Chapter 750: The Hunting Target – Pharmaceutical Giant

San Francisco, also known as 'San Francisco' or 'San Francisco,' is a port city on the Pacific coast of California, USA. It is a world-famous tourist destination and the fourth most populous city in California.

Xia Yu's Polaris Capital is based in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area.

The San Francisco Bay Area is located around San Francisco Bay at the mouth of the lower Sacramento River. There are nine counties and as many as 101 towns and cities, with major cities including San Francisco on the San Francisco Peninsula, Oakland in the east and San Jose in the south. Silicon Valley is located just south of the San Francisco Bay Area.

The existing and future high-tech companies in Silicon Valley are Xia Yu's hunting targets, so there is no better place to set up the company!

New companies usually keep things simple.

But Xia Yu doesn't lack money at all, and buying property in the San Francisco Bay Area is also very cost-effective. Therefore, Polaris Capital owns an office building of its own. The building is 30 storeys high, and two floors have been temporarily opened, while the remaining 28 floors continue to be rented out.

All this was done by Peter Lynch, a subordinate Xia Yu sent to him while he was in New York.

While in New York, Xia Yu listed the financial elites on Wall Street through Rey Dario and Julian Robertson, and then combined this with his past life memories to poach Peter Lynch from Fidelity Management & Research Company.

This gentle, middle-aged man born in 1944, who was only 36 at the time, was a manager of a Fidelity fund called the Magellan Fund. He had just taken office for more than two years and was not yet one of the top ten investment gurus in the world. He was only a minor celebrity on Wall Street, where big predators gathered and elites were everywhere.

In his previous life, Peter Lynch was a famous Wall Street guru. He took charge of the Magellan Fund in 1977 and managed it for 13 years, growing it from an initial $20 million to $14 billion. It became the world's largest fund in terms of assets under management, and its investment efficiency was also ranked first, with an average compound interest rate of 29% over 13 years.

Unfortunately, in his previous life, in 1990, Peter Lynch had resolutely chosen to retire at the peak of his career and devote himself to education.

For someone who didn't value money, Xia Yu really had to make an effort to recruit him. Fortunately, with his memories from his previous life, he knew a lot about Peter Lynch and successfully recruited him after just three conversations in the evenings.

After recruiting him, he sent Peter Lynch to San Francisco first to establish Polaris Capital Management.

Since Peter Lynch had only been there for less than ten days, and it took some time to purchase the building, there was no time to fill the company with staff.

When Xia Yu arrived at the company according to the address, the office area was still very empty. Apart from the neatly arranged desks, there were not many people.

When he saw Xia Yu arrive, a young white man came forward of his own accord to ask, 'Hello, may I help you?'

Xia Yu smiled at him, sizing him up, and without revealing his identity, asked, 'Hello, where is Manager Peter Lynch? I spoke to him on the phone before I came.'

The young white man was taken aback, but then said, 'The manager is upstairs interviewing candidates, please follow me!'

'Okay, thanks!'

Soon, Xia Yu followed the young white man upstairs.

The upstairs floor was not as large as the downstairs floor, but was divided into individual rooms. Along the corridor, Xia Yu passed by a large conference room and saw a group of well-dressed candidates sitting quietly. However, the interview was diagonally opposite, and a blonde white beauty was waiting by the door.

The white youth walked over and said a few words to the blonde white beauty. The blonde beauty looked embarrassed. Just then, the door next to her opened, and a young man came out.

The young man was startled to see a crowd of people standing outside, but Xia Yu had no time to worry about him.

A short while after the blonde beauty entered, Peter Lynch, wearing square glasses, quickly walked out. Upon seeing Xia Yu, he immediately bowed slightly and said hello, 'Boss, you're here. I'm sorry to have kept you waiting.'

The white youth and the blonde beauty were taken aback and immediately greeted Xia Yu.

After responding to each one, Xia Yu asked Peter Lynch, 'Why do you need to personally interview the human resources manager?'

Peter Lynch said, "We haven't yet recruited a qualified human resources manager, so I have to interview him myself.'

Xia Yu nodded slightly and thought for a moment before saying, "I'll interview with you next.'

'Okay!' Peter Lynch replied.

Afterwards, Xia Yu told Li Wuming and the others to wait nearby, while he and Peter Lynch returned to the house. The blonde immediately went to notify the next applicant.

Throughout the morning interviews, Xia Yu mostly just watched quietly, hardly expressing an opinion at all, and letting Peter Lynch make the decisions. This approach of Xia Yu's made the latter feel puzzled, except for the initial pressure.

In fact, Xia Yu was observing the level of the applicants.

There are many universities around San Francisco, including Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of California, San Francisco, the University of San Francisco, and Santa Clara University. There are no shortfalls in talent training, so the applicants are of a certain level, but not very high.

After all, Polaris Capital is only a new company, and it is not very attractive to senior talent.

At this rate, it will undoubtedly be difficult to build a team that will satisfy him.

But now it is already March 1980, and considering the targets he wants to hunt, time is running out. He must establish the company as quickly as possible!

At lunch, Xia Yu asked Peter Lynch to stop applying for the job and go with him to Los Angeles for now.

Early the next morning, Xia Yu took Peter Lynch and the others to the headquarters of Korn/Ferry International in Los Angeles. This is not only the global headquarters, but also the first office in North America.

Xia Yu was lucky. When he arrived, the Chairman and CEO, the largest shareholder Richard Ferry, and the second largest shareholder Lester Cohen were all at the company.

Last year, when Lester Cohen came to Asia to develop the market, he came to Hong Kong and met with Xia Yu a few times, so he recognised Xia Yu.

After some warm greetings, Xia Yu began to gain a deeper understanding of Korn Ferry International and discovered an opportunity during a casual chat.

He had previously bought 25% of the shares in Korn/Ferry International from the OTC market for 25 million US dollars.

The shares had been sold by Lester Cohen in 1972 for 4 million US dollars, so Xia Yu had taken over from another institution, and the 25 million US dollars would naturally not go into the company's accounts.

Over the past year, in order to cope with competition from other rivals, Korn/Ferry International, which was the newest company, had had to expand greatly, opening 38 offices around the world in one go, which had been very expensive and had strained the company's finances.

This, combined with the serious inflation in the United States at the time, affected all industries and also impacted the business of Korn/Ferry International.

The company was therefore in a dilemma. Richard Ferry and Lester Cohen were torn between whether to temporarily suspend expansion over the next two years and ride out the storm.

However, Korn/Ferry International was the latest company to be established, and since its establishment, it has always been the most aggressive in its approach and has taken the biggest steps in order to catch up with its peers.

In the current market environment, Richard Ferry believes that not only will Korn Ferry suffer, but so will its competitors. He therefore believes that now is the perfect opportunity to catch up and close the gap.

However, Lester Cohen believes that the risk is too high, as KF's capital is insufficient and the current situation does not allow it to expand rapidly.

Knowing this, Xia Yu approached the two men and proposed that he has sufficient capital to invest in KF.

Richard Fairly and Lester Cohen did not agree at first, but two days later, Richard Fairly, who held 49% of the shares, convinced Lester Cohen to agree to Xia Yu's capital injection and share expansion.

Considering that a long-term and stable relationship was in his best interests, Xia Yu was not too demanding during the negotiations and gave the company a high valuation of 130 million US dollars.

Almost the same time last year, Xia Yu valued Korn Ferry at just $100 million at a premium, and now it has increased by at least 30% in a year, which is definitely not a small amount.

Xia Yu once again invested $20 million into the company and once again obtained a 13.33% stake. Together with the original stake he held, his stake increased to 38.33%, making him the second largest shareholder of the company.

Richard Ferry's stake was reduced to 40.29%, and he remained the largest shareholder.

The shareholding of Lester Cohen, the original second largest shareholder, fell to 21.38%, and he swapped places with Xia Yu, becoming the third largest shareholder.

As soon as the contract was signed, Xia Yu immediately transferred 20 million US dollars to the account of Korn/Ferry International.

With a huge amount of money in his hands, Richard Ferry was in a good mood and could continue to expand the company.

Xia Yu also took out a list of positions that he had Peter Lynch list and handed it to Richard Ferry, asking him to do his best to recruit talent as quickly as possible.

The second largest shareholder and major benefactor really had enough face. Richard Ferry immediately gathered a large group of the company's senior consultants to brainstorm. One suitable person after another was recommended, and targeted poaching began.

Xia Yu and Peter Lynch were in charge of the selection process.

Under these circumstances, talent from Polaris Capital filled the ranks at a rapid rate.

Xia Yu took the time to decide on the first target for the hunt.

This target was the biopharmaceutical giant that would later have a market value of over 100 billion US dollars!