Rebirth starts from e-commerce

Chapter 546 Prohibition
On the fifth day of the negotiation, everything went well, and the two sides were short of the final signature.

After all, when half of the equity was transferred last time, there was already a basis for cooperation.

At the same time, the news media has also been contacted and is preparing to hold a press conference to report this cooperation.

By tomorrow, this $40 billion deal will once again shake up the online car-hailing market.

However, what is unexpected is that an order from the US Department of Commerce stopped the transaction.

In the name of national security, they investigated this transaction.

Lin Minyi said indignantly: "We are just a normal equity transfer, what reason do they have to stop it?"

As the legal team leader of Pinru's business in the United States, she believes that she has achieved legal compliance in every process.

What's more, this is just a simple equity transfer. Both the buyer and the seller have no objection. What does it mean for the Ministry of Commerce to jump out at this time?
"I think they are clearly targeting our Chinese companies and deliberately disrupting our business."

"I don't know what charges he will give us?"

"I guess even if there is, it is an 'unnecessary' charge, which is similar to the reason for suspending Sany Heavy Industry and Huawei's business some time ago."

"Is there really nothing we can do?"

"We don't have any enemies here. Couldn't it be made by Softbank? Temporarily lower the price?"

……

Everyone thinks that the investment projects of Chinese-funded enterprises such as Sany Heavy Industry and Huawei in the United States have been suspended recently, and their hearts are even heavier.

In 2012, Rolls, an affiliate of Sany Group in the United States, acquired four wind farms in the United States.

Six months later, the then president issued an order restricting Ralls' access to wind farm sites for construction on the grounds of alleged threats to national security, and required Ralls to complete the divestiture of these projects within 6 days.

This paper ban directly caused Sany Group more than 2000 million US dollars in economic losses.

Afterwards, Sany Group appealed many times and spent a huge amount of legal fees, and finally reached a "reconciliation" with the outside world.

Sany Group transferred these four wind power projects to third parties in exchange for the group's other businesses in the United States not involving national security issues.

This successful and unsuccessful lawsuit was rated by the Wall Street Journal as an unprecedented victory for Chinese-funded enterprises.

Faced with this situation, most relatively weak private companies can only swallow the bitter fruit secretly.

After all, there are not many private companies that can spend huge costs to fight this transnational lawsuit like Sany Heavy Industry.

Moreover, the result of the lawsuit can only return you "innocence", and cannot return the money you lost.

For most private companies, innocence is obviously not that important. They would rather stop losses early and admit losses and leave the market.

Now, Pinru's business team is worried that Uber's equity transaction will be messed up.

If the equity cannot be realized, no matter how high the value is, it is almost like waste paper.

After all, online car-hailing is still in the midst of a subsidy war, and it is impossible to have any dividends.

Seeing that the fighting spirit of the team was hit, Luo Xiu couldn't help but comforted him and said, "Don't be discouraged, everyone. Stopping the review doesn't mean that this transaction is in vain. We should actively communicate with the review department at this time, understand their purpose, and come up with a countermeasure." Method."

Immediately someone echoed and said: "Mr. Luo is right. If they forcefully intervene without a legitimate reason, it will not only damage our company, but also the confidence of more international investment institutions in investing in the United States."

"If a market only allows outside money to come in, and does not allow people to cash out and leave the market, then no one will dare to enter this market."

"I also believe that things are not at their worst. This time it may just be a routine review, and we just happened to be unlucky enough to be selected."

Having said that, the entire business team cheered up and split up to understand the situation.

Some people ask about Softbank's attitude, some go to lobbyists to lobby congressmen, and some use judicial means to exert pressure.

Three days later, the Ministry of Commerce finally gave a clear statement.

The reason for their review was that Pinru Group had obtained a loan of 2 million US dollars from Citibank, and believed that the loan had illegal operations.

Luo Xiu got a 2 million loan from Citibank at the beginning, and then used the loan to exchange 20% of the equity from Uber.

From the current point of view, this investment is equivalent to borrowing the chicken to lay the egg.

You don’t have to pay a penny yourself, but use your bank’s money to invest in your business, and within a few years, the profit will be dozens of times.

But commercial investment cannot be inferred by the results, after all, no one knows that the original investment will be successful.

If the investment fails, the result will inevitably be that Luo Xiu owes a large amount of debt to the bank, as well as high interest rates.

It’s as if we all know that Softbank has made a lot of money by investing in Ali, but at that time, who could value Ali, a start-up company?

The U.S. Department of Commerce cannot prevent Luoxiu from selling Uber's equity. The only thing they can do is to investigate whether the original $2 million loan is reasonable.

After all, without that loan, there would be no investment in Uber later, and there would be no realization of dozens of times now.

It is said that the investigation team has settled in Citibank and requested to obtain all the information on the loan that year and review every step of the process.

Even the business manager who just retired from the bank last year was called back because of handling this business and asked to cooperate with the investigation.

After the news came out, many people were not optimistic.

If the investigation team really takes the attitude of picking bones from eggs, nothing can stand the investigation.

Especially for such a large loan, the original system formulated by the bank must be very complicated.

In the process of actual operation, in order to pursue efficiency, some unnecessary procedures are often skipped.

This situation is especially serious for Chinese-funded enterprises. Few companies have gone through all the procedures 100% in accordance with the regulations.

They are accustomed to giving priority to efficiency. In order to pursue efficiency, they often "get on the bus first and then make up the ticket".

In order to achieve business, banks are also willing to cooperate with enterprises and skip some cumbersome procedures.

This pursuit of efficiency helps companies win the market faster.

For the same business, Chinese-funded enterprises may have already put their products on the market and undergo several rounds of iterative optimization, while foreign capital is still arguing whether to do it or not.

Not surprisingly, this efficiency-seeking feature has helped Chinese companies win overseas markets one after another.

The problem is that in case of any accident, this way of doing things "get on the bus first and pay the fare later" often leads to disaster.

Many high-spirited companies that wanted to open up a new world overseas ended up suffering here and being dragged into endless lawsuits.

And now, Pinru Group also had an accident.

A shadow hangs over everyone on the team.

"Does anyone of you remember that when you took that loan, there were no illegal procedures?"

"I don't know, I haven't joined the company yet."

"This project is handled by Mr. Luo alone. I'm afraid only Mr. Luo knows what happened at the beginning."

"At that time, it was the company's first overseas business. It didn't even have an office overseas, so it was difficult to have no handle in business."

"So, I'm afraid we are really in danger this time!"

……

Having said that, everyone feels that the situation is not optimistic.

(End of this chapter)