2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 564 What the heck? Sai Ling?
The file folder that Shen Nanpeng gave us was quite thick.

It includes a collection of many luxury car brands, and thoughtfully indicates which ones are most in need of money.

The automotive industry in Europe and America is more competitive than ours. They don't have such a large population market to support it, and it's not so easy to expand overseas.

Some luxury car brands seem impressive, but they are actually all show and no substance; many of them can't even sell their cars.

Take Dai Ying as an example, they have almost sold out of their car brands, and Land Rover and Jaguar have been sold and resold several times.

Nothing can be accomplished in a day. The subprime mortgage crisis that occurred in 2007, although in the eyes of the US it had been resolved, appeared peaceful on the financial front.

However, it still dealt a significant blow to the manufacturing industry in the United States, such as Tesla, whose darkest hour was 2008.

The Big Three American automakers began various layoffs and asset sales at the beginning of the year to save themselves. Ford was relatively smarter and started paying attention to our market, which made it the one that survived the most.

"Chrysler? Hey, that thing's about to go bankrupt?"

General Motors was also on the verge of bankruptcy. Wall Street investment institutions are still very powerful. They can obtain very detailed information. In fact, as early as the beginning of 2008, the leading automaker in North America issued a warning about the health problems of the North American auto industry.

Simply put, banks are no longer willing to lend money to these car companies; they simply cannot survive without borrowing money.

"What are you looking at? The information Mr. Shen gave you?"

Gu Qingqing returned carrying large and small bags. During the time that Tan Jincheng had arranged with Shen Nanpeng, she went shopping for a while with Liu Suman and bought quite a few things.

"Yeah, do you want to come and see? It's quite interesting. Old Mi isn't as glamorous as he seems on the surface."

To be honest, this round of subprime crisis really helped us, especially car companies. Foreign companies were too busy to take care of themselves, which gave us a great opportunity to acquire and develop.

"What do you mean?"

While Gu Qingqing was dividing the items with Liu Suman, she asked, unsure if there would be any time left. Gu Qingqing had bought quite a lot of things; it seemed that shopping was the main theme of her first trip abroad.

Most of them are gifts for my family.

"You'll see in a moment what they bought."

"I bought mostly small gifts and clothes for Jin Yue."

In fact, Tan Jincheng really wanted to bring his family to come and have some fun. No matter how much he didn't care about foreigners, his family members who had never been here before were quite eager to come, at least they were very curious, even Gu Qingqing was like that.

However, time is limited, and a special period is approaching soon. Taking the whole family abroad for a trip might leave a bad impression.

"Haha, buy less clothes, maybe the ones you buy are exported from us."

Gu Qingqing rolled her eyes at him. Sometimes his emotional intelligence was very high, but sometimes it was ridiculously low: "Is this measured by value? I always have to bring some small gifts, and many of these small gifts might even be imported from Yiwu."

"Alright, alright, buy whatever you want. Come and see what's fun. These documents are not usually available to the public. If it weren't for Mr. Shen, I would have to pay a lot of money to get them."

This single file folder is worth well over 10 US dollars. It contains a lot of information about the current business status of American and even some European car brands, in an era of severe information asymmetry.

If you were to hire a business investigation company to collect the data one by one, it might cost tens of thousands of US dollars, and you might not even be able to gather such comprehensive information.

What is it that makes you so curious?

Gu Qingqing put down the bag in her hand, and Liu Suman, seeing that the two were getting down to business, also left.

The reason Tan Jincheng showed Gu Qingqing these things was that he intended for her to get involved in some real industries. In the future, she would be in charge of investment and would have to deal with many industries, especially the automotive industry chain, where many companies would need investment.

After a while, Gu Qingqing let out a long sigh of relief: "Looking at these reports, America's manufacturing industry is really in danger. This is an opportunity for us."

"That's true. The car market is probably going to go out of business soon. When that happens, not only will the US economy suffer a major blow, but its security will also be a concern."

"What a strange economic system. The financial system on Wall Street is very prosperous, but the manufacturing industry is struggling. Banks don't even want to lend money to the manufacturing industry anymore."

"It's unbelievable that big companies like GM and Chrysler are on the verge of bankruptcy."

Tan Jincheng smiled. He had just looked at these two and couldn't afford them. Besides, General Motors would definitely be saved by the old American, and would never allow a foreigner to buy one of the Big Three. As for the other two, only Ford was doing slightly better.

However, it's not much better, otherwise they wouldn't have to sell peripheral assets like Land Rover and Jaguar.

"Huh?" Tan Jincheng exclaimed in surprise.

Gu Qingqing turned to look at Tan Jincheng and couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong?"

"It's alright, keep watching. I think I've found my target." Tan Jincheng smiled slightly. Haha, isn't this the same brand that swindled 66 billion yuan in investment from a certain place in my past life, the one that couldn't do anything about that swindler, Sai Ling? I didn't expect there really was such a brand!

Damn, doing business with foreigners is full of pitfalls; you really can't be careless.

He didn't have much of an impression of Sai Ling Tan Jincheng, but he did know about sports cars like the Camaro and Mustang. These models were also available in China, and he had even seen them before. It was a very niche sports car brand. He just didn't expect Shen Nanpeng to have collected them as well.

If even General Motors is struggling, it's even more difficult for this niche, ridiculously small car brand to operate. You could say it's really hard to even sell it.

"Camaro? Mustang? These are sports cars, right? My cousin has mentioned them before." Gu Qingqing leaned closer to take a look.

"Yes, this company is a good choice. Other companies probably wouldn't agree to license it, but I really don't want to buy it. It's too easy to be scammed if I do."

Large companies tend to have some integrity during acquisitions, but small companies have virtually no integrity whatsoever. In order to sell at a high price, they will even try every means to hide debts and risks.

While you can still negotiate with the other party domestically, cross-border lawsuits are not so easy to win in the US, which is why many domestic companies give up – they simply can't afford the legal fees alone.

"Yes, that's the one. Let's talk to them and see if we can get the authorization."

Sports car brands are too niche and practically useless, but they have a lot of fame, which is indeed good for using as a front. The key is that if you can get the license, it won't cost much at all.

Speaking of this company, Sailing, it is a household name in the overseas new energy era. During the era of large subsidies for new energy, all kinds of companies that defrauded subsidies emerged one after another, but the fact that they could defraud 66 billion yuan at once and still be unable to do anything about it is simply dazzling to the eyes of the people of the whole country.

Upon hearing this, Gu Qingqing laughed and said, "You're not buying the Land Rover?"

"I want to buy it, but I really don't have the money. I can try to raise 20 billion RMB, but I really can't raise 20 billion USD."

140 billion! This morning, Orange Technology's stock price performance was mediocre, with its market value hovering around 90 billion. Even if all the shares belonged to Tan Jincheng, it wouldn't be worth that much. It would be impossible for Flash Group to raise that much money.

It's simply not worth risking your entire fortune for a brand.

If we could acquire the Serin brand, that would be great. With the authorization in our hands, that swindler would have to find another way to cheat people out of money. This would also be considered helping a certain place in Jiangsu Province.
Haha, you're welcome.

"You watch for a while, I'll go call President Shen."

After a moment's thought, Tan Jincheng prepared to take action. The fact that this company was able to cooperate with swindlers in its previous life meant that it was either acquired by swindlers or was cooperating with swindlers. Either way, it must have been related to a lack of money.

It's easy to solve problems if you're short of money.

"Hmm? You've got your eye on the Camaro? I thought you were going to buy a Chrysler," Shen Nanpeng teased.

After all, Chrysler is already in bankruptcy proceedings, so there's a good chance they could actually negotiate and secure the brand license, at least for the domestic market.

"Forget it, Chrysler is more expensive than Land Rover. Even if it goes bankrupt, I still can't afford it. I'd rather work on GM than buy it. Even if I fail, I'll still make a name for myself."

Choosing Serin was based on information from her previous life. The biggest advantage of a reborn person is the information gap. It seems that Chrysler was saved by Fiat. With such a large company watching over it, it was simply impossible.

It might be better to settle for a less popular, niche brand.

"Haha, sure, no need to be greedy. Our team here has also analyzed it, and it's true that Sai Ling has a better chance of reaching a cooperation agreement. But don't you want to buy a Land Rover anymore?"

"Want to buy it? India's offer is 20 billion US dollars, I'd risk my life for it! What's wrong, are you interested?"

"interested in!"

Holy crap! Really?

Tan Jincheng, who was sitting casually, stood up excitedly after hearing Shen Nanpeng's words. The offer of 20 billion US dollars was really not low. Tan Jincheng had just mentioned it casually before and never expected that Shen Nanpeng would consider it.

With $20 billion, he could invest in many domestic internet and pharmaceutical companies, and the returns would definitely be much higher than acquiring a car company.

"Why? This is not cost-effective for you at all. Investing in the internet will yield results much faster."

Shen Nanpeng smiled slightly: "Haha, you're quite calm. It's not exactly a good deal, but I'm investing in you as a person. Besides, we can't be the only ones providing the money; you'll have to ask other investment institutions."

As Tan Jincheng said, acquiring Land Rover was not exactly a good deal for Sequoia Capital, but it was worthwhile.

Although Shen Nanpeng has always stayed abroad, he is still very familiar with the ways of the world in China. Now is an era that welcomes capital, but once the domestic capital market matures, having a share in a large physical group company would be a good thing for both Sequoia Capital and himself.

Moreover, it wouldn't be so easy for Tan Jincheng to get his money.

(End of this chapter)