, Dongfeng, etc. However, these companies have a relatively high profile and the joint venture conditions they have given are also very harsh.

There is no way, they already have good partners, so naturally they look down on Russia Automobile Group.

Everyone in the automotive industry knows that the three brands of Land Rover, Jaguar and Volvo have changed hands several times in recent years and were once on the verge of bankruptcy...

Now that it is in the hands of the Russian Automobile Group, who can say how it will develop in the future?

Therefore, when Wang Ye returned to China this time, he planned to talk to the relevant departments before leaving to see if there was a "back door".

It means that Russian Automotive Group comes to set up a wholly-owned company and does not cooperate with domestic companies, or it can take the lead in the joint venture and have a higher share ratio!

Don't think that Wang Ye is "taking advantage" or something, using the name of foreign capital to exploit policy loopholes.

He's really not that kind of person.

The biggest difference from other foreign investments is that the money earned by Wang Ye’s domestic investment projects will basically not be transferred abroad, but will be “digested” locally and reinvested!

Continuously expand the scale of domestic investment, create more jobs, and pay more taxes...

Therefore, it can also be said that the money he earned in the country was quietly fed back to the country and the people!

Because of this, Wang Ye can ask the country for some special policies and treatment with a clear conscience.

Since you plan to build a production base, you need to choose which city to build it in.

Wang Ye originally wanted to build it in the provincial capital of his hometown, which could be considered as a contribution to the development of his hometown.

But last time I went back and looked around, I felt that the time was not right because the development of my hometown in the provincial capital was too slow and there were no corresponding supporting enterprises at all.

If we have to put the production base there, we will face various problems in the future.

So after much deliberation, I decided to put it on Pengcheng, which I am more familiar with.

At least this is a coastal city with a developed economy, and various supporting enterprises are also very complete. After all, there is the giant Guangzhou Automobile Group in Yangcheng.

The upstream and downstream supporting factories for the automobile production industry are all available!

Pengcheng is close to Yangcheng, and you can also take advantage of the supporting enterprises in Yangcheng.

…………

If Wang Ye hadn't met Mayor Zhang today about this matter, he wouldn't have gone out of his way to contact Pengcheng City. Instead, he would have asked Katya and the others to come over and talk about it after returning to Moscow.

But since he met Mayor Zhang today and was relatively friendly with him, Wang Ye might as well chat with him directly.

This is why Wang Ye told him his true identity.

Facing Mayor Zhang's expectant gaze, Wang Ye said calmly:

"My Russian Automobile Group company is engaged in automobiles. It plans to build a production base in China and the cars produced will be sold to the Asian market.

At present, Pengcheng is one of the options, and Yangcheng is also a good choice. "

As for business negotiations, of course he would not just say that he would invest in Pengcheng.

In fact, Yangcheng is indeed within the scope of Wang Ye's consideration. After all, the area in Yangcheng is larger and there is more land, so it is easier to get an industrial park with a large enough area.

Mayor Zhang became anxious when he heard that such a large production base is in the automotive industry!

That is definitely one of the best investments.

Because the automobile industry is an industry that is intensive in capital, technology, and personnel!

It can also drive upstream and downstream industry chains!

This is a good project for any city, and he certainly does not want this project to fail.

He quickly said: "Mr. Mikhail can definitely place the project here in Pengcheng. The conditions here will only be better than those in Yangcheng!

In addition, didn't you just say that in Pengcheng's development plan, industrial and commercial land should be further reduced. This will be discussed in the city after I return, and a plan will be come up as soon as possible.

Then your car production base can enjoy more preferential policies. In terms of land, taxes, etc., Pengcheng will provide the most relaxed policies and environment! "

Wang Ye smiled slightly, "This is not the most critical thing. There is a problem that needs to be solved now so that the project can be implemented.

Even Mayor Zhang knows that if foreign car companies want to enter the domestic market, they need joint ventures.

But now I don’t have a suitable partner here, so can the city and Russia Automobile Group jointly come forward to apply to the above to establish a wholly-owned enterprise?

Oh, if this is really difficult, you can change it.

That is to allow Gazprom to hold a controlling stake in the joint venture. "

Both options are acceptable to Wang Ye.

If it is a sole proprietorship, that is naturally good. Production, R\u0026D, and sales are all done by yourself, and you have the greatest autonomy.

If it really doesn't work, if a joint venture is necessary, then Wang Ye can accept it.

And he has already thought about the joint venture partner, which is Pengcheng BYD...