2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 557 Giving Weilai Cars a Prestige

May 1, Thursday, Lishe International Airport.

Tan Jincheng hugged Gu Qingqing: "Why did you come here by yourself?"

Gu Qingqing looked around at the people coming and going, still feeling a little shy.

It was May Day, and Lishe International Airport was bustling with people. Their grand entrance drew glances from people every now and then.

"I happened to have some business to take care of in the city, so I just came over."

Tan Jincheng went to Hunan Province, but there were many activities before Orange Technology went public, so these were all left to Gu Qingqing. During this time, Gu Qingqing was also traveling around the district, the city, and schools.

As Gu Qingqing gets busier, she becomes more and more of a professional woman, and her demeanor no longer resembles that of a student.

"After you come back from the US, you'll be preparing for your graduation defense, right?"

Hey, I'm getting ready to ring the bell at Old Mi's place, but when I get back I still have to prepare for my graduation defense. What a contrast!
"Yes, I've been so busy that I haven't had time to defend my thesis. Now that I'm back, I can't put it off any longer. I even went to the school today."

In her four years of university life, Gu Qingqing only really studied for three semesters. Especially after entering her junior year, she rarely appeared in class and had long since stopped living in the dormitory.

However, every time Gu Qingqing returned to school, she would visit her roommates. But as the number one star of Yongcheng University, not only were the younger students curious about her, but many teachers were too.

The students' curiosity was relatively simple, which made it more difficult for the teachers to deal with. Over time, they stopped going back to school unless there was something serious going on, since the school couldn't prevent them from graduating anyway.

"Aren't you a little regretful that you didn't fully enjoy your university life?"

Back in the car, I noticed that Gu Qingqing looked rather forlorn, which I figured was probably caused by the conversation we had just had.

"It would be too sentimental to say I regret it. A person's energy is limited, and the probability of doing several things well at the same time is relatively small. I was already lacking in basic skills, so if I wanted to manage Orange Technology well, I had to give up my studies."

"I think anyone would have made the same choice as me."

"Yes, people have limited energy, and it's impossible to do several things well at the same time," Tan Jincheng sighed.

Focus on doing one thing well, and only when you've developed to a certain point will you have room to do other things. Even someone as successful as Lei Jun has had an extraordinary life, starting from school, working at Kingsoft, and then moving to Xiaomi.

It's like leveling up in a game; you have to reach a certain level before you have the energy to explore larger maps. The same applies to doing business; you have to wait until your foundation is solid before you can see higher and farther views.

How are your cooperation negotiations going?

Gu Qingqing guessed that Tan Jincheng was going to acquire Changfeng Group, but the publicly announced news was that he was seeking cooperation with Changfeng Group, so Gu Qingqing could only pretend not to know.

"Talks are already underway, and we are currently preparing to acquire Yangzi Automobile, a subsidiary of Changfeng Group in our province. We have already entered the substantive bidding stage."

The process of a listed company selling its subsidiary is also quite complicated. First, both the parent company and the subsidiary must hold a shareholders' meeting. Fortunately, the shareholders of Yangzi Automobile are very simple, and Changfeng Group has absolute control. As long as they agree, there is nothing to say.

However, the necessary procedures still need to be followed, and it is also necessary to report to the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC). The CSRC will then review whether there are related-party transactions, insider trading, etc. The entire process will take at least a month.

Besides, it coincided with the May Day holiday, so there was no rushing things. It wasn't like Tan Jincheng was abandoning his responsibilities by leaving everything to Huang Ming.

As for Zhang Yong, after returning from Yongzhou, he temporarily went back to his hometown. He finally had the opportunity to change companies, and after completing the acquisition, he still had some free time. Boss Tan couldn't be so heartless.

Xie Junhong remained in Xiangcheng to assist Huang Ming, and he was also seriously considering the trade-offs between the power battery and the car that Tan Jincheng had mentioned.

Investing in both is possible, but the funds would be too scattered. Taking a little here and a little there is far less efficient than betting on one thing. Just like when we invested in Flash Technology, Flash Technology was definitely overvalued by Beicang City Investment at that time.

However, a few years later, FlashTech achieved billions in revenue, becoming the fastest-growing electric vehicle company, which was far more cost-effective than investing here and there.

"Acquiring Yangzi Automobile?"

Gu Qingqing was somewhat surprised. Could it be that she had guessed wrong? Wasn't FlashTech undergoing restructuring in preparation for an IPO? Based on her understanding of her husband, who always preferred acquisitions, how could he possibly go through the normal listing process on the A-share market?
Going through the entire process takes at least two or three years.

"Yes, it is estimated that Changfeng Group will submit its documents to the China Securities Regulatory Commission after the May Day holiday. If nothing unexpected happens, Yangzi Automobile should be ours next month."

"Does the subsidiary also have a car manufacturing license?" Gu Qingqing didn't know much about the automotive industry, but she did know that Weilai Automobile didn't have a car manufacturing license. She figured that the acquisition of Yangzi Automobile was probably for this reason.

"Yes, car manufacturing qualifications are very valuable, but not so valuable either. There are too many companies on the market that have them now. However, if a company goes bankrupt, its car manufacturing qualifications will be revoked."

By 2008, it was no longer unusual for manufacturers to have complete vehicle production qualifications. According to a 2007 industry report by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, there were at least 50 well-known manufacturers, not to mention some that were on the verge of bankruptcy.

The reason Andar was in such a hurry and sold at a low price was that if they didn't sell, their license would be revoked. In 2004, Andar actually had nothing left except its production license.

Every little bit helps. Tan Jincheng chose to use Andar's car production qualifications to cooperate with Zhongtai because he couldn't hold onto them for long; if he held onto them for too long, they would become worthless.

At the time, Zhongtai was also in a hurry to get it, so the two sides hit it off immediately.

By 2008, when market competition was becoming increasingly fierce, there were even more car companies like Andar on the verge of bankruptcy. However, due to information isolation, many of them remained unknown. These days, local governments have never had any concept of information sharing.

Many business owners used to impress people with PowerPoint presentations here and there, and then went to another place to impress people again and still managed to do very well. This seems unbelievable in the era of highly developed internet more than a decade later.

But in reality, this kind of thing is quite normal in this era. In an age of limited information, being scammed is not something to be proud of. People tend to keep their dirty laundry to themselves and just grit their teeth and accept it.

Sounds amazing? Incredible?

But it's just that casual. You could say the world is a giant makeshift operation. A certain Tai company used a PowerPoint presentation to swindle over 10 billion yuan in a resource-rich city in Northeast China, and then took the same project to another city to swindle people again, and nothing happened.

This small resource-based city, eager to transform itself, was like a sucker, being fooled many times, until it was fooled by a certain company too much before things got a little better.

Tan Jincheng's knowledge of so many car companies is also due to external factors. During the years he was idle in his later life, he had nothing to do at home, so he just browsed the internet aimlessly. Big data only has a few preferences for men, and with frequent push notifications, he naturally knew more.

"Congratulations, your dream of building cars can come true."

Gu Qingqing was genuinely happy for Tan Jincheng.

Tan Jincheng thought he had concealed it well, but he couldn't escape the eyes of those around him. However, at the time, no one thought that Tan Jincheng was capable of building cars.

Since she started dating Tan Jincheng, whenever he had free time, Tan Jincheng would browse all kinds of car forums, and the magazines he bought the most were also about cars. Now we can see that he was preparing to build cars from a very weak age.

Now I can finally realize my dream.

"Yes, we're finally about to achieve our goal, but we're still a little short. That's one of the reasons we're going to the US this time. We'll be staying there for a while."

Tan Jincheng shook Gu Qingqing's hand and replied with a smile.

"Huh? What's missing? Having a factory and a car manufacturing license means you can manufacture cars, right? You've also acquired quite a few design studios, so you have designs now."

Tan Jincheng glanced at the front row. Li Yaohui was still driving. Gu Qingqing had driven herself, while Tan Jincheng had only brought Li Yaohui back. As for going to the United States, Liu Suman was also there. The formalities had already been completed.

"It's still a bit lacking in prestige. When we talk about car manufacturing, who will pay attention to us if we say things like Xingchi or Fengchi? We need to build up the company's reputation first."

Just like the pre-release promotion of a movie, a movie needs to start its promotion during its filming period to make the audience remember it and keep them looking forward to it, just like investing in stocks is about anticipation.

Even with an existing production line, it will be at least 2010 before Weilai Auto's first self-developed vehicle is officially launched.

With joint venture brands above and the strong rise of domestic brands below, Weilai, which entered the market late, needs to solve the most pressing issue of how to keep consumers looking forward to the market in the next two years.

To put it bluntly, it's back to the old marketing routine. Boss Tan has to do some marketing from time to time over the next two years to make consumers remember Wei Lai.

"We entered the gasoline car market late, but we can't just skip gasoline cars and go straight to new energy vehicles, so we can only use my marketing tactics to do some underhanded tricks."

The power of automobiles extends beyond just transportation; they also contribute to a sense of prestige.

What kind of car is the most prestigious? Of course, it's a luxury car, a sports car. Just like a few years ago, all the big and small bosses in Ningbo wanted to get themselves a BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, or Audi. Boss Tan was no exception. As soon as he had money, he got an Audi A6.

As the country with the most developed automotive industry in the world, Lao Mi can go there to fleece people while also giving Weilai Auto a boost in prestige!
(End of this chapter)