African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1303 Divestment
The reason why the Nobel family was so eager to swallow up the industries sold by East Africa was actually to fight against the American consortium and consolidate its own advantages.

In the past, competition for the Baku oil fields was fierce, with the Nobel family, the Rothschild family, and some small Russian local oil companies forming groups to fight against American and East African capital.

That’s right, in their eyes, both the United States and East Africa are threats. The value of the Baku oil field has been increasing in recent years, and the overall oil production has even reached more than 60% of the entire Europe. It was a highly profitable industry during the war.

Although the interests of investors in the Baku oil fields, such as the Nobel family and the Rothschild family, are not completely consistent, they have been operating in the local area for a long time and naturally do not want the two latecomers, the United States and East Africa, to have a share of the pie.

Take the Nobel family for example. They started investing in Baku's oil industry in the 1970s. At that time, East Africa had just established its country, and it was impossible for them to make large-scale overseas investments.

So at first, these local forces in Baku were mainly competing for capital within Europe. Later, after the rise of the US economy, they regarded American capital as their rival.

By the time East African capital entered Baku, it was already too late. At this time, the developed oil fields had basically been divided up, so East Africa could only invest in local refineries to save costs.

East Africa's imports of Baku oil are mostly from other companies with non-East African backgrounds. After all, the oil fields are basically in their hands, and East African companies have no interest in looking for new oil fields locally.

Therefore, cooperation with local oil companies is the main way for East Africa to introduce Baku oil. For example, the Nobel family has a lot of cooperation with East Africa. Before the outbreak of the war, its oil was mainly exported to East Africa.

This also led to East Africa easily getting rid of its oil industry in Baku. After all, East Africa itself did not invest much in the oil industry here.

Moreover, in recent years, oil investment activities in East Africa have also shifted from Europe to the South Pacific, Venezuela and the Beibu Gulf Territory.

After the final confirmation with Billy, Althofen asked, "I wonder if you are interested in some of our other industries in Baku, Mr. Billy?"

In addition to oil, East Africa's investment in Baku also involves other industries, such as catering, entertainment, etc. After all, this is a wealthy region in Russia with strong consumption capacity.

Althofen's words aroused Billy's interest, and he asked, "Does your company have other businesses in Baku?"

"Of course. Brother Billy, do you know the Caspian Heart Hotel in the city center? That hotel is one of our properties."

"After all, the difficulties in the oil business in recent years have forced us to shift our focus to other industries."

Billy had actually heard of the Caspian Heart Hotel. After all, although Baku had developed extremely rapidly in recent years, its population alone was as high as about 300,000.

A city with a population of 300,000 can be considered a big city in Europe. After all, many European cities have a population of less than 100,000. Before World War I, even in a developed country like Germany, there were less than 50 cities with a population of over 100,000.

Moreover, apart from its large population, what makes Baku special is the high income of ordinary workers, of course, compared with other regions in Russia.

Correspondingly, prices and rents in Baku are much higher than other places in Russia, and the Heart of the Caspian Hotel is one of the hotels located in the city center. In a place like Baku where every inch of land is valuable, if it is managed properly, it will obviously be an excellent asset.

So Billy didn't leave in a hurry, but continued to negotiate with Althofen.

"It seems that your company is really planning to withdraw from Baku this time. Judging from your actions, I guess all your industries will be sold off."

Althofen did not deny it. Instead, he said, "In fact, we are withdrawing our investment from Baku mainly because we are not optimistic about the current situation in Russia, especially the Ottoman Empire. Their threat should not be underestimated. We are afraid that the war will spread to Baku." Billy sneered at Althofen's statement and said, "Mr. Althofen, you overestimate the ability of the Ottoman Empire. If the Ottomans really have this ability, our Nobel family would have run away long ago."

"Although Russia is currently at a disadvantage, it is not something the Ottoman Empire can challenge. In addition, we have received intelligence from St. Petersburg that the new government has plans to negotiate with the Allies. This is also one of their governing policies, so the war in Russia will soon be over."

"In this way, we naturally don't need to worry about the Ottoman Empire attacking Baku. At most, they will expand their influence to the Caucasus Mountains."

Althofen did not deny Billy's words. After all, he was well aware of the character of the Ottoman Empire. This was just an excuse for him to leave Baku.

So Althofen did not dwell on this topic with Billy, but asked: "Your family is well-informed in Russia. I wonder how much you know about the Russian Labor Party?"

Billy said, "The Labour Party! They are of course extremely evil. They are just a bunch of rioters. They are only prosperous now. By next year, they will definitely be wiped out."

"They are just a bunch of mindless workers and soldiers instigated by people with ulterior motives. St. Petersburg is now in their hands, but the nobles and the rich will not watch them being so arrogant."

As one of the richest families in Russia, the Nobel family naturally looked down on the Labor Party, which was mainly composed of workers.

Billy went on to say, "Besides, even if the Labor Party really takes power, there is no need to worry. After all, they can't kick out our Nobel family. After all, without the Nobel family, half of Baku's oil wells and factories will have to stop working."

"During the time of Nicholas II, we were a major taxpayer that local officials relied on very much. We created a lot of social wealth for Russia and provided a large number of jobs..."

According to what Billy revealed, he did not think that an organization of workers, soldiers and farmers could govern the country well. Moreover, most of them could not even write their names. It was obviously impossible to expect them to understand the operation and management of enterprises and economic development.

Read more latest popular novels at 6.9*shuba!

Billy concluded: "Talent is the most important thing for a country, and the Labour Party will definitely not be able to exclude us, a group of people with knowledge."

It can be said that Billy's attitude also represents the Nobel family's attitude towards the Labour Party, which is mainly reflected in two aspects. One is that it is difficult for the Labour Party to succeed in Russia, although the Labour Party has now occupied important cities such as St. Petersburg.

The second is that even if the Labour Party succeeds, it must rely on these entrepreneurs if it wants to govern the country well.

It is obvious that the Nobel family now has no deep understanding of the "harm" of the Labour Party.

In the previous life, all of the Nobel family’s industries in Baku were nationalized by the Labor Party, which led to the Nobel family’s continued struggle against the Labor government after they withdrew from Russia.

However, Billy's words also made Althofen understand the main reason why the Nobel family dared to be the "buyer".

In this case, he felt more at ease discussing business with Billy, and eventually sold all the industries to the Nobel family at a price that satisfied both parties, including an oil refinery, a hotel, an office building, etc.

Baku is just a microcosm of the withdrawal of investment from East Africa. In other important cities in Russia, such as St. Petersburg, Moscow, Odessa, etc., East African state-owned capital and the Hexinganling consortium are withdrawing in an orderly manner. After all, if they do not leave at this time, these industries will really become a wedding dress for the Russian Labor Party in the future.

In fact, even if East Africa gets rid of these industries, the Russian Labor Party will most likely still obtain these industries from the unlucky "takeover man". However, this is not what East Africa considers. After all, it would rather die than let a friend die.

(End of this chapter)