Wind Rises 2005

Chapter 656 Compromise
In the trading hall of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, in front of the big screen, there is a large gong on a stage paved with a red carpet.

Because every company that goes public in Hong Kong will arrange a gong-ringing ceremony.

It is said that listing sounds the bell, but only the Hong Kong Stock Exchange chose the big gong that best represents Chinese culture to ring the moment of listing.

As we all know, beating gongs and drums is one of the Chinese people's favorite ways to celebrate happy events. Using gongs to announce the launch of a listing is also to seek good luck.

It means that after the company goes public, the stock price can rise all the way, and the market value continues to rise.

In fact, most stock exchanges in various countries, including the New York Stock Exchange, first used gongs to announce the start and end of stock trading every working day.

That's right, gongs were used in the beginning, and they were made in China.

After all, before the advent of electric clocks, only Chinese gongs and suonas could achieve the sound that could be heard by everyone in the entire exchange building.

However, most exchanges later switched to electric clocks, and only Hong Kong stocks continued to use them.

If there are too many companies queuing up for listing on the same day, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange will even arrange for several companies to ring the gong at the same time.

In Ma Liang's previous life, there was an interesting incident in the Hong Kong stock market where eight companies sounded the gong at the same time.

But of course I wouldn't do that today, otherwise Old Man Xia's careful preparations would all be in vain.

After a brief introduction by the host, the staff led Ma Liang and others onto the stage.

Everyone stood on both sides of the big bronze gong. On the left side were Ma Liang and his executives, and on the right side were Mr. Cai and venture capital queen Xu Xin and others.

Xia Jiali, Shi Meilun and others, along with the leaders of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, watched all this carefully below.

After two or three months of preparation, the result is finally coming.

Whether Hong Kong stocks can fight back and rise against the trend depends on the appeal of Ma Liang, the newly created "god".

Judging from the performance of these two days alone, it seems that the situation is developing in a good direction.

Countless investors flocked to the market again, adding money to their accounts to buy new stocks. There are also countless new investors who have been affected by the stories exaggerated by the media and are eager to open accounts.

Even before [Liupo Malatang] was launched, it had already broken many records since the opening of the Hong Kong stock market.

The number of people who applied for subscriptions broke records, but the winning rate was the lowest ever.

And according to rough statistics, at least one-third of investors have opened multiple accounts at the same time to participate in the lottery to increase their winning rate.

Such a grand occasion has never been seen in the Hong Kong stock market in decades.

This resulted in a large amount of funds being withdrawn from various financial products by investors and invested back into the stock market.

This kind of operation has already made the Hong Kong stock market start to show some signs of recovery.

At least last Thursday and Friday, the Hong Kong stock market rose for two consecutive days for the first time, and the increase was not small.

Since the subprime mortgage crisis, nothing like this has happened for a long time.

It has to be said that the media in Xiangjiang are also very good at picking up on hot topics. They caught Ma Liang and reported him to death, and all kinds of deeds were dug out.

From starting a business in college to becoming a billionaire, from a small shop to a catering giant, from investing in Twitter to establishing Gale Capital, the miraculous fortune-making history in just a few years has been completely exposed.

Even his investment in Xingye's movie "Yangtze River No. 7" was reported and trumpeted by various media outlets.

It can only be said that these media are really capable. Thanks to Ma Liang's deliberate keeping a low profile, otherwise his personal life might be exposed this time.

In recent days in Xiangjiang, he has become the most popular topic.

In almost every tea restaurant, there will be people chatting about the miraculous deeds of "Little Ma", a business genius.

In terms of popularity, he now seems to have surpassed Little Ma from Goose Factory, and he is so praised that he is astonishing.

The result is that [Xunwei Group] headquarters has begun to receive a steady stream of various franchise applications from businessmen in Xiangjiang, which is really dumbfounding.

Xiangjiang has a special culture and an even more special market, so none of the company's brands have developed stores here before. After all, the catering industry is very affected by regional cultural differences, and market expansion has always been the most difficult.

Coupled with the special circumstances in the two places, [Xunwei Group] has temporarily given up on this market.

As a result, the people of Xiangjiang acted like this. Chu Chengdong and He Feng, who were left behind at the headquarters, couldn't help but report to Ma Liang, saying that they could strike while the iron was hot and open several image stores in Xiangjiang as soon as possible.

Ma Liang was too lazy to care about such trivial matters. Since he had already decided to go to the stage, he naturally left it to Chu Chengdong and the others.

At this time, all his attention was focused on the IPO of [Liupo Malatang].

To be honest, due to the impact of the subprime mortgage crisis, the market situation of Hong Kong stocks is far less good than that of the previous two years, so it is not a particularly good time to go public now.

This [Liupo Malatang] IPO will issue a total of 3 million shares, accounting for 5% of the total share capital, and is expected to raise 25 billion to 17 billion Hong Kong dollars.

The initial issuance price was only HK$4.86, the single share price was less than HK$5, and the overall market value was only over HK$68 billion.

Ma Liang was quite dissatisfied. This was far from what he expected.

You must know that [Ajisen Ramen], which was only launched two years ago, had an initial issue price of HK$5.47. At its peak, its market value even reached a huge HK$200 billion.

[Liupo Malatang] far exceeds the other party in terms of number of stores and revenue scale, but it was so embarrassing when it was released.

It can only be said that the subprime mortgage crisis is too destructive and the financial market will take time to recover.

Ma Liang has no choice. If he doesn't advance in business, he will retreat. There are already some signs of big business sickness within the group.

He also wanted to practice through IPO, so he decided to go public now.

Coupled with the task of stimulating the Hong Kong stock market, I had no choice but to compromise with Old Man Xia.

Fortunately, through the operation of Goldman Sachs' securities department and the black market operation before the IPO, [Dale Capital] took a large proportion of the shares in the international placement, which made him feel a little better.

Of course, some of the shares in the international placement were naturally used by Goldman Sachs as a favor.

Even He Hongshen and Zhou Kaixuan failed to grab many shares from the black market.

The proportion of publicly issued shares only accounts for about 30% of the total number of shares issued this time, which is why the success rate of investors in new shares is unprecedentedly low.

It is this kind of issuance operation similar to hunger marketing that has led to the market's crazy pursuit of the stock of [Liu Po ​​Malatang].

Those who won the lottery were very excited, while the investors who did not win the lottery were cursing.

Regardless of whether they win or miss, everyone is waiting for the official IPO of [Liupo Malatang] on Monday to see if they can miss out and grab more shares.

Shareholders are not stupid, and will naturally use the information and data published by various financial newspapers and magazines to compare it with other listed catering companies.

Any knowledgeable person can see that the valuation of [Liupo Malatang] has been severely undervalued.

If this can be bought, wouldn't it be a sure thing to skyrocket. The more you buy, the more you can make a small fortune.

As a result, countless stock investors were gearing up and ready to go. They were already in front of their computers early on Monday morning before the market opened.

Those old investors who couldn't use computers rushed to major securities companies one after another.

Just waiting for Ma Liang to ring the gong, [Liupo Malatang] was listed at the same time as the Hong Kong Stock Exchange opened, and countless investors were waiting to snap up a piece.

Although the stock of [Liupo Malatang] was wildly sought after, some investors who won the lottery for new stocks couldn't help it and decided to sell it.

Countless people are looking forward to this possibility, after all, it has happened before.

Unlike the overcrowded situation of major securities companies in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange is not open to the public due to the IPO ceremony and appears to be very empty.

Seeing that the opening time was approaching, the host had already started counting down according to the ritual process.

"Ten, nine, eight, seven..."

(End of this chapter)