Chapter 576: Unexpected Cake?
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Chen Yushan agreed to Lu Zhou’s invitation without any hesitation.
After she received the offer from Star Sky Technology, she immediately went to Shanghai.
The China office branch of Star Sky Technology was registered there. As Lu Zhou’s work would gradually be migrated to China, Star Sky Technology’s business center would also s.h.i.+ft from Philadelphia to Shanghai.
Lu Zhou trusted Chen Yushan’s abilities.
Especially after he found out that she was the one who was initially responsible for the patent management of Star Sky Technology. Therefore, he confidently handed these matters to her.
After Lu Zhou returned to Jinling, he greeted Princ.i.p.al Xu and moved his belongings into his mathematics department office.
His number theory cla.s.s was going to start in April.
Other than that, he also planned on taking over a few master’s and PhD students in mathematics and computational materials. On the one hand, this was to reduce his research load, and on the other hand, he would use this opportunity to help his alma mater train some outstanding talents.
While Lu Zhou’s work was gradually s.h.i.+fting to Jin Ling University, the restructuring of the STAR-2 demonstration reactor project team in Haizhou was also proceeding in an orderly manner.
What surprised Lu Zhou was that, it wasn’t just about the Eastern Research Centers a.s.sociation, but the East Asia Energy company was also heavily involved.
Feng Shuqing was reporting to Lu Zhou through the phone.
“… In order to accelerate the cross-regional power grid projects in Southeast Asia, the state wants to introduce private capital to partic.i.p.ate in the construction of East Asia Energy, under the premise that it will still be state-owned. According to the higher-ups’ instructions, we plan on going to the four major banks, the three major oil companies, and the top five electric companies in China to issue 20 billion yuan worth of shares. We’ll also publicly issue around 20 billion yuan worth of shares to raise capital.”
Lu Zhou was twirling a pen in his hand when he frowned and asked, “Is it normal to introduce private capital into a state-owned enterprise?”
Feng Shuqing smiled and said, “It’s totally normal. The stock market is our long-term goal. In addition to reducing the suspicion of other countries, the introduction of private capital can also bring social vitality.
“Not to mention, these shares do not hold management rights. How the company operates, the expansion of the company, etc, these things are still managed by the management department of the company.”
Lu Zhou nodded and said, “Okay then, I understand.”
Feng Shuqing: “Oh yeah, I had to notify you of this matter, but I hope you can keep it a secret for the time being.”
Lu Zhou: “Are you guys not releasing the shares to the public?”
Feng Shuqing coughed and said, “We are… But we can’t just let everyone buy them. If the news goes out now, it’ll just increase our workload.”
Everyone wanted to jump on the money-making train.
As soon as the news spread, this few dozen billion worth of market cap would be instantly bought out.
Even though Lu Zhou didn’t ask about the specific progress of the restructuring, this still caught his attention.
After all, this was the controllable nuclear fusion.
The only company that could achieve fusion energy, at least for another ten years, was East Asia energy. What could be better than a complete monopoly?
Due to China’s huge energy demands and the low costs of controllable fusion, it would be impossible to lose money on this investment.
Coincidentally, Lu Zhou didn’t know where he should spend his money, so he’d rather just spend it on the construction of the national nuclear power industry.
After Lu Zhou hung up the call, he leaned back in his chair and thought for a bit. He then called Chen Yushan.
After the phone connected, he immediately asked.
“How much money do I have right now?”
Chen Yushan, who was in the Shanghai office, nearly choked, and she said, “You don’t even know how much money you have?”
People like this actually exist?
What a show-off.
Lu Zhou smiled awkwardly and said, “I haven’t been managing the company recently, I was too busy last year… Aren’t you in Shanghai? Please just look it up for me.”
Chen Yushan looked at the piles of doc.u.ments on her desk and sighed. She suddenly had a headache, but she still replied, “Okay, I’ll send you a financial report.”
Lu Zhou: “Okay, thank you.”
He didn’t have to wait for long.
On the morning of the next day, Chen Yushan sent the financial report into Lu Zhou’s mailbox.
Lu Zhou opened the email and looked at the attachment.
He was astonished.
Last year, Star Sky Technology’s intellectual property business made a net profit of US$470 million last year! An annual increase of 37.6%!
If this were listed on the Nasdaq, it would have a market cap of more than US$40 billion.
Lu Zhou looked at this financial report and felt emotional.
Adding to the profits from the previous years, there was US$1.2 billion in the company accounts.
Without knowing it, he became a billionaire.
This was a different type of feeling.
Of course, intellectual property was basically the only thing that Star Sky Technology was involved in.
Other than that, there was the cooperation with Baosheng Group, the China National Nuclear Corporation, SG-1 superconducting magnets, and the liquid lithium neutron recovery system. However, those profits were tiny, and they were a few orders of magnitude lower than the rest. They could basically be ignored.
Lu Zhou read the financial report from start to finish and thought for a bit. He then picked up the phone and called Chen Yushan.
The phone rang two times and connected.
Chen Yushan immediately asked, “Did you read the financial report?”
Lu Zhou: “Yeah, I did. Also, there’s one more thing I need you to do.”
Chen Yushan: “Well, what? Tell me.”
Lu Zhou: “The STAR-2 project team is going through restructuring, and the talented management and technical personnel will be incorporated into East Asia Energy. The newly established East Asia Energy will be responsible for domestic and international controllable fusion inter-regional grid interconnection…”
Lu Zhou made a brief explanation of the East Asia Energy situation. He paused for a second and said, “It would be a pity if we missed out on this opportunity.”
The shares of private companies could not be circulated in the stock market, but there was a high probability that East Asia Energy would eventually go public.
If that happened, the stock price would certainly jump up.
And when the time arrived, even the dividends would be worth a lot of money.
Even though Lu Zhou wasn’t lacking in the financial department, there was no such thing as too much money.
Not to mention, he had so many expensive projects going on, he might not even have enough.
Chen Yushan: “How much do you plan on buying?”
Lu Zhou thought for a bit.
“Just buy a billion yuan first.”