Chapter 517 Cooperation with Guo Henian

Chapter 517 Cooperation with Guo Henian

Chapter 517 Cooperation with Guo Henian

A few days later, at the end of September, Yang Wendong welcomed a new guest.

"Hello, Mr. Guo. I've heard a lot about you." Yang Wendong met Guo Henian from Malaysia in the presidential suite of the Four Seasons Hotel.

Guo Henian shook hands and said with a smile: "Haha, compared to Mr. Yang, my fame is not worth mentioning."

There are many wealthy Chinese in Southeast Asia, and some of them are relatively successful in certain fields, but they are far behind Yang Wendong. The large number of jobs in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan alone is enough to make anyone ashamed;
Today, the business empire of the richest Chinese in Hong Kong has begun to infiltrate other Southeast Asian countries. However, the wealthy Chinese are not worried. Instead, they welcome it because Yang Wendong's business is different from that of most Chinese families and there is no competition between them.

"Sit down, Mr. Guo." After Yang Wendong greeted him, the assistant served tea and left.

After the two exchanged pleasantries, Guo Henian looked at the hotel decoration around him and the beautiful scenery outside the window, and said with emotion: "This hotel is really nice."

"Mr. Guo also likes the hotel business?" Yang Wendong asked with a smile.

Historically, after Guo Henian made a lot of money from sugar, he founded the Shangri-La Hotel, which eventually became one of the more famous hotel chains in Asia.

Guo Henian nodded and said, "Yes, I like it. Malaysia doesn't have any top-notch hotels yet. If there is a demand for this, Mr. Yang might consider it."

"I don't plan to own hotel properties in some places in Southeast Asia." Yang Wendong said: "If there is local capital in Malaysia willing to cooperate with us and adopt a franchise model, then I am also happy to cooperate."

Hotels are a very asset-heavy business, even more so than owning office buildings. Therefore, today’s global hotels have begun to adopt a light-asset model of operation, where the hotel is responsible for operation and local capital is responsible for investment, and both parties make profits together.
Therefore, except for Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan and the mainland in the future, he will not own hotel properties in other places. This itself is also a way to control risks. That is to say, he will only invest in places where he is sure that the real estate market will rise rapidly in the future and the operating risks of foreign capital are not high.

Guo Henian thought about it and said, "This is a good idea, but if we want to introduce overseas hotels, wouldn't it be better to choose international hotels?"

"International hotels can be very good at cheating people. It all depends on the choice." Yang Wendong said with a smile.

Many large hotel chains often cheat their partners, especially hotels whose contracts are signed for decades, unless there are local legal restrictions;

If either party is dishonest, the cooperation will result in heavy losses. Large hotel chain brands will share a share of the profits with their partners when they make money, but if they lose money, that is another matter.

"That's right." Guo Henian nodded and said, "Mr. Yang, let's discuss our cooperation."

Yang Wendong agreed, "Okay, Mr. Guo, how do you want to cooperate?"

Guo Henian first said: "Mr. Yang, although you have also started to invest in sugarcane farms in Malaysia and have a sugar factory in Hong Kong, whether it is you or me, compared with the sugar demand in the entire market, there is absolutely no competition, right?"

"Yes." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Our small company is not worthy of the word competitor."

To be competitors, the prerequisite is that both parties must have certain achievements in a market, whether it is global or in a small place.

This has nothing to do with size. In a village, the only two stores are competitors. But if in a city, as long as the two stores are not very close to each other, then there is nothing to do with competition and they will not have any impact on each other.

Most of the sugar production and sales in Asia are still in the hands of European and American groups. Chinese capital or other local Asian capital is only slightly involved now.

Even if Guo Henian and Yang Wendong's achievements in the sugar field were expanded tenfold, they would still not be able to match those of many European and American capitals, just like Hong Kong Chinese capital more than a decade ago.

Guo Henian added: “Yes, so what we should do now is to work together to expand the scale of sugar production;

In the early years, European and American capital had a large number of sugar production bases in Asia, especially in Thailand, including Hong Kong's Jardine Swire, which also had sugarcane plantations;
These places produce and sell their own products. If Asia doesn’t use up all the sugar, it will be shipped to Europe and the United States. It is difficult for us to buy it. Even if we can, the cost is very high. Therefore, we must expand sugar production so that we can beat European and American capital.”

"That's right. Agriculture without land is like cooking without rice." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Then how can we cooperate?"

Guo Henian said: “Mr. Yang, our current situation is that you have enough funds, but you don’t have the experience and human resources team to grow sugarcane; and I am the opposite, so our cooperation is perfect;
You don't even need to pay much money. As long as you are willing to come forward as a guarantor, you can get enough bank funds to buy a lot of land and convert it into a sugarcane plantation. As long as I run it, I can guarantee that the income obtained can repay the bank interest.

This will bring huge benefits to both of us, and the risk is also very low. I have many years of experience and many farms. Mr. Yang can go and investigate. "

"I still believe in Mr. Guo's ability in this area." After thinking for a moment, Yang Wendong asked, "Is Mr. Guo confident in credit financing?"

If the bank funds can be used to the fullest, he only needs to put in a small amount of money, then take out a loan to operate the farm, and then rely on Guo Henian's operational ability to ensure that the farm can have a stable return, even if it is not high, as long as it can repay the loan;
In this way, they can have a sufficient source of sugar raw materials, which is of great significance to their beverage industry, especially Pepsi's OEM, which has a terrifying demand for sugar.
In addition, the mainland has a population of one billion and a high demand for sugar. Although the reform and opening up began in 78, in fact, in 73/74, the trade, communication and business exchanges between the mainland and overseas gradually prospered. The simplest example is that the performance of the Canton Fair became better and better in the 70s.

Guo Henian smiled and said, "Don't worry, Mr. Yang. I have been doing business in Malaysia for decades and have a very good relationship with banks. Mr. Yang, you are one of the most famous Chinese in the world. If you go to Malaysia to invest, how could the local banks be unwilling to cooperate?"

"If that's the case, it's really good." Yang Wendong was also a little tempted, but still said: "Mr. Guo, the farm you want to buy is also originally wasteland, and then you can change it to grow sugarcane?" Guo Henian said: "Yes, just like your investment in Perlis, Mr. Yang, I actually bought a large farm in Perlis, which is several times the size of your land;
It’s not that I want to go and open up wasteland by myself, but many large farms in Malaysia now have supporting facilities for agriculture, so it’s not cost-effective to switch to growing sugarcane.

Ordinary farmers can change some small plots of land at will, and the government supports it. We can also purchase them, but such small plots of land can only be used as a supplement. If we want to expand the scale of sugar production, we still need to have our own large farms.

Many places in Malaysia are pristine forests, and the government encourages land reclamation. Although the cost of land reclamation is high, the land price is cheap, so it is still cost-effective overall. "

"Okay, how do we cooperate?" Yang Wendong asked.

Guo Henian said: "The initial capital is 500 million US dollars, half of which we each hold. This amount of money is not much, mainly because we need to use high leverage when buying land later, and we share the risk;
After the sugarcane farm is built in the future, a raw sugar processing plant will be built nearby by a joint venture factory. We will each take half of the raw sugar, or whoever wants more can pay according to the international price. "

"Okay, let's try it first." Yang Wendong nodded and said;
250 million dollars was nothing to him, but if the cooperation with Guo Henian could work, he would never have to worry about sugar again;

Although Guo Henian certainly wants to use his own funds and fame to develop, so is he? As long as he makes it clear that there is no conspiracy behind it, that will be enough;
As the "Sugar King of Asia", Yang Wendong never thought of snatching this business. He just wanted to ensure the supply of his own beverage industry and have a certain market.

No matter how big his ambition is, he would not want to be the best in multiple fields. For example, he has never thought of replacing Wang Yongqing, the plastics king. This kind of traditional industry is not what a time traveler is good at. Instead of spending his time on this, he might as well do a good job in home appliances, real estate, finance, shipping, future electronics industry, etc. The prospects of any of these industries are much greater than those of sugar or plastics.

Guo Henian smiled and said, "That's good. I will give Mr. Yang a future development plan within half a month, including the land that can be purchased, future operation ideas, etc."

"Okay." Yang Wendong asked again: "Mr. Guo, your company doesn't accept investment?"

Guo Henian said with a smile: “Mr. Yang, although our Guo Brothers Company was established early, it has never been reformed into a joint-stock system, and there are many internal businesses, sometimes I am not very clear about them, so I will not consider introducing foreign capital for the time being;

But I also thought that when the business gets bigger in the future, I will reform the group and maybe seek to go public. If that happens, I can also work with Mr. Yang.”

"That's fine." Yang Wendong didn't care too much;
Many Chinese companies, especially family-owned ones, do not like to go public, including Chinese companies in Hong Kong in the past few years;

It was not until the 60s that British capital went public one after another, absorbing a large amount of funds, and then attracted the interest of Chinese companies.

Guo Henian asked again: "Mr. Yang, there is one more thing. I know that many companies in your group have invested in Malaysia. The Malaysian government knows that I am coming to Hong Kong to find you, so they also want to entrust me to ask you if you are willing to invest in large-scale industries?"

"In terms of industry, I have already invested a lot?" Yang Wendong asked in return, "Half of my pest control business is ready to be transferred to Malaysia, which can create 2,000 to 3,000 jobs.

There are also pulp mills and some simple plastic assembly plants, of which there are quite a few.”

With the development of Hong Kong's industry, the low-end mousetrap business that relies on manual application of glue will need to move to other places. This is in line with Hong Kong's development needs. After all, with such a small population and a limited number of workers, Hong Kong should develop industries with slightly higher value, such as electronics, clothing, and toys.

Guo Henian smiled and said, "Mr. Yang, the Malaysian government naturally welcomes your investment, but they hope to acquire some industries involving industry, such as the glue production, paper production, or plastic production you mentioned before."

"Malaysia should have these things too, right?" Yang Wendong asked.

Guo Henian said: "Yes, there are, but without the corresponding market, it can't be big. For example, in the papermaking industry, I also have a paper mill, but there is no market. The toilet paper I produce is relatively simple, but it can only be sold locally. It's not easy to go to Europe and the United States.
Mr. Yang now has a rich sales network in Europe and the United States, so he doesn't think this is difficult, but for others, it is too difficult, including my wood board factory. The output is enough, but I can't make much money from selling it, because I don't have channels in Europe and the United States. "

"It is indeed difficult to build channels." Yang Wendong nodded and said.

The reason why Changxing Group has many channels in Europe and the United States is not because of its strong operational capabilities, but because of some unique products, such as sticky notes, early trolley cases and hooks, plastic bags, snakeskin bags, electric mosquito swatters, small-package facial tissues, and Changxing Culture's unique copyright, etc.

Although the patent does not mean that only the company can produce the products by itself, it at least has a strong first-mover advantage, which makes many dealers willing to actively cooperate with Changxing Group. After cooperating on one thing, it is not a problem to cooperate on other things.
For example, distributors of small-package facial tissues generally also do toilet paper business. In addition, Changxing Industrial's toilet paper has a high cost-effectiveness, so it is easy for Changxing Industrial's toilet paper to be sold all over the world.

As for other normal business people who want to expand channels but do not have sufficient technology or capabilities, even 20 years of investment may not yield any results.

Guo Henian said: “So the Malay government also hopes that some of your industries can go to Malaysia to invest and drive exports and industrial development;

Likewise, the Malay government will also give you certain rewards.”

"What kind of reward?" Yang Wendong asked back.

Yang Wendong doesn’t have a favorable impression of Malaysia, but he doesn’t have a bad impression of it either;

In the past, Malaysia was able to become one of the four Asian tigers, which also shows that they are not very bad when it comes to foreign investment. At least they will not kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, otherwise they would not be able to develop.

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(End of this chapter)