Chapter 371 The Godfather 49%
Trench no longer had any complaints.

If we first divide a piece of land in Shatin, it will definitely be very cheap. Can it be compared with the reclamation in Kowloon and Hong Kong Island next to Victoria Harbour? But as long as we divide it a little bigger, the total amount will also be considerable.

He is about to leave office, so he needs to think carefully about himself. If he goes back to John, he will continue to develop his career, right?

Wang Yuanchao is very good. This guy is very good at cooperation. He makes money without any handle. It is completely legal and compliant. He is many times smarter than those who slip checks.

For example, when undertaking the government's New Year cultural activities, he always received the commission he was entitled to. However, when it came time to hand in checks, Wang Yuanchao usually handed in hard currency such as gold bars and gold jewelry.

This thing can be cashed anywhere, and it's not as annoying as a check.

After finalizing the development plan for Sha Tin with the Governor, New Territories tycoon Qiu Degen came to find Wang Yuanchao.

Lao Qiu owns a zoo and an amusement park in Lai Chi Kok.

Because Yu Jingwei donated several horses, and the Jockey Club had already approved a project last year to build an ocean park in Wong Chuk Hang in the southern area of ​​Hong Kong Island, Wang Yuanchao thought of the South China tigers in the mainland and wanted to preserve more species for it to prevent the descendants of those six tigers from becoming extinct in the wild.

But the Ocean Park has just started construction and is scheduled to be completed in 6 years. (It actually opened in 77)
Saving the South China tiger was urgent, so he asked Qiu Degen to come and talk.

His wealth and status were much higher than Qiu Degen's, so Old Qiu took the initiative to visit him.

He was very happy when he heard that Wang Yuanchao was going to donate wild animals to his zoo.

There are not many ferocious beasts in there now, only two tigers, and both are Indochinese tigers.

However, Wang Yuanchao stated that the ownership of the tiger still belongs to him personally, and the offspring it produces also belong to him. Even if the tiger dies, its body still belongs to him.

The feeding and medical care are all taken care of by his people.

It is placed in the Lai Chi Kok Zoo purely to allow Hong Kong citizens to watch the wild animals up close.

There is no need for Mr. Qiu to pay rent. All he needs to do is to set aside a 1500-square-meter tiger garden and provide daily meals.

In other words, Lao Qiu provides food and accommodation, and the ticket money is his.

Qiu Degen had no doubt about this, because the mansion that Yu Jingwei gave to Wang Yuanchao was very large and could easily be used to raise tigers and leopards.

And if they hadn't had such a pleasant collaboration on the movie, I'm afraid the other party wouldn't have looked for him.

Qiu Degen knew that Wang Yuanchao had connections with the mainland, and he did not doubt the other party's power. He immediately agreed and promised to make room for the beast when he returned.

Wang Yuanchao is a billionaire and may not care about the ticket revenue, but Lao Qiu is not like that. He will be happy even if the income increases by hundreds of thousands a year.

After the two men had reached an agreement, Wang Yuanchao instructed Bao'antang to go to the mainland and import live South China tigers in the name of medicinal materials.

Is tiger bone a medicinal material? It must be!

People in Hong Kong want to eat fresh medicinal herbs and exchange them for foreign currency. Besides, this thing is still a pest in China!
Yes, pests!
Isn’t this turning waste into treasure? !

According to Wang Yuanchao's request, Bao'an Hall discussed with several medicinal material cooperation units and ordered South China tigers from various places. One pair from the southwest, one pair from the southeast, one pair from central China, one pair from east China, and one pair from the northwest. A total of ten males and females.

The diversity of samples is fully taken into consideration.

Moreover, the transaction data will be preserved. If the South China tiger is really extinct in the wild, Hong Kong will still have diverse genes. With rich genes, it can be returned to nature for wilding.

For the sake of this country, Wang Yuanchao found himself worrying himself to death.

Making money and picking up girls, isn’t that fun?
Why do we have to bear so much responsibility?

But if he didn't take on more responsibilities, he was afraid that when he died of old age, he would not be able to explain such a mysterious experience.

Under the offensive of financial friendship, the authorities quickly came up with a development plan for Sha Tin.

This trench in Sha Tin is indeed suitable for land reclamation. There are mountains next to it and the materials are ready.

As expected, there was no competitor to Wang Yuanchao's joint venture. John raised his sign once and then gave up.

There are many places in Hong Kong that are better than this one. For places like this with poor mountains and bad water, you have to reclaim land by yourself, and after that, you have to hand over half of it to the government. Only the remaining half can be developed freely. It's okay to get a bargain with the base price of 1000 million, but it's not cost-effective to raise the price.

The joint venture company easily achieved the 100-acre target. Of course, if it did not have to hand over half of it, it would have been 200 acres.

[Historically, in 75, Lee Shau-kee joined forces with Cheng Yu-tung, Li Ka-shing and Kwok Tak-seng to raise funds of HK$2060 million to beat British Land in the bidding and win the Shatin First City project. The project covers an area of ​​133 acres, and 70% will be returned to the government after reclamation. The project planned 52 30-story residential buildings, which were sold out until 96. At that time, the total value of the project reached 400 billion.

Now, the one who bid for this land is the relatively honest MacLehose, not the corrupt Trench. 】

Because the government had come up with the plan for Sha Tin, the Jockey Club immediately came over and wanted to apply for the land here to build a second racecourse.

Trench was already waiting for the Jockey Club's application.

So a meeting was held, the plan was adjusted, and 250 acres of land were allocated to the Jockey Club. The price was the same as the previous land price, only 2500 million.

The Jockey Club stated that it is a public welfare enterprise and pays a large amount of taxes to the government every year. Then the authorities held another meeting and gave a 2000% discount to million.

The move of the Jockey Club into Sha Tin suddenly boosted the popularity of the surrounding land, but the government actually held back on the land and was reluctant to sell it.

Although Trench was greedy for money, he also knew that if he acted without moral integrity, he would be easily held responsible by future generations. In other words, the arrival of the Jockey Club had greatly changed the ecological environment of this place, so it was not appropriate to cause the loss of government assets before the value of this place was fully demonstrated.

Wow, that's such a high-sounding statement.

Wang Yuanchao also successfully squeezed into the board of directors of the Jockey Club and became a director thanks to his contribution to the promotion of the Sha Tin Racecourse project.

Everyone can get rich, but he is the only one who has paid real money!
If we don’t make up for it, the Jockey Club’s project won’t be able to proceed as scheduled. All the clubs are under the control of Wang Yuanchao.

For such a large reclamation project, thousands of workers, hundreds of heavy trucks, and excavators have all flocked to the construction site. The surrounding hills are rumbling with noises. That is the blasting work. They must use rocks from nearby areas to minimize costs.

People in the area within a radius of several kilometers could hear thunder every now and then.

Hong Kong's actions are efficient, and the United States's efficiency is also not low.

Paramount went around in circles but couldn't find a suitable director, so it had to decide on Coppola who was interested.

In their view, Coppola was young and had previously shot mature erotic films, so he was a good value for money.

Yes, Paramount is planning to turn "The Godfather" into a low-budget erotic film.

The original author has rewritten the script. According to the company's requirements, the story background is set in the 70s. In this way, the props and scenes are ready-made and there is no need to make it a retro 40s style.

Coppola disagreed. He protested and argued with the company. He even said that he could raise investment!
Paramount originally thought that the young director was easy to deal with, but after signing the contract, they found that the other party had a lot of demands, which seemed to make sense, making it impossible for them to refuse during the argument.

When he heard that he could attract investment, he thought it would be good to have someone to share the risk, so he immediately said he was willing to talk.

So Wang Yuanchao made this trip.

After the period background was approved, the screenwriter rewrote the script according to director Coppola's requirements. He was so excited that he even thought that Marlon Brando should be invited to play the role of the Godfather, completely ignoring the appeal of Brando, a box office poison.

The key is that Coppola also approved it.

Paramount is going crazy.

So what if you bring in investment? I also invested 200 million US dollars.

You want to invite Marlon Brando to me? Not to mention his salary, he is a box office poison! He can't recover the cost!

Marlon Brando emerged out of nowhere in the 50s and gained both fame and fortune. However, he caused trouble on the set every day when filming in the 60s. He was blacklisted by directors and film and television companies, and his reputation was ruined. His career hit rock bottom, so when Paramount was filming The Godfather, they refused to use him.

But the director and screenwriter insisted, and Paramount had no choice but to negotiate with Marlon Brando. The company could give Brando a chance to perform, but he had to lower his salary, audition, and promise not to cause trouble before he could get the role.

Marlon Brando read the script and also wanted to make a comeback, so he agreed.

Before Wang Yuanchao arrived, Paramount was exhausted, and seeing Wang Yuanchao was like seeing a savior.

If Paramount's previous film had not just achieved some success, they would never have agreed to Coppola's request. What was it? Because Coppola repeatedly asked for an increase in the budget. He even asked to choose New York as the filming location, which was another huge sum of money!
Increase the budget, increase the budget, increase the budget!
But now, they can't give up halfway.

With Coppola as an insider, the investment agreement between Orange Picture and Paramount went smoothly.

Paramount holds a 51% stake and Orange holds a 49% stake. Orange's proposal to hold a 49% stake in the copyright of the work was also successfully approved.

This script originally cost 8 US dollars, but now, if it is made according to Coppola's requirements, the budget will not be less than million!

In order to keep this idiot Oriental guy and share the cost, Paramount agreed after just a brief thought.

After obtaining the copyright, Orange negotiated for subsequent television revenue, overseas copyright, etc. In a word, it wanted 49% of all possible revenue for Paramount.

Paramount is unhappy:
We also have distribution business. Would you like to settle the accounts for this together?

Wang Yuanchao certainly knew this, and that was to calculate the distribution fee clearly in advance, otherwise if there was a big harvest later, Paramount would be in trouble.

Therefore, Orange is willing to bear 49% of the issuance costs, including various material costs, labor costs and management fees.

All investments added up, Orange's investment is over 300 million US dollars.

Paramount felt that the project was basically a sure thing, and although it would not make a big profit, at least it would not lose too much, because they only needed to invest $300 million.

It took two weeks for both parties to draft the investment agreement. They set up a joint account at Citibank, and the funds could only be transferred after confirmation from both parties. Paramount didn't think too much about it. The film would make a few million at most, and this amount of money was not worth breaking the contract. The contract was still very detailed. So they agreed to the establishment of the joint account.

After everything was finalized, Orange's financial staff also joined the crew to supervise the payment of funds.

They were told by their boss to just record, not give suggestions.

This point has been recognized by both Paramount and Coppola.

This amount of funds has exhausted Muse Music's cash flow.

Fortunately, investment can reduce or exempt taxes, so Orange is a subsidiary of Muse Music.

(End of this chapter)