Chapter 2328: In a Dilemma, Zhao Fusheng

Zhao Fusheng was naturally not lying.

Nor did he need to deceive Dong Chenxi.

After all, this was his own career.

What happened next went without saying.

After returning to the country, Zhao Fusheng did not appear before reporters or financial media, remaining as low-key as ever.

Even though everyone was now speculating about how much money he had and whether he could become the new richest person in China.

Yes.

In many people's eyes, Zhao Fusheng stood a very good chance of topping this year's Forbes list.

Outsiders even wondered whether the幕后老板 of Future Group might step into the spotlight.

After all, he was known as the most mysterious super-rich person in all of China.

“Dream on!”

Sitting at home, Zhao Fusheng looked at Xue Yuanfang across from him and said with a smile, “I never liked giving media interviews before, and I’m even less likely to now.”

He wasn’t joking; he was telling the truth.

For Zhao Fusheng,

he was already planning to retire, so naturally he wouldn’t stay on any rich list.

In his view, that sort of thing was pure nonsense, just a tool for a group of people to amuse themselves.

Which truly wealthy person would openly display their fortune?

Even a big shot like Li Ka-shing couldn’t let everyone know exactly how much money he had.

The Chinese like to hide their wealth—anyone with a bit of sense knows that.

“You, really…”

Xue Yuanfang had anticipated Zhao Fusheng’s reaction and nodded. “Alright, I’ll have someone put in a word. You’ll continue to opt out of the Forbes list.”

“Mm.”

Zhao Fusheng nodded. “Just say that most of my wealth is concentrated in investment companies, and it’s all abroad, so the specifics can’t be calculated.”

He understood that most people were just curious.

For them, learning how much he was worth was a way to explore the unknown.

“By the way, when do you think Future Advertising should go public?”

Xue Yuanfang asked Zhao Fusheng.

Since Zhao Fusheng was no longer the largest shareholder of Future Advertising, he naturally cared about this issue.

Zhao Fusheng smiled. “I only have ten percent of the shares now, not the major shareholder. You all decide.”

This time, he had even given up his voting rights.

Naturally, he no longer concerned himself with the company’s future development.

That was Xue Yuanfang’s worry.

“You, really…”

Xue Yuanfang looked at Zhao Fusheng speechlessly.

Although he knew Zhao Fusheng was right, having grown accustomed to following Zhao Fusheng’s arrangements, he felt a bit unsettled now that the guy had suddenly become a hands-off boss.

After all, over the years, Future Advertising’s development had been guided by Zhao Fusheng’s strategies.

Even when Zheng Yao was in charge, Zhao Fusheng had never completely let go.

But now, he had truly chosen to step back.

“To be honest, from now on I’m just a shareholder.”

Zhao Fusheng looked at Xue Yuanfang seriously.

Xue Yuanfang was taken aback, then gave Zhao Fusheng a deep look but didn’t bring up the topic again.

Both of them understood that Zhao Fusheng had clearly expressed his opinion.

…

…

In the following days, Zhao Fusheng attended an internal meeting of Future Group.

But this time, the senior management of Future Advertising did not appear by Zhao Fusheng’s side.

The reason was simple: they were no longer under Zhao Fusheng’s management. He made that distinction very clear.

He was never one to mix public and private matters.

“Next up is Future Real Estate.”

Zhao Fusheng sat in the middle seat and spoke slowly.

Everyone looked up, their eyes fixed on Zhao Fusheng.

They all knew that Future Real Estate had considerable prospects.

So they were going to raise funds and give up the position of major shareholder?

Dong Chenxi frowned slightly. Had her earlier discussion with Zhao Fusheng been in vain?

Hadn’t he listened?

“Let’s hear what everyone thinks.”

Zhao Fusheng asked with a smile on his lips.

As the boss, he was certainly entitled to ask.

“I will follow the chairman’s decision.”

Wang Kai, the general manager of Future Real Estate, spoke first.

He knew very well that if Future Real Estate’s development relied entirely on group support,

losing the backing of Future Investment would definitely make his position as general manager unstable.

In that case, it was better to be straightforward and obediently follow orders.

Sure enough, hearing Wang Kai’s words, Zhao Fusheng nodded with satisfaction.

To him, the most important thing for his subordinates was loyalty.

In other words, obedience.

Otherwise, what use would they be to Zhao Fusheng?

Since he was planning to retire anyway, if he had a bunch of disobedient subordinates, Zhao Fusheng felt it would be better to just sell the company and enjoy life.

“Of course, Future Real Estate’s financing method will be different from Future Advertising’s.”

Zhao Fusheng smiled and said slowly, “My plan is for us to become the second largest shareholder of Future Real Estate.”

Huh?

Everyone exchanged glances, all somewhat surprised.

Clearly, no one had expected Zhao Fusheng to have such a plan.

“Come, let everyone see the materials.”

As he spoke, Zhao Fusheng gestured to Chen Qiuyan behind him.

Chen Qiuyan quickly had someone hand out a stack of documents to the senior executives of Future Group attending the meeting.

They opened them and found it was an assessment report on the development of China’s real estate market from the year 2000 to the present.

“Before 2002, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued a document stating that affordable housing accounted for 80% of real estate, and housing prices were very low. After 2003, the Ministry issued a document converting that 80% affordable housing into commercial housing.

This created a monopoly market: the government monopolized land, and developers monopolized housing.

Monopoly leads to price increases, but since the main demand for home purchases was for self-use and ordinary consumers had limited purchasing power, price increases were not excessive.

The main feature of price increases at this stage was land price hikes. Local governments took the lion’s share of revenue, initially solving their fiscal crisis.”

Zhao Fusheng held the materials and spoke slowly to everyone.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

They were all elites and naturally understood what Zhao Fusheng meant.

China’s real estate market had its own national characteristics, a fact everyone was well aware of.

Zhao Fusheng glanced at everyone and continued, “In 2005, real estate hit a bottleneck because self-use demand was largely satisfied. But with government encouragement, capital with power entered the market—namely, the hot money and speculative funds known as the Wenzhou home-buying groups.”

But its funds were limited and could only be poured into first-tier cities, so housing prices in first-tier cities soared while those in second- and third-tier cities remained largely unchanged.

However, at this point, a new problem emerged: second-hand housing.

Many people began selling off their properties to cash in, and the government then implemented so-called macro-control measures, taxing second-hand housing transactions to curb their entry into the market.

As housing prices in first-tier cities rose, the profit margins gradually shrank. By 2008, the funds that had driven up first-tier housing prices began to exit the market, ushering in the first price decline cycle.

But this price drop had little to do with the financial crisis; the financial crisis merely served as a perfect excuse.

With the withdrawal of speculative housing funds, the government had to step in to prop up the market, injecting four trillion yuan.

The conference room was quite quiet; everyone was listening intently to Zhao Fusheng's words.

In fact, everyone was well aware that over these six years—from market monopolization to speculators profiting, and then to government intervention—the trend in housing prices had instilled in ordinary consumers the belief that prices would not fall and that housing retained value and appreciated.

From then on, the era of nationwide housing speculation began.

Capital continued to pour into real estate, and by 2009, housing prices finally broke out of their downward trend and surged again.

Coupled with massive money printing and inflation, and the fact that China's stock market was not yet mature, ordinary consumers had few investment channels. Housing became the primary investment vehicle for preserving and increasing value, absorbing society's capital.

Only this year did real estate truly mature; everyone was talking about buying houses, and buying multiple houses.

Thus, real estate fulfilled its first historical mission: accumulating private wealth; and also completed its second mission: resolving local fiscal crises.

To be honest, if Zhao Fusheng hadn't insisted on showing them, no one would have bothered to look at this material.

The reason was simple: everyone already knew this.

But since Zhao Fusheng, the boss, had gone to the trouble of distributing such a large stack of documents and personally introducing them,

these people naturally dared not be negligent.

"Chairman, do you mean that from now on, the domestic real estate industry will enter a phase of rapid development?"

Wang Kai, with his experience, was the first to grasp Zhao Fusheng's meaning.

Zhao Fusheng nodded upon hearing this: "Yes, otherwise I wouldn't have considered keeping so many shares."

Everyone fell silent.

Indeed, this was typical of their boss's style.

Generally speaking, unless there was sufficiently attractive profit, Zhao Fusheng rarely changed his mind once a decision was made.

"But, Chairman, if that's the case, why do we still need to seek financing and go public?"

At this point, a vice president of Future Real Estate raised his hand and asked Zhao Fusheng in confusion: "We could handle the listing ourselves."

This was what everyone was thinking.

Essentially, going public is about financing.

What is financing?

The purpose of financing is to allow a company to obtain more funds for development.

Of course, that's the high-sounding explanation.

In the eyes of those in the know, financing has only one purpose.

That is to make Future Real Estate's shares more valuable.

For example, if Future Real Estate was originally worth one billion yuan, and Zhao Fusheng held 80% of the shares,

then his shares were worth 800 million yuan.

But after going public, Future Real Estate's market value reached ten billion yuan.

At that time, although Zhao Fusheng's share might drop to 50% or 20%, the value of those shares would exceed 800 million yuan.

That is the significance of going public for financing.

Of course, this is something that can be understood but not easily explained.

No one would say it outright.

More or less, everyone wants to save face.

Today's situation was purely an accident.

No one expected Zhao Fusheng to change his mind.

Originally, everyone thought he was really going to give up Future Real Estate entirely.

But unexpectedly, he had other ideas.

Regardless, Zhao Fusheng's idea was undoubtedly good news for these subordinates.

"Chairman, just tell us what to do."

"Yes, Chairman, we'll follow your lead."

"Right, right, right."

"Rest assured, as soon as you give the order, we guarantee the company will go public in the shortest time."

A large group of people were pledging their loyalty to Zhao Fusheng.

Zhao Fusheng found it both amusing and exasperating.

"Alright, alright, hold on a moment."

Zhao Fusheng said helplessly to everyone.

If he didn't stop them, these guys would probably start fantasizing about listing on NASDAQ and then dominating China's real estate market.

Come to think of it, that made sense.

After all, watching a company they had developed being handed over to someone else because the boss wanted to retire—

that feeling really wasn't good.

"Chairman, what do you mean?"

Wang Kai looked at Zhao Fusheng and asked tentatively.

Zhao Fusheng smiled and waved his hand: "I'll think it over."

Things had reached a point beyond his expectations.

Originally, Zhao Fusheng thought everyone would strongly support his decision.

But unexpectedly, reality was not what he had imagined.

That was a bit awkward.

Everyone looked at each other, not knowing what was going on.

But since the boss called a halt, naturally no one was foolish enough to disregard his wishes.

Soon, only Zheng Yao, Dong Chenxi, and a few others remained in the conference room.

"Hahaha!"

"Pfft!"

Dong Chenxi and Zheng Yao could no longer contain themselves and burst into laughter, leaning over the table.

No one had expected things to turn out this way.

Most importantly, based on their understanding of Zhao Fusheng, he was clearly in a dilemma.

"You two."

Zhao Fusheng looked at them helplessly: "Don't just laugh; help me think of a solution."

"Think of a solution for what?"

Dong Chenxi looked at Zhao Fusheng speechlessly: "Things have come to this; what are you hesitating about? Just go ahead and follow through."

Follow through?

Zhao Fusheng frowned, then his expression turned serious as he said to Dong Chenxi: "I told you, I'm going to retire."

"I know."

Dong Chenxi waved her hand: "I know you plan to retire, but the problem now is that you yourself are optimistic about Future Real Estate's development. You can't just walk away, can you?"

Zhao Fusheng nodded.

He naturally understood what Dong Chenxi meant.

In fact, that was exactly what troubled him.

He wasn't stupid; knowing that the real estate industry would boom in the future, leaving the market now would indeed be a huge loss.

But as Zhao Fusheng had said to Dong Chenxi before,

since he planned to retire, he had to consider the strategy.

"You said yourself you'd think it over, so why the rush?"

Seeing Zhao Fusheng looking somewhat worried, Zheng Yao said to him helplessly.