Becoming a Russian Oligarch After Rebirth
Chapter 1097 - 948 The Influential Family_2

Chapter 1097: Chapter 948 The Influential Family_2

Initially, when he went abroad to study because he had failed the college entrance examination and had to self-fund his education, his family felt too embarrassed to hold any celebration...

This time, it seemed like a chance to make up for it!

Wang Ye was just about to find an excuse not to return home. Honestly, he didn’t actually want to avoid it!

But given his current status and identity, it was really difficult to find enough time to play "missing"...

A trip back home would mean staying for about a week or two, plus travel time, at least ten days in total.

However, before Wang Ye could find an excuse, his mom had already said that if he truly couldn’t make time to return home, then she and Wang Ye’s dad would visit him in Moscow.

After all, it had been several years since Wang Ye had gone abroad, and they hadn’t visited him yet.

Previously, due to financial strains at home and expensive flight tickets, they hadn’t considered traveling abroad.

But now, with the family’s current financial condition, airplane tickets were certainly not an issue. Although Wang Ye’s father was always busy with the factory’s affairs, taking a week to visit his son should still be feasible.

Hearing his mom say this, Wang Ye was taken aback and quickly said that he would rather return home himself.

It was still a bit chaotic on the Russian side; it was better not to come here!

This made his mom a bit unhappy as she mentioned that in the past two years, many people from their city had already traveled to Russia and had not encountered any issues.

Nevertheless, she was delighted that Wang Ye was willing to return home.

Actually, Wang Ye truly didn’t dare let his parents come over, since he had already cleanly dealt with his "Wang Ye" identity.

But if his parents came, he would definitely have to accompany them around.

Places like Red Square, the Kremlin...

Those were absolutely "high-risk areas" for him!

Because he could run into acquaintances at any time. If he happened to meet someone familiar from the Duma or the government, or if the Kremlin guards or policemen patrolling Red Square recognized him and saluted him, how would he explain that to his parents...

......

Since the plan was to return home, he needed to properly arrange his affairs here.

It wouldn’t do for a fire to start in the backyard while he was away; he would be helpless to address it.

Being of his status, he had to report before going overseas; he couldn’t just leave the country without a reason.

As for the reason for his return, that was easy to handle. Just like the last time he went home, he could use Yukos’s business activities in China as the pretext. After all, Yukos had invested significantly in mainland China over the past two years.

They had oil refinery bases and gas stations, and they also held long-term contracts with CNPC and Sinopec.

As the chairman of Yukos, it was only reasonable for Wang Ye to inspect his overseas branch offices!

It was said that those Yukos gas stations had indeed become real money printers, and to say they were making a fortune every day was no exaggeration!

The locations were chosen excellently, all situated in the most economically developed areas of the south. Moreover, with China’s entry into the WTO in recent years, foreign investments had flooded in, leading to a mushrooming of factories in East Guangdong like bamboo shoots after a rain.

With so many factories, there naturally were enough people and enough vehicles.

The business of the gas stations was therefore self-evident.

Wang Ye had also laid out his plans in advance, having built enough gas stations just before the economic boom in East Guangdong.

If he only started discussing building wholly-owned gas stations now, the Chinese side probably wouldn’t have been so cooperative...

Furthermore, Wang Ye had specifically instructed that the money earned by the Yukos branch in China need not be transferred back to the main office; it should all be reinvested locally!

One goal was to further expand the gas station business and build more stations.

The second was to invest in the commercial real estate company founded by Zhang Xiaoxi, allowing Zhang Xiaoxi to use the funds to buy land and build shopping centers and office buildings!

This trip back to China, Wang Ye still planned to visit East Guangdong. Apart from the oil refinery base and gas stations, it was said that Zhang Xiaoxi had also secured some well-located plots of land in Yangcheng and Peng City to build Joy City stores!

Since its opening, Joy City had become an overnight sensation throughout the country!

Its foot traffic and total sales far exceeded those of other long-established malls, becoming the favorite shopping center of the capital’s young people, bar none!

Therefore, her acquisitions in Yangcheng, Peng City, and Shanghai were very well received.

Her commercial real estate company was brandishing the name of a joint venture because not only did it have shares of the asset management company, but also investments from Yukos China company. After all, this was considered foreign investment.

With such a large business center, it was not only capable of improving the city’s appearance and becoming a new landmark, but it really could boost economic growth, creating many jobs and business opportunities.

This was completely different from housing projects!

From Wang Ye’s "past life" experience, the plots Zhang Xiaoxi chose in those three cities were indeed good.

They were all in the core business district; not only at that time but even ten or more years later, they would still be the local business centers and wouldn’t be marginalized.

Even a few years later, just the value of those pieces of land would be phenomenal, not to say priceless, but it was indeed extravagant.

...

Hearing that Wang Ye was returning to the country, Nalan Yaqi also clamored to go back with him.

Wang Ye said somewhat helplessly, "Your mall just opened not long ago, right? I see you’ve been quite busy lately. Is the business not doing so well? And you still have the mood to go back to the country for fun?"

He referred to the top luxury mall that Nalan Yaqi was running.

Because it targeted high-end clients, the mall housed brands like Hermes, Chanel, and Cartier among other top luxury brands.

Also, since it aimed so high, it usually seemed to have few customers; every time Wang Ye passed by, it felt very cold and quiet.

Because this mall was affiliated under the Xiao Ying Group as a secondary branch, Nalan Yaqi was responsible for it.

It was also a way to give her something to do to keep her from being too idle...

Although Wang Ye was the chairman of Xiao Ying Group and the largest shareholder, he usually didn’t have the energy to focus on the operations of the Xiao Ying Group.

It was only at the year-end that he would listen to the Group management’s financial report and concern himself with dividends.

Therefore, regarding how Nalan Yaqi’s mall was doing, whether it was losing money or not, he was completely unaware and unconcerned.

After all, even if it incurred losses, how much could it lose...

...

However, Nalan Yaqi cheerfully said, "Guess how much our mall earned last month, and what was the profit?"

Wang Ye smirked, "Considering how close it is, I can see for myself. I guess around one to five million US dollars at most!"

He even played it safe by overestimating a bit.

To his surprise, Nalan Yaqi shook her head and pouted, "Do you look down on me? With so much money invested in that mall, how could it only generate so little revenue? Let me tell you, last month’s revenue already surpassed fifty million US dollars!"

Wang Ye was a bit surprised.

Fifty million US dollars was not a high figure for him.

But that also depended on where it was placed.

If it were Yukos Group, Russian Gas Industry Group, or even Xiao Ying Group, New Sun Group, that amount of money would not mean much.

But the problem was, this revenue was from the new mall that Nalan Yaqi was in charge of, and he clearly saw that it usually had few customers...

He looked at Nalan Yaqi with astonishment and asked skeptically, "Are you joking with me, is it really that high? But it seems like there are hardly any customers going in..."

Nalan Yaqi smiled and said, "You’re really an amateur!

Such top luxury malls indeed have very few customers usually because everyone knows the items inside are very expensive!

Hence, those without the consumption capacity, or without intentions to shop, rarely walk in.

Even though the staff will still serve you warmly even if you’re not buying anything, the issue is, would you feel comfortable?

So, though the customers are few, those who do enter generally make purchases, and the amounts they spend are quite high!

For instance, the average transaction at the Patek Philippe store exceeds thirty thousand US dollars!

It means nearly every customer in the Patek Philippe store spends no less than thirty thousand US dollars!

Hermes, Cartier, Chanel are no different, along with other luxury brands like Lange, Rolex, Givenchy, all having exorbitant average transaction values.

Considering that, do you still think fifty million US dollars a month too much?"