"One more thing, boss, CNOOC has officially launched negotiations with Royal Shell of the Netherlands on a 30 billion yuan integrated refining and chemical project since the beginning of the year. According to the news I have received, the negotiations have come to an end and will be completed in the second half of the year at the latest. Signing the contract. Not only that, PetroChina and Sinopec are also negotiating large-scale integrated refining and chemical projects. If everything goes through, it will put a lot of pressure on our investment in the refining and chemical industry in Jiangsu and Zhejiang."
The glass curtain wall of Shell Villa.
This is March 26th.
Sunday.
While the whole of Hollywood is paying attention to the Oscars ceremony in the evening, Simon took time this afternoon to sort out the various industrial layouts in China with Chen Qing.
Feeling the warmth of the afternoon sun outside the curtain wall, Simon leaned on the sofa with his legs crossed to listen to Chen Qing's report. While flipping through another report on the Westeros system's investment in China's textile industry, he heard the words: "This Where will the project probably be located?”
"The site selection is not yet certain, and many regions are competing for it. I have heard about Qingdao in Shandong, Ningbo in Zhejiang, Huizhou in Guangdong, etc.," Chen Qing said, paused, and then said: "When the time comes , I’ll see if it can be put into operation, at least not in Ningbo.”
Simon shook his head: "Don't do this kind of thing, it's too hateful, and it might be counterproductive."
Chen Qing said: "I will know how to measure it."
"Speaking of things like scale..." Simon slightly curved his lips and glanced at the girl next to him: "I don't believe you even more."
Chen Qing felt her boss's gaze and shrank her neck. She also understood that her boss knew that she had a good sense of the scale, and it seemed that she often went a little too far. Seeing that the man was still looking at her, she could only nod: "Okay, I There will be no interference.”
Simon withdrew his gaze this time, turned over a page of information on his lap, and asked: "The investment is approximately 4 billion. So, what is the approximate shareholding ratio?"
"No surprise, it should be half and half, 50% each," Chen Qing said: "The boss should be able to guess that CNOOC was in a hurry for this project in order to prepare for another IPO, so it did not strive for an absolute majority of the controlling rights. It is considered a royal Shell has taken advantage, and PetroChina and Sinopec will definitely not be so easy to talk to."
In China's petrochemical industry, there is no requirement that state-owned capital must hold more than 50% of the shares. However, in normal cooperation in the past, this rule was tacitly stated. Obviously, this time it is indeed as Chen Qing said, CNOOC is impatient Let Royal Dutch Shell take advantage of it.
After all, CNOOC is not a local company with few bargaining chips, but the core Chinese state-owned enterprise. The hidden resources it possesses are definitely not comparable to those of the local refining and chemical companies cooperating with China in the Westeros system. In this case, The joint venture project does not have absolute control, and it seems to be equal, but in fact, in the future, Royal Shell will gradually lose more interests.
With these thoughts in mind, Simon didn't say much. He just said to Chen Qing: "Don't worry about what other people do, let's just do our two projects well. Moreover, with China's development speed and the prospect of joining the WTO, the future is very long. For a period of time, China's demand for olefin products will be in short supply, and competition within the industry will not be too fierce. In addition, China's tightening of access to the refining and chemical industry cannot last forever. In the next few years, we can just take advantage of With the two projects in hand, we will cultivate our own management team and establish a complete procurement, production and distribution system. If the time is right in the future, expansion will be just a matter of words."
Chen Qing listened with serious expression and nodded repeatedly: "The boss is still thoughtful."
Simon ignored the girl's flattery and continued to flip through the information in his hand while multitasking: "In terms of real estate, I saw the information, it doesn't seem to be too prosperous?"
Chen Qing nodded, with a hint of depression on her pretty face: "Boss, we... seem to have spread our stall a bit too big. Although the country has successively launched a series of policies to support the real estate industry, at least in the past two years, housing prices seem to have Neither has a high growth rate, and market demand is not active enough."
"Isn't this natural?" Simon was not surprised: "From welfare distribution to commodity economy, there is always a transition period. What we have to do is to enter the market early."
Chen Qing whispered: "Boss, is it possible that you entered a little early?"
Simon smiled and shook his head. He did not respond directly. Instead, he recalled a passage from "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu and read: "Anyone who is on the battlefield first and waits for the enemy is useless, and whoever is behind the battlefield and rushes to fight will be tired. Therefore, those who are good at fighting will lead others." Not to harm people.”
Of course Chen Qing understood, but she still followed suit and said, "The boss is so knowledgeable. What do you mean?"
Simon just glanced at her and said: "In short, if everyone finds that the market is getting hot and rushes in, how much profit can we still make if we follow up?"
Chen Qing nodded, blinked, and continued: "What the boss said, I am quite familiar with the domestic stock market recently. After the bull market started last year, everyone is now discussing stock trading, tsk tsk."
Simon smiled and asked casually: "What about you?"
"Hey, I also invested some money in it last year, and it has tripled so far, and I am fully withdrawing it."
Hearing that Nizi knew that she was going to run away, Simon didn't say much and just nodded slightly.
Chen Qing returned to the real estate topic just now: "Actually, boss, I was discussing with Mr. Wang of Vanke when I came here. He asked me to ask, boss, how long do you think it will take for China's real estate industry to enter the next boom cycle? "
"After China's accession to the WTO," Simon said, "in about that time, the reform of the real estate industry in mainland China will be completely completed. Economic growth will also be accelerated by joining the WTO. Market demand will rise, and the prosperity period will arrive."
This argument obviously did not surprise Chen Qing. It was the same after reading various reports. However, Chen Qing thought about it and lowered her voice subconsciously: "Boss, in fact, since China and the United States signed the WTO accession agreement last year, there has been another voice. It’s getting bigger and bigger, saying that China’s entry into the WTO is more likely to harm the domestic economy than benefit from it?”
"There will definitely be damage," Simon did not deny it, saying: "For example, China's agriculture will definitely lose its competitiveness in the face of mechanized large-scale production in Europe and the United States."
Chen Qing didn't expect her boss to be so straightforward, so she opened her mouth slightly: "Huh?"
Simon glanced at her again and said, "Are you scared?"
Chen Qing is not the kind of person who doesn't eat minced meat. Her boss said it lightly, but when she thought about it, she was really scared: "Boss, it should, um, there won't be a big problem, right?"
Simon shook his head: "You have a generation, no problem."
When Chen Qing heard the affirmative answer, she was slightly relieved, but also a little confused: "One generation?"
"The current generation of farmers in China are still very obsessed with the land. They are probably the kind that, even if they are not making money, they will never let their land lie idle. This mentality is the greatest guarantee for China's agricultural production. However, when China As the economy develops, if the next generation finds that a pound of grain cannot be exchanged for a bottle of mineral water, and after a year of busy work, the harvest is not worth the investment..." At this point, Simon shrugged slightly: "By then, they will probably There’s no enthusiasm anymore.”
Chen Qing subconsciously asked: "What should we do?"
Simon continued to turn the page of the information in his hand and said softly: "This is not my concern."
Chen Qing thought about it for a moment, and suddenly felt that this was not a problem that she should be concerned about. She was not hungry anyway, not to mention her current position... So she put aside the matter and discussed with her boss what he was reading. textile industry issues.
While they were chatting, the sound of high heels clicked. It was Girl A, holding a blue folder in her hand.
Walking closer and handing the folder to her boss, Girl A said: "BOSS, this is the latest news from Russia. The voting results are basically confirmed. Vladimir won 52% of the vote, an absolute majority. "
Simon temporarily stopped his discussion with Chen Qing, opened the folder handed over by Girl A, and read it carefully.
Compared with the Oscars ceremony in the evening, what Simon cares more about this Sunday is another presidential election held in advance in Russia in Europe.
Browsing through the information in his hand, Simon felt inexplicably in a daze.
At this time, certain things and certain layouts were completely settled.
The two girls stood and sat next to Simon, and they both clearly felt the inexplicable emotion that their boss showed after hearing the news, which made them confused. They looked at each other, but neither of them spoke in a hurry.
After a while, seeing that his boss had finished flipping through only two or three pages of information and seemed to be in a daze, Chen Qing finally spoke first: "Boss, what's wrong?"
Simon heard the voice in his ear, came back to his senses, smiled, glanced at the two women who were closest to him, and said in a strange way: "It's nothing, it's just that I just made history, and then I'm a little worried about the future."
Simon's words were a bit meaningless, but Girl A immediately realized that she was following someone after all. Chen Qing thought of the documents in her boss's hands, and then thought about the many actions the Westeros system has been taking in Eastern Europe. It soon became clear.
Russia’s general election has its own boss’ share.
Or even the one who was just elected, or was it promoted by his own boss? !
Thinking of this, Chen Qing became confused again. Her boss didn't seem to be happy about it, so she asked tentatively: "Boss, isn't this a good thing?"
Simon did not nod or shake his head, but said: "I was just thinking about another future."
In this way, faced with the doubts of the two girls, Simon did not continue.
Another future
For example, without this election, the new president of Russia has been replaced by a new person, a true and complete puppet. Therefore, Russia, which has a land of 17 million square kilometers, will disintegrate again one day in the future.
What will happen to this
And, in fact, Simon doesn't care what will happen to Russia at all. Instead, he is a little worried about what will happen in ten or twenty years.
For people who came after the 1990s, or to be precise, people who live in most peaceful countries, the world seems to be peaceful forever.
Not really.
In the long history of mankind, there have only been a few peaceful times. Most of the time, it was actually in a state of war.
War!
War Never Change!
Therefore, it may not be possible to accurately predict when the peaceful period after the 1990s will end, but it will inevitably happen one day.
Again, because it is easier to plunder than to produce, because it is easier to destroy than to build, because it is easier to anger others than to reflect on oneself. In short, human nature is indolent and will always choose a method that seems to be easier to solve a thing to deal with problems.
Thinking this way, feeling that the two pairs of beautiful eyes next to him were still looking at him, Simon glanced over, smiled, and said, "Do you remember when the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact was signed during World War II?"
The question was a bit confusing, and Girl A was still a little confused. Chen Qing already said: "1939?"
Simon nodded: "Then, two years later, Germany launched an attack on the Soviet Union."
The two girls still looked confused.
Simon smiled again and said: "I was just thinking that if one day, the world situation becomes tense again, maybe many people think that the Third World War will not break out, but they may have forgotten that the first The outbreak of the world war was only because of an assassination. However, was it really just because of an assassination? No, because everything was inevitable, because the development of the world's mainstream countries at that time had entered a bottleneck, and no one was willing to admit that it was them No one wants to work hard to solve their own problems, such as improving productivity through technological innovation, or adjusting the social distribution mechanism to resolve internal conflicts. In fact, it is not their fault, because doing so is too difficult, takes too long, and may take some time. How is it possible for people to give up their vested interests? In comparison, it seems easier to launch a war and destroy one's competitors."
Both girls felt the inexplicable heaviness in their boss's tone. After a slight hesitation, Chen Qing said again: "Boss, why are you saying this?"
Simon lowered his head and once again flipped through several pages of election results statistics from Russia, and said: "Just some emotions, but if one day, um, for example, things progress again, a group of nuclear-armed countries suddenly jump out and say, We should sign an agreement that absolutely cannot launch a nuclear war. After all, destruction is not good for everyone. So, what do you think will happen next?"
Chen Qing subconsciously answered: "Nuclear war?"
"I hope not," Simon suddenly lost interest. He let go of the information in his hand, stood up, stretched his body, looked at the two girls next to him, and smiled again: "I won't work anymore, go out to play."
Chen Qing echoed: "Boss, what are you playing for?"
This is a problem.
Simon thought for a moment and then said: "How about racing from Los Angeles to San Francisco and back before Melisandre's party in the evening?"
Chen Qing did not nod this time, but looked at Girl A.
Well, drag racing is quite dangerous. What's more, the boss himself probably doesn't even remember the last time he touched the steering wheel. If he bumps into the car, and my wife thought she was instigating it, he might get skinned.
Simon, however, walked out on his own before the two girls agreed. I'm not in a good mood, so I plan to indulge and stimulate myself.
Then, come back and think about how to solve it.
After all, this time is not the past. He does not need to follow the general trend, but has enough strength to change many things.