King of Capital

Chapter 42 Grapefruit Capital
The fresh air system in the conference room was working hard, but it still couldn't dispel the faint smell of cigarettes and the anxious and tense atmosphere.

Zhan Weibiao wiped his glasses vigorously with the cloth in silence, trying to calm his depressed mood.

Tencent’s internal high-level meetings are very much in line with the tone of “the fewer words, the bigger the matter”. Usually, several department heads meet to simply set the tone, and then let the people below argue over the details.

However, today's meeting has been interrupted three times and forcibly continued three times since it was temporarily brought to the headquarters yesterday Tuesday night until noon today. There is only one agenda item - the acquisition of the American instant messaging product WhatsApp.

There are five people with three different attitudes, including Peng Zhijian, general manager of strategic investment and fund manager, Yang Daning who is responsible for overseas investment business, Liu Chih-ping, president and chairman of the investment committee, and Mr. Ma. It seems that no one can convince anyone else.

"I still want to emphasize that WeChat Pay has entered a critical juncture where it must be launched online without delay. I do not agree with dual-line operations." Zhan Weibiao broke the silence in a deep voice.

WeChat Pay is scheduled to be launched in August, followed by a promotion plan during the 14 New Year period. The accompanying WeBank will follow suit and be launched after the New Year.

The large-scale promotion plan to sponsor the Spring Festival Gala during the New Year period is already being negotiated with the Radio, Film and Television Bureau and CCTV. The regulatory review process for WeBank is also about to begin. The entire strategy is closely linked and if it does not move forward, it will regress. Stopping would mean stillbirth.

And when Alibaba officially enters the mobile payment market during the New Year next year, it will inevitably face a hysterical counterattack from Alibaba. How much money will it need to fight back?

The acquisition of WhatsApp cost at least 80 billion US dollars. According to the nature of Americans, would they easily sell an instant messaging product with hundreds of millions of users to a domestic enterprise? The acquisition lasted for half a year and it was still the same for three years.

Not to mention the risk of losing everything in the end, the energy and money spent in this process alone can drag Tencent into the quagmire. How can it compete with Alibaba in the domestic mobile payment battlefield?

Zhan Weibiao put on his glasses again and looked at Pony Ma steadily. He had invested a lot of effort in the two businesses of WeChat Mobile Payment and WeBank, and he would never play tricks on people like this!

"Okay, everyone, please make your final statement."

Xiao Ma Ge did not confront him head-on, but lowered his head and played with a pen as he made the suggestion.

Zhan Weibiao is a senior person. He is the same age as Mr. Liu and joined Tencent earlier than the latter. He has been working on the front line for the past ten years with his sleeves rolled up. Even if he has no credit, he has worked hard. The most important thing is that his position is relatively low, so there is no cure.

Peng Zhijian, who had worked with him for a long time, felt his head buzzing when he saw him showing this attitude. PaiPai.com was destroyed by this guy. When Pony Ma handpicked him to start PaiPai.com, it had a good development momentum at the beginning relying on Tencent's own traffic, but was finally destroyed by Alibaba.

This guy really has a deep hatred for Alibaba. It is understandable that he wants to fight to the death, but he can't act like a gangster. This is the business of the strategic investment department.

“I agree with investing in WhatsApp. Even without talking about the ecological matrix, the user traffic pool of WhatsApp alone is worth a try.”

Peng Zhijian coughed lightly and stepped forward to take up the banner of output. His reason was very simple: WhatsApp was worth the price, Tencent needed WhatsApp, and from the perspective of a strategic investment leader, he should place the bet.

Talking about other things is redundant. What does the cost of other businesses have to do with him?

In fact, he had long been eyeing WhatsApp, but had not yet brought it up within Tencent for two reasons. One was that it was too expensive, and a billion-dollar project had to be handled with extreme caution. The other was that the inherent risks of cross-border mergers and acquisitions were frightening.

So Peng Zhijian paused and continued, "But the merger and acquisition plan needs to be broken down in detail. I don't agree to let Juntai do it. They don't have the ability to do it. In China, they rely on connections to make a living and look decent, but who knows what a scumbag Juntai is when they go abroad?"

Mr. Liu frowned slightly, and Xiao Ma looked at the last person in the meeting room calmly like a stone Buddha.

"I agree with Richard (Peng Zhijian) that our biggest enemy in acquiring WhatsApp is the US Overseas Investment Committee. Our partner should be on K Street in Washington, DC, not any domestic brokerage firm."

Yang Daning, a white man, speaking fluent Chinese, quickly followed the steps of his direct boss.

He was not qualified to participate in such a meeting due to his rank. He was able to appear in the conference room because Zhang Xiaolong was unwilling to come, and he made up the numbers by posing as an "America expert."

Mr. Liu nodded slightly, and said slowly and calmly: "The money problem can be solved. Our stock price is growing steadily, so there is a lot of room for operation."

Three to one, Zhan Weibiao leaned on the table with his hands on his chest, his face livid. If the war cannot be ended before the domestic mobile payment war breaks out, Tencent will be dragged into the quagmire, definitely!

Alibaba is seeking to go public in the United States, and the entire Wall Street is salivating over this fat sheep from the East. Once the domestic war breaks out, Alibaba will have enough influence in North America to dig a hole for the WhatsApp acquisition, at least before the listing.

"If you want to complete the merger within half a year, you can't go to Juntai. I've heard about that woman named Su He from Juntai. She's a dirty-minded woman who grew up playing palace fighting. I can't say for sure what her business ability is. If she works for me for three days, I'll ask her to get out!"

Peng Zhijian took the opportunity to emphasize his own attitude.

Mr. Liu's brows were furrowed into knots. It was true that Tencent was full of talented people, but since ancient times, those who were good at fighting had the bad habit of being "arrogant and fierce".

Not to mention Zhan Weibiao's shameless gangsterism and his seniority, Peng Zhijian is even less of a good guy. He came from a poor mountain village, repaired bicycles and worked as a construction worker. He is a tough guy with a bandit-like aura.

Two months ago, when he invested in Didi, he lured Cheng Wei into his office, locked the door, and said to him: Buddy, first of all, I know you don’t want to accept our investment; secondly, I must invest in you.

Cheng Wei, who came from Alibaba's iron sales team, was brainwashed for several hours, and finally he brought in Pony Ma and signed the investment agreement on the spot while they ate hot pot and sang songs.

The real reason why this guy dislikes Juntai is not very honest, because he has also suffered losses at the hands of Alibaba, or in the e-commerce field.

The overseas e-commerce company Fab.com, which he invested a lot of money in, is not looking good right now, and is on the verge of losing all its money. So he is eager to do something big to cover up his mistake, but how can he cover up his mistake if Juntai is in charge of the project?
After the meeting, Xiao Ma, who had remained calm throughout, sent the gifts of all sizes out the door. Looking back, he saw that Mr. Liu had a tense expression, and smiled and comforted him, "This is how it is with big families and big businesses."

"Yes, it's hard to worry about a big family and a big business."

General Liu relaxed his body and leaned back in his chair and asked, "We have to appease the arrogant soldiers and generals at home and respect the heroes of the outlaws abroad. This is life."

"Has the kid from the Yan family contacted you again?" asked Brother Xiao Ma.

Mr. Liu comforted him, "No, the Yan family's children have good family education. Besides, if anyone can take advantage of us, then we would have accumulated this family business in vain."

"That's a good way to think about it. In fact, the reason I gave this project to Juntai wasn't because of personal connections." Brother Xiao Ma stood by the window and stretched his aching back.

Mr. Liu joked tacitly: "Young Master Yunshan has great powers, information channels and strategic vision. He is worth investing in."

"No, you didn't see the expression on his face when he spoke at the airport the night before last."

Pony Ma shook his head and, from the 100-meter height of the Tencent Building, looked down at the busy traffic and dense crowds of people below him, who were not much bigger than ants. He was silent for a while before continuing:
"Since we can stand here and see most of Pengcheng, we have an obligation to go out."

"I understand. Let's get it approved by the board of directors." Mr. Liu walked to the window and stood side by side with him.

The scorching sun at noon penetrated the clouds and shone directly down, shining brilliantly on the glass curtain walls of the building, and splitting into scattered beams of light that spread to every ordinary person on the surface of the city...

Six thousand miles away, above the clouds, the sunlight was so strong that it made people drowsy.

In the quiet first-class cabin, Xie Jingxing squinted his eyes and said, "Are we almost home?"

"Almost, there are still twenty minutes."

Liu Qiming, who was sitting next to him, whispered, "I didn't call you when I served the airplane meal just now because you were sleeping soundly. I asked the flight attendant to keep the hot meal. Do you want to eat something to fill your stomach?"

"No, get me a bottle of ice water and tell me what to do next." Xie Jingxing rubbed his face to clear his mind.

The assessment topic for the variety show recording was to prepare various materials on Monday. Yesterday, I coordinated the M&A process with the buyer client Company A. According to the process, from today to tomorrow morning, I have to go to the seller Company B in Jingyue City in Northeast China to conduct on-site due diligence.

I will return to Shanghai tomorrow afternoon to write the essay, and will hold a project report meeting the day after tomorrow, Friday.

He really couldn't spare the time, so he could only ask Liu Qiming to come to his side to give him face-to-face instructions and communicate the focus of his next personal investment.

First of all, Didi just said last night that they would proceed according to what was agreed upon. The problem lies in the money. They now have a total of 70 million RMB, and the minimum investment is 30 million RMB in Didi.

MiHoYo still has a valuation of 6000 million waiting for investment, and Bilibili's valuation cannot be lower. As for the other scattered companies, such as Pop Mart and Yuanfudao, they have to count on their fingers one by one, and they want to use Juntai Asset Management's channel to enter the secondary market, but they have no money to invest.

Short of money.

This is a serious problem. In fact, if we simply calculate the return on investment, the secondary market is far higher than venture capital, so we have to squeeze out some money to go to the casino anyway...

Xie Jing Xing drank a mouthful of ice water to moisten his throat and said one by one: "The first thing is to find a bank and use the two houses in Magic City under my name as collateral for a loan. I should have 60 to 70 million. There is also a loan limit for antiques and artworks. Each bank can only get 30 to 40 million at most."

"The other option is to borrow money to attract investment. I'll call my mom and lend her some money. I'll find friends to invest and try to raise 100 million yuan."

"This money will be used in two parts, one for venture capital and one for the secondary market. The specific allocation will be discussed after the money is in place. How are the company formalities going on over there?"

Liu Qiming grimaced when he heard this. This guy was really capable of making trouble. He even thought of a way to get friends to invest. If he told others about this, they would think that Yunshan had failed and that the old Xie family had severed their relationship...

He complained in his heart, but said without hesitation: "It has been completed. It is a limited liability company. I am the legal representative and Yu Ying is the director. We have rented an office next to Taihe, and the company license has been hung up. Take a look."

Liu Qiming took out his mobile phone to show the photos he had taken before coming here today.

——Grapefruit Capital.

Xie Jingxing glanced at it briefly and nodded with satisfaction. Didi's investment would be placed under the name of this company. The most important thing was that there was a company to support it, which would make it easier to attract investment and operate with leverage.

He wanted to set up an umbrella trust, and once the funds were in place, he would mortgage his shares to borrow money from Yunshan Agriculture and Animal Husbandry. After a series of dazzling operations, it would be no problem for him to piece together three or four hundred million in cash.

It's a pity that Mr. Xie is so stingy that he is not even willing to give him 5 million. Otherwise, he could at least conjure up tens of billions of cash out of thin air.

(End of this chapter)