Becoming a Russian Oligarch After Rebirth
Chapter 1243 - 1021: Retreat in the Face of Difficulties_2

Chapter 1243: Chapter 1021: Retreat in the Face of Difficulties_2

Wang Ye said decisively, "After some time, my Internet companies are all going public, and by then, I should be able to cash out a large sum of money, I..."

Before he could finish speaking, Khodorkovsky waved his hand to interrupt.

"No, no, there’s no need for your money at the moment. I know that compared to philanthropy in education, you’re more willing to invest in supporting key industries.

How should I put it, you’re looking at the long term, aren’t you? Once those industries develop, they’ll have a greater significance for the entire country.

My vision isn’t as long-term, so I’m thinking of addressing some problems right away.

Therefore, you keep investing in industry development, while my money goes into poverty alleviation and philanthropy.

Besides, even though you, lad, indeed have a higher net worth than I do, those assets of yours aren’t liquid. If we’re talking about cash, you don’t have as much money as I do, haha."

Wang Ye had to admit that point; net worth and disposable cash are two different things.

Among all the oligarchs in Russia, the one with the highest net worth is naturally Wang Ye. A rough estimate would suggest that his net worth has already exceeded fifty billion US dollars!

As for the exact amount, that’s something no one can pinpoint.

But in terms of cash, Wang Ye falls short compared to the other oligarchs, because he just can’t hold onto money...

Every year at the end of the year, he gets some dividends and immediately invests them; so many "bottomless pits" are waiting for him to fill.

Perhaps it’s A Bu who has the most cash on hand.

That fellow quietly cashed out nearly all of his assets, even selling off most of his shares in the Russian Aluminium Group. The only controlling assets he has left are an airline company and a media group.

Wang Ye estimated that A Bu must be holding around a hundred billion US dollars in cash right now!

Next would be Khodorkovsky, who probably has the second-highest amount of cash. Over the past couple of years, he sold a portion of his shares in Yukos Group to Wang Ye and cashed out another portion, securing several billions of US dollars in hand.

Although he spent quite a sum on his own faction and education philanthropy, there’s still a substantial amount left.

Confused by Khodorkovsky’s insistence on not needing his money, Wang Ye asked, "Then Uncle, what do you mean...?"

Khodorkovsky replied with a smile, "Although I don’t plan to ask for a donation, you still have to spend money, and quite a bit of it!"

Now Wang Ye was even more puzzled, not understanding what Khodorkovsky really meant.

Thankfully, Khodorkovsky went straight to the point, "I’m planning to cash out all of my assets! Of course, I will keep my shares in Polar Bear Investment. As for the rest of the shares in Yukos Group and that bank, I’ll just sell them to you. Then I’ll use the money from the sale to do what I want, which should be enough for a while."

Wang Ye suddenly realized that this was how he was supposed to "spend money"...

Khodorkovsky’s assets, excluding cash, were divided into three main parts.

The first part was naturally the shares in Yukos Group. Although he transferred quite a few of them to Wang Ye over the years, he still retained a substantial amount, roughly around 25%.

Given the current scale of Yukos Group, these shares are definitely worth a lot!

The second part was his bank, named First United Bank, which was quite a large private bank, ranking within the top five nationwide.

The bank has over two hundred branches across cities all over Russia.

As to how much the bank was worth, Wang Ye didn’t have a clear concept, but it must be worth several billion US dollars at least...

The third part, of course, was the shares in Polar Bear Investment company.

That investment company only had two shareholders, Wang Ye and Khodorkovsky. Initially, Khodorkovsky didn’t take the investment company seriously and just let Wang Ye play around with some money in it.

Recently, however, he suddenly realized that the most valuable asset in his hands wasn’t the shares in Yukos Group or First United Bank, but this little-known Polar Bear Investment company!

With Khodorkovsky’s foresight, after a bit of thought, he found that the value of Polar Bear Investment company hadn’t been fully realized yet and that there’s still a significant room for growth in the future!

So, during this asset sell-off, Khodorkovsky sold everything but still retained the shares of Polar Bear Investment.

Maybe that was his way of leaving a "backdoor" for himself!

Perhaps at some point in the future, when Khodorkovsky believes that the value of Polar Bear Investment has peaked, that’s when he will choose to cash out and leave the scene.

Of course, by that time, if Wang Ye wants to take over those shares, Khodorkovsky wouldn’t refuse.

Even a half-sale would be fine, after all, Wang Ye was the one who built that investment company from the ground up...

...

After pondering for a moment, Wang Ye readily agreed.

"All right, uncle, transfer the shares of Yukos Group and First United Bank to me, but I’ll need a few months before I can pay you," Wang Ye said.

Acquiring these assets from Khodorkovsky would require a substantial amount of money.

A rough estimate would be about ten billion US dollars, and that’s already a friendship price...

Indeed, Khodorkovsky had no intention of "ripping off" Wang Ye. He nodded and said simply, "25% of Yukos shares plus First United Bank, let’s make it a bundled price of ten billion US dollars. And as for the payment, you can make it whenever you have the funds, no rush. After all, I won’t be able to spend all that money in a year or two, and I still have quite a bit of cash in my personal account to last me a long while."

In just a few sentences, the two had struck a deal worth tens of billions of dollars!

Had it been a regular business acquisition, such a large-scale purchase would likely take at least a year or two to negotiate.

However, the nature of this deal was different, and Khodorkovsky would rather take a loss himself than hand over his assets to anyone but Wang Ye, his own nephew, after all!

If he ever really needed Wang Ye’s help in the future, he certainly wouldn’t stand idly by.

In fact, if it wasn’t for the need of a significant amount of capital for his own ventures, Khodorkovsky wouldn’t even take ten billion dollars, and he might have even given it away for free...

At their level, and given the relationship between the two, talking about money seemed somewhat vulgar!

...

While Khodorkovsky’s plans to distance himself from the political arena and devote himself entirely to public welfare had not been made public yet, it was clearly not a secret to those who were paying attention.

A few days later, Gavriil found an excuse to invite Wang Ye to dine at Turandot Restaurant and brought up the topic, probably to verify the rumors.

"Your uncle... is he really planning to liquidate all his assets and then, like A Bu, invest in poverty alleviation?" Gavriil seemed somewhat incredulous.

Because it sounded quite far-fetched.

It was somewhat understandable for A Bu to do so, first because Chukotka was his hometown, and it was natural to give back to his fellow townspeople after making a fortune.

Furthermore, Chukotka had a small population and cities, so it didn’t require a huge financial investment.

It’s said that A Bu hadn’t spent more than five hundred million US dollars in Chukotka over the years.

Compared to his wealth of billions of US dollars, it really wasn’t much.

Secondly, A Bu was the Governor of Chukotka!

Although the state had a low status in the federation and not many votes, the title of an elected Governor still brought A Bu quite a few benefits.

At the very least, anyone wishing to target him had to consider his status first.

Khodorkovsky, however, was different as he had the status of a "political novice." Even if he devoted himself to philanthropy and spent tens or even hundreds of billions of US dollars, what would he gain aside from popular recognition?

Or perhaps, he was preparing for the General Election in a few years...

Maybe that was the real reason Gavriil wanted to meet with Wang Ye today; he had to understand Khodorkovsky’s true intentions.