"President Xiao, you really know how to make a calculation!"
Zhou Feiyu was not polite either and burst into laughter.
Xiao Weidong was not embarrassed. He merely said, "Everything can be discussed. What do you think, President Zhou?"
Zhou Feiyu said calmly, "President Xiao may not understand this. If it comes down to a price war, whether it is Di Guang, Qian Jia, other materials companies, or even King Material overseas, they are destined to be defeated by FY-01. This market is destined to be dominated by FY-01. I will not say much—even shipping just twenty or thirty thousand square meters a year would bring profits exceeding ten million. President Xiao should understand the size of the optical materials market better than I do. Would annual shipments really stop at twenty or thirty thousand square meters?"
"At least ten times that."
Xiao Weidong said it aloud, but inwardly he was stunned. Damn, FY-01's cost is incredibly low. How on earth was it developed? Unbelievable!
He rapidly calculated the figures Zhou Feiyu had given him. Profits exceeding ten million from twenty or thirty thousand square meters—such a thing was unimaginable at Di Guang Optics.
The price of Di Guang's materials could not be considered low, but it was not particularly high either. If they processed twenty or thirty thousand square meters of material through Die Cutting and sold it as finished products, their profit would not exceed five million. That was under ideal circumstances, when the company was operating well. Otherwise, it would only be two or three million, and they would still have to work themselves to the bone.
By comparison, Zhou Feiyu's FY-01 could generate profits exceeding ten million, two or three times theirs.
Still, Xiao Weidong could not tell how much truth there was in Zhou Feiyu's words. The figure might have been exaggerated, or it might have been understated. But in Xiao Weidong's own estimate, it was more likely understated than overstated.
Its performance matched King Material's. Even if its selling price could not match King Material's, it would certainly be higher than Di Guang's or Qian Jia's. Its sales revenue and profits should therefore be even greater.
Producing twenty or thirty thousand square meters of material a year would be difficult, but across the domestic market and even globally, that amount was merely a drop in the bucket.
As long as there was profit, they could build a large factory with a thousand employees and rapidly increase production capacity. Producing two or three hundred thousand square meters a year would casually bring profits into the hundreds of millions. And that was only one small application of optical materials in mobile phone screens. In other fields, such as automotive displays, television screens, and medical-device displays, optical materials had even broader applications, higher added value, and profits that would amount to far more than hundreds of millions.
Some might say, Only that much?
A streamer or celebrity could be fined hundreds of millions, even billions or tens of billions.
A factory employing a thousand people could only earn a few hundred million a year. What was that worth?
That was the hardship of the real economy.
In fact, for a company—even one with tens of thousands of employees—to make over one hundred million in annual profit was already very impressive. And that was built on annual revenue exceeding ten billion. With all kinds of taxes and employee salaries, no one knew how much had to be spent. The first thing they had to worry about every morning was how to pay their employees.
Zhou Feiyu had not given his terms, so the conversation between the two went no further and the meeting ended.
Then Zhou Feiyu met with Yang Jiacheng, the owner of Qian Jia Optics.
Well, Yang Jiacheng was only one surname away from that famous ethnic Chinese businessman. It seemed that anyone named Jiacheng became wealthy.
After learning Yang Jiacheng's name, Zhou Feiyu's thoughts wandered off in a rather unfocused association.
"...President Zhou, thirty million for 30% of the shares, or fifty million to buy out the patent. This is Qian Jia's sincerity. Please consider it, President Zhou."
After reading the materials Zhou Feiyu had given him, Yang Jiacheng was deeply shocked, but his expression remained unchanged. He readily presented his terms.
Hearing those terms, Zhou Feiyu froze for a moment, then smiled. "It seems Qian Jia and Di Guang are of one mind. Your terms are almost identical."
He was only short of directly saying that Qian Jia and Di Guang had colluded.
When Zhou Feiyu had worked at a materials company before, he had handled cost accounting for a time. He knew very well that when suppliers quoted prices to customers, they would usually exchange information with another supplier already supplying that customer, so that everyone could benefit.
The market was only so large. If someone cut prices and broke the rules, they would not only ruin the market, but also severely affect their own future development. Later, they could not blame others for breaking the rules to deal with them.
So everyone discussed things first. Their quoted prices differed by only a little, and as long as the difference was not too great, everyone accepted it. The customers generally accepted it too.
Sometimes, if someone else quoted a certain price and you immediately cut it by twenty or thirty percent, the customer would start wondering whether you were messing around and planning to cut corners.
Yang Jiacheng was not embarrassed either. His skin was as thick as a city wall. He smiled amiably and said, "President Zhou, please speak freely. I truly want to reach a cooperation agreement with you. The FY-01 material you developed has amazed everyone. I believe it will soon shine brilliantly. If I cannot board President Zhou's great ship now, then my Qian Jia company will have no future at all. That is completely unacceptable to me."
The temptation of tens of millions was enough to move anyone's heart. It would have been a lie to say Zhou Feiyu was not tempted. His heart was already surging with excitement.
However, having experienced the arrival of the cheat system, he still controlled his emotions well and revealed nothing. In the end, he only said, "Whether it is Qian Jia or Di Guang, both are leaders in the domestic optical display materials field. If I can cooperate with you, I believe my Fei Yang Technology will surely soar into the sky. However, this is a major matter. Please allow me a few days to think it over. Regardless of the result, I will contact you again."
Seeing how composed he was, and with the conversation having reached this point, Yang Jiacheng could only stand and take his leave.
Before leaving, he added, "President Zhou, opportunities are fleeting. Moreover, the international situation is complicated at this stage. The longer it takes you to rise, the more difficult it will be to deal with King Material's restrictions and even suppression. You must guard against that."
After leaving the teahouse and parting with Zhou Feiyu, Qian Jia Optics' Board Secretary Wen Changhua quietly said to Yang Jiacheng, "Boss, it seems his appetite is enormous."
Yang Jiacheng sighed. "If I had that technology, my appetite would be even bigger than his."
Wen Changhua smiled and said nothing more. He knew that his boss was determined to reach a cooperation agreement with Zhou Feiyu. He would likely have to seek Zhou Feiyu out for further negotiations.
At the High-speed Rail station, Yang Jiacheng's group saw Xiao Weidong and the others from Di Guang Optics, who had been waiting for a long time.
The moment they met, Xiao Weidong asked, "Chairman Yang, any good news?"
Yang Jiacheng shook his head and replied, "No. It seems our offer was still too low."
Both men were full of schemes. They had played a small trick with their offers just now. They had originally agreed to quote twenty million, but both had raised their offers instead—one to twenty-five million, the other to thirty million. Yet when facing Zhou Feiyu, who held the technology in his hands, all their schemes had no room to be used.
If they had been in Peng City, they might have been able to think of other ways to negotiate with Zhou Feiyu through personal connections or other means.
But in Nanjiang County, they were strangers in unfamiliar territory, while it was Zhou Feiyu's home ground. They could only sigh in vain.
"Lawyer Wang, you heard the two companies' terms just now. If it were you, what would you choose?"
Zhou Feiyu asked Lawyer Wang Lei, who had accompanied him to the negotiations.
Money moved people's hearts!
When Wang Lei had first accompanied Zhou Feiyu to discuss cooperation, he had assumed it would be a small matter, a deal worth only hundreds of thousands or perhaps a million. He had never imagined negotiations involving twenty or thirty million, even fifty million, at every turn. His mind could not help but waver, and his heart raced wildly in his chest.
Only after both groups had finally left did Wang Lei hurriedly drink a glass of water to calm himself.
When Zhou Feiyu asked him this, Wang Lei blanked out for a moment. Once he came back to himself, he could not help feeling excited. That's right. If I don't cling to such a powerful backer now, when will I?
He quickly said, "That depends on what your original aspiration is, President Zhou."
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