Chapter 764 The Beginning of Investing in Japan

If it was the kind of TV station in history with restrictions on science and education content, Yang Wendong would not bother to participate. However, a normal TV station, in the context of Hong Kong's booming economy and cultural output today, will definitely be able to survive for a long time, like Rediffusion Television (future ATV).

As for TV stations, in addition to content, Yang Wendong pays more attention to their news function. This is also the reason why many large financial groups take a fancy to TV stations and large newspapers, which can influence many things.
"News cooperation? Mr. Yang, that's too general." He Zuozhi frowned and said, "If that's the case, then more than half of the purpose of my TV station will be gone."

He is not a fool, so he naturally knows what is most important to a TV station, and he also knows Yang Wendong's purpose.

Yang Wendong smiled and said, "Not all of them. I just need your TV station to cooperate with me when it comes to my business strategy. For other normal time periods, you can do whatever you want, including TVB under my control. I don't care most of the time."

"Is there no time limit?" He Zuozhi suddenly asked.

Yang Wendong asked back, "Why is there a time limit? I am not unwilling to pay for these cooperation. The fees are normal. I just need other TV stations and media to not oppose me."

Rediffusion Television is controlled by British capital, and it is wholly owned, so he has no way to interfere. However, according to the current trend, he must ensure that the newly opened TV station is owned by the Chinese, and then it will be his indirect influence.

In terms of profits, the TV station is not that big. TVB's annual net profit is not even as much as the rent of a small building in Central. It is purely because of its huge influence.

When He Zuozhi heard this condition, he did not hesitate any longer and immediately agreed: "Okay, that's no problem, but I need all of this in writing."

"Of course. Please wait a few days. My Legal Department and Commerce Department will prepare the relevant documents." Yang Wendong nodded.

Any substantive cooperation will naturally need to be documented, but some things may not be included in the document, so the boss’s verbal agreement will prevail. Generally, there will be no breach of contract.

This is a normal phenomenon in the business world. For example, several giants in Silicon Valley in the past had a verbal agreement not to poach each other's employees to avoid increasing labor costs. This matter would not have been exposed if a fool had not sent an email later.

He Zuozhi nodded and said, "Okay, then I'll wait for Yang Sheng's good news."

After He Zuozhi said goodbye, Su Yiyi happened to arrive, so she talked about this matter;

After listening to this, Su Yiyi said, "It seems that our consortium's influence on Hong Kong is getting stronger and stronger, and the Hong Kong government is beginning to be wary of it."

"The previous Jardine Matheson and HSBC were actually the same. The main reason is that we are Chinese and the Hong Kong government has a different attitude." Yang Wendong said indifferently: "In the future, when the relationship between the mainland and Western countries is better and our strength in the United Nations is stronger, we Chinese will become the masters of Hong Kong again."

In fact, the reversal of the Sino-British transformation of Hong Kong’s capitalist society is essentially the result of the rise of the mainland and the decline of the British Empire.

"Really?" Su Yiyi was a little incredulous.

Yang Wendong smiled and said, "Yes, it is necessary. The reason why China imported so much heavy industrial equipment last year was to develop the economy. If the economy is strong, everything will be strong, including JS. In addition, the mainland is not bad in this regard."

In fact, the purpose of the West to win over the mainland is to see the JS of China.

People in previous lives knew that the United States won the Cold War, but they did not know that in the 70s or early 80s, the polar bear was the strong party in the Cold War, which put too much pressure on the West, and the United States and Europe could hardly bear it.

There are too many stories here to tell.
After hearing Yang Wendong describe a lot of international affairs, Su Yiyi suddenly realized and said, "I didn't expect Hong Kong to be related to these things."

"Of course, Hong Kong is a city with a good economy. International trade is becoming more and more developed, and it is naturally related to international events." Yang Wendong nodded and said.

Su Yiyi said: "I haven't thought about it that much. I just need to focus on running my chain store well."

Yang Wendong asked: "How many stores does your Yiranzhijia have in Asia now?"

Su Yiyi established her own clothing chain store a long time ago. In addition to helping her at the capital level, Yang Wendong also introduced Berkshire Hathaway to Hong Kong to reduce production costs. In addition, he taught her the operating model of Uniqlo in his previous life.

Su Yiyi said: "There are 186 stores in Hong Kong and nearly 2200 stores in Southeast Asia. They are mainly located in various cities and are developing slowly, so I am preparing to enter Japan."

"Entering Japan? That's fine, but in Japan, we should adopt the Hong Kong model and own all the properties ourselves." Yang Wendong thought for a while and said, "As for funds, several of my subsidiaries also have a lot of business in Japan and have a lot of Japanese yen reserves, which you can use to buy properties."

When a consortium is large enough, unless Yang Wendong knows that a certain currency will undergo a major change, they will hold all kinds of currencies to ensure convenience and reduce exchange rate risks.
Among them, mainstream currencies such as the British pound, the US dollar, the Japanese yen, and the German mark are the most common. At present, these are relatively stable. Therefore, after making money in these areas, there is no rush to convert it into Hong Kong dollars. Basically, they stay locally. If there is investment, then invest. If there is no investment, buy low-risk funds such as government bonds, etc.

Su Yiyi asked, "What do you think about the future of real estate in Japan?"

Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Yes, Japan's economy is developing very well now. In terms of international trade, it is far better than the United States and Europe. Too much foreign exchange flows into Japan. In order to maintain a trade balance, Japan must print more yen.

So much Japanese yen can only circulate in the domestic market, so a lot of it will definitely flow into the stock market and the housing market."

This is actually the reason why the mainland real estate market skyrocketed in the past. The stock market should be similar, but it collapsed for some reasons, and in the end only the housing market achieved snowball development;

In the next decade or so, Japan's real estate market and stock market will absorb the export economy currency of the previous decades plus the overdraft consumption of the next few decades, thus achieving a rapid rise in real estate, second only to Hong Kong;

Hong Kong is just a city, and it is impossible to invest unlimitedly here. So it is a good choice to move funds to Japan, or Taiwan, which is a similar development route. However, the Japanese real estate market has not started to boom yet, so there is no rush for the time being. But if you want to do business, you naturally have to hold the property yourself. On the one hand, you can enjoy the huge increase in income. On the other hand, this kind of business must be stable, so you must hold it yourself. If you rent it, it is easy to work for the landlord.

Su Yiyi didn't think much about it and said, "Okay, then I will buy a property in Japan and then open a store, but in this case, I can only run it myself, right?"

Yang Wendong thought for a moment and said, "It's OK to operate it on your own, but if it's inconvenient, we can also buy the property and lease it to the franchisee. You can decide for yourself and choose whichever is more convenient."

"Yeah, okay." Su Yiyi nodded and agreed.

The next morning, Yang Wendong called together several key figures of the company and asked, "Everyone, I checked yesterday afternoon. We have more and more Japanese yen in our hands now, almost 240 billion yen, which is about 8200 million US dollars when converted to US dollars. With so much money, we have been doing low-risk projects. I feel a little bit of a loss."

After finishing the discussion with Su Yiyi yesterday, he learned about the recent business situation in Japan. Currently, the company's main business in Japan is comics licensing and sales, shipping, movies, and Changxing Industry and Honor also have a lot of business in Japan.

In the early years, Japan's profits were used to purchase new ships, but after the 70s, Yang Wendong discontinued this project, resulting in an increasing amount of Japanese yen in his hands, because there was no place for large-scale consumption.

As for Su Yiyi's Yiran Home, it is impossible for it to need so much money, and its development must be done step by step.

Wrinkle Huai first said: "Mr. Yang, since we have so much money, why don't we expand our cinema chain in Japan?
After acquiring Nikkatsu, our cinema chain has never expanded. We still have more than 500 cinemas, ranking fifth in Japan, but the gap with the other companies is getting bigger and bigger.

Hollywood is interested in cooperating with us because we have cinema chains in Asia, and the more cinema chains we have, the better. Japan’s economy is also developing rapidly, and the demand for movies will also increase.”

"Okay, this is a direction. Please make a five-year plan for me. It should have detailed goal planning and how much funding is needed." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "I am also happy to see the great expansion of our cinema chain in Japan."

Zou Wenhuai immediately agreed with a smile: "Okay, Mr. Yang."

At this time, Wang Haoyun, the general manager in charge of legal affairs, said, "Mr. Yang, Mr. Zou, we are investing heavily in theaters in Japan. Will there be any political troubles?"

Zou Wen thought for a moment and said, "It shouldn't be. Over the years, the United States has been criticizing Japan for not opening up its market, but in fact, Japan has already opened up its market, and it is the United States that cannot sell its goods.
Therefore, Japan should not dare to do anything about the promise of free foreign investment, otherwise it will be easy for the United States to find fault with it. "

"Well, I've heard about this as well. What Zou said makes sense, but we still need to evaluate the specific legal risks. We can't just rely on this." Yang Wendong said, "We can also consider introducing some capital from Japan and cooperate with it, or even go public separately. I just need to control these theaters and ensure the release of Hong Kong films."

Sometimes, going public is also to tie together the interests of many people, so Hutchison Whampoa was not privatized;
After going public, others only have shares on the surface, but the company is still yours and everything is under your control.
Not to mention, according to many practices of Hong Kong listed companies, it is legal to transfer profits. Even in Japan and the United States, there are the same methods. Capital in the world has a tacit understanding in this regard.

Zou Wenhuai agreed, "Understood. I will go to Japan and negotiate with the local Z client and professional law firm."

"Well, OK." Yang Wendong nodded and asked, "Besides the cinema, what else can we invest in?"

Tang Xingzhi from the Four Seasons Hotel suddenly said, "Mr. Yang, how about we build a Four Seasons Hotel in Japan as well?"

"Four Seasons Hotel? That's a good idea." Yang Wendong said after thinking for a while.

In the past, many people may not have noticed that the real estate market in the mainland basically did not allow overseas capital to participate. Only a few Hong Kong tycoons, who were given special care by the central government, were able to participate in some projects.
This is also because, after foreign capital comes in, for example, $10 million, it can easily turn the capital into $9 billion with the help of bank leverage and the real estate boom. At this time, if they want to leave, the country will burn $ million in foreign exchange out of thin air;

This is the wealth of hundreds of thousands of people working hard in sweatshops for many years, so basically most countries do not allow foreign investment in the real estate market, which is a protection for the domestic market;

The same is true in Japan today. It cannot be said that overseas capital cannot enter and invest in real estate, but there are many restrictions. It was not until after the Plaza Accord that the United States used the big stick of free trade to open up the Japanese market.

Now, it is reasonable and legal to invest in Japan on the grounds of special projects, such as investing in clothing chains, cinemas, hotels, etc.

Yang Wendong does not plan to go to supermarkets, because Japan also has local consortiums controlling retail, and it is not worth competing with them. However, it is different for hotels. Japan is still short of hotels. Although there is enough local capital, the government will not reject overseas capital.

More importantly, Japan's protection of local real estate has made local capital more willing to invest in simple real estate rather than hotels. Just like in Hong Kong, hotels are too complicated and the returns are not as good as office buildings.

When Tang Xingzhi heard the boss's agreement, he continued, "Japan's foreign trade is very strong now, and it has also begun to develop tourism in recent years, which is very good for hotels;
Originally, I was thinking of looking for franchisees in Japan to invest in Four Seasons Hotels, but like in Europe and the United States, potential franchisees were hesitant because of the huge investment.”

Yang Wendong said, "Well, I am also optimistic about the Japanese real estate market. Since there is demand in this area, let's build a hotel in Japan. As for the address, I remember that Disney is cooperating with Japan to build a theme park. You can consider building a hotel near this theme park."

"Okay." Tang Xingzhi agreed immediately.

Yang Wendong went on to say: "The investment in a hotel does require tens of millions of dollars, but the main funds must still come from banks, so we still have enough funds to invest in Japan. Do you have any other ideas?"

Many people below discussed with each other for a while, and it seemed that there was no project that required investment in Japan.

So Yang Wendong said, "You guys take your time to think about it. You can come back to me when you remember it later. Lao Fang, you should focus on checking the information of Japanese real estate companies first. If you don't have any other investments, buy the stocks of these companies."

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

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