Chapter 464 250: Super Unicorn

Following official announcements from Sequoia, Black Ant, and Jinshi Capital.

Spicy King officially completed its one-billion-dollar Series B financing round, reaching a valuation of ten billion US dollars.

The entire investment world was rocked by the bombshell news.

Many venture capital firms had previously offered valuations of six or even seven billion US dollars.

But a valuation of ten billion US dollars still left them in shock.

That was the threshold for a "decacorn"—a super-unicorn enterprise!

Any company that reached such a valuation was invariably a leader in its field.

Or even the undisputed industry titan.

But for Spicy King to get that valuation in just its Series B round...

Wasn't that a bit of an exaggeration?

Such doubts lasted for less than three days.

Then Yuan Li publicly revealed the revenue figures for Spicy King's 45 stores nationwide.

The many hesitant venture capitalists were instantly kicking themselves with regret.

Spicy King's average monthly revenue per store reached 18 million yuan, with a net monthly profit of up to 3.6 million yuan.

A ten-billion-dollar valuation really wasn't that high after all.

By the time they contacted Yuan Li again, Spicy King had already closed the funding round.

The next time they opened for funding, the valuation would surely be several times higher.

Yuan Li was on cloud nine these days.

The due diligence from Black Ant and Sequoia still required some time.

As for Jinshi Capital, it was just a simple formality.

The funds were quickly wired to Spicy King's account.

With this 400 million US dollars—equivalent to 2.7 billion RMB—in hand...

The new headquarters and branch expansion could finally be put on the schedule.

Yuan Li planned to allocate 700 million yuan to purchase a headquarters building.

The remaining 2 billion would all be used to expand the number of branches.

As for the branch renovation costs, with the increased number of orders, five million yuan per store would be enough to get it done.

Kitchen equipment and security deposits would likewise not exceed five million yuan.

With Spicy King's incredible popularity, they could easily negotiate with the malls.

They could arrange to start paying rent only after the restaurant opened for business.

This would maximize their financial leverage.

After squeezing costs to the absolute limit, Spicy King's investment budget per store was only 10 million yuan.

'Opening 200 stores at once? That's not excessive, is it?'

Two billion yuan was nothing.

Even if they ran short on funds now, another 600 million US dollars from Black Ant and Sequoia was on the way.

Yuan Li was finally experiencing the joy of having money.

As the sole designated partner, Shengxuan Decoration was feeling both overjoyed and overwhelmed.

Renovating so many stores meant the fees alone would reach a billion yuan.

Many local design firms were green with envy over Shengxuan Decoration's contract.

But what could they do? Both companies had the same boss.

All they could do was look on with envy.

This time, Spicy King was extremely generous, directly transferring 500 million yuan as a down payment for the 200 store renovations.

Once the sites were selected, Shengxuan Decoration would dispatch designers to follow up.

When Qi Sheng returned to Chengdu, he used the system to supply Shengxuan Decoration with more staff.

This single order was more than enough to make Shengxuan Decoration fantastically profitable.

The net profit would be at least 100 million yuan.

And that was a conservative estimate, assuming they maintained high quality.

Qi Sheng used the 100-million-yuan figure for his calculations.

He then assigned another 100 Ordinary Level designers to Shengxuan Decoration.

The design templates were all ready-made.

Even Ordinary Level designers wouldn't run into any major issues.

With Elite Level designers serving as team leads, they were more than capable of completing the renovation tasks for Spicy King's stores.

The site selection for the new stores wasn't urgent, however.

Securing a headquarters building, on the other hand, was an immediate priority.

Spicy King was expanding at a truly astonishing rate.

Yuan Li was planning to establish several subsidiaries to create a presence across the entire restaurant industry supply chain.

When that happened, office space would undoubtedly be in extremely high demand.

Before, when they had no money, Yuan Li could only put up with it.

'But now we have money. We have to buy a headquarters building!'

Any other company doing this would surely upset its investors.

But Spicy King was different. A company that raked in cash daily had the confidence to back it up.

Besides, Qi Sheng held the controlling stake.

As long as he gave the nod, not even Sequoia or Black Ant would dare to object.

...

Led by Zhou Huaiping, Yuan Li toured the office buildings currently for sale on the market.

The 700 million yuan she had was only enough to buy something on the outskirts.

A high-quality office building in a good location started at one billion yuan, at least.

Yuan Li had no choice but to call in Qi Sheng and have the big boss make the final decision.

"Huashang Financial Center?"

Qi Sheng was familiar with the place. He had eaten there a few times before.

Located in the heart of Chengdu Financial City, its accessibility was undeniable.

Its interior was also among the most luxurious in Chengdu.

Anyway, his girlfriends loved coming here to shop and eat.

Xinrong Ji and all sorts of high-end Japanese restaurants were everywhere.

"Boss, the T2 tower on the right has been sold as a package deal. The one we can buy is the T1 tower on the left."

"Overseas Phoenix Group plans to sell it off floor by floor, with each floor priced at 45 million yuan."

"According to the budget we discussed earlier, we can buy 15 floors at once."

Yuan Li pointed to the office building on the left, rattling on about the advantages of its location and work environment.

"This office building only has 38 floors in total. Take away the five-story commercial podium at the bottom..."

"...and there are only 33 floors of actual office space."

"Are you sure you can buy 15 consecutive floors?"

Qi Sheng frowned, slightly dissatisfied.

"Probably not consecutive floors, but buying them scattered throughout the building would definitely be possible."

Yuan Li also wished they could just buy the entire building next door. Now that would be impressive.

But with their budget, it was just a fantasy.

"If we're going to buy a headquarters building, what's a few hundred million more?"

"Let's allocate 1.5 billion yuan and buy T2."

"For the subsequent branch expansion, the 600 million US dollars from Black Ant and Sequoia will be more than enough."

Qi Sheng made the decision on the spot, doubling the budget for the building.

"Whatever you say, Boss!"

Thinking of the nearly four billion yuan that was about to arrive, Yuan Li immediately felt at ease.

"Boss, then what about the property management side?"

Zhou Huaiping listened with undisguised envy.

Their Shengxuan Real Estate could never compare to a star company like Spicy King; they could only tag along for the scraps.

"Don't worry. As long as it's a property our company owns, you'll be the ones to manage it. This building is no exception."

Qi Sheng smiled and patted Zhou Huaiping's shoulder, dangling another juicy carrot in front of him.

"Hehe, then I'm relieved."

Zhou Huaiping was very content.

One more office building to manage meant another stream of property management fees coming in each year.

Sweet!

...

Fifth floor of Huashang, Xinrong Ji.

Qi Sheng, Yuan Li, and the others had a quick meal there.

The system's compulsory acquisition function bought the Huashang T2 office tower directly.

Its market value was 1.5 billion yuan—a fair price.

Chengdu's property prices definitely couldn't compare to Shanghai's.

Huashang Financial Center was already considered a top-tier, high-quality office building in Chengdu.

[Processing related office building property rights. Please wait patiently...]

Seeing the system prompt, Qi Sheng soon received a call from Lei Ting.

A sum of 1.5 billion yuan had been directly debited from Spicy King's bank account for the acquisition of the office building's title.

Qi Sheng said a few words casually, then smiled at the expectant Yuan Li and Zhou Huaiping.

"The office building deal is settled. The property rights will be processed soon."

"When the time comes, have Zhou Yu from China Construction Bank handle it. We should be able to mortgage it for at least a billion yuan."

Banks were naturally willing to offer a higher loan-to-value ratio for such a prime office building.

A 70% loan-to-value ratio was pretty much the limit.

Yuan Li almost forgot they could get a mortgage loan, and her mood instantly improved.

Spend 1.5 billion, get 1 billion back.

Thinking about it that way, the financial pressure of buying the building was minimal.

Yuan Li quickly said: "Okay, I'll go visit President Zhou then."

"With such a good deal, he should be the one visiting you."

Qi Sheng wasn't being arrogant; Spicy King really had that kind of power.

Looking at all the local companies in Chengdu...

...those that could reach Spicy King's level could be counted on one hand.

Once Spicy King went public, he would probably be buried in various outstanding entrepreneur awards.

Just recently, many government departments had approached Yuan Li.

They tried to win her over with kind words, afraid that Spicy King would be lured away by other regions' investment policies.

[Office building property rights processing complete. Related documents have been sent to your chairman's office.]

Just as Qi Sheng and the others left the restaurant, he received a notification from the system.

At that speed, even an overnight courier would have to admit defeat.

After spending 1.5 billion on the building and another 500 million as a down payment for store renovations, Spicy King's newly acquired 2.7 billion yuan had dwindled to just 700 million in the blink of an eye.

Now that the headquarters building was bought, it had to be decorated, right?

With a wave of his hand, Qi Sheng approved a 100-million-yuan budget for the interior design and furnishings.

It was a 33-story office building after all, so it wasn't too extravagant.

Shengxuan Decoration landed this super-sized order.

Everyone couldn't help but be excited by it.

This kind of massive contract was usually only attainable for top international architectural firms.

If Shengxuan Decoration could really deliver a satisfactory result, there might be hope for them to expand beyond the Southwest region in the future.

The pressure on Peng Qingsong and Liu Zheng was considerable.

The design proposal they submitted after half a month of painstaking work failed to get Yuan Li's approval.

The design for this kind of headquarters building was usually a project handled by Master Level designers.

Making them handle it at their level was asking a bit too much of them.

Considering Peng Qingsong was one of his veteran employees...

Qi Sheng paid 75 million out of his own pocket to raise his design level to Master Level.

Expert Level and Master Level were two completely different dimensions.

Peng Qingsong felt the difference exceptionally clearly.

Looking back, the first version of the design proposal they had submitted was almost too embarrassing to behold.

After another week of grueling overtime...

The second version of the proposal submitted by Peng Qingsong finally amazed Yuan Li.

"Director Peng, this version of the design is several times better than the first. I'm personally very satisfied."

"You guys hurry up and start work. I hope Spicy King can move into the new headquarters building by the end of the year at the latest."

At Spicy King, Yuan Li's word was law.

As long as it was something she decided, Qi Sheng would basically support it.

As one of Qi Sheng's most loyal and talented people...

...any decision Yuan Li made was naturally to ensure Qi Sheng's interests came first.

"Yes, President Yuan."

Seeing this difficult iron lady finally show a satisfied expression, Peng Qingsong felt a great sense of relief.

His previous few encounters with Yuan Li had left a very deep impression on him.

She was decisive and efficient, and her words spared no one's feelings.

But her competence and methods were both formidable.

The previous design proposal had been mercilessly torn apart by Yuan Li.

It would be a lie to say he hadn't been upset about it.

Now, seeing the admiration in Yuan Li's eyes, Peng Qingsong felt a great sense of vindication.

Although Qi Sheng wouldn't meddle in the company's daily affairs...

...a major matter like this, involving over a hundred million yuan, still had to be reported to him.

But at this moment, Qi Sheng had already brought his whole family to Shanghai.

He only glanced at the design proposal Yuan Li sent him.

'How could I not know Peng Qingsong's skill level?'

Of course there was nothing wrong with this design proposal.

Qi Sheng: "Go with this design."

Seeing the boss's reply, Yuan Li was even more relieved.

Yuan Li: "Boss, Black Ant's funds have arrived. For the branch site selection, should we proceed according to the previous plan?"

Qi Sheng: "Don't add any more branches in existing cities. Start expanding into second-tier cities first. Don't take too big of a step."

Yuan Li: "Understood. I'll take my team and start site selection right away."

With Spicy King's current round of financing, if they were to really expand all at once...

...opening 500 branches wouldn't be impossible.

But doing so would only hurt the reputation of the existing stores.

Qi Sheng wasn't that short-sighted.

He preferred to grow steadily rather than just making a quick, silent fortune.

'What's Haidilao to me? With my system's cheats...'

'...let alone a market cap of a hundred billion, even a trillion would be a breeze.'