Sorting the thoughts in his mind, Simon looked at Victor Merissis on the sofa opposite the reception area and said, "Vic, okay, do you mind that I call you that?"

The middle-aged man said: "Of course not, Mr. Westeros."

Simon nodded slightly and said, "Vic, I have read your resume. I graduated from the University of Lisbon and served in the Portuguese Special Forces. I have been doing import and export trade between Portugal and Angola for more than ten years. I also own a coffee plantation in northern Angola. These are the second. I also know some of the past of the Merisis family. As the first generation of immigrants, the Merisis family once happened to run a coffee plantation on the land I own in the southern province of Cuando, Angola. Then, in 1975, everyone knew what happened. Because of the independence and civil war, more than 500,000 white people in Angola were forced to exile overseas. You are lucky. At that time, 19 years old and were studying at the University of Lisbon. Unfortunately, your parents and a pair of brothers and sisters were accidentally in an armed conflict during the escape."

As Victor Merisis heard Simon say, his eyes never looked away from his eyes, his expression was determined, and a touch of sadness that still lingered many years later.

Simon said this and stared at the middle-aged man opposite: "Vic, I hire you because I found that more than one-fifth of the 500 tons of coffee exports in Angola in the past year were produced by you at the coffee plantation in northern Angola. I know you are a very good person and I like great people. But since you mentioned what you just now, I need to know first, what do you want from me, revenge?"

Victor Merisis did not directly answer Simon's question, but said: "When I was very young, my father was my idol. He was a man who dared to take risks like a cowboy. Our family once had a 18,000 acre coffee plantation in Cuando Province, which produced 5,000 tons of the best Arabica coffee every year. These were all accumulated by my father's 20 years from scratch. My childhood memory was the coffee trees all over the mountains. Then, all of this disappeared in 1975. Of course, I thought about revenge. I spent two and a half years to finish college and then chose to join the army, just to return to Angola to avenge my family. But when I returned to that country, I spent three

There was no result in investigating the things that happened in that year. Mr. Westeros, maybe you can imagine this kind of scene. A group of monkeys gathered in the wilderness jungle. There was no difference. Who could choose any enemy from these monkeys. So I chose another way. My father told me when he was very young that if someone took something from you, it would be doubled. I have been doing this for many years. Unfortunately, I still started from scratch. For more than ten years, I could only achieve the current level, until someone contacted me and said that you needed to take care of your own coffee plantation alone. That coffee plantation area also included our plantation that year."

Simon listened patiently to Merissis's past and asked, "So, do you want to get back the plantation that once belonged to your family?"

Victor Merisis shook his head and said, "No, it is destined to be just my memory. Even if I go back to the original place, everything is different. Mr. Westeros, what my father told me is that if someone takes away anything from you, it will be doubled back. Therefore, I only need you to provide me with a platform. As for how much I can get back, it depends on my own ability. Of course, in this process, I promise that you will not gain less than me."

"Very good," Simon nodded, saying, "But you have to understand, Vic, the first thing I need is a coffee plantation head."

"Of course, Mr. Westeros, and I promise you that no one is more suitable than me. Because the person in charge of the coffee plantation you ask for is far more than just growing coffee. The 150,000 acres of land is much larger than our plantation back then, and it is not something a pure farmer can afford. There are many things that need to be taken into account. It just so happens that I have experience in dealing with the relationship with the authorities, recruiting labor, selling coffee after harvest, and even security work in the plantation."

"Do you mind talking about your longer-term plans?"

"Actually, you are already doing it. Mr. Westero, through arms dealing with the Angolan government, penetrated into all aspects of this country. This is exactly what I hope to do over the years, but my strength is too weak to reach the top leaders of this country. As long as you are willing to hire me, first of all, I can spend three years to manage the coffee plantation in Cuando Province. Because of the war, the coffee plantation area around Cuando has been completely abandoned. It takes exactly three years to grow coffee from scratch to the first harvest. Three years later, if Mr. Westero is quite satisfied with my work results, I hope to obtain more support from the Westero system and get involved in some other industries in Angola."

“What are the specific ones?”

"Mr. Westeros, in addition to coffee, my trading company has been doing wood export business over the years. Angola has a lot of forestry resources, which are scarce in Europe, where environmental protection requirements are increasingly demanding. However, you must also know that my business is not big. In addition, if you have the opportunity, I certainly hope to enter the more core Angola mining field in the future. In fact, only these can be taken out in African countries, which is considered a lifeline."

Simon finished Merissis and thought for a moment, saying, "Since that's the case, this job is yours. Moreover, I don't mind that you will be dedicated to it and continue to maintain your current import and export trade business. If this aspect is abandoned for three years, it will definitely be difficult to do it in the future. Of course, if you think you can't take into account both, it's okay to concentrate on the coffee plantation."

"This is the best, Mr. Westeros, I just thought you might not like to use it very much."

"So, do you mind my investment?"

“I only need to keep 30% of the shares.”

"A clever decision, I will give you $5 million, and I account for 70%. Of course, this is not buying your shares, but investing in capital. The money must be spent on the company's operations and expansion. By the way, regarding wood exports, I can also introduce you to some business. In Ukraine, a company I have happened to be trying to get involved in furniture manufacturing."

Even if the plantations in northern Angola were included, Victor Merisis' net worth was less than 1 million US dollars. Simon took out $5 million to buy 70% of the shares of the import and export trading company under Merisis's name, and the middle-aged man took a big advantage.

Victor Merisis did not verbally assure Simon anything. He heard him talk about Ukraine and took the initiative to remind him: "Mr. Westeros, I think Ukraine should not lack forestry resources. It is not cost-effective to import wood from Africa."

Merisis said this, and Simon added another point to the other party in his heart. If it were someone else, he would probably not remind him of these.

Smiling, Simon said: "Of course there is no shortage of ordinary woods in Ukraine, but there is no top-notch wood in the primeval forests of Africa. What they need is exactly these."

When Simon went to Ukraine at the beginning of the year, he suggested that Sergei Komorov try the furniture OEM field, because Ukraine happens to have abundant forestry resources and the cost is relatively low. Komorov implemented Simon's suggestion well, not only closed a paper mill that was originally polluted and changed it to a furniture processing factory, but also successfully obtained OEM orders from IKEA a few months ago.

Not only that, in order to get involved in furniture manufacturing, Sergei Komorov personally led a team to Western European countries for more than a month of inspection. He was inspired by it and fought for IKEA OEM orders. At the same time, he also registered the home furnishing brand under the independent Aldek Company. It happened to be mentioned in a call that Simon's naming habits broke out and personally named Katrina, which was still his preferred female naming strategy.

This name does not refer to the memory of "Game of Thrones". Simon first thought of Russian Queen Caterina, who planned to name the company based on "Victoria's Secret". However, Caterina's English translation is Catherine. The name is a bit long and does not conform to the law that the simpler the company, the easier it is to succeed. Finally, he chose "Katrina", which is not short, but is easier to spell and memorize than "Catherine".

Because it is an Eastern European company, it is definitely not easy to open the planned Western European market under traditional prejudice. If it is positioned at the mid- and low-end, it may be more likely to be limited to a corner of Ukraine. Therefore, Simon suggested that Caterina start with high-end custom furniture, gain fame first, and then follow up.

Sergei Komorov also specially recruited a furniture designer from the UK for this purpose.

The company is still in the preparation stage and plans to launch its first batch of products by the end of the year.

For high-end custom furniture, excellent design is one aspect, real materials are more important. Speaking of this, the rosewood, bati, chicken wing and other woods that have grown in the primeval forests of Africa for thousands of years are definitely the top-notch solid wood furniture raw materials, not to mention that Africa also has a very large stock of sandalwood.

Simon and Victor Merissis talked for an hour and saw each other off at 5 pm.

Getting off work on time has nothing to do with Simon.

Merisis left, Amy Pascal came to Simon's office again, and the two discussed preparations for Universal Studios Europe.

The negotiations between Daenerys Entertainment and the Italian government on establishing Universal Studios in Europe near Rome have come to an end. The group's agency team has begun to purchase land around Rome.

At this stage of the matter, it is difficult to keep the news absolutely confidential.

Recently, the land prices around Rome that may be used to build Universal Studios have soared, and some speculative capital has also quietly joined the rush to buy land, intending to make a fortune after the news is made public. In order to reduce the cost of land acquisition as much as possible, Daenerys's team has made two plans, located in western and southern Rome.

Unlike Universal Studios in Los Angeles and other places, Rome is located in the Great Plains in the central Italian Peninsula. Large pieces of land resources are not scarce. Universal Studios are suitable for building in the west and south of the city. Although heavy bleeding is inevitable, in the choice of two, some people who want to cash out their land at a high level can only take the initiative to make concessions.

Of course, on the surface, it is a second-line and one, so there will definitely be some tendency.

Both Daenerys' senior management and the theme park team hope to build the theme park in the west of Rome, between the Leonardo da Vinci International Airport and the main city of Rome, so as to obtain the most convenient transportation environment and the maximum passenger flow. If the western plot is really not agreed, the southern plan will be launched.

After the day's work, it was already past six o'clock in the afternoon.

Simon returned to Dumei Point Manor, and a guest came to his house, Celia Miller.

Having not been to New York during this period, Celia could only fly to Los Angeles to report some work matters to Simon. She did not arrange the daytime, so she simply chose military affairs at night, which is generally considered the private affairs of the Westeros family. There is nothing wrong with discussing it at home.

As for Celia's intention to stay in Dumei Point Manor, it's not special.

The most inexpensive thing that Dumei Point Manor now is guest rooms.

In addition to Shell Villa, in recent years, after large-scale land enclosure, most of the cliff villas on both sides of Dumei Point Manor, which looks like a B2 bomber, have been retained, and it is no problem to entertain hundreds of guests at one time. Of course, Simon has never been the kind of person who is too hospitable, and he holds parties at home very few times, let alone invite too many guests.

Dinner was still being prepared, but I didn't talk about the serious matter immediately.

When Simon arrived home, Janet and Celia were sitting together on the sofa beside the glass curtain wall of the sea in the Shell Villa, drinking coffee and chatting. They seemed to be more familiar than Simon. In fact, the same is true. Janet was also staring at many things about the Wei Furniture Army, especially after the Westeros family's private intelligence team and the Wei Furniture Army began to merge, there were more things women needed to take into account.

As soon as he came to the curtain wall to sit down, his baby son ran over with two black-backed wild ducks.

Some time ago, the little guy wanted to raise ducks, so Simon found two wild duck eggs for the child. They were the kind that was about to be hatched. They successfully came out of the shell a week ago. At that time, the little guy was always next to the incubator. Because of the natural habits of birds and animals, he successfully recognized his mother.

Well, it must be dad.

These days, my son and two little boys were inseparable from each other, and he also named him, one Jack and the other was Emma. He couldn't tell which one was, which Simon was, and he didn't know whether the gender was right or not. Anyway, he was his son's pet.

in spite of.

When he came closer, he called Dad, and said politely to Celia, the little guy picked up a duck and said to Simon: "Dad, Emma has grown up a little today."

Simon took the little duck with a smile and hugged his son to his lap. The father and son had just said a few words when another little duck came from beside him. Janet, who was sitting next to Simon, had already grabbed "Jack" and was playing with it with interest. The woman had no resistance to the furry little thing.

Of course, it is impatient to keep Janet.

Only responsible for playing.

Seeing that his mother began to ravage his little baby again, Melbourne did not dare to rob him. Obviously, he had a failed experience, so he could only look at his father pitifully. Simon was helpless about Janet's way of playing with the wings of the ducklings, and reached out to save the little thing. He also hugged him and took two ducklings away with him under the gesture of his son's eyes.
Chapter completed!