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MTL - Reborn Russia As An Oligarch-Chapter 918 central business district
After communicating with Sergey, the two reached an agreement, so at the shareholder representative meeting, other shareholders will not raise any objections.
Wang Ye's plan was unanimously supported.
There is no problem in the communication and negotiation with Penguin, because Facebook and Penguin itself have no competition, but a complementary relationship.
Both are also social networks, but one is "one-to-one" private social networking, and the other is "one-to-many" public social networking.
In China, Facebook doesn’t have any real competitors, so Weibo and the like haven’t appeared yet.
There are just a few websites that "learn to imitate" Facebook, and the best one is called Renren.
Now the "authentic" Facebook is going to enter the country, and it has teamed up with Penguin to develop it, and it has also brought in Zhang Xiaoxi's asset management company and Yukos China to invest.
This time, people, money, and technology are all there, and it may be difficult not to do it!
Moreover, according to Wang Ye's request, the domestic company is operated completely independently, and its name is "China Facebook Technology Co., Ltd.". Except for a marketing operation team transferred from Penguin, the rest of the staff are new companies. The re-employment after its establishment has nothing to do with Penguin.
...
Facebook in North America is also in a similar situation. Wang Ye pulled in Google, Amazon and Citibank to jointly establish a new company.
This company is actually the real core subsidiary of Facebook!
After all, the Internet coverage in English is wider, and because of the strength of Laomei, Internet companies in North America will not be targeted or resisted in most countries and regions around the world, and they can develop their business freely.
If Facebook goes public in the future, the valuation should mainly depend on the development of North American companies...
Similarly, with Google and Amazon providing market operations teams, Citibank providing funds, and Facebook holdings providing technology, the large framework of North American companies has been established.
It can be seen that whether it is Facebook in China or Facebook in North America, the newly recruited partners are actually no strangers.
Either it was originally a company controlled by Wang Ye, or it was a company that had dealt with it before.
After such an operation, it is still a waste of money for outsiders...
...
After solving the problem of Facebook's overseas development, Sergey raised a new question.
That is, since the development of overseas business does not require the Moscow company to pay, there is still a huge sum of money lying in the company's account, which will not be used in a short time, but it can't just be wasted.
He was talking about the US$1 billion that Facebook received in its second round of financing.
But now the two new overseas companies are operating independently and have new investment, so the money is no longer needed.
On the Russian Internet, the development of Facebook has also reached a bottleneck.
The overall number of netizens is so many, no matter how you promote it, the number of users cannot exceed the number of netizens...
Furthermore, at the development stage of Facebook, there is no need to advertise and promote, basically everyone knows it on the Russian Internet!
Facing Sergey's "happiness troubles", Wang Ye laughed dumbly. This problem is so easy to solve.
It is not easy to make money at any time, but if you want to spend it, there are ten thousand ways to spend it at any time...
Moreover, a plan he has recently brewed can just solve Sergey's "trouble".
So Wang Ye smiled and said:
"This is very simple. Didn't you say last time that with the expansion of the company and the increase in employees, the current office space is not enough.
Just use this money to build a headquarters building. If you can't use it up, you can also rent it out.
Although this kind of commercial real estate seems to have relatively low income, the advantage is that it is very stable, and with the development of the country's economy, the value of real estate will also increase rapidly. Looking back after a few years, it may be a good investment. "
Seriously, shelling out huge sums of money to build a so-called headquarters building is usually not a very good option for most companies.
There are many negative examples, because the construction of the headquarters building caused the company's capital chain to break, and even led to the company's bankruptcy.
On the other hand, when a company develops to a certain scale, especially when it has enough funds, it is also a good choice to negotiate with the government to build a building with a piece of land at a low price.
Sergey was a little tempted. He already had this plan, but he had to consider the expansion of overseas markets before, which required a lot of money, so he didn't dare to really build any headquarters building.
Now that the overseas market does not need to use the funds of the Moscow company, it is indeed possible to build a headquarters building.
One is to solve the problem of office space, and the other is to "show" the strength of the company!
Don't underestimate this invisible influence, it is actually necessary.
If the company can own a building of its own in the center of Moscow, it will not only prove the strength of the company, but also increase the cohesion of employees and their sense of belonging to the company!
...
"Since it is your proposal, of course I, a small shareholder, will not object, and the company really needs a building of its own.
How about I go back and talk to the city government, asking for a piece of land to build a building? "
Sergey said with a smile.
Wang Ye shook his head and said:
"You don't need to go to the Moscow City Hall for this matter.
Because the National Economic Council will propose a motion on the construction of the Moscow Central Business District.
At that time, a piece of land will be allocated in the best location in the city center for the construction of high-end office buildings.
Call together a group of the most powerful companies in the country, and each undertake to build at least one skyscraper!
After completion, it will become the core business district of Moscow, comparable to Manhattan in New York, Hong Kong Central, and Ginza in Tokyo!
The land price given to each company will be very cheap, which can be regarded as the support given by the government to the major group companies. After all, you have to invest a lot of real money to build the building.
However, there will be relatively high requirements for the qualifications of the relevant companies, as well as requirements for the design style and budget of the building.
With Facebook's strength and budget, there must be no problem. "
This matter is indeed a new plan recently brewed by Wang Ye.
In fact, the issue of the Moscow CBD has been proposed a long time ago, but it has been procrastinated.
There are various reasons, but in the end it is still poor, and many big companies are unwilling to spend so much money to build buildings.
But the situation is different now. In the past two years, the national economy has soared at a speed visible to the naked eye. In addition, the economic policies formulated by Wang Ye himself have begun to be implemented. Many companies are very optimistic about the future prospects.
Besides, there is no need to say anything else, as long as Wang Ye raised his arms, wouldn't there be many big companies that would follow unconditionally.
Yukos Group, Gazprom, Kitty Eagle Group, New Sun Group, Siberia Coal, Siberia Gold...
These companies are either Wang Ye Holdings, or they are closely related to him, and of course they will support Wang Ye's policies.
And for these companies, there is no difficulty in spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build a building.
Oh, there are also the two major communication companies controlled by the Romanov family, the bank under Khovchenko, the aluminum group aviation group under Abramovich, etc.
As long as each group company undertakes to build a building, then basically the central business district can be built smoothly...
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Sergey was overjoyed when he heard it.
Because according to Wang Ye's plan, the company will definitely be able to get a piece of land at a low price to build the headquarters building. The key is that the location is very good!
After all, this is to build the core business district of Moscow, so the site selection must be very cautious.
And this is a top-down project, both in terms of efficiency and policy strength, it is very big, it is much better than going to the city government alone to negotiate!
"Since there is such an opportunity, why not just spend more money and build a building that will be sufficient for at least the next twenty years in one step!
Budget Well...
Let’s say 500 million U.S. dollars, it should be enough. "
Sergey rubbed his chin and said excitedly.
500 million US dollars, this is a landmark building to be built!
At this time in 2005, although the construction cost in Europe was higher, but 500 million US dollars to build a building was still considered a very high budget, and it could definitely build a landmark skyscraper!
Although it is not clear how much the construction cost of a skyscraper will be, Wang Ye vaguely remembers that in his previous life, when the Ping An Financial Center was built in Pengcheng, he was also famous to visit it.
That building is almost 600 meters high, the tallest building in Pengcheng, and a landmark building.
Moreover, it will be completed ten years later. It is said that the construction cost is less than 10 billion RMB, which is more than one billion US dollars.
Facebook doesn’t want to build a super skyscraper. It is estimated that it will be overwhelmed if it is two to three hundred meters high. Then the facade will be beautiful and distinctive, and the building will be beautiful. The budget of 500 million dollars is definitely more than enough!
Besides, Wang Ye didn’t expect Facebook to build the real landmark of the CBD, because the real local tyrant is Yukos, an energy giant like Gazprom!
At that time, several energy giants will each spend two or three billion US dollars, or even more, to build a few real landmark buildings, so that the face of this CBD can be supported.
As for the question of whether the budget is too high, there is actually no need to worry about it, because the money does not have to be taken out all at once.
Those super buildings basically took several years to build, and funds were invested in stages.
For energy giants like Yukos and Gazprom, it is not too easy to spend billions of dollars every year.
It’s nothing more than the fact that when the dividends are distributed at the end of the year, the shareholders will get a little less money...
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Wang Ye nodded and said with a smile:
“Since we want to develop a core business district, of course there will be a high threshold.
We want to build a unique CBD. Every building must have its highlights. The cost should start at least 100 million U.S. dollars, and there is no ceiling!
In the future, this place will be the top business district in Eastern Europe, where all the big companies gather here, possessing extraordinary business vitality and creating super high economic value and influence.
Not only will there be top-level office buildings, but there will also be five-star hotels, luxury shopping malls and other supporting facilities. "
A central business district like this may be a so-called face project in the eyes of many people, and it is useless to waste money and people.
But Wang Ye didn't think so.
If the country is rich enough, then naturally there is no need to deliberately engage in these things, just let nature take its course.
But the country is not rich enough, or is trying to develop, so these things can really play a role.
For example, to provide foreign-funded enterprises with a better office environment, to facilitate the landing of foreign enterprises that invest, and to stimulate national pride.
Anyway, some things are very subtle, you don’t think it’s very useful, but it plays a role in invisible and intangible places.
Moreover, after such a central business district is established, it can be regarded as a window for external display.
Let the whole world see that over the past few years, under the leadership of the Kremlin and the efforts of the Economic Committee, Da Mao's economy has achieved some results...
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When Wang Ye proposed this plan at the National Economic Council, as expected, some members questioned it.
"Director, why are these buildings gathered together?
I think it’s good to be scattered in several major urban areas and streets as it is now, and it won’t cause traffic jams.
If you really want to concentrate on building business districts, you will face many difficulties.
The first thing to bear the brunt is the demolition problem, because the location of this business district must be chosen as close to the city center as possible, and the old buildings will inevitably be demolished, because there is not such a large open space in the city center.
Another very critical issue is that building skyscrapers is expensive!
Where are we going to get so much money, we won’t need to use the funds for major infrastructure construction, the money is all useful, and we can’t move it..."
Obviously, the questioning committee member did not intentionally make things difficult. These questions he raised are very practical and will be encountered.
Wang Ye smiled slightly, he knew that these questions must be answered.
Otherwise, it would be difficult to persuade all committee members to support me.
After all, this is not a trivial matter, and Moscow may also encounter resistance at that time, so it must be unanimously recognized and supported by everyone in the Economic Committee.
He waved his hand and asked his assistant Nova to bring a large map of Moscow city, which was hung on a writing board standing there.
Then got up and picked up the oil-based pen, drew a circle on the map, and said:
"This is the place I chose!
It faces the Kremlin across the river, and now most of the place is covered with forests. In addition, it is a family area of a government unit, with a total area of about four square kilometers.
This area is not too big, and I plan to divide it into two development stages. In the first stage, only about one square kilometer area along the river will be developed, and the rest will be reserved for later development depending on the situation.
As for the companies and funds to settle in, of course I have also considered these.
How about this, the day after tomorrow, I invite some more powerful business representatives to come over for a meeting, how about listening to their opinions? "