Chapter 704 Citibank Big Loan

After a chat with Murdoch, the relationship between the two sides had a good start. Murdoch is not the media magnate he was in his previous life. He does not have any political conflicts with any foreigners. Everything is for business.
From a business perspective, Yang Wendong can provide a lot of benefits. After all, even though the core of the media is to control public opinion, it is also a company. Any company needs to make money, so getting a big client is naturally a good thing.
Changxing Group has also made friends with the future top media group. As long as the relationship is handled well, it will be much more convenient to meet any needs in the media in the future. Yang Wendong himself generally does not get involved in the American politics and only needs to pursue his normal business. Even if News Corporation becomes a lackey of the White House in the future, there will be no major conflicts with Yang Wendong.

When he arrived in New York, Yang Wendong took the opportunity to visit the headquarters of Citibank. Over the years, Changxing Group has carried out various cooperation with different branches of Citibank in many places, and they can be regarded as long-term partners.

Citibank also welcomed Yang Wendong's arrival and sent a vice president of the United States to greet him in person.

"Hello, Mr. Brad." Yang Wendong met the person who came to greet him at the headquarters of Citibank;
Brad also shook hands and said, "Mr. Yang, I knew your name from the Hong Kong branch a long time ago. Today I finally have the opportunity to meet you. I hope that with the development of Changxing Group, Citibank can become your most trusted partner."

"I am also happy to cooperate with large banks like Citibank." Yang Wendong said with a smile.

Compared with top American banks like Citibank, the gap between Changxing Group and HSBC in Hong Kong is still huge, and they are not at the same level at all.
Even if HSBC becomes one of the top ten banks in the world in the 21st century, it will still not be able to surpass Citibank. On the other hand, if Changxing Group seizes the electronics and Internet industries in the future, it may surpass Citibank in scale, but that will be a long time in the future.

Brad said, "Please come in."

"Okay." Yang Wendong agreed.

Brad quickly took Yang Wendong around the Citibank headquarters, where he could see the places, and introduced Citibank's business in many countries around the world;

"Mr. Yang, we at Citibank are also planning to make larger investments in Hong Kong in the future," Brad said. "On the one hand, we hope to cooperate with many companies in Hong Kong, and on the other hand, we also hope to use Hong Kong to cooperate with some mainland trade."

Yang Wendong paused and asked, "Does Citibank have any cooperation with the mainland?"

"Not yet, because we don't have much cooperation history with the mainland, and the relationship between the two sides is not very good." Brad added: "But we know that Mr. Yang has some connections with the mainland, so I hope you can be a middleman and let us have a meeting with the mainland officials to see if there is anything we can cooperate on."

"Me? I'm afraid that won't work. In fact, I don't have a very good relationship with the mainland. I just have some cooperation with China Resources." Yang Wendong shook his head and said, "You want to cooperate with the mainland? Borrow money?"

Brad said: "Lending money is just one of the banking businesses. There are many other financial cooperations. However, if the mainland wants to borrow money, we are naturally happy to help."

Yang Wendong thought for a moment and said, "If you want to find someone who has good relations with the mainland, you should find another person. I think you should be able to find out who he is."

After the mainland and Western countries became friendly, and many industries in the country needed to be modernized, the 43 procurement was launched, which involved billion US dollars. Such a large amount of money in this era would be tempting even at the national level. It was normal for Citibank to want to participate.
Brad asked, "Mr. Yang, are you talking about Mr. Huo from Hong Kong? We have already contacted him, but he is unwilling to get involved."

"Then there's nothing I can do." Yang Wendong added, "If you really want to cooperate with the mainland, it might be more convenient to go directly to China Resources."

If Huo Yingdong was unwilling to participate, then he would naturally be even more unwilling. If it was the mainland that proposed to raise funds or purchase something, then they, the Chinese, could help, but otherwise, forget it.

"That's such a pity." Seeing that Yang Wendong had made up his mind, Brad also felt it was a pity. Many businessmen in Hong Kong seemed unwilling to get involved in such things.

"In fact, the mainland may not necessarily cooperate with overseas financial groups. There is no such precedent before." Yang Wendong said: "Mr. Brad, let's discuss the cooperation between you and me today?"

Although Yang Wendong is not very clear about the history of recent years, after the reform and opening up, France once planned to lend 50 billion US dollars to the mainland, but the mainland did not agree. Under the circumstances at that time, the mainland government still did not like to lend money. This is also an ancient culture of the Chinese.

Even after decades, when China's economy has grown to the second largest in the world, most Chinese people still don't like to spend their future money, but prefer to save money desperately. The country has tried many times to promote consumption, but it has never succeeded. Brad nodded and asked, "Mr. Yang, is there any specific cooperation for you to come to Citi this time?"

"It's about Best Buy." Yang Wendong said, "I plan to expand Best Buy in the eastern United States, with New York as the center and quickly expand to surrounding cities;

Although the locations we choose will be in the suburbs, we will have to build them all ourselves, so we will need a lot of money. I am afraid that the previous mortgage shares of Walmart will not be enough, so I hope to discuss this matter with Citibank in detail. "

Previously, Best Buy's expansion in the western United States was financed partly by its own capital and partly by loans from Citibank, with Wal-Mart stock as collateral.
However, the current market value of Walmart’s stock is not very high. Even though Yang Wendong knows its future, the bank only looks at the current value. In addition, Red Bull’s current publicity and expansion is also very capital-intensive, so the bank’s additional help is needed.

"Best Buy?" Brad asked in confusion, "Mr. Yang, I've studied your business. Many of your businesses are very profitable, but Best Buy has been losing money. I don't understand why you support this business so much. Are you so optimistic about this kind of mall that specializes in selling home appliances?"

Citibank is naturally aware of the performance of its mortgage business. Best Buy's business is completely unprofitable. Although the amount is not much, it is still expanding at a high speed. If this model continues, the number will increase, and the final funding problem will become larger and larger. If Yang Wendong had not been very successful in other fields, Citibank would probably have withdrawn long ago.

Yang Wendong naturally couldn't explain too much, so he said directly: "I am optimistic about the future of the electronics industry, especially the development of the chip industry, which will inevitably lead to the rapid development of home appliances or other electronics industries. The purpose of Best Buy's existence is to wait for this market to explode so that it can control the channels, just like some supermarkets responsible for decoration business."

"I also know something about the rapid development of the chip industry. Mr. Yang has also invested in Intel, a leader in the industry." Brad was obviously also very familiar with the development of American commercial companies. He then said, "If you need us to provide funds, that's fine, but Mr. Yang is planning to make a large-scale investment in the eastern United States. The amount of funds must be very large. No matter what, we also need a certain degree of collateral."

Yang Wendong asked: "Can assets outside the United States be used as collateral?"

He doesn't have many actual assets in the United States, and most of them are already financed by loans; some of the more virtual ones, such as the movies co-produced with Paramount, also have some income, but the value does not meet the requirements.

Brad shook his head and said, "This is not possible at the US headquarters, but your assets in Hong Kong can be mortgaged at Citibank in Hong Kong, and then the money can be transferred to the United States."

"This is too troublesome. For my business in the United States, I still hope to have financial cooperation in the United States," said Yang Wendong.

The last thing he wanted to do was to mobilize funds from overseas to enter the United States, because this market is easy to enter but difficult to exit. Especially after the electronics industry explodes in the future, there will be more funds in the United States, and it would be too stupid to mobilize funds now.

Brad thought for a moment and said, "Well, your company also sells many different products in the United States, such as sticky notes, suitcases, etc. The output value of these products is not low. However, the proportion of loans that can be obtained with this type of mortgage is not high. We still need a detailed investigation, which will take a long time, and then we can determine the amount."

"That's fine. There's no rush." Yang Wendong nodded and agreed.

Best Buy's expansion is also achieved step by step. This is not only a funding issue, but also a personnel issue. The training of people takes a longer time.

"That's great. As long as the collateral is sufficient, we will be happy to provide you with enough funds." Brad said with a smile.

Although they are not optimistic about Best Buy's business model, as long as there is enough collateral and Yang Wendong's identity will not lead to default, and the risk is low, any bank will be happy to cooperate.

Yang Wendong suddenly asked again: "Mr. Brad, I still have a lot of ocean-going ships under my control. Can these be used as collateral?"

In the early days, when Changxing Shipping purchased ocean-going vessels, they almost mortgaged the entire amount. But after 67, it can only be said that shipping was easy to make money. The cost of the vessel could be recovered within one year, and the rest was net profit.
Therefore, many of Changxing Shipping’s ocean-going ships are now free. If they can be used well and a sum of money can be raised to invest where it should be, it will be a very good deal.

PS: Please give me a monthly ticket
(End of this chapter)

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