At the beginning of February, it's Chinese New Year, in a good Asian table in Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis): Hsueh Sheng Wang swallows a starter, a dessert, four glasses of wine and palaver with the guests. At the end of an hour, he got up: "I have to go, I have to go to five other dinners. "
One of the most powerful businessmen on the Sentier d'Aubervilliers - a district bringing together textile wholesalers - shows an appetite for ogre, both for good food and for business. His company Eurasia Groupe, which weighed 43.4 million euros in turnover in 2018, manages 600,000 m2 of warehouses, owns a shopping center and builds housing. "He likes success," sums up Lionel Wang, his employee for thirty years.
It is in a dull building on rue Haie-Coq, nested in the wholesalers' shops, that we find its holding company. Access to its offices without rowdy luxury by climbing a rather steep staircase. Hsueh Sheng Wang, 55, spends his life there.
Up to 800,000 masks per day
His last hobby: the creation of a mask manufacturing plant in Blanc-Mesnil. He will inject 4 million euros into it and announces daily production of up to 800,000 FFP1 and FFP2 masks.
A few weeks ago, the site was just a warehouse rented by Chanel. The start of the activity, planned for May, is imminent. Every day, he walks around this large naked hangar and waits for the delivery of machines made in China from Wenzhou, his hometown.
It is from this great port city that the majority of the 10,000 Chinese who work in import-export in Aubervilliers have emigrated. Landed undocumented at 13, Wang became one of the most powerful Wenzhou. But he never asked for French nationality.
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China does not accept dual nationality. "If you are Chinese, you cannot be French. It's more useful for business, ”he explains. When he recounts his latest coup, he rejoices inwardly: "The machines went out of production in three weeks instead of the usual two months, and we passed in front of the Americans! "
Network man
In China, the businessman has an unequaled strike force. “He has a great Guanxi, a network. In China without Guanxi, no business ”, summarizes Harold Parisot, president of the Chinese business club where the fine Franco-Asian economic flower and the political world intersect. Wang is a regular.
One of the richest men in Aubervilliers built his fortune in one of the poorest cities in France. His parents had started in textiles in Cambrai (North). He opened his first depot in the late 1990s in this region. In 2004, he arrived in Seine-Saint-Denis.
Little by little, he lets go of textiles and turns to corporate real estate. Jean-Jacques Karman, communist assistant at Aubervilliers, has known him for twenty years, and was one of the guests at his daughter's wedding. "Sheng has a calculator in his head. He's always one step ahead, says the elected official. He immediately felt that renting warehouses made more than a wholesaler. He owns very little, he prefers to rent or sublet. "
"He wants to serve France, the country where he made his fortune"
The Communist remains in admiration of this pure and hard capitalist with a rustic smile: “He is someone good within the framework of the system. He always seeks compromise, while never losing his interest, ”says Karman. "It's his Buddhist side. He is very steeped in this philosophy. A deal must be win-win, ”adds Ling Lenzi, elected LR at Aubervilliers.
Long in business with him, the latter guesses what drives him in the adventure of the production of masks. "It is not profit that speaks to him. He wants to be of service to France, the country where he made his fortune. "
Cash, Wang puts it another way: "With the health crisis, should we stay at home, file for bankruptcy and wait until we die?" I do this for a human and united purpose. Because managing a factory in France is more trouble than anything! He pulls his hair out to bring in Chinese engineers. “Even with 15,000 euros a month, they refuse. They think that France is drowned under the coronavirus ”, chokes the boss.
He will not back down. "When it is launched, it goes to the end," says Lionel Wang. “Others also had the financial surface, the networks. But it is the only one that has this explosive reactivity, notes Patrick Karam, elected regional LR, ardent support. He was reluctant. He kept saying to me: It's not my job. Then he made up his mind. In three days, he had studied everything. He was unbeatable on technical details. It dries me. He's a real industry captain. It starts without waiting for everything to be locked. "
The captain announces the turnkey delivery of the Blanc-Mesnil plant this month. "It should have taken at least eight months. Wang is going to take a month and a half, ”says the regional councilor.
The fiasco of the port of Le Havre
But the man in a hurry sometimes wanted to go too fast. The Euro China project in 2011 at the port of Le Havre will remain one of its biggest setbacks. The businessman will sell the 15 hectares of warehouses without having created the hundreds of jobs hoped for.
It is also diversifying by taking over liquidation businesses. In 2014, he acquired ICP in Gisors (Eure), in the perfume sector. It degreases in the process. The factory now dispenses 100,000 bottles of hydroalcoholic gel per day and will open two additional chains. In 2018, Scarna Construction (North) entered its fold. But at the start of 2020, this construction company was again liquidated, leaving 38 jobs on the job.
Inevitably, one of the first fortunes of the golden triangle of Aubervilliers interested the taxman. In 2014, the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) opened an investigation into the patrimony of the Wang couple for tax fraud and money laundering. "The file is being closed," says the PNF.
"As soon as we find a vaccine, we will move the factory"
"I haven't had any news since 2017. All of my accounts are being watched very closely, because my company is listed on the stock exchange," said serene Mr. Wang.
2017, annus horribilis . During the summer, he was blocked in China by the authorities, who heard him as a witness in an investigation into senior officials. He had come three days for a congress, he will stay two months.
At Blanc-Mesnil, on the other hand, it does not intend to drag on. "As soon as we find a vaccine, we will move the plant," he announced. Instead, he already has another project in mind: the construction of a thousand dwellings and a retirement home. The business virus will always be stronger than anything for Mr. Wang.
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