Chapter 58 It's not easy to make money, it's hard to spend money

In the last two years, John has always felt that he can't keep up with the speed at which he is making money. The pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info FedEx has easily achieved profitability, and the Hughes aircraft has become a big hole to swallow money. Hughes Aircraft Company had just started to make a lot of money by taking advantage of the European war, and Federal Shipping allowed him to throw in a lot of money. Now that Federal Shipping was just getting started, he was going to throw money into Kaiser's Richmond shipyard again.

But this is also the norm in the capital game. The major consortia basically rely on this cross-holding method to constantly swallow up small companies, and then build a large number of independently operated subsidiaries into an organic whole around a few core enterprises.

For example, the huge building materials empire controlled by Kaiser has hundreds of directly affiliated enterprises, and the number of various subsidiaries and grandchildren cannot be counted. But all of these companies are built around three core companies: Kaiser Aluminum, Kaiser Steel and Kaiser Cement & Stucle. As long as nothing happens to these three companies, his huge building materials empire will be solid. That's why Kaiser can be so relieved and bold to throw money at the shipbuilding industry, even if he gets away with it, he won't hurt his muscles and bones.

John remembers that Kaiser had also ventured into the automotive industry, founding the Kaiser-Foreman Automotive Company, which produced an all-aluminum car. However, Kaiser was not as successful in the automobile industry as he was in shipbuilding, and in 1953 he had to close his car company.

But as long as Kaiser's basic plate in the building materials industry does not have problems, this failure is not trivial to him at all. In fact, after the collapse of the car company, he turned around and spent tens of millions of dollars to invest in Hawaii's tourism industry.

In the same way, although John's current property is not many, most of it is built around FedEx. His investments in the New York Central Railroad, Pacific Railroad, Hughes Aircraft Company, American Airlines, Federal Ocean Shipping, and even the Richmond Shipyard were ultimately aimed at building his own logistics empire around FedEx.

Therefore, among all John's industries, FedEx is the core, and other companies are extensions of the upstream and downstream industries around this core. As long as FedEx does not have major problems, even if there are losses in the investment of other upstream and downstream industries, it will not affect the overall situation. Besides, with his "vision", how can he invest in loss-making transactions. Temporary financial difficulties are not a big deal.

When John approached Walter about drawing money from FedEx to invest in the Richmond shipyard, Walter proposed another funding solution.

Walter told John that the U.S. economy is beginning to fully recover, spurred by a large number of European orders recently. Since the second half of last year, FedEx's performance has been rising, and the capital market is becoming more and more optimistic about the company's development prospects. Now is the perfect time for them to issue shares and raise funds from the capital markets.

Walter's words reminded John that the predators on Wall Street were not going to sit back and watch him eat alone. At this point, the gang must have started sharpening their knives and preparing to cut a piece of fat off FedEx.

Before he left the company last year, he told Walter that he could consider issuing 2 million FedEx shares at the right time. At that time, he mainly thought about "spending money to buy peace", and through "disguised offerings", he divided some sweetness among the Wall Street gang and blocked their mouths, and raising funds from the capital market was not the main factor. Now that I think about it, issuing shares is a good way to kill two birds with one stone.

"Walter, I guess you're all set." John knew Walter too well, a man who was so stable that he wouldn't have mentioned it to John if he hadn't done his preparations.

"Hehe, you can rest assured." Walter laughs and says, "Jacob started preparing for this late last year. You also know that he has an unusual relationship with the Wall Street gang, and he has been ready for a long time to wait for the right time. ”

"That's good, I'm still relieved that you're doing things." John thought for a moment and then advised, "Don't make too much of a fuss about this." I'll ask Corilius (John's lobby brother, Wall Street financier Corilius III) to help find a small brokerage firm to do this, and you tell Jacob to tell his friends to get ready. ”

In 1940, the process of issuing shares was far less complicated than in later generations. Soon, FedEx quietly put 2 million shares of the company in the capital market, and most of them fell into the hands of those top capital predators.

The stock deal raised John a lot of money, and he got rich by $1 million after investing in the Richmond shipyard.

Two days ago, John was worried about where to get the money, and now he has to worry about spending it again. If this money is not spent as soon as possible, it will be a large expense when you file your taxes early next year. Instead of cheapening the Federal Tax Service, it is better to spend it sooner rather than later.

But where does such a large sum of money go? Now the U.S. stock market is very prosperous, and there will definitely be money to be made by investing in it. However, rather than following the predators, John prefers to invest in industry.

He went through the industries he now owns one by one. First of all, the Brothers in Arms shipyard can be excluded. This small river shipyard is just a tool used by John to win over Bradley and others, and when the time comes, he can earn some pocket money, and he can't afford to invest more.

FedEx, the core industry, is now profitable, and its own hematopoietic capacity is sufficient, and there is no need for additional investment.

In terms of railways, Harold, with John's full support, has stabilized the situation of the New York Central Railway Company, and there is no need for further blood transfusions for the time being. Speaking of which, there is also a credit to Hitler. If he hadn't killed Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France so quickly, and caused the Morgan family to lose a lot of money on their financial investments in Europe, the Vanderbilt family's home base might have been copied by the Morgan.

Lately, the Morgan family has been preoccupied with helping the British government issue £115 million in war bonds, and has had little time to pay attention to the New York Central Railroad. Harold is taking advantage of this opportunity to seize lost ground and strengthen his family's control over the company's board.

As long as the family held on to the New York Central Railroad, John didn't have to worry about FedEx's rail business. Moreover, the New York Central Railway Company was originally a comprehensive enterprise integrating railway construction, locomotive manufacturing, and line operation, with all upstream and downstream businesses, and FedEx had no need to start a new business in the field of railway transportation.

In terms of shipping, John has successfully gained control of federal shipping. In order to prevent his fleet from being requisitioned by the U.S. government, Ponyk had to transfer most of its shares to John at a low price. In addition, his investment in the Richmond shipyard this time can be regarded as a pioneer in the upstream industry.

As for the air freight business, which has not yet been shadowed, John's previous layout is enough. Hughes Aircraft is now not much less profitable than FedEx. Especially after the Mustang fighter passed the technical inspection of the Army Air Corps and obtained the export qualification. The British added 400 to the previous 320, and gave John a license to produce Rolls-Royce's Merlin engines.

John was confident that by the time the war was over, Hughes Aircraft would definitely become the top boss in the global aerospace industry. When the time comes, it is logical to get involved in the manufacture of passenger aircraft and transport aircraft and seize the air transport service market. What's more, he now has a board seat at American Airlines.

After thinking about it, John thought that it would be better to use the money to buy a car company for fun. Previously, the company's think tank team had made recommendations in this regard. But John felt that the situation of GM, Chrysler, and Ford in the auto industry had already formed, and he didn't want to wade into this troubled water.

But recently, when he was arranging transportation plans for army supplies, he found that the market for many special vehicles was still virgin land at this time. Many of the military's supplies, such as hazardous chemicals, could not find suitable vehicles to transport them. It doesn't seem too late for FedEx to get into this space now.