A few years later, it was Li Bancheng from Xiangjiang who bought the whole of England. Although Zhou Shi hated him, he had to applaud him for his wisdom and decisiveness. This person is a typical businessman, while firmly optimistic about the future economy of China, while decisively selling off the assets of the mainland, and even expressing his position in private: I have no homeland, and peace of mind is where I return. It can be said that he is a businessman who has no country and no home, no national concept, and is outright a businessman. According to a domestic media report, as of May 2000, the Li Ka-shing family's charity investment in the UK was as high as 5 billion pounds, and the charity in the mainland did not exceed 500 million pounds in the same period!

It is almost certain that the purpose of his investment in England is not to make money, at least not to make money. Why do you say that, it starts with the social and economic environment in England. Britain is arguably one of the most well-being countries on the planet, accounting for 25% of the country's GDP. Therefore, in the high-welfare UK, there is almost no difference between a working person and a non-working person, and if they are willing to have more children, it is even better, and they will enjoy greater social subsidies and live in luxury houses. In such a country, the tax burden on companies and individuals is naturally very heavy, with an annual profit of more than £1.5 million at a corporate income tax rate of 30% and a VAT rate of 17.5%. The tax rate is 40% for annual income above £37,400 and 50% for more than £150,000. And they also levy taxes on capital, including capital gains taxes and capital transfer taxes, among others. After the Li family fled to England, it was basically difficult to come out, and it was very good that their capital could maintain and increase in value, and it was too difficult to develop further. But instead of developing the United States with more super-rich people, they chose the United Kingdom, which is a bit complicated.

First of all, Xiangjiang used to be a British colony, and Li Bancheng seems to be a British knight, and he may have a sense of identity in his cultural background. The second is the British social environment, for example, the Queen family has a history of nearly 1,000 years, and it is not uncommon for families to have a history of 500 years. But in most other places, there are no more than three generations of wealth.

Although UK inheritance tax is on the estate of the deceased and property gifted within 7 years before the date of death, the tax is borne by the heirs of the estate. The heirs must declare and pay inheritance tax to the tax authorities before they can legally divide the estate, but there are many reasonable ways for professionals who are familiar with tax law to circumvent UK inheritance tax. A real-life example is the death of Duke VI of Westminster due to a heart attack, and his 25-year-old son Hugh Grosvenor inherited the title, as well as a property in a prime 300-acre prime location in central London, as well as a total of £9 billion worth of property in major gateway cities around the world! However, no inheritance tax was paid, because the late duke's estate, which was mostly made up of trusts.

Of course, Zhou Shi said that he wanted to buy the whole of England, but the intention of investment was obvious. Stable social structure, in the case of no major changes in the world pattern, investing in the UK is a good choice, the level of high-tech and high-quality talent here is second only to the United States, a large number of Nobel Prize winners and world-renowned scholars are in the UK, London is the world's second largest technology ecosystem, second only to Silicon Valley, he has 180,000 technology companies, 25% of the world's entrepreneurs have established important connections with at least 2 London entrepreneurs. It can be said that this is the focus of the future development of Time Friends and even Guoke.

But what Zhou Shi said to them is really different, he wants to follow the path of Li Bancheng and join the UAE to invest in the UK's infrastructure, telecommunications, retail industry, power grid, water, piped gas and other fields in advance, such as British Telecom.

Although Zhou Shi's proposal exceeded the expectations of Mubarak and some people behind him, it did not frighten them, investment was one of their goals, and Britain was also an important target for them. This time, the invitation of the two giants of Galaxy Capital to the UAE also contains the idea of further cooperation. Otherwise, al-Mansur and Khalifa would not have met with them first, and Sheikh Ahmed didn't care about a partner like Galaxy Capital.

BT now has 160,000 employees, 08 years of operating income of more than $40 billion, due to the financial crisis, revenue plummeted, at the end of 2008 laid off 10,000 people, but still not much use, the stock price plummeted, the market value was only more than 6 billion pounds, had to announce in April to continue to lay off employees. From an investment point of view, this is a good time for them to enter, and they are old enough (formerly state-owned) and have a lot of contacts in the industry to be a good stepping stone for them to enter the European telecommunications market. Although BT does not have the most critical mobile license, they have transformed to IT, and their revenue sources have changed greatly, and Zhou Shi believes in the power of capital, and it is enough to acquire one or two telecom operators in the future.

"We're interested in Simon's proposal!" Mubarak approached Zhou again a few days later, "and we've also received news that T-Mobile and Orange are interested in integrating their operations in the UK to form a new joint venture. ”

"Such a coincidence?" Zhou Shi knew when he heard the song, if this was the case, the possibility of them taking a stake in British Telecom would be greatly increased.

"Yes, such a coincidence, you don't know?" Mubarak thought that Zhou Shi had known about this for a long time and deliberately tested them, so he told the information they had received so quickly.

Zhou Shi was also speechless, he set his target on British Telecom, but he was inspired by Li Bancheng, and he would also get involved in British power grids, water and other companies in the future, and Lu He had not yet completed the integration of European forces, and the sources of information were not very extensive. Even if he had the heart to inquire about these secret information, it would be difficult to know the specific details. This is not like Silicon Valley, although Zhou Shi is not the top figure in Silicon Valley, but at least he is the most potential group of people. It belongs to the top handful of the second level. As for in Europe, he still needs time to accumulate.

"Then we have decided, will we cooperate in the form of a joint venture company this time, or will we act in concert, or will we do our own thing?" Zhou Shi ignored Mubarak's doubts and directly discussed the follow-up development with him.

"We have a lot of cooperation in the future, and it is more suitable to form a joint venture. Mubarak still values Galaxy Capital very much, otherwise he would not have helped introduce many people when Lu He invested in the Middle East last time.

"I hope we can have a good time working together. Zhou Shi is also very happy, the status of the sovereign wealth fund restricts their play, and the operation of this company depends on them most of the time. And if it really goes well, then can China Mobile or Huaxia Telecom join this operation? His influence in China will be greatly enhanced.

(End of chapter)