Chapter 146: Chapter 128: High-End Maneuvers_2

So, she always dared not invest in LeEco.

Many international investment banks also felt the same, and they didn’t quite like to invest in those large conglomerate companies either.

Billion-yuan investment opportunities that are merely at the threshold of the market are also of great interest to Pingsheng.

Unfortunately, he currently doesn’t have the strength to get involved in that.

The two of them had quite a lengthy discussion on various industries, and overall, there were opportunities in each industry, just not as big as those in the nineties or the 2000s.

The business environment had become well-established; now, whether for small retail shops or large chain enterprises,

they needed to make breakthroughs in management operations in order to succeed.

An average business no longer had the chance to survive in today’s ever-changing world.

The class reunion lasted quite late and overall, everyone had their gains, I suppose.

There was an exchange of ideas between everyone, and no one was really hiding anything.

After all, being at this level and still resorting to pettiness was something that would be looked down upon.

Among them, He Bijing was probably the most dedicated, and Old Yang was another.

One had been raising pigs all his life, while the other had been running hotels all his life.

In their respective fields, they were definitely among the best.

“Old Chen, let’s talk about your Water Cloud Space.”

Zelan said, “I’ve always heard your employees saying how good a boss you are, providing them with villas for dormitories, and still paying them a salary of ten to twenty thousand during training periods, not to mention frequent bonuses. Is the profit in the beauty industry really that high?”

Everyone turned to look at him because prior to this, not many were familiar with his Water Cloud Space, but that changed later on.

It was mainly Zelan who directly gave it a valuation of twenty-five billion yuan.

She even wanted to invest one billion yuan but was ruthlessly rejected.

This was pretty exaggerated.

Not to speak of anything else, just based on this company’s valuation, Chen Pingsheng was actually considered very wealthy among them.

You should know that he now owns 75% of the shares of Water Cloud Space.

That translates to twenty billion yuan right there.

If you add the other three businesses, even Wang Yanfeng, who doesn’t go home to inherit his father’s fortune, still falls short of him.

“High-end beauty does indeed make a lot of money; that stuff has a gross profit margin of over ninety percent.”

Pingsheng said, “The most profitable aren’t those handcrafted services, but foreign machine treatments. Just one anti-aging machine treatment can cost up to a few hundred thousand, and clients can’t just do it once. Then, there are at least dozens more machine treatments that can be done throughout the body. It can be said that for women, when it comes to beauty spending, there’s simply no bottom.”

Seeing their eager expressions, Pingsheng laughed and said, “If you want to compete with me in this field, you better be careful because this year alone I will be investing one billion yuan in opening stores in Capital City, and I’m planning to invest another billion in equipment. Next year, I’ll be expanding to Magic City.”

“The first round of investment will be around three billion yuan, so if you don’t set a few small goals for yourself, it’s better to avoid competing with my Water Cloud Space.”

“Tsk… no wonder you dared to refuse ten billion.”

He Bijing felt that raising pigs was already quite profitable, but compared to his Water Cloud Space,

it was simply like robbing money, and robbing money wasn’t even this fast.

The others were also envious, a ninety percent gross profit margin.

What a concept that was.

Take his beginner’s experience project priced at 1980 yuan for example,

the profit was as high as 1800 yuan.

This damn thing… it was practically robbery.

“Beauty is indeed highly profitable, but it’s a pity it’s hard to replicate.”

Zelan said, “You were able to so quickly make a name for yourself in Capital City’s high-end beauty market, and this has a lot to do with your Tengying Entertainment. I’ve noticed that your entertainment company seems to be especially set up to support these tangible businesses of yours. I’m very curious, what are your plans for the next five years?”

“My five-year plan is actually quite simple.”

Chen Pingsheng said, “This year I’ve almost invested a hundred million in Fei Yangyang, and by the end of the year, I’ll use the Water Cloud Space platform’s clientele to complete a Series B valuation of 500 million. In the next two years, I plan to expand Fei Yangyang to three other first-tier cities.”

“It’s the same with Water Cloud Space, once the path with Fei Yangyang proves successful, to use a simple phrase from your investment banking industry, I’ll use Tengying Entertainment’s traffic to replicate any replicable dining industry. If even three out of ten are successful, that’s a much higher success rate than your venture investments, right?”

Tong Zelan looked at Chen Pingsheng with a hint of surprise; this guy had big plans for the future.

And they’re solid, too.

That was something quite rare, especially compared to Old Jia who would shoot off in all directions, suffering full-scale losses.

Chen’s approach of running straight down one path obviously seemed much safer.

And his speed was fast, too.

It’s like BAT building their own protective moat—Chen was doing the same, constructing a moat for his traditional businesses right from the beginning.

If you want to emulate him, first you need to have a very successful entertainment company.

Then you need to turn nearly half of Capital City’s top rich ladies into your loyal customers.

Naturally, that’s Water Cloud Space.

Managing traffic with one hand and leveraging Water Cloud Space’s powerful networking resources with the other.

And he himself possesses extraordinary chain management skills.

All you need then is to create some instruments that could go public.

That instrument could be Fei Yangyang, or it could be a bubble tea shop, even the smallest of spicy hot pot joints run by couples.

Even a late-night food stall would work.

Just smash all three resources he commands into it, and even a pile of cow dung could turn into a glittering gold nugget.

“Chen, I can provide the pork exclusively for you, so you don’t have to look for others for Fei Yangyang’s Series B financing,” said He Bijing who had discovered a major business opportunity.

He had always wanted to establish his own unique sales channel.

Now, why go looking elsewhere when investing here was sufficient?

If you could really connect all these traditional industries as he said.

There wouldn’t be any industry you couldn’t storm into.

Tong Zelan waved her hand and said, “Old He, it’s definitely not suitable for you to invest alone. After all, what Fei Yangyang needs most is someone to facilitate its smooth listing. I’m not very skilled, but I just happen to have a little expertise in this area. How about I take the large share and you take the small one?”

“No, no, no, don’t do that. Let everyone have a share,” she protested.

With a sudden change in mood, Tong Zelan, who originally had no intention of investing in Fei Yangyang, now made up her mind as well.

The other classmates were the same, they all wanted to get a piece of the action.

Is 150 million a lot?

It’s just so-so. These people could easily come up with that amount.

To disrupt the entire traditional industry model, that’s something you can’t pass up.

Chen Pingsheng hadn’t yet had the gall to say that what he really wanted to shake up in the traditional industry wasn’t Fei Yangyang at all.

It was the superstore he was still investigating with an investment of thirty million.

That was his true weapon in traditional industries.

First, merge into a large marketplace, then use it to break down into smaller components for public listing.

That was his ultimate plan.

Amidst the noise and commotion, ultimately it was Tong Zelan who snatched an investment stake of fifty million, which was a 10% original shareholding.

Based on her calculations, now that she was in, by Series C, Fei Yangyang’s valuation had to reach at least between 1.5 and 1.8 billion.

This was normal; the later stages were multiples of the earlier ones.

Otherwise, who would be willing to invest early on? The further back you invest, the higher the risk.