Reborn: Billionaire in College

The interviews with the three news media were quite formal. Not only would they be published in newspapers, but the video interviews would also be posted on the web version.

Before the interview, with the cooperation of Guan Yifeng, Chen Pingjiang made some adjustments to his appearance. A special makeup artist also put some light makeup on Chen Pingjiang to make him look more energetic.

At the same time, reporters from China Securities Journal, Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg were also carefully sorting out their questions.

Beforehand, Guan Yifeng had checked the questions with the reporters from the three media outlets to make sure that they were all allowed to be asked before letting them go.

The light shining on his face felt a little uncomfortable, and Chen Pingjiang took a long time to adjust.

He appeared calm, confident and full of confidence.

The order of questions was based on the seating order of the three reporters, from left to right, with one question per reporter.

China Securities Journal: "Mr. Chen, I am very happy to interview you at such a critical and sensitive time."

Chen Pingjiang smiled gently and said, "It just so happens that I also need you to convey your confidence and attitude to the outside world."

China Securities Journal: “Then shall we officially begin?”

Chen Pingjiang nodded.

China Securities Journal: "May I ask what do you think of the accusations against Renren in the 47-page investigation report released by Muddy Waters yesterday?"

Chen Pingjiang: "Muddy Waters used to be a very accurate company. It did help create value for the market, expose some irregular companies, and effectively protect the interests of shareholders. But I think its recent reports and actions are very dishonest. Many Chinese concept stocks have been wronged, their reputations damaged, and their share prices discounted abroad. It has also reduced the confidence of American shareholders in Chinese stocks and companies. This is a very bad thing for Chinese high-tech companies."

"Take the accusation against Renren for example. I doubt if they hired an intern who just graduated from college to do it. Sorry, I have never seen such a low-level research report. The whole article is full of misleading, vague and suggestive, without any solid evidence."

"What's even funnier is that they actually used the stock price bubble as an excuse to attack Renren's high market value. You should know that Renren is China's largest social networking and gaming company. Our users are all over the country, and with the advent of the intelligent era, our users are still growing rapidly."

The three reporters were all taken aback. They did not expect Chen Pingjiang to be so forthright and directly question the professionalism of Muddy Waters, which was a fatal accusation for a research institution.

For such short-selling institutions, if you only short-sell for the sake of short-selling without producing any real results, investors and shareholders are not fools, so how can they trust you?
What surprised them even more was that short-selling institutions such as Muddy Waters and Citron had shorted Chinese stocks more than once, and their previous opponents either lay down or begged for mercy on their knees. However, Chen Pingjiang was so tough that he went straight for the three of them.

The entire response does not start from the report itself, but instead implies the unprofessionalism of Muddy Waters.

Now, the three reporters were a little excited, they had a feeling that there would be some explosive news today.

Wall Street Journal: "Hello, Mr. Chen, you just mentioned that Muddy Waters' previous reports on Chinese concept stocks were accurate, so how can you think that their report this time is wrong? Is it just because you are the attacked party this time? You know, what I mean is that your accusation against Muddy Waters as a party seems to be questionable in terms of fairness."

Chen Pingjiang smiled. This question was indeed in the style of the Wall Street Journal. Birds of a feather flock together.

Chen Pingjiang: "You just asked several questions. For the first question, I can answer you that Muddy Waters' previous reports on Chinese concept stocks were accurate and its current investigation report on Renren was fabricated. These are two different things."

“The past is not representative of the present.”

"I used to be a bad person, but now I just want to be a good person. Can you deny the present because of the past? Obviously not."

"The second question is, it is precisely because I am the party involved that I know that my company has not falsified the monthly active data of the game, and there is no motive to falsify it. Beytheway, we have already achieved the ceiling level in the industry for both League of Legends and DNF. Our only opponent is ourselves, and there is no other opponent who can challenge us. So is it important to have 500 million or 700 million monthly active users? Not at all. Besides, profit margin can reflect everything."

"The last question is about fairness. This is easy to solve. We are setting up a professional third-party investigation team to investigate whether the data is falsified. All executives, including me, will hand over our personal computers to the third-party investigation team."

It was the Bloomberg reporter's turn to ask: "Mr. Chen, I would like to ask, how will you and Renren face this crisis? Yesterday alone, your stock price plummeted by 10%, and your market value evaporated by tens of billions of dollars. This situation is likely to continue today."

Chen Pingjiang smiled and said, "Believe me, this time I will make Carson Block realize that he has chosen a terrible opponent, and I will make him realize how stupid and reckless his behavior is. It is evening in the United States now. Tomorrow morning, my legal team in the United States will go to court to file a defamation lawsuit against Carson Block and sue him for stock price manipulation."

The Bloomberg reporter was stunned for a moment, then his eyes lit up: "Are you saying that Muddy Waters colluded with other institutions to short sell together?"

Chen Pingjiang nodded: "You said that, not me, but I am confident in my judgment. Muddy Waters has made a lot of money in the past short selling. Everyone is very familiar with the short selling industry chain in the United States."

Wall Street Journal: "Mr. Chen, as far as I know, other short-selling companies in China have never used legal means to defend their rights. Why do you choose this method?"

Chen Pingjiang: "This is a point that our domestic companies generally do not do well, because they do not understand the judicial methods of the United States. The prosecution can achieve several effects. We hope to compensate them in full so that they dare not do it again. Even if they win but do not get compensation, it will damage their reputation and make the public doubt them. For a shell company like Muddy Waters, if they are sued every time they short sell, will they have the time and money to accompany me to go through this?"

"Whether it's Muddy Waters or Citron, these companies are targeting this point. American investors believe whatever they say, and Chinese companies don't fight back no matter how they are beaten, but just kneel down, so they are so unscrupulous."

The reporter from the Wall Street Journal couldn't help but ask, "But Mr. Chen, such a lawsuit may cost several million dollars."

Chen Pingjiang raised his eyebrows, with an expression that said "you look down on me": "If it's just a few million dollars, then I can sue them for life."

The reporter from China Securities Journal smiled and said, "Mr. Chen, can you tell us what measures you will take to fight back?"

Chen Pingjiang said: "I have so many treasures in my toolbox that any one of them is a big deal. For example, I can apply for a temporary suspension of trading, file a complaint directly with the SEC and call the police. There are so many options. But I won't tell you how to do it specifically."

The entire interview lasted one hour.

Later we talked about other things.

Everyone can see that Chen Pingjiang is different from other business leaders they have interviewed before. This one is truly confident and calm.

As Chen Pingjiang said, when facing the malicious short selling of short selling institutions, domestic companies are just like good boys, not fighting back or retaliating.

Where will this lead?
People think you are easy to bully, and since you don't dare to fight back, won't they just torture you to death?
Another consequence is that if you don't react and don't have the confidence when someone tries to deal with you, it will only make the outside world think that there is really something wrong with you, and panic will spread.

Of course, this is also related to the quality of domestic companies listed on the US stock market.

Because these people are used to falsifying information, they thought that the U.S. stock market was the A-share market, and they applied this trick to the Americans.

As a result, there were anti-counterfeiting fighters over there, and they were defeated.

When anti-counterfeiting fighters see that so many Chinese companies are falsifying financial and data, they just pick on Chinese companies since they have so many counterfeit products anyway.

It is no exaggeration to say that in the early years, there were more cases of financial fraud by Chinese companies listed in the United States than those from other countries.

Otherwise, why is the A-share market always hovering around 3000 points and unable to go any higher?

Who dares to play? Investors want to make some money in the stock market, but others want to sell the company to you and cash out and run away, treating the investors like leeks.

ST Meishang was suspected of fraud and deception in the three years before its listing, and then it committed financial fraud for ten consecutive years. The major shareholder was unscrupulous and illegally cashed out up to 45 billion yuan. The stock price reached 153 yuan at its highest, but now it is only 0.18 yuan. Some even shouted, "We are a fraudulent listing..."

Just tell me if it’s awesome or not?
The variety of fraud methods used by ST Meishang is staggering, such as recording accounts out of thin air, forging original vouchers, and fabricating bank interest income. These methods are endless, and it is simply financial fraud to the extreme.

On the day when ST Meishang was delisted, there were still 2.13 shareholders deeply trapped in it.

Therefore, Chen Pingjiang believes that there should be short-selling institutions such as Muddy Waters in China to serve as a touchstone.

Real gold is not afraid of fire!
Junk companies should be delisted as soon as possible.

But at the same time, such short-selling institutions will indeed be tempted by capital interests and wrongly target good companies.

…………

8 a.m. Eastern Time.

Carson Block, the boss of Muddy Waters, arrived at a small office on Wall Street.

The reason why this office is small is that it can accommodate eight people working there.

Don't think that the situation is not bad. After all, a company like Citron only has one person, so it's not an exaggeration to call it a pimp company.

Speak of the devil, and soon Andrew Left also arrived.

Now, the founders of Muddy Waters and Citron have arrived.

Andrew Left is also a well-known bounty hunter on Wall Street.

There are just a lot of stains on his body.

1998年，莱福特曾在一家期货公司工作，他因“发布虚假和误导性的信息欺骗或诈骗客户”，被美国期货协会禁止从业3年。他还被勒令接受道德培训课程等。这份编号为0253075、生效日期为1998年3月2日的处罚报告至今仍挂在美国期货协会的网站上。

Left was hired as president and CEO by Detour Media in 1999. But in February 2002, the company accused him of stealing six checks totaling about $2. Detour Media's official documents filed with the SEC state that Left committed "fraud and fraud, negligent misrepresentation, breach of fiduciary duty, and engaging in illegal currency transactions," and ultimately ordered Left to pay $2.5.

Of course, Andrew Left's record is also well-known. In June 12, he shorted Evergrande Real Estate, causing its market value to evaporate by HK$6 billion overnight. He also shorted Southeast Finance, Shuangjin Biotechnology and 80 before.

"Bullshit! Is our dear Chinese friend so powerful? He can be seen on an American financial program just one day later."

Carson Block let out a strange cry, quickly dropped the coffee in his hand and walked to the TV.

On TV is Bloomberg's morning financial program "Open Markets", whose English name is Bloomberg Markets.

Andrew Left also came over when he heard this.

On the screen, Chen Pingjiang was dressed smartly and spoke with confidence.

"I'm sorry, I've never seen such a low-quality research report..."

Hearing this, Carson Block's face darkened and he said angrily, "You actually said my report is bullshit?"

Andrew patted him on the shoulder and said, "Buddy, I told you a long time ago that Mr. Chen is not an ordinary person. You have kicked a big rock if you offend him." Carson gave him a displeased look and said, "Do you think that if you hide in the dark, people won't find you? Didn't they mention your name in the interview?"

Andrew shrugged indifferently: "Anyway, I didn't send the report."

Carson: "This guy is indeed a bit difficult to deal with. He actually wants to sue me? Hey, why is he different from those Chinese companies that we shorted together? Those companies all surrendered on the spot without exception. I didn't expect to meet someone who dared to resist this time."

Andrew smiled and said, "I found out yesterday that this guy has had business in the United States for a long time."

"Of course I know. I did the reports. LOL is their wholly owned subsidiary, so it's not surprising that they have business in the United States," Carson added.

"NONONO. You are only talking about Renren's business. As far as I know, Mr. Chen has an investment company in the United States, which holds shares and stocks in many companies. In addition, he also has a game studio in North America, which has a deep relationship with Facebook."

Carson spread his hands and sneered, "So what? Whether he sues me or frequently appears in the news media to speak out to the outside world, it's just stalling for time. Unfortunately, capital is cruel, and he can't escape the mouths of so many capital tycoons."

There is no doubt that the excellent results in the previous few times have made Carson, the boss of Muddy Waters, full of confidence.

Although he felt that Renren was more difficult to deal with than other Chinese companies, that was all.

After all, this is America, their territory.

The market officially opens at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

Then Carson yelled again: "Damn it, why is Renren.com so popular?"

On the computer screen, Renren's stock price was shown as US$153.64, slightly higher than yesterday's closing price of US$153.07.

Andrew also frowned. Although he and his senior Carson occasionally quarreled, he also participated in the siege of Renren this time.

Of course, these two people only make a little money, and the real capital giants are the hedge funds, asset management companies, and funds.

"There is no doubt that Mr. Chen's global investor conference call yesterday and interviews with various media gave shareholders confidence, but I don't think this will last long. Man, if you have any reports on hand, send them out today and drive down the stock price."

Carson shook his head. "The reports I have are not very important. Now I can only exaggerate the pessimism of the market. I need to discuss with the giants behind them. Everyone can contribute money and manpower."

Andrew also pondered for a while and then said, "I contacted a few analyst friends and media friends and asked them to publish negative reports about Renren."

"Hurry up, Renren is performing very strongly!"

Renren's performance was indeed very strong, which surprised many people.

Many people thought that Renren would continue to plummet today, but unexpectedly, not only did it stop its momentum, but it opened higher instead.

This made many investors who sold their stocks yesterday feel very upset, and also made many people who were planning to sell slow down their actions and decide to continue observing.

However, a large negative line soon came down, instantly confusing those investors who were planning to continue observing.

Renren's stock price crashed again!
The stock price, which had just slowly recovered to $155 after a small fluctuation, was instantly smashed down by another %.

At this moment, the price per share of Renren is $150.35.

Now, panic began to spread and retail investors began to sell in large quantities!
At the same time, well-known financial analyst Bob also said on his personal Twitter that Renren's stock price was too high and he was not optimistic about its subsequent performance.

$149.6!

$148.24!

$145.15!

Mike Wilson, a well-known Wall Street short seller and Morgan Stanley strategist, tweeted that he is bearish on Renren's stock in the long term and downgraded its stock rating, changing it directly from Hlod (hold) to Sell.

then……

Other Wall Street strategists are also increasingly bearish, believing that Renren's stock price will fall further.

……

Dongjiang River.

Chen Pingjiang in front of the computer.

In front of him were three screens, showing the U.S. stock market, financial news, and a video link with Bu Housheng.

Bu Housheng on the screen was wearing glasses and frowning, and next to him was the trading team.

"Mr. Chen, the bears are not giving us a chance to breathe. Not only are they spreading negative sentiment in the market, but they have also begun to increase their positions and force us to buy more. We have become the absolute main force."

The so-called short squeeze is that the short side sells a large number of stocks in the market, causing the stock price of Renren to fall sharply, forcing other bulls who are optimistic about Renren to sell their stocks at a low price, making them lose money and exit the market.

What Chen Pingjiang is facing now is that they must take on the main force to take over.

If he does not take over the order, there will be more sell orders than buy orders in the market, the power of the short side will exceed that of the long side, and with no hope of rising, a new round of decline will begin.

During a decline, there are only sell orders and very few or even no buy orders, which makes it difficult for investors to sell their stocks. Especially when a stock hits its limit down, it is difficult for investors to sell their stocks.

This situation will only continue until good news is released, allowing investors to regain confidence, or until the stock price hits bottom and investors enter the market to buy at the bottom.

Chen Pingjiang nodded, "Keep buying as much as you can. How much money do you have on hand?"

"Almost 19.27 billion, but some stocks have to be sold in batches, so we only have billion available. Currently, Renren's short position accounts for % ​​of the outstanding shares."

Chen Pingjiang silently calculated that his own disposable shares, including those held by Sequoia, IDG, Temasek and even the option pool, currently stand at 79.18%.

The circulating shares on the market account for 20.82% of the total share capital.

Short positions accounted for 20.82% ​​of the 19.27%, and the short side mobilized nearly 46.19 billion US dollars!
Our funds are far from enough to buy all the goods!

At this moment, Bu Housheng's anxious voice came from the other side of the screen again: "Mr. Chen, I just received a private message that David Eindhoven has also entered the venue."

Chen Pingjiang's heart skipped a beat. He didn't expect that this capital shark would also come here smelling the blood.

Who is David Eindhoven?

He is the founder of Greenlight Capital!

He has many labels - billionaire, hedge fund tycoon, Wall Street top guy, world-class poker player, ranked third in the 2012 World Series of Poker. Under the symphony of slot machines in Las Vegas, the city of sin, you can always see Eindhoven's handsome face that makes Hollywood actresses scream.

Eindhoven calls himself a "long-short value investor" and most of his funds are actually used for long positions, but what really made him famous on Wall Street was short positions, with classic cases including Lehman Brothers, Green Mountain Coffee, Allied Capital and Netflix. He later compiled his short-selling achievements into a book - "The King of Shorts".

Greenlight Capital has achieved an annualized return of 1996% since 15.4. He once described the difference between himself and Buffett: "If I were a baseball player, I wouldn't hit a home run every time, but as long as I saw the ball coming, I would not hesitate to use all my strength to hit it out of the field."

There was no doubt that Renren was the ball he thought was flying towards him, and now he planned to knock Renren out of the court.

Not far from Chen Pingjiang, Renren CEO Li Xi and Renren board secretary Gao Jie were present, but no one dared to disturb Chen Pingjiang's thoughts.

After a long while, Chen Pingjiang opened his eyes. He waved behind him: "Gao Jie!"

"Yes, Chairman!"

"Issue a public announcement."

"Yes, Chairman!"

November 11, 9 a.m. Eastern Time.

Renren Group announced that its board of directors has approved a share repurchase plan.

根据该计划，人人网将于11月11日起，斥资约8.7亿美元回购股份514万股，每股回购价为168-172.8美元。

The entire process, which will be led by Goldman Sachs, will last for six months and will end on May 2012, 5.

Renren Group also stated that this amount of funds is the company's existing funds. At the same time, it does not rule out that the Renren board of directors will periodically evaluate this stock repurchase plan and may adjust the repurchase conditions and scale.

Regarding the good news released during the trading session.

Renren’s stock price suddenly formed a big positive line.

Then they recovered the lost territories one after another.

$148.37!

$151.92!

$153.46!

...(End of chapter)