"New games again? Whether it's casual or combat. Henry Morgan asked a little impatiently.

At present, various games have been divided into two categories, casual and combat, and the previous game modes were mainly casual until the emergence of "Space Invaders", and combat games became popular.

"It's a combat genre, it's called "Tank Wars", and the playability is far better than "Space Invaders." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

The games before "Pac-Man" can only be said to be average, that is, they appeared in the current barbaric era of video games, so that they can almost monopolize the world, and any of them, if they appear a few years later, there will basically be no market.

But "Tank Wars" is different, it is a game that is popular enough for 20 years, until the advent of the Internet has raised the threshold of the game.

Although it is not as good as Mario, it is the most playable game at present, both in the arcade and on the future home console, especially since it can be customized with different background screens, but this is a complete lore.

"Has the game been developed?" Henry asked.

"It's basically out, but there are still a lot of things that need to be optimized, and it should not be improved until the middle of next year." Chen Zhiwen said. The game of "Tank Wars" is not difficult, and the interface is somewhat similar to that of "Pac-Man", but what kind of background is set, how many tanks are in each level, when and where the tanks appear, etc., need to be carefully studied and a suitable balance needs to be found.

"Okay, don't be in a hurry, although the effect of "Pac-Man" is a little worse, the entire market can still last for about half a year." Henry Morgan said that although he wanted to know what kind of game it was, which could make Chen Zhiwen very optimistic, he couldn't ask too much, this was an absolute trade secret.

"Actually, it's not bad, we've been too successful before, and if we drop a little, we feel bad, and this mentality is still unacceptable." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile. The results of "Pac-Man" are indeed not as good as before, but it is definitely a hit, but in the United States, the United States is estimated to make tens of millions of dollars, plus the market outside the United States, 100 million dollars is not difficult, but it is not as good as "Space Invaders" and "Magic Cube".

And in the market of home game consoles, Pac-Man is actually a hit, because this kind of game is not suitable for high-frequency consumption such as arcade machines, but is suitable for home game consoles that can consume unlimited time.

"Yes, we are greedy." Henry Morgan raised his glass again: "But greed is the essence of our capitalist development. ”

"Yes, be greedy." Chen Zhiwen also raised his wine glass, making more money, so that he could have more use, otherwise, they would have been free for a long time, and it would be too boring for them to live.

The layout of gold futures has been completed, plus two back-up transactions to ensure the safety of this investment, basically there will be no major problems, and in the following days, Chen Zhiwen went to the first branch of Home Depot in Los Angeles.

After a tour of the Home Depot store, Chen Zhiwen asked: "Bernie, how many of these are purchased from Hong Kong?" ”

"Hardware tools are directly from Costco's warehouse, should also be considered from Hong Kong, all kinds of wood boards, is still purchased in the United States, paint and the like, because of legal reasons, Asian wood boards want to enter the United States, need a lot of procedures, temporarily unable to keep up with the opening of new stores, some fasteners are also from Galaxy Trade, as for toilets, pipes, faucets and other kitchen and bathroom supplies, basically from the United States or Mexico." Bernie thought for a moment and said.

"That's okay, take your time, these things, in fact, Hong Kong basically has, even if there are none, as long as you have enough orders here, Galaxy Trade will also look for them in Southeast Asia, which can minimize your procurement costs." Chen Zhiwen said.

"Hong Kong's materials are indeed good and cheap, so it's no wonder Costco has been so successful in the United States." Bernie said with a laugh.

Pierce, who was supporting on the side, said: "Hong Kong's procurement of materials is only a part of the cost reduction, more important is the optimization of transportation costs, Bernie, your home depot, is a cross-era business model, but I suggest that you still give priority to opening new stores in coastal cities, coastal population is concentrated, and Hong Kong is convenient for material transportation, really to the inland, you need to transport goods from the port to the inland, then some goods are not cost-effective, and so on in the future, you can learn from the market to build your own logistics system." ”

"It's too far to expand, it's too early, but you're right." Bernie nodded and smiled.

Pierce said: "It's not early, don't worry, with Eric's funds and cheap materials in Hong Kong, coupled with this business model, it is difficult to succeed, but the speed must be fast, after these two new stores have gained enough experience and the relevant management team, they will start to expand, once the speed can't keep up, and others find this opportunity, it will be troublesome, just like Costco now, there are already many retail companies entering the membership warehouse supermarket." ”

"That's right." Bernie nodded and said that Costco's current situation He also knows that Celtic, Sears, Walmart and many supermarkets have begun to try member warehouse supermarkets, completely imitating Costco, but this difficulty is still a little bit, especially in terms of extreme cost control and scale, because the scale of Costco is not small now.

But Home Depot is different, this kind of business logic can be seen at a glance, and there is no need to work hard to engage in a membership system, anyone can easily copy it, and they don't have a scale yet.

"There will be no problem in a short period of time, less than the scale, generally can not attract too many investors or peers, rest assured, the priority is to sum up experience and cultivate talents, if the funds are not enough, you can find me, whether it is financing or borrowing, there is no problem." Chen Zhiwen said.

It is in his best interest to develop Home Depot as soon as possible, not only to get hundreds of times the return after it is listed, but also to obtain more resources to be purchased in Asia through supply channels, which is what he values the most.

"Thank you, Eric." Bernie sincerely said that encountering such high-quality investors, basically no strings attached, no management involvement, and using their own resources to help start-ups grow, is what all entrepreneurs dream of.

"No thanks, this is also my business, if you succeed, I will succeed." Chen Zhiwen smiled and said.

"It's not early, I know a place where the steak is Wagyu beef from Japan, and it tastes very good." Pierce said.

"Okay, go try it." Chen Zhiwen nodded, the meat of Wagyu beef is indeed very famous, and in the United States, it is also very high-end.

After the incident in the United States, Chen Zhiwen naturally went back to Hong Kong.

Nowadays, the industry in Hong Kong, although a lot of cash has been siphoned off, but everyone is on the road to healthy development, and there is no problem with a little less capital, especially Wharf and Hutchison, which still have a lot of land in hand, and Hong Kong's housing prices will not stop rising until the end of 81, and have maintained a high level of fluctuation until September 1982, when there was a halving plummet.

There are still 3 years left before this day, which is enough to maximize the benefits of a lot of land in hand. In addition, as long as you are bold enough, you can borrow money to develop real estate, and Chen Songqing is the king of this piece.

And history has not changed, Chen Zhiwen has heard of this rising star, recently began to be active in the real estate market, but he did not intervene, this giant fraud in the next few years to deceive countless investors, banks, but did not involve the bottom of the ordinary people, as long as he did not deceive those people who lived very difficult at the bottom, and it was not his own business, then Chen Zhiwen would not care.

Investment is risky, just take your own responsibility.

It was December 16, and the world's attention was drawn to the Middle East, when Iran announced that it would stop exporting oil, and the global market suddenly lost 5 million barrels of supply per day.

Although 5 million barrels is more, it only accounts for 5% of the global oil use, as long as it is controlled, the impact is not very large, but there is a lesson from the first oil crisis, various developed countries and large conglomerates, are desperately buying oil, afraid that they will fall into the point where there is no oil available, you know, oil is expensive, but it will cause inflation, prices rise, but if there is no oil, then logistics, electricity, industry will be paralyzed, the loss is so large, not only will it cause more serious inflation, It will also cause huge losses in the industrial chain, and even lead to bankruptcy or transfer of enterprises.

No one knows how long the oil shortage will last, and who would dare to bet on it? France in 73 did not pay much attention to the first oil crisis in the early days, and later led to no oil available, and almost drilled wells everywhere in Paris to find oil.

So, oil prices began to take off.

Although it is not good for the global economy, it is good news for Chen Zhiwen.

Because the outbreak of the oil crisis is one of the fundamental reasons for the rise in gold prices.

And this is also very good for Costco, although Hong Kong will also have to increase Costco's export prices due to the increase in energy and transportation costs, but the comparison is relative, compared with other supermarkets, Costco's increase is definitely the smallest, because the low SKU (supermarket product category) model is destined to be much lower transportation costs.

On the other hand, the recurrence of the oil crisis will once again change the living habits of ordinary people in the United States.

Before the first oil crisis in 1973, oil was about $3-4 a barrel, and after the first oil crisis, the price basically remained at about $12, and the price of gasoline and diesel at the terminal naturally increased three or four times, which is actually one of the important reasons why cheap supermarkets such as Wal-Mart began to take off.

Because when the price of oil is low, the price is also low, many people don't care about going to the supermarket a few more times, and they don't even pay too much attention to the price, so Wal-Mart in the suburbs naturally has no big advantage, because people are happy to shop nearby, even if it is in the city or neighborhood, it doesn't matter if the price is a little more expensive.

But oil prices have increased several times, many manufacturing industries in the United States have suffered serious losses, layoffs of layoffs, no layoffs and salary cuts, people's travel costs have also increased several times, and the prices of supermarkets have also increased significantly.

And now that the second oil crisis has begun, in a few months, the price of oil will rise from $13 a barrel to $34, which is almost ten times higher than six years ago.

Another point is that the automotive industry is also about to usher in very drastic changes, as long as you wait for the income of gold futures to arrive, you can get out of the first step of the car dream.

On the same day, Chen Zhiwen also made an appointment with Bao Yugang by phone, and the next day, the two met at the Hilton Hotel.

"Hello Bao Sheng." After Chen Zhiwen saw Bao Yugang, he shook hands with a smile and said.

"Hello, Chen Sheng." Bao Yugang is also more polite, both of them are already the pinnacle of the Chinese community in Hong Kong, and there is no conflict of interest, so they are naturally very kind.

"Bao Sheng, how has the acquisition of CLP's shares been recently?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"It's almost 6 percent of the acquisition, and I don't dare to buy it too quickly, otherwise it will be easy for the Kadoorie family to find out." Bao Yugang said.

"It's similar on my side, and the current British capital is more vigilant, for fear of becoming the next Wharf." Chen Zhiwen smiled and said. So many British-funded consortia are not fools, Hutchison was acquired at the beginning, and it can be said that Chen Zhiwen picked up a company that was about to go bankrupt, no matter what the benefits of Hutchison are now, but no one really wanted it back then, but Wharf is different, this is Chen Zhiwen really snatched from Jardine Matheson, with the lessons of the past, the British-funded consortium has become very cautious, and it has also made all the Chinese capital, including Chen Zhiwen, have to be careful.

However, it is also because Chen Zhiwen has been seeking to gather funds to long gold futures, otherwise, the capital situation in the past few years would have been able to attack HK Electric a long time ago. HK Electric is indeed very valuable, but it is far from gold futures.

"So it's better to be the first to eat crabs, and now that Hong Kong's economic situation is going to be acquired, we can really only spend a lot of money." Bao Yugang said with a smile.

"The big cost is worth it, but it's better to be smaller or smaller, and now there's an opportunity." Chen Zhiwen paused and said, "What happened in the Middle East, does Bao Sheng know?" ”

"Of course, I know that I am a maritime business, and I am very sensitive to this aspect." Bao Yugang nodded and said: "The price of global oil is going to rise sharply. ”

"It's not a price increase, it's a good chance that the same oil crisis will be the same as the last one." Chen Zhiwen said.

"It's possible, and if that's the case, the shipping industry will be in trouble." Bao Yugang sighed and said that once the oil crisis breaks out, the global demand for freight will immediately decrease, but it also depends on the situation, if there is a regional conflict, especially the Suez Canal, if it is blocked, then the cargo ships going to Europe will need to detour to Africa and South Africa, in this case, even if the economy deteriorates, the demand for cargo ships will increase exponentially.

This was the case in the first oil crisis, but the second time I didn't know that if there was no disruption, the shipping industry would be on a back burner.

"Isn't Baosheng already ready to transfer assets to land, and the shipping market is so big, even if the demand decreases, it will not happen overnight, let's discuss the matter of the two power plants." Chen Zhiwen said.

"Chen Sheng, please speak." Pao Yugang Road.

"Because of the need for environmental protection, both CLP Power and HK Electric have started to replace the new generation of oil-fired power generation technology, which was naturally fine in the past, but once the price of oil rises several times, what do you think?" Chen Zhiwen said.

"That will inevitably lead to higher costs, but with the rise in oil prices, the two power plants can reasonably increase the price of electricity." Bao Yugang said.

"So we have to find a way to suppress the rise in electricity prices, even if we don't come forward, we can also use the media and other people to come forward, after all, when the price of electricity rises, no one in Hong Kong will benefit except for power plants, and how many people will care if it is because of the rise in oil prices or energy prices?" Chen Zhiwen said with a light smile.

"This is not bad, TVB is old, and it is indeed reasonable to pay attention to the ordinary living needs of the people." Bao Yugang said with a smile.

"Of course, but the media alone is not enough, I will also ask the Hong Kong manufacturing factory association to come forward to resist the rise in electricity prices, or only let a part of the increase, so that once the price of oil rises after the price of electricity does not rise in time, there will inevitably be losses, even if it is a loss in the future, it is enough to make the stock prices of the two power plants plummet, as for how much it can be reduced, it depends on our ability." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

The biggest effect of the acquisition of TVB is this, TVB itself has average profitability, but it can do a very good job for brother companies.

"I understand what Chen Sheng meant, when their stock price falls, we buy, which will indeed have a much better effect." Bao Yugang nodded and said, the money saved is one thing, the main thing is that when the market is bearish, you can buy a large number of shares without worrying about causing the stock price to rise sharply.

"Okay, that's still the same as before, you are in charge of CLP, and I am in charge of HK Electric, don't touch each other's, so as not to cause abnormal stock prices." Chen Zhiwen said.

(End of chapter)