Chapter 677: Bridgewater Company that Comes to the Door

'Chairman, you take your time!'

After staying at Jiuding Bank for another half hour, Liu Tianci saw Xia Yu off to the door.

Xia Yu nodded slightly and was about to walk towards the car a few metres away when he saw someone walking straight towards Jiuding Bank in the corner of his eye.

This person seemed to be someone he had seen somewhere before!

Xia Yu's gaze shot over and he was suddenly stunned.

It was Rey Dario, whom he had met on the plane and missed again!

He was dressed in formal attire, carrying a black briefcase, and looked like he was on business.

Xia Yu had previously regretted not knowing Rey Dario, and had not expected to meet him again so soon.

And it looked like he was here to do business at Jiuding Bank?

Xia Yu's moment of confusion was only a momentary thing, but because the distance was too close, Rey Dario was only two steps away from him.

However, Rey Dario seemed to be thinking about something and did not observe Xia Yu in the front right.

After thinking for a moment, Xia Yu did not call out to stop him, and watched him enter the Jiuding Bank.

Liu Tianci was sensitive and had already noticed the unusual behaviour of the chairman Xia Yu. He cast a pleading look at Xia Yu.

Xia Yu walked over to Liu Tianci and said to him, 'I'll go up first. See what he's here to do, and find an opportunity to invite him up.'

'Okay!'

Suppressing his doubts, Liu Tianci nodded in response.

Then Xia Yu returned to his office to wait.

...

'Hello, I am the general manager of Bridgewater Consulting Co., Ltd. This is my business card. I would like to talk to your general manager about something!'

Ray Dalio walked up to the receptionist and took out a business card and said to the beautiful receptionist.

'Do you have an appointment?'

The beautiful receptionist politely took the business card and confirmed the information, and asked Ray Dalio.

Ray Dalio gave a apologetic smile and said, 'No, could you please convey the message?'

In fact, Rey Dario did not plan to visit Jiuding Bank at first. He mainly came to Hong Kong to promote the business of Bridgewater Associates to HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank.

Unexpectedly, both HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank were not interested in the business of Bridgewater Associates. He did not want to come to Hong Kong for nothing, so he gathered information about the banks. Jiuding Bank naturally caught his eye.

After learning about the rise of Jiuding Bank, Ray Dalio had a hunch that this trip would be fruitful. After all, judging from all the signs, Jiuding Bank had the strongest entrepreneurial spirit of all the banks in Hong Kong. It had risen to prominence in a short period of time, and naturally had fewer means of risk allocation, so it would definitely be most receptive to their company's services.

Looking at Ray Dalio's polite smile, the beautiful receptionist felt respected, but she knew that the general manager was talking to the chairman, and she didn't dare knock on the door even if she had the guts.

Because there were so many people, she hadn't noticed Xia Yu and Liu Tianzhi come down.

She looked embarrassed and said, 'Sir, I'm sorry, but right now...'

Just as Rey Darío was about to express his regret, a gentle, magnetic voice rang out: "Sir, may I ask what you want?'

The beautiful receptionist looked in the direction of the voice and immediately called out respectfully, "Hello, General Manager!'

A twist in the road!

Rey Dario immediately beamed, took out another exquisite business card and handed it to Liu Tianzhi, saying enthusiastically, 'Hello, I am Rey Dario, the general manager of Bridgewater Associates. I just came from HSBC. Can I take up ten minutes of your time to talk to you about business?'

It is estimated that Liu Tianci has probably never heard of Bridgewater Associates, and he even mentioned HSBC to add weight to his words.

This is exactly what Liu Tianci wants, so he smiles, takes the business card, looks at it, makes a gesture of invitation and says, 'My pleasure, please come to my office to talk!'

'Thank you!'

The beautiful receptionist let out a sigh of relief and pats her chest in relief when she sees Liu Tianci and Ray Dalio disappear at the elevator.

Rey Dario followed Liu Tinci to an office, but saw a young man sitting inside, who was looking at him with a faint smile on his face.

Just as he felt that he looked familiar, Liu Tinci first said to Xia Yu, 'Chairman, this is Rey Dario, the general manager of Bridgewater Associates.'

'Mr. Dario, this is our bank's chairman, Mr. Xia Yu Xia.'

Hearing Xia Yu's identity, Rey Dario's eyes lit up, and he thought to himself that he was lucky. He quickly smiled and said hello to Xia Yu, 'Hello, Mr. Xia, I'm Rey Dario, it's an honour to meet you!'

Xia Yu shook his hand and said with a smile, 'Mr. Dario, we met the other day, I didn't expect to see you again.'

When Xia Yu mentioned it, a flash of inspiration crossed Rey Dario's mind, and he looked confused, finally remembering.

His surprise was mixed with a touch of surprise, and of course Xia Yu knew that this was mostly an act on his part.

'I remember!'

'I'm really sorry, I just remembered now, please accept my sincere apologies!'

'Haha, it's no problem, please sit down!'

After sitting down, Liu Tianci asked Lei Yidario, 'Tea or coffee?'

Lei Yidario glanced at the table and said with a smile, "Tea, please!'

'Okay, you're welcome!'

Soon, a cup of tea was placed in front of each of the three. Lei Yidario took a symbolic sip and set the cup down.

Liu Tianci then asked, "Mr. Dario, I wonder what business you are here to discuss?'

Rey Dario glanced at Xia Yu and deftly took out two already printed exquisite booklets from the black briefcase and gave one to each of Xia Yu and Liu Tianci.

'This is the information about our Bridgewater Investment Consulting Co., Ltd. You two can take a look first.'

Xia Yu took it and flipped through it.

Bridgewater Investment Consulting Co., Ltd., established in 1975, is based in Manhattan, New York, USA...

The information in the brochure did not differ greatly from Xia Yu's memory.

At this time, Bridgewater Associates was not yet the world's largest hedge fund, and the company was only engaged in two types of business: one was providing consulting services to institutional investors, and the other was managing domestic and foreign currency and interest rate risks.

Xia Yu knew that the innovative investment strategies that had made Bridgewater Associates famous began in 1991, when the fund had completed its accumulation of fame and strength and began to transform, developing various investment strategies and investment tools to invest worldwide.

Of course, the first investment was a $5 billion fixed-income investment by the World Bank in 1987.

Liu Tianci is an elite, and after reading the information in the brochure, he guessed the purpose of Ray Dalio's visit.

To sell financial consulting services to Jiuding Bank and see if there are any opportunities for cooperation now or in the future, such as mergers and acquisitions consulting, or if Jiuding Bank wants to enter the US market, they can seek information from them.

Of course, in Liu Tianci's opinion, the main purpose is to achieve another piece of cooperation with Jiuding Bank.

This involves the second business of Bridgewater Associates, the management of domestic and foreign currency and interest rate risks.

Jiuding Bank is a commercial bank, and its basic functions are savings and lending. If you want to invest and preserve value, you often have to cooperate with financial institutions, make joint investments or provide financial leverage, etc.

These investments will increase the risk of Jiuding Bank. Changes in interest rates in terms of assets and liabilities will cause changes in profitability, liquidity and security.

Generally, excellent banks with strong interest rate risk management capabilities will have a more obvious comparative competitive advantage and higher capital security.

The profitability gap between banks with different risk management capabilities is also very large.

Commercial banks usually include the cost-effectiveness of capital utilisation and delivery management in their standard systems for measuring business results.

If Jiuding Bank wants to improve its competitiveness in this area, Bridgewater Associates can provide services such as providing targeted and excellent solutions or investment direction suggestions.

However, when it comes to currencies and exchange rates, this requires the service provider to have a keen sense of the financial market and strong capabilities.

Sure enough, Ray Dalio's words confirmed his guess.

'Mr Xia, Mr Liu, before talking about things, I would like to introduce myself first.'

'I was born into an Italian family in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York. I started trading stocks when I was 12 years old. I used the money I saved as a golf club caddy to invest in Northeast Airlines and earned a threefold profit. At the age of 16, I got involved in the futures market. I already had 200,000 US dollars. Later, I went to Long Island University and Harvard Business School. At the age of 26, I used the one million US dollars I had earned to start Bridgewater Associates.'

'The current situation of the company is written in the brochure.'

Telling people about his past is a way to prove his abilities. This is a tactic that Ray Dalio has used time and time again when his company was small, and it often impresses his collaborators and leads to cooperation.

After all, in the field of financial investment consulting, ability is the most important thing. In this industry, there is no need to hide one's abilities. Showing off one's genius openly is a better way to attract collaborators.

'Mr. Dalio, I didn't realize that you started trading stocks at the age of twelve. That's incredible!'

'You have a clever mind and an excellent sense of smell.'

Xia Yu showed a surprised expression in due course.

Ray Dalio was not arrogant, and said a slightly humble thank you.

Liu Tianci, on the other hand, looked at Ray Dalio calmly and asked sharply, 'Mr. Dalio, your past achievements are very impressive, but we haven't seen them with our own eyes, so they don't convince us. May I ask you, within Asia, which financial institutions have you cooperated with?'

Rey Dario's face stiffened, before returning to normal.

However, this subtle change in expression had already been captured by Xia Yu and Liu Tianci.

Xia Yu's mouth curled up slightly, and he gave Liu Tianci a thumbs-up in his heart.

Liu Tianci really understood his thoughts best!

He didn't say anything, but Liu Tianci had already roughly guessed his thoughts, and directly played the dark side, first suppressing Rey Dario's morale.

After taking this step, it will be easier to transfer the initiative to their side when discussing anything afterwards.