Reborn in Russia as a Big Shot

07 was still a golden window of opportunity for immigration to Singapore.

In accordance with the requirements of Singapore's Financial Investors Scheme (FIS), Li Xiang purchased S$150 million of government-mandated closed-end funds.

If converted to US dollars at the exchange rate, it would be approximately one million.

Li Xiang mortgaged his VK shares to borrow eight million US dollars from Deutsche Bank. After deducting the funds used for investment immigration to Singapore, he used all the remaining money to increase his holdings of Apple stock.

Triple long positions.

He also set up an investment company in Singapore called Shopee Investments to hold shares in companies like Shopee.

Bosideng's Hong Kong IPO is about to begin, Gao Dekang is in Hong Kong, and Li Xiang, after completing his immigration procedures in Singapore, bought a plane ticket and flew there.

-

InterContinental Hong Kong Hotel.

Standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, Li Xiang looked at the sea view outside and joked, "It's good to be rich. I can't afford such an expensive hotel."

"Where do you live?" Gao Dekang asked, sitting there making Kung Fu tea.

"Regent Grand Hotel"

This place was originally called the Regent Hotel, but it was acquired by InterContinental Hotels Group in 2001.

"Does this place really exist?" Gao Dekang had also seen the movie "From Beijing with Love".

"I think so. I booked a room at the Shangri-La Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui, which is quite close to here."

"Have a taste, what do you think of this tea?" Gao Dekang, beaming, brewed tea for Li Xiang and then casually struck up a conversation, "I heard you set up an e-commerce website in Russia. Can a foreign businessman like you really make it work?"

"It's all up to human effort." Li Xiang didn't know much about tea, so he just drank it until it was too hot to drink. After putting down his teacup, he took out a business card from his wallet and handed it to Gao Dekang. "It's newly printed."

"Shopee Investment..." Gao Dekang couldn't help but complain, "It's okay to translate e-commerce as Shopee, but don't call it an investment company. If you read it a little faster, it sounds like 'blind investment'."

"How can you make money if you buy things haphazardly?"

Li Xiang joked, "I was even planning to buy some of your stocks."

Gao Dekang: "Buying our stock can no longer be called blind investing, it can be called value investing."

Li Xiang took another sip of tea, chuckled, and got down to business, saying, "Brother Gao, you're about to be on the Forbes list in China. Let me try to get on your good side. Can you give me an insider price when I get goods from Bosideng?"

"How many registered users does Shopee have?" Gao Dekang immediately became serious when the topic of business came up.

"Two hundred thousand." This is still inflated; nearly half of it has no spending record.

"How can I give you a discount when you only have so few customers?"

Li Xiang continued his persuasion, saying, "If I only sell a hundred or two hundred items, the discount you give me will be equivalent to the cost of two nights in a hotel. Given our relationship, why would you haggle over such a small amount?"

"If it sells well, my order volume will be larger than those offline distributors in Russia, then I deserve this discount."

"No matter how you calculate it, you have to give me the lowest price."

After a few seconds of contemplation, Gao Dekang said, "Bosideng has a price agreement with its distributors. Giving you a discount is no problem, but you definitely won't get the lowest price, and you can't sell across regions."

"I'm an e-commerce seller." Li Xiang said, speechless.

Gao Dekang added with a laugh, "What I mean is that you can only sell in Russia; you can't sell back to your home country and disrupt prices."

"Could the payment period be extended? Russian Post's payment processing is too slow, at least six months."

"He's dragging you down, so you're dragging me down too?" Gao Dekang was quite easy to talk to. After thinking for a while, he said, "Pay 30% of the payment upfront, and settle the rest in six months. Whether you can sell it or not, whether the post office will give you a refund or not, none of that matters to me. You have to pay when the payment period is over."

"That's enough, don't make any more demands."

"This is already very good," Li Xiang said casually. "Shouldn't your wife, the one who rings the bell, come too? I'll treat you two to dinner then."

"No," Gao Dekang said with a wry smile, "I'm begging you this time, please don't show up in front of her, let me have a few days of peace and quiet."

Gao Dekang neither liked nor disliked Li Xiang.

E-commerce companies seizing market share from traditional distributors is an inevitable trend.

Bosideng has begun negotiations with Russian e-commerce giant Ozon, and the main driving force behind this is Gao Dekang's wife, Mei Dong.

Although Shopee's user base is negligible, not even a fraction of Ozon's, competition from other companies can still put some negotiating pressure on Ozon.

-

St. Petersburg.

Viktor summoned his most trusted confidant, Shkav, to the rooftop.

"You haven't been acting quite right these past few days."

Shkav means wardrobe in Russian and is used as a nickname to describe someone who is tall and robust.

"I'm perfectly normal," Shkav defended himself.

Victor lit a cigarette for himself and handed one to Shkaf. "Now it's just the two of us. Tell me the truth, what happened?"

Shkav lit a cigarette, took two deep drags, and then said, "I have some gambling debts, and somehow Ivanov found out. They're threatening to report me and make me lose my job."

Victor pressed further, "What did they ask you to do?"

"I still have principles. Can I work for the Mafia?" Shkaf's voice trailed off. "They're not telling me to do anything, they're telling me to do nothing and just drift through life."

Victor frowned and remained silent for a long time.

Shkav said excitedly, "I reported Grach. He's always the most enthusiastic one, always thinking about making a name for himself. Look at him lately."

"Ivanov must have contacted him too!"

"Is it just the two of you who have a problem?" Victor became more and more frightened as he thought about it. "Chellep, Heriahi, and Saneć, those three of them always go to the toilet, I don't know what they're talking about inside with the door closed."

Victor asked with a serious expression, "How can you be sure it was Ivanov who threatened you? Did he say so himself?"

"No," Shkav countered, "Who else could it be but them?"

Victor sighed, "It's okay if they are, but I'm afraid it's not."

"Count on your fingers, how many people in our group have been looking for new clues these past few days? They're just slacking off, pretending to be very busy."

"Where did you get this information from, that you could find so many people's weaknesses at the same time?"

Shkaf swallowed hard. "The FSB? Which high-ranking official doesn't want us to continue the investigation?"

Victor: "Look on the bright side. None of the people who were assigned to our group have any connections. They don't need to make any great contributions, just avoid any mistakes. It's a good thing, at least they can keep their jobs."

"So you're really not going to investigate?" Shkaf was still a little unwilling.

"Of course we have to investigate, and we have to do it big, even more thoroughly than before." Victor tossed his cigarette butt on the ground and said resolutely, "Get the tax authorities to help us investigate Shopee's taxes."

"Shopee's management is so chaotic, there must be problems with its taxes."

"Money laundering is a serious crime and could easily implicate us. Tax audits and fines are fines, but that shouldn't be a problem. We need to see some results; we can't work for nothing."

"It's acceptable to both superiors and subordinates, both openly and covertly."

Viktor muttered to himself, "Just which powerful tree has the Ivanov family climbed up to? Their background is so strong that they can even access KGB files."

The predecessor of the Russian Federal Security Service was the Fifth Directorate of the KGB.

Specifically responsible for internal intelligence.