Chapter 197 Comparison
Chapter 197 Comparison
Things like business information need to be provided by friends, and friends need to be made through specific circles.
Just like An Rushong, if it were in the past, there would be no form of intersection between him and Luo Quanyi. Even if the property he wanted to buy belonged to the latter, if Macaulay and Mike were not there, he and Luo Quanyi would not have the opportunity to communicate face to face and get to know each other in depth.
Of course, there would be no intersection between him and the Jin Bingzou mentioned by Luo Quanyi, at least not in the short term.
But now it is different. It is precisely because An Rushong has a good relationship with Macaulay and Mike that he has the opportunity to meet Luo Quanyi. Through Luo Quanyi, he got the opportunity to get to know Jin Bingzou. In this way, one thing leads to another, and his social circle has expanded in this kind of interaction. All of these are very valuable and crucial to his career.
An Rusong didn't know much about Luo Quanyi. In his previous life, he had never heard of this person's name. But he remembered Jin Bingzou, who was mentioned by Luo Quanyi. After all, he once defeated the Samsung Lee family and won the title of the richest man in South Korea for several years. The main source of Jin Bingzou's assets was the MBK company mentioned by Luo Quanyi.
In South Korea, Kim Byung-jo is far less famous than the Samsung Lee family, but lack of fame does not mean that financial resources are inferior. The most important thing is that the Samsung Lee family's wealth is basically invested in industrial industries. If the Lee family is really asked to take out billions of dollars in cash at one time, they may not have the ability to do so.
But Kim Byung-jo's situation is different. He is an investor and has the most cash in his hands. Most importantly, this guy has a full American background. In the Republic of Korea, some people will target the Samsung Lee family and Lee Jae-yong, but no one will target Kim Byung-jo.
However, Kim Byung-jo's business is just starting, and MBK's investment is only 1 trillion won, or 10 billion U.S. dollars. Of this, the actual capital of Kim Byung-jo is estimated to be less than %, and the majority of it is estimated to be from large investment institutions including Carlyle.
Luo Quan also said that MBK is currently operating the Daewoo Precision Machinery project. An Rusong knew a little about the operation he mentioned. It was nothing more than integrating the assets of Daewoo Precision Machinery, integrating those high-quality assets together, getting rid of all the loss-making parts, and then turning the entire enterprise from loss to profit, and finally selling it at a higher price.
This kind of investment operation is actually "vulture" behavior. Although it cannot be said that it lacks moral sense or something, it is always unpopular.
As for An Rusong's NGN, although it is not an industry in the traditional sense, in the final analysis, what NGN companies rely on is a kind of technology, which itself can create wealth for the society.
To put it bluntly, to measure the influence of a rich man, we cannot just look at how much money he has, but also how many people depend on him for survival. Why is Kim Byung-jo, the richest man in South Korea for several consecutive years, less influential in South Korea than Samsung Lee? To put it bluntly, it is because he supports too few people. An MBK investment can only be supported by a hundred or so people at most, while Samsung cannot even be supported by tens of thousands of people.
An Rusong's NGN certainly cannot be compared with Samsung, but compared with MBK, it is much more influential.
Indeed, NGN can't support many people, but its business involves a huge number of people. MBK's foundation is money, pure money, because it is responsible for managing capital for others, while NGN's foundation is registered users. Tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of registered users are the basis for NGN to make profits. From this point of view alone, NGN's influence is naturally higher than MBK's.
Considering all these factors, there is really no need for An Rusong to feel inferior when facing Kim Byung-jo. On the contrary, he should be more confident than the latter. After all, NGN companies are now hot spots for investment in South Korea. If Kim Byung-jo's MBK can get the opportunity to invest in NGN, then MBK's performance report will probably become more attractive, and thus, it will be more attractive to potential investors.
After talking about MBK, Luo Quanyi talked about the second reason for his visit to Korea.
According to him, another purpose of his visit to South Korea this time was to sign a shipping lease contract with Hanjin Shipping Company on behalf of a company he currently invested in.
It was at this time that An Rusong learned that Luo Quanyi was actually the world's largest shipowner and the largest private shareholder of Canada's Seaspan Shipping Group. At the same time, he also controlled an asset management company called "GuaonJi". As Mike said, he was quite famous in the financial circle of Wall Street.
However, when An Rusong heard that one of the purposes of Luo Quanyi's visit to Korea was to sign a shipping lease contract with Han Jin Shipping Group on behalf of Seaspan Shipping Group, his expression became a little strange. According to Luo Quanyi, the decision-makers of Han Jin Shipping Group were optimistic about the future prospects of international shipping business, so they hoped to increase the business volume in this area, so they contacted Seaspan Shipping Group, hoping to obtain the long-term lease of the group's 7 1.01 TEU ships, that is, container ships.
In order to compete with potential competitors, including COSCO Shipping and Maersk Line, Hanjin Shipping Group offered Seaspan very favorable conditions, including a ten-year lease and a fixed high rent of $4.3 per ship per day. Seaspan Shipping Group had no reason to refuse such favorable conditions, so Luo Quanyi could not wait to come to Seoul.
Interestingly, in An Rushong’s memory in his previous life, Hanjin, the largest shipping company in South Korea and one of the top ten in the world, ultimately failed to survive. It seemed to have gone bankrupt around 17 years ago. Subsequently, its resources were acquired by its competitor COSCO Shipping.
What’s more interesting is that the most direct reason for Han Jin Shipping’s bankruptcy seems to be related to the ships leased to it by Seaspan, because after the subprime mortgage crisis, global shipping has never recovered. Not only has it failed to recover, but due to intensified competition, the profits of the shipping industry have continued to decline in the following decade. The seven ships that Han Jin leased from Seaspan have forced Han Jin to bear huge losses every year.
Not to mention other expenses, Han Jin would have to shell out $7 million in cash just for the rental of those seven ships every year. What's more, the lease is for ten years. If he doesn't go bankrupt, who will?
The meeting with Macaulay and the other two lasted until nearly nine o'clock in the evening. At the end of the meeting, Luo Quanyi exchanged business cards with An Rusong and agreed to keep in touch in the future. In Luo Quanyi's own words, he was also optimistic about the future development of NGN. If there was an opportunity to invest in NGN, he would choose to join without hesitation.
The hotel Luo Quanyi booked was the Shilla Hotel, so when the party ended, An Rushong, Macaulay and Mike agreed to leave together.
When they were taking the elevator downstairs, Macaulay told An Rusong that the courtyard that Luo Quanyi was going to sell used to belong to Luo Quanyi's mother. It was said that his mother seemed to be the secret lover of a big shot in South Korea, and Luo Quanyi was the illegitimate son of that big shot.
Because of this, as a boy, Luo Quanyi was sent to the United States to settle down and became an American citizen after he was born. The purpose of this arrangement was to prevent him from competing for the family inheritance after he became an adult.
Of course, these legends-like news have no legitimate sources, so no one can tell whether they are true or false. But Macaulay is sure that the courtyard is still worth the investment. If An Rushong can really buy it for 90 billion won, he will definitely not lose money in the future.
In addition, Macaulay also suggested that he buy two properties in the United States, such as Los Angeles and New York. Real estate prices are falling now, and most importantly, some banks are auctioning real estate at very affordable prices. Of course, if he waits a few more months, the price will probably be even lower, and he should be able to make a lot of money by buying at the bottom.
When the three of them went downstairs and reached the parking lot, Mike asked again about An Rushong's attack. He got the information from Thomson, but he didn't know the specific circumstances.
An Rushong did not hide anything. He briefly recounted the attack and said that he was looking for two reliable bodyguards through Thomson.
Mike really treated An Rushong as a friend. After hearing that the guy who launched the attack had not been found yet, he suggested that An Rushong contact Lieutenant Colonel Wilder before his bodyguards arrived.
According to Mike, Wilder's hands are not clean, but it is precisely because of his dirty hands that he can contact some people with various identities. Moreover, people like him dare to do something obviously not so legal as long as he is given some money. Therefore, it should not be difficult to find two temporary bodyguards from him.
However, An Rushong finally rejected Mike's proposal. On the one hand, he didn't want to find people with dirty hands as bodyguards. On the other hand, even if he wanted to find a bodyguard, he didn't want to find one that was too conspicuous. Otherwise, when he put forward conditions to Thomson, he would not have deliberately required that the bodyguard must be Korean.
(End of this chapter)