Chapter 671 Never Asked

Chapter 671 Never Asked

Prince Fu's Mansion is also known as Jiuye Mansion. Although the environment inside is hard to describe, it is well preserved. The north-south central axis is nearly 300 meters, and the total area is about 4.4 square meters.

If it were completely renovated, redesigned and planned on the original basis, and the entire palace was opened to the public as a private club, I believe it would be very grand, not much worse than Heshen's Prince Gong Mansion.

There are several companies working in Prince Fu's Mansion, but Mr. Min said they can all move out. Fan Wumian was a little worried about being choked by the pie he had drawn, so he asked in advance:
"This place is a bit old, and many buildings look like dilapidated buildings. If I take this place down, will there be any problem with the approval procedures for renovation and reconstruction? This should be a key cultural relic protection site. I'm afraid that nothing can be moved by then. It would be best if we could dig a lake in the yard and provide some parking spaces."

Mr. Min replied:
"There are precedents for how to repair and renovate key cultural relics protection sites. As long as it complies with the rules and the old is restored to its original state, it can be repaired. For example, Prince Gong's Mansion and Prince Chun's Mansion have been renovated. Otherwise, they would have been in disrepair after being exposed to wind and rain for 200 to 300 years."

"The Shuncheng County Prince's Mansion was not located at its current location before. It was relocated to the east side of Chaoyang Park in order to make room for the auditorium."

"I'll help you apply for it when the time comes. There shouldn't be any problem after we say hello. As long as you don't completely tear it down and rebuild it from the ground up, there won't be any big problems. Mr. Fan is a very popular person now."

Of course, he knew what the so-called "celebrity" meant. Fan Wumian was already facing enough troubles and didn't want to create any more troubles in the short term. He smiled and said:

"I will first find a design company to help me come up with a plan and send it over for approval. I will then proceed after I get the permit."

"The area of ​​Prince Fu's Mansion is so large that the investment amount is estimated to be not small. The banquet hall, guest rooms, restaurant, lounge, etc. can only be used as a private club. After all, the area is large, but the space utilization is very low. If it is used for hotel business, the cost cannot be recovered for decades."

"It's different to open a private club. Each member pays a membership fee, and there are other business benefits. I can also come here to relax and have a good time. It feels good."

Mr. Min said to him:

"Modern buildings only need a small amount of land to build high-rise buildings, and it is no problem to arrange three or four hundred guest rooms. This old house is all one or two floors, and the building area is less than half, but it is indeed much more comfortable than a building made of reinforced concrete. If Mr. Fan doesn't care about the gimmick of the old palace, he can also try to find another location, which will be more relaxed in terms of planning and design."

Fan Wumian smiled and said:

"Other plots of land are easy to find, but a real palace is hard to come by, so let's set up the private club here."

"Okay, then let's help the loss-making company."

"I'll try to help as many companies as possible, okay? Jingdong Mall is like a large online market, but unfortunately it hasn't grown to its current size yet. I can let them try to run some brands on their own, purchase goods based on orders, and sell them online on their behalf."

Fan Wumian changed the subject and continued:

"Or they can sell me some land to raise funds for the resettlement of laid-off workers, just like the land auction of Qinghe Woolen Mill a few years ago. In 2005, Huarun Group bought the 45.67 square meters of land, and it seemed to have spent 25.6 billion. There is also Zhongxin City within the Second Ring Road that Zhongxin Real Estate has acquired. I am also particularly interested in it. The financial market has been sluggish recently, so I am mainly paying attention to industries that can provide a safe haven for funds."

Fan Wumian has been making quite a stir in the real estate sector these days. For example, there are reports that he plans to use 350 billion yuan to raise funds for Longhu Real Estate, Vanke Real Estate, Greentown China and Yanjing Zhongxin Real Estate.

When he mentioned "Zhongxin City" within the Second Ring Road, Mr. Min realized that the reason why Fan Wumian paid attention to Zhongxin Real Estate's subsidiary in Yanjing was probably because of the 43.65 square meters of land within the Second Ring Road.

As for Fan Wumian's personal business, he is not very interested in investing in real estate companies. He looks down on the returns of several times or even dozens of times. Moreover, this business can be done as long as one has money, and it does not present any challenge to him at all.

However, from the perspective of asset management companies and insurance companies, investing in real estate, infrastructure, building materials market, etc. in the short term is quite good. On the one hand, the risk is relatively low, and on the other hand, the rate of return is relatively considerable. Together with liquor, energy, gold, etc., it can hedge part of the risks brought about by the subprime mortgage crisis and the financial crisis.

After visiting Prince Fu's Mansion with Mr. Min, Fan Wumian bought a ticket and went to Heshen's Prince Gong's Mansion for inspection, trying to learn some experience in garden arrangement.

All I can say is that many aesthetics are indeed outdated.

Although the thick golden nanmu pillars are extremely valuable and cannot be bought even with money, the entire Prince Gong Mansion did not make Fan Wumian feel particularly impressed. In the end, he planned to turn the Prince Fu Mansion into a modern club in a neo-Chinese style.

I have been busy doing big things these days, dealing with billions and tens of billions of funds all day long, considering the overall situation, long-term strategic planning, risks and opportunities, etc.

Fan Wumian secretly sighed that he was almost no longer a human being.

Suddenly I understand why Mark Zuckerberg, who has made his business bigger and stronger, acts like a robot when facing questions. When dreams become countless troubles and cold reality, it's like dancing on a tightrope all day long. Even if there are edges and corners, they will be gradually smoothed out and become the person he originally hated. Jack Ma is like this, Elon Musk is like this, Bill Gates is like this, and Pony Ma of Penguin Group is also like this.

Sitting in a pavilion by the lake in Prince Gong's Mansion and daydreaming, he glimpsed children chasing and playing on the other side of the river, and a girl getting angry because her boyfriend bought the wrong flavor of ice cream. Fan Wumian clearly realized that not only was the wind on the top of the mountain strong, but there were also shackles that bound everyone.

The thought of losing his free and comfortable pace of life disgusted him from the bottom of his heart. He once again seriously considered quitting his job, humming the lyrics of "Looking Back":

"I once asked myself repeatedly in the darkness, only then did I realize that being ordinary and calm is the real thing."

Fortunately, we chose to let go from the beginning and handed over many company affairs to professional managers. We paid them such high salaries, bonuses and benefits every year. Obviously, there was no need to rush to the forefront and do everything personally.

Finding that everything that could be done had been done, Fan Wumian sat in a daze in the wind. His long-tensed heartstrings finally relaxed. He left Prince Gong's Mansion and went to find Da Qiangzi from Jingdong Mall.

After being acquired by Penguin Group, Jingdong Mall received sufficient financial support. With the help of resources from Fan Wumian and Penguin Group, this shopping platform finally got on the right track. In February of this year, it reached an acquisition agreement with SF Express for a total amount of only HK$2 million. It retained 1% of the dry shares for the founding team and allowed SF Express to operate independently.

Last year, SF Express's total revenue was only RMB 1.13 million. Its business covers more than 20 provinces and municipalities, 101 prefecture-level cities and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Its scale is really small.

In the first quarter of this year, Jingdong Mall's revenue reached 4.2 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 261%. It also began to sell large appliances such as air conditioners, refrigerators, and televisions, completing the full line of 3C products.

Da Qiangzi has been doing very well recently, frequently accepting interviews from reporters and participating in forums and meetings. He just spoke at the Bobie Forum last month.

At this moment.

At the headquarters of the New Beijing Winter Mall in Zhongguancun, seeing the domestic mobile phones of Bodao and TLC on display in the cabinet, Fan Wumian slapped his head with his hand, turned to look at Pu Jiajing, and said:
"Oh, I almost forgot that the iPhone is about to be launched! I quickly asked them to help me build a long position. The more the better. The Gangcheng Bandit King Fund should also invest. As long as the price is right, I will buy as much as I can. I also want to invest in Google. Its Android operating system is not bad."

Pu Jiajing calculated the time and said:

"US stocks can only be traded at night. I remember going to the press conference and hearing that the first generation iPhone would not be available until the end of June. Should I invest now?"

"Well, there is not much hope for other industries. Only the high-tech field has good news to support it. The future development of the global economy will probably depend on these high-tech companies. While the price is low, please help me invest more and make some plans for me to see."

After hearing what Fan Wumian said, Da Qiangzi was confused and asked:
"Is this Apple phone amazing? Then does our Jingdong Mall have a chance to get the exclusive agency rights?"

“I haven’t asked, but it seems like I can give it a try.”

Fan Wumian originally wanted to just say no.

On second thought, he felt that since Apple's mobile phone business had just been launched, there might be an opportunity to lure Steve Jobs to get a piece of the pie from Apple and take advantage of the fact that those Americans could not accurately predict the market prospects and would probably be greedy for small profits in the short term, leading to some misjudgments.

Anyway, given the mainland's level of high-tech product manufacturing, it can only purchase ready-made products from abroad for the time being. If it can obtain the long-term exclusive agency rights for Apple products in the entire Greater China region and other Asian markets, the profits will definitely not be small.

Previously, I had been thinking about how to invest in Apple itself.

With Apple's current market capitalization of more than $700 billion, the price is simply too high.

Even if all the funds raised through the QDII channel and the more than 350 billion Hong Kong dollars held by the Hong Kong City Bandit King Fund were invested, it would not make much of a splash.

Fan Wumian is already able to call the shots in the domestic market, but the ceiling is different. In the international market, his performance is at best just okay, and he is still far from being at the top of the Forbes rich list or those Fortune 500 companies.

Last year, the entry threshold for the Fortune 500 was as high as $137.397 billion, and this was just the revenue for a single year. The foundation accumulated by many large companies over the years is far beyond what Fan Wumian can match. (End of this chapter)