September 19th.
The aid group and the inspection team met in New York and held a reception.
The head of the aid group is Deputy Secretary of State Dean Acheson. The private delegation consists of three teams, including the California Financial Group team led by Hardy.
There was also the Rockefeller Foundation team led by David Rockefeller, and the Citigroup team led by Citibank President William Rhodes.
Dean Acheson, who had a mustache and looked very energetic, smiled and greeted everyone, saying, "It's an honor to meet all the chairmen and presidents. We started to implement the Marshall Plan last year and have had many exchanges with European countries. We have also distributed some aid."
"President Johnson believes that we can continue to deepen our aid, so he invited you to join this aid delegation. Today we will meet and we will set off together tomorrow. Our first stop is Italy."
There were fifty or sixty people in the venue, many of whom knew each other before. After all, they were all business leaders, and they began to greet each other and chat.
David Rockefeller saw Hardy and smiled as he stepped forward to shake Hardy's hand: "Hello Hardy, this is the first time we meet. I am David Rockefeller."
"It's an honor to meet you, Mr. David." Hardy smiled and extended his hand.
Hardy knew David Rockefeller, the third generation of the Rockefeller family. The current Rockefeller family is headed by David's father, John Rockefeller Jr. David is 33 years old this year. He is currently the chairman of the executive committee and general manager of Manhattan Bank. Later, he became the head of the Rockefeller Group.
The 33-year-old bank president is definitely young and promising.
But David Rockefeller felt more admiration and curiosity about the young man in front of him. Hardy was only 27 years old, much younger than him.
More importantly, he was able to manage a bank with assets of billions at such a young age thanks to his family, while Hardy started from scratch and accumulated assets of hundreds of millions in just 30 years.
Moreover, not long ago, it became a shareholder of Bank of America and a core member of the California Consortium.
Before coming here, David Rockefeller specifically studied other team members. After all, they were in a cooperative as well as a competitive relationship. Among them, Hardy's resume attracted him the most. He started from a small business and planned to merge step by step to become the current group company.
Even he was impressed.
The two exchanged a few pleasantries, and finally David Rockefeller said, "Hardy, I am very interested in your experience, especially your business strategy, which often comes up with surprising ideas to achieve the greatest returns. When we are on the same team in the future, please tell me about it when you have the chance."
Hardy smiled.
"No problem, we'll have a good chat sometime."
It would be impossible to ask Hardy to tell the truth. He couldn't say that he made plans with the help of his future insights.
However, there are so many business concepts in the future, and it should be enough to come up with some to fool David when the time comes.
Hardy then met William Rhodes, the president of Citibank. William Rhodes was a Jewish man in his sixties and chatted with Hardy for a long time.
Later, Hardy got to know many chairmen or presidents of large American companies.
Departure on September 20th.
First stop: Italy.
The war also caused great damage to Italy. Many cities became ruins and the economy was dying. However, Italy was also lucky because of its magical operations in the later period, which allowed it to escape punishment.
In order to persuade Italy not to surrender to the Soviet Union, the United States gave Italy great support in the Marshall Plan. Italy was the country that benefited the most from the Marshall Plan.
I can only say that this lazy guy is really lucky.
Italian Prime Minister Archide Gasperi met with the aid delegation. The Marshall Aid Plan began in 1947. Each country has a corresponding committee. The United States has already provided Italy with US$130 million in aid.
This time, the aid group brought the second batch of aid plans, and also brought a private inspection team. The Italian side knows that these private inspection teams are all big American financial groups, and the help they can provide is no less than that of the US government.
Now they lack food, machines, funds and everything else. They are unwilling to miss any opportunity to develop the country.
Italy came up with a long list.
Agiplast, Italy's largest oil company, is willing to accept foreign investment.
national grid corporation.
fiat automobiles.
Generali Assurance Company.
United Credit Group.
......
The entire list includes more than 130 companies, covering oil, power grid, natural gas, insurance, credit, automobile, shipping, food, precision instrument, machinery manufacturing, hotel, catering, jewelry, etc.
The three major financial groups that came were interested in many companies on this list, and Rockefeller was naturally most interested in the oil industry.
Others also have their own industries they are interested in. For example, Security Pacific, a California-based financial group, has its eyes on Generali Insurance.
People from Citigroup are more optimistic about Italy's national electricity grid business.
What should you do if several companies are interested in some businesses at the same time? You can discuss it privately. Since you are all here together, you can sit down and talk about the issue of joint investment.
Of course, there are also people who focus on selling goods, such as Crocker Farms, which is willing to provide Italy with better quality and cheaper food and agricultural products.
Hadi also had his eyes on a shipping company, Mardi Shipping. According to its introduction, Mardi used to own several cruise ships and cargo ships, ferries on the Mediterranean route, and routes from Italy to Spain, Morocco, Tunisia, and Malta.
But during World War II, all their ships were requisitioned. The company now only has two ferries and is in urgent need of investment if it wants to expand.
Hardy still has a lot of Liberty and Victory ships, so he can invest a few of them here.
Hardy found an official from the Ministry of Commerce and said, "Mr. Pierce, can you help me contact the people from Mardi Shipping Company? I want to talk to them."
The people from the Ministry of Commerce were very happy. This was the first merchant willing to invest in shipping. They immediately nodded and agreed, "Of course, no problem. I will notify them and they will be here within a day at most."
The official from the Ministry of Commerce was about to leave when Hardy stopped him and said, "Oh, I have another question. I want to invest in some luxury goods industry, but it's not on this list. Can you help me contact them individually?"
"Investing in luxury goods?" The official was a little surprised.
Luxury goods companies are having a hard time right now. It's hard for people to survive, so who would be willing to buy luxury goods?
“Of course, but are you sure you want to invest in the luxury goods industry?” the official asked again.
"Yes."
After the officials left, Andy and the president of Wells Fargo Bank came to Hardy. Hardy looked at them and asked, "Do you think there is any good industry?"
Andy said, "I think Fiat Automobile is good, but they are very large. The Italian government intends to let Fiat acquire most domestic brands to revitalize the domestic automobile industry. There are also restrictions on the shares sold abroad, and only 30% of the shares will be released. Not only we are interested in it, but also several other companies are interested in it."
Hardy knew that Fiat would do very well in the future.
"What do you think?"
"My idea is to acquire 5%, which would require about 30 million US dollars," said Andy.
Hardy nodded. "Well, I support your opinion. Then go ahead and try to acquire more."
As for the president of Wells Fargo, he set his sights on a small bank.
This small bank has gone bankrupt. Its headquarters is in Rome, and it has branches in Milan, Naples, Florence, Venice, Turin, and Palermo, the capital of Sicily, the Mafia's hometown.
He wanted to acquire the bank and make it the Italian arm of Wells Fargo.
"If you think it's feasible, then go ahead and do it. You are the president," Hardy said with a smile.
The next afternoon.
People from the Mardi Shipping Company rushed to Rome and met Hardy at the hotel. The person who came was the current president of the company, Gary Mardi, the second-generation heir of the Mardi family.
"Hello, Mr. Hardy, I am Grimaldi." The middle-aged man shook Hardy's hands with both hands and greeted with a smile.
The two sat down and chatted.
Grimaldi's meaning was very clear. They were willing to accept any form of investment. They now had too little funds and could only barely maintain themselves. It would probably take a long time to return to their original state.
"I have a batch of Liberty Ships and Victory Ships, both of which are bulk carriers. I have two plans. One is to lease them to you, and the other is to invest in the company with the cargo ships." Hardy said.
Now the only bargaining chip of Mardi Shipping Company is their operating rights and routes, and Hadi Investment must become the majority shareholder.
Finally, Mardi came up with his own plan and cooperated with Hardy using the company's existing total assets as the valuation. Hardy invested three Liberty ships and two Victory ships, accounting for 66% of the shares, and at the same time leased 20 Liberty ships and 10 Victory ships to Mardi Shipping.
Since the company has no money, the rental payment can only be owed for the time being.
We have to say that the boss Grimaldi was very smart. In this way, he not only kept enough shares, but also got enough ships. He instantly became the largest shipping company in the Mediterranean, making a fortune out of nothing.
Hardy saw through his plan, but agreed to it.
You feel like you made a profit.
In fact, Hardy earns more than him.
Although the lease payment is still owed, it does not mean that the money will not be paid. Those cargo ships will only rust if they stay at the port, and renting them out is equivalent to making money.
Hardy took control of another large shipping company.
......
The Ministry of Commerce attaches great importance to Hadi's investment in luxury goods, but they do not have any list at the moment.
What to do?
Finally, we asked the Minister of Commerce for instructions.
The Minister of Commerce thought about it for a moment and came up with an idea. "Publish a piece of news in the newspaper saying that the chairman of the Hardy Group in the United States is preparing to invest in the Italian luxury goods industry. Those who are interested can call the Ministry of Commerce to register and leave your Ministry of Commerce phone number. The registration time will be set within three days."
The officials immediately published the news in the newspaper.
When this news came out, ordinary Italians did not care, but those working in the luxury goods industry began to worry.
The most powerful country after the war was the United States.
The United States also has the highest consumption level.
So the luxury goods market is naturally the United States.
If they can enter the US market, it will definitely be a great opportunity for these luxury brands. Moreover, the Hardy Group is a large American group, which will greatly promote their industrial development.
Many luxury brands called the Ministry of Commerce.
Two days,
The Ministry of Commerce has prepared a list of more than 60 luxury brands, some of which are already well-known brands in Italy, while others are completely unknown. The Ministry of Commerce suspects that these guys signed up in order to fool wealthy Americans.
He actually guessed it right. Some of these luxury brands that registered were really trying to attract investment.
The list was placed before Hardy.
"Mr. Hardy, this is the list we compiled. Please check to see if there are any companies you want to invest in. If so, we have their contact information. We can ask their person in charge to come over so that you can discuss with them face to face."
Hardy picked up the list and looked at it.
Some of the names above are unfamiliar, but some are familiar to later generations.
Seeing these names,
Hardy's heart couldn't help but beat a few times.
If you invest 10,000 in these brands now, you may earn 100 million in the future. Let's take a look at what names there are.
Bulgari.
Ancient Chi.
Fendi.
prada.
genia.
......
......