Just how generous were the terms Liu Yutong negotiated with Lucheng?
Three thousand two hundred mu of prime industrial land was provided for permanent use, completely free of charge. In contrast, Mocheng's offer was ten years rent-free, after which huge land use fees would still have to be paid. In the long run, this single condition saved Longxin an astronomical amount of money.
In terms of taxation, Lucheng offered an eight-year full exemption followed by an eight-year half reduction. This meant that Longxin would enjoy an extremely low actual tax burden for a full sixteen years. Compared to Mocheng's policy of three years free and five years halved, the support period was nearly doubled.
Regarding financial support, Lucheng's local state-owned assets committed to a direct investment of two billion, whereas Mocheng only promised 1.2 billion. The difference was obvious.
Longxin was given the autonomy to certify the talents it brought in. For the local retention portion of their personal income tax, they would receive a full exemption for the first five years and a half reduction for the next five years as a reward. Additionally, a provincial special fund for breakthroughs in the integrated circuit industry was established. The provincial finance department would directly allocate two hundred million every year for ten consecutive years to specifically support Longxin's key technology research, development, and industrialization.
It should be noted that Lucheng's total fiscal revenue in 2008 was only thirty billion, which was hardly enough to go around. Education, healthcare, infrastructure, and public welfare all required funding. Being able to squeeze out this money from such a limited budget showed immense sincerity.
No wonder Qiu Ciyun, who had previously been pessimistic about Lucheng, was tempted. To a certain extent, these benefits could compensate for the lack of talent in the local industry chain.
On the third day after the inspection ended, the Longxin project swiftly signed an agreement with Lucheng. It even made it onto the local satellite TV news, and the evening Imperial Capital News dedicated nearly a minute to reporting on it.
The total investment of the project reached a staggering twelve billion.
The lineup of investors was luxurious. Pearl Capital led the investment with 3 billion, followed by Yunshan Capital with 1 billion, Wanlong Capital with 1 billion, HS Province State-owned Assets with 2 billion, Qixing Capital with 1.5 billion, AEG with 1.5 billion, Deutsche Bank with 500 million, AEG Overseas with 500 million, Goldman Sachs with 600 million, and Morgan with 400 million.
Ji Zhe and Chu Hai really had some tricks up their sleeves. They quietly secured four foreign investors.
In addition, Internet companies such as Ali, Baidu, NetEase, and Xinliang each invested 100 million. In reality, this money was invested by the bosses of these companies in their personal names, but it was publicly announced under their companies' names.
However, the specific investment amounts and other details were deliberately concealed. The outside world only temporarily knew that several top Internet companies had appeared among Longxin's investors, and the initial investment scale exceeded 12 billion.
In short, from the moment Longxin officially signed with the local government, its momentum was massive.
For the next period of time, Liu Yutong was incredibly busy coordinating various affairs for Longxin, such as the introduction of second-hand equipment and using headhunters to poach talent.
The salaries offered for talent were generally very high, about double the market rate. After all, many people instinctively felt some resistance upon hearing that the workplace was in Lucheng, as most people nowadays still yearned for big cities.
Nevertheless, lured by the high salaries and excellent benefits, they still managed to poach quite a few capable talents.
Qiu Ciyun also recommended a few names to her, especially asking her to focus on Liang Mengsong from Taiji Electronics.
Qiu Ciyun had also worked at Taiji Electronics in his early years and had some interactions with Liang Mengsong. Liang Mengsong currently seemed dissatisfied with his promotion prospects and intended to leave Taiji Electronics, making it very possible to poach him. However, he was bound by a non-compete agreement, which would make the operation rather troublesome.
But Liu Yutong said it didn't matter. If they wanted to file a lawsuit, they could come and do it. If they lost, the person stays; if they won, the person still stays.
These words left Qiu Ciyun dumbfounded, completely failing to understand what she meant.
In mid-January, construction on the Longxin base officially began, and the founding team had basically all arrived.
Aside from the talent poached by headhunters, a portion was brought over by Qiu Ciyun. Given his current status in the industry, there were quite a few engineers willing to follow him.
This was also why Liu Yutong had set her sights on him in the first place. Once this kind of person was poached, they could not only carry the banner but also pull together their own small team, saving a lot of worry.
Liu Yutong distributed one million in cash bonuses to the founding team on the spot. It was a purely personal reward regardless of rank, averaging about thirty thousand per person.
After pretty much settling the matters here, Liu Yutong returned to Pearl City, as the annual company meeting was about to begin.
This time, the annual meeting was not held in a hotel because there were simply too many employees. The total number of employees in the Wanlonghui Group exceeded fifty thousand.
That's right, over fifty thousand people.
This included full-time delivery riders. If the riders were excluded, there were about ten thousand people. Even after excluding employees from out of town who couldn't easily make it, the local employees in Pearl City alone still exceeded five thousand.
Currently, no hotel banquet hall in Pearl City could accommodate so many people. Therefore, they simply chose to hold it outdoors on a vacant lot at the Wanlonghui headquarters construction site. They purchased the ingredients themselves and hired several hotel chefs to cook on-site.
On the day of the Preliminary Eve, the weather was clear.
On a flattened piece of land at the Wanlonghui headquarters under construction, a temporary open-air venue was set up. The venue was surrounded by a massive steel framework forming a complete windbreak tent, with thousands of chairs arranged neatly in the center.
Several eye-catching banners hung on both sides of the venue, including the two that core members knew by heart.
Whoever betrays Wanlonghui shall suffer three knife wounds and six holes.
Be cautious, meticulous, bold, and law-abiding; unite knowledge and action.
As the new CEO of Longxin, Qiu Ciyun also attended the Wanlonghui annual meeting. Actually, he didn't have to come. Strictly speaking, Longxin did not belong to the Wanlonghui system. He came this time mainly because he was invited by the boss and had to show some respect.
As the only project injected with state-owned assets, Longxin was naturally unsuitable to be placed under the Wanlonghui Group. Moreover, Longxin was not a company controlled by the Wanlonghui Group, although Liu Yutong's personal authority in Longxin was unquestionable.
When Qiu Ciyun arrived at the Wanlonghui headquarters construction site, even though he was mentally prepared, he was still shocked by the sight before him.
There were so many people, seemingly even more than at the company he had previously worked for.
There must be at least several thousand, right?
The crowd was clearly divided into two categories. More than half were employees wearing various uniforms, while the smaller half was somewhat intimidating. They were dressed entirely in black, with silver dragon-shaped badges embroidered on their chests. It was very striking and made them look very much like underworld gangsters.
This couldn't help but remind him of the gang members he had seen in Taiwan Province back in the day. Gangs in Taiwan were numerous and famous, but those people at most looked like a bunch of street thugs. In contrast, the men in black before him looked like genuine underworld figures. Whether in momentum or aura, they completely outclassed those gang members from Taiwan.
Although this group of people did look a bit special, very much like mobsters, Qiu Ciyun didn't take it to heart. The mainland was different from Taiwan; there were very few gangs here. Besides, the company was named Wanlonghui, so what was wrong with employees wearing suits with dragon logos? There was no rule saying that people with dyed hair couldn't wear suits as uniforms, right?
However, when his gaze inadvertently swept across the giant promotional banners hanging from the scaffolding on both sides of the venue, he froze instantly.
The large characters on the massive red banner were glaringly conspicuous.
[Anyone who betrays the Myriad Dragon Society shall suffer the punishment of three knives and six holes.]
Qiu Ciyun: "???"
Wait, what on earth just got mixed in here?
