Next, everything proceeded according to Feng Yu's script. As expected, Li Mingde urgently sold his shares and did not dare to let Fu Guangzheng thoroughly examine the company's finances.
Fu Guangzheng had already investigated and discussed with his father. They could afford this temporary loss. As long as the machinery company developed, they could recover their investment in less than two years and enjoy a steady stream of profits for at least a decade.
Moreover, this would further strengthen their relationship with Feng Yu, which both Fu Rongjin and Fu Guangzheng highly valued. Thus, under Fu Guangzheng's deliberate pretense of ignorance and Li Mingde's cautious concealment, Fu Guangzheng invested 20 million RMB to acquire about 16% of the machinery company, becoming the second-largest shareholder.
This was beyond Feng Yu's expectations. He didn't think Fu Guangzheng would have the courage to invest so much, nor did he expect the city to be so generous in selling so many shares.
But upon closer consideration, the city still benefited. Both the investment by Fu Guangzheng and the technical shares by Feng Yu were diluted by the original asset valuation of the machinery factory. The city basically didn't spend any extra money and gained advanced technology and 20 million RMB in capital.
According to the city's experts, even with only about 74% of the shares, the profitability was more than double what it was before the reform, and the city still held a controlling stake, paid taxes, and provided more jobs, making it a great deal for the city!
This time, Fu Guangzheng also exhausted his working capital. This was only possible because his father provided over 10 million Hong Kong dollars, and his mother contributed some additional funds. Otherwise, he wouldn't have had the money to purchase the batch of second-hand luxury cars.
The company's working capital had already exceeded 30 million RMB, and Feng Yu was beaming with joy. Over the next two years, Feng Yu planned to continue trading Soviet advanced equipment and technology. He had already hinted at this to the motor factory and the Bingfei factory, waiting for them to place orders.
Once the orders were confirmed, he could partner with Ji again to make a profit and improve the country's industrial technology, leaving a great impression on the leadership. Why not?
During this period, Feng Yu would help his father manage the family's grain processing plant. The Taihua brand of premium oil was already very popular in Longjiang, and even people from Lin Province were inquiring about it.
Sales had stabilized, and the current production capacity was slightly higher than the sales capacity. There was no rush to purchase new equipment; after the New Year, the price of Soviet equipment would drop! These low-tech consumer goods were easy to buy.
Recently, the sales of soybean oil had been good, and the profit had made his father very happy. This was something his father had never considered. Although the gross profit was astonishingly high, the cost of buying land, building factories, and purchasing equipment was also very high. If the sugar and feed had not yet turned a profit, Feng Yu's investment would be considered a failure.
The sugar was just a side purchase for the feed, and Feng Yu didn't plan to make a lot of money from it. He believed that the most profitable product would not be the currently popular soybean oil but rather pig feed.
The population was growing rapidly, and income was increasing quickly, but the supply of living materials, especially agricultural by-products, was far from sufficient. In the past few years, the country had focused on industrial development.
Although it didn't go to the extreme like the Soviet Union, the local governments in the past few years had placed more emphasis on industry, inevitably neglecting agriculture.
Now, traditional agriculture was growing, but agricultural by-products were still underdeveloped. For example, the supply of pork was far from enough. Many people had money but couldn't buy pork! The pork sold in the market was often not fresh.
Feng Yu's farm had always had chicken and pig farms, but they were barely alive. The chicken farm even went bankrupt last year. Farms were similar to rural areas, with the only difference being that farms had more land and slightly higher mechanization. However, people living in the teams, even in the flat houses of the farm headquarters, often engaged in sideline farming.
Almost every household raised chickens and ducks, and many raised pigs, cattle, and sheep, which they kept for the New Year. Many people said that in this era, the happiness index of farm residents was even higher than that of city residents!
Since every household raised these animals, the farm's chicken and pig farms had no market. They had considered transporting them to the city, but it wasn't easy to open up the market.
Feng Yu remembered that in the previous life, he saw a domestic billionaire list where one of the early billionaires made his fortune from pig feed. In the 1990s, his company's feed was sold nationwide, earning him a large sum of money.
Feng Yu didn't aim to make his father's small factory the best in the country, but being the best in Longjiang was not too much to ask. Even aiming for the best in Northeast China was not impossible.
Of course, the current primary goal was to sell the accumulated sugar!
At the moment, Feng Yu was sitting with the leaders of the Ice City Grain Bureau, discussing the entry of Taihua Grain Factory's products into the Ice City oil and grain stores.
"Director Zhou, you've seen the sales of our Taihua brand of premium oil. It has already captured more than 10% of the Ice City market and is growing rapidly. By next year, it will reach at least 30%. I am confident that with some further efforts, it can reach over 50%."
Feng Yu was exaggerating. With the current production capacity of the Taihua factory, it was barely managing to capture 10% of the Ice City market, and sales in other regions were also increasing. He couldn't afford to run out of stock, which would affect the current sales. This was a critical period for building brand value!
However, the aggressive entry of the Taihua brand of premium oil had already given the Grain Bureau a shock. They didn't expect a small local factory to capture such a high market share. More importantly, the Grain Bureau was having a tough time, with many people, including the leadership, questioning whether the soybean oil extracted with gasoline was truly harmless.
But now it was a market economy, allowing private factories to sell these products. He couldn't force them to stop selling, nor could he make the oil and grain factory switch to a lower-yield pressing technology, abandoning the current higher-yield extraction technology. So he came up with a plan: to have the supply and marketing cooperative stop selling this oil and instead sell it in the oil and grain stores, which the city supported.
But he didn't expect the person negotiating with him to be a young boy, who should still be in middle school. And this young boy, whom he thought would be easy to deal with, turned out to be quite difficult. He not only required the oil and grain factory to sell the Taihua factory's sugar but also to help promote it. It was unreasonable for the oil and grain store to promote a private small factory's products instead of its own!
But the other party said, "If you don't agree, then we won't sell our oil to you. The supply and marketing cooperative won't sell it, and we will directly push it to the small shops. After all, small shops are sprouting up like mushrooms, with a much higher coverage rate than the oil and grain stores."
Zhou Kehua was now in a difficult position. On one hand, he wanted the sales rights for the Taihua brand of premium oil, but on the other hand, he didn't want to agree to Feng Yu's harsh conditions. The negotiations were at an impasse.
PS: A controlling shareholder is required to hold two-thirds of the total shares, not 51%. Don't get this confused. Additionally, thank you to the readers for your criticism and suggestions. Lao Si is making corrections. If there are any issues, please continue to leave comments in the book review section. Finally, please give your recommendation votes to Lao Si. Thank you.