In early September, Continy, who had been in the western part of the Soviet Union, finally returned satisfied, and was basically accompanied by Chicherin and Bukharin, who gave him enough courtesy, and Contini seemed to enjoy the feeling of being accompanied by a big man, while pointing out the country and scolding Fang Xuan, while inspecting various industries in the Soviet Union and signing a variety of economic contracts:

Nickel ore contracts, manganese ore contracts, cement contracts, timber contracts, ...... In addition to the initial $20 million, the Coalition Group signed additional purchase contracts of more than $20 million – but all of them were raw materials or products of primary processing.

And all that was provided to the Soviet side was machinery and equipment, and Zakaria, who accompanied Contini to the side, was puzzled - the United Group simply did not have so much equipment for export, and it was still imported from the United States and Germany in sets, so how could it dare to agree to the Soviets? What should I do if I breach the contract?

When Contini found out, he laughed: "Isn't it okay to import and then re-export?" ”

"We're going to lose money that way."

Contini smiled: "No, it may even be more economical......"

"Save?" Zakaria didn't understand the president's business philosophy, of course, he was an administrative secretary, and it was normal to not understand, so he humbly asked for advice.

"First of all, we ourselves need the equipment we sold to the Soviets, do you say that the unit price is low for buying one set or the unit price for buying two sets?"

Zakaria nodded.

"Secondly, we have increased our external procurement efforts, do you say that a $10 million business is influential or a $40 million business is influential?"

Zakaria understood: with a $42 million order, even such a big thing and such a big mastermind in Munich can be suppressed, and the influence can be seen. ”

"Finally, don't we have some German rags that we have taken back from France? Pick up, put it in order, you can sell it to the Soviets as a second-hand complete set of equipment. ”

Zakaria was dumbfounded: "This ...... This ......"

"It's good for everyone to spread out and say no, I don't lie to the Russians, second-hand will be sold at the price of second-hand...... Anyway, second-hand goods from France, Germany, Italy, and the United States were still very popular in the Soviet Union. What's more, I am the only one in the world who is willing to accept such a large amount of offsetting with minerals and raw materials. Even if you are willing, you must lower the price and then lower the price, how can I give justice? "The honorary doctor of Moscow University and the status of an old friend of the Russian people was not given for nothing, do you see who accompanied us in front of the saddle and behind the horse?" Politburo members, how many Politburo members were there in the Soviet Union? It is necessary to settle both economic and political accounts! ”

"Besides, it's hard to say whether this deal will lose money in the future, at least it's making money now - the short crude oil order in the over-the-counter market in New York has come back with more than 10 million US dollars, as long as the reason is, of course, the big oil field in Algeria, but the more than 10 million barrels of crude oil in Baku are the last straw that crushes the market."

There is a sentence that Contini has not yet told him: After the collapse of 1929 in history, the price of industrial equipment in Europe and the United States fell to an outrageous level, and then the United Group with money in hand can go to buy big and buy specially, and then sell it to the Russians at the contract price.

It doesn't matter if you say this sentence or not, anyway, the previous words alone have already convinced Zakaria - the president is fierce in spending money, but making money is even more fierce! Sure enough, the pattern is different, the vision is different, and the career is different!

So, with so many raw materials imported from the Soviets, is the United Group panicked with too much money?

Definitely!

The dredging of the ports of Tripoli and Benghazi has begun, and tens of thousands of German and Italian engineers, technicians, and skilled workers, as well as Chinese laborers of the same size (see Chapter 5 for details), are beginning to arrive in Libya, and the construction scene will soon begin.

The first step was to build a temporary settlement - it was too slow to build a house on bricks, and later generations of fast construction houses did not have the skills at this time, so the United Group had to use the American method to customize the wooden frame housing and build it quickly.

Speaking of which, it is very suitable to build wood-framed housing in North Africa, because the air is dry, the temperature is high, there are few insect pests, and it also prevents mildew from festering, even if the moisture in the wood exceeds the standard, it will not cause bad consequences; Second, the terrain is very flat, there is no need to lay a foundation at all, as long as you find a water source, with ready-made steel and wood structural materials, you can build a settlement in 7-10 days, using pure hand tools, what cranes, forklifts, excavators and other modern equipment are not needed - of course, it will be faster; Although the ability of three-wood houses to resist typhoons and hurricanes is poor, North Africa is at most sandstorms, where do hurricanes come from? Therefore, safety is not a problem at all, and living in it will have the effect of being warm in winter and cool in summer; Last but not least, if these temporary settlements were to be relocated, they would be easy to dismantle and rebuild – the reinforced concrete houses would be ruined and left to be abandoned.

When Contini took Ida slowly back from the Black Sea, Antonio was negotiating with Standard Oil Algeria to increase capital and shares, according to the current production and exploration volume, the United Group proposed a price of 30 million US dollars to obtain 10% of the shares, Standard Oil is too expensive, because the total value of crude oil may exceed 700 million US dollars, but after deducting infrastructure and mining costs, it is worth up to 3-400 million US dollars, this share price is a standard, obviously obliterating the subsequent appreciation space, but Antonio refuses to back down, It is believed that there is still room for further improvement in oil reserves.

After a five-day stalemate, Standard Oil gave in - the exploration team once again found a new mine area near the border of Algeria and Libya, increasing the recoverable capacity by at least 200 million barrels, and now Standard Oil is ready to agree to the price of 30 million US dollars, and finally Antonio knows that Contini has the intention of the US power to balance France, and did not raise the price significantly, but only reached an agreement at the price of 33 million US dollars - that is, the valuation of the Algerian company reached 330 million.

Eight days later, the second shocking news came that Texas Corporation (later renamed Texaco), the second largest oil company in the United States, reached a stake agreement to invest $35 million, but only received a 9% stake, and now Algeria is valued at 389 million.

As if the shocking news was not enough, the exploration team announced again on October 9 that it had discovered a high-yield area, increasing the recoverable capacity of the Algerian oil company's acquired blocks to 1.6 billion barrels, with prospective reserves of nearly 7 billion barrels, and forcibly invalidated the Anglo-Dutch Shell shareholding agreement that had been negotiated for a long time - the price originally negotiated between the two sides was $40 million to obtain 10% of the shares after the capital increase, and as a result, the vice chairman of the negotiation had to discuss with the behind-the-scenes controller, after all, two important countries were involved. Before the results of the negotiations came out, the news of the large increase in reserves had spread all over the world, and Antonio directly raised the price from 40 million to 50 million, and said that the Anglo-Iranian (Lang) oil company was also interested.

What made Britain and the Netherlands feel even more explosive was that the French also came to intervene at this time, and the three major French banks that had invested in Union Bank said that they would support PetroFrance (later known as Total) to take a stake in Algerian Petroleum, and the tone was amazing, directly announcing 100 million US dollars for 20% of the shares, and the valuation jumped directly to 500 million!

Did the French come out to raise prices at this time because their brains were in water? Obviously not, because the United Group signed an agreement with Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, and JP Morgan on October 11, and the joint sponsor team formed by them escorted the listing of Union Bank and United Oil (only including Algerian companies for the time being), and signed a schedule, Union Bank will be listed before mid-1927, and Union Oil will be listed before mid-1928, and the three major French banks, as important shareholders of Union Bank, have heard about the price of Union Oil by Wall Street tycoons- The offer price is estimated at a starting valuation of $800 million! Public placement of 10-15% of the shares.

This means that if you can buy shares at a valuation of 500 million now, it will directly increase by 60% in 3 years, and this is still the offer price, according to the current surge in the stock market, it is not a problem to double it directly, so the French are in a hurry, and directly bid for 100 million US dollars - the devil knows if there will be any new oil fields found in the next few months, anyway, as long as there is, it is lying down to make money.