Reborn: Billionaire in College

There was a war of public opinion going on all the time during these two rest days.

Naturally, there is an endless stream of pessimistic voices coming from the United States, which have been transmitted to China, and major financial commentary programs have also prepared to observe a moment of silence for Renren.com.

Everyone can see that Renren is in trouble.

And it's going to be a disaster. There is almost no way to save Renren's stock price.

As long as we wait until the market opens on Monday, Renren’s stock price will inevitably crash.

This weekend, the heads of major short sellers were also busy spreading various negative emotions on Twitter and mocking Chen Pingjiang as much as possible.

But Chen Pingjiang ignored these people!

11 month 21 day.

As soon as the market opened, Renren's stock price suddenly collapsed as expected.

Wall Street's short sellers are gathering together at this moment.

"What a pity. If I didn't have other work in the morning, I would really like to open some champagne and celebrate." Carson Block proudly held the cigar in his mouth and took a deep puff.

Andrew laughed: "Man, we can make more than a billion dollars today, why do we care about other jobs? Can you make so much money in other jobs?"

Steve Cohen of the hedge fund Point72 also nodded: "I suggest that we have a drink together to celebrate this impending victory. Chen Pingjiang is doomed this time. By the end of today, it will definitely drop below . It will be a good time for me to buy it back."

"I think so. I won so much money this time, it would be a shame not to open the champagne."

"That group of retail investors are simply stupid. Why do they fight us? Don't they know that we are all businessmen who know each other? Humph, and Chen Pingjiang, who shorted his stocks, actually wanted to resist."

The cigar room was filled with smoke, and a group of Wall Street capitalists were laughing, creating a relaxed and joyful atmosphere.

At this time, a secretary in a suit and tie walked in quickly and said to Huo Wen with a serious expression: "Sir, it's bad. Chen Pingjiang sent a tweet."

Huo Wen's smile suddenly stopped, and he looked at his secretary's panicked expression with some curiosity, "What tweet made you so panicked?"

“He…announced privatization.”

"what?"

"FUCK!"

The next second after everyone started cursing, the gentlemen could no longer laugh and quickly ran towards the cigar room.

Carson Block quickly found his laptop, opened Chen Pingjiang's Twitter, and after seeing the tweet clearly, his face changed.

[I am considering privatizing Renren at a premium price of $180 per share. The funds for privatization have been finalized. At that time, Renren shareholders can sell their shares at a price of $180 per share, or they can choose to continue to hold Renren shares after Renren is privatized.]

Andrew shouted, "This is absolutely fake. He is throwing smoke bombs. How can he get the money for privatization? I don't believe it. I just calculated that based on the price of $180 per share, the total consideration given to Renren for the privatization transaction is about $76 billion. I swear, Chen Pingjiang must have done this on purpose to push up the stock price. I will report him to the SEC for manipulating the stock price."

Huo Wen, the king of short sellers, shook his head. "Although we all think this is fake, investors may not believe it. Besides, Chen Pingjiang has a series of other excellent companies in China. If he really wants to fight to the death and mortgage his shares to the bank, he may really get so much money."

"Huo Wen, do you mean what he said is true? Are you really planning to privatize? You should know that Renren.com has raised less than 76 billion in the US stock market, but now it wants to take out so much money for privatization and just admit its loss and leave?"

Huo Wen spread his hands helplessly: "I don't know, everything is my guess. I don't know this Chinese man, I only know that he has too many excellent companies under his control. If we push him to the limit, he may indeed make such a choice."

Proskin of Melvin Capital was also panicking: "Guys, whether Renren will be privatized is a matter for the future. It's okay to report it to the SEC, but it will take too long. How can we get through the present?"

When he asked this question, everyone was in a dilemma.

First of all, no one knows whether what Chen Pingjiang said is true or false.

If it is true, then Chen Pingjiang is too crazy. He would rather lose himself than drag them down with him.

But if it is false, it takes time for them to question and report it. By the time the SEC triggers it, a month or two will have passed, and by then they are all dead.

"OH SHIT! Renren's stock price has risen too much."

As soon as Chen Pingjiang's tweet was released, Renren's stock price soared like crazy.

In less than half an hour, the price rose from $122.75 to $147.23, and the upward momentum showed no sign of stopping.

If a listed company announcing a stock repurchase plan is just an ordinary bomb.

Then privatization can be considered a nuclear bomb.

Generally speaking, privatization transactions usually have a premium of 30%-50%, causing the relevant shares to surge and the investment returns to be very considerable, so there have always been investors lying in ambush and betting in the market.

Privatization means that the major shareholder believes that the company's current valuation is much lower. In order to be approved by shareholders during the privatization vote, a competitive price must be proposed.

So it’s going up!

What's more, when Chen Pingjiang posted the tweet, Renren's stock price was only US$122.75, but he was willing to buy it back at US$180.

This means a premium rate of 46.6%!

This means that if you can buy Renren stock now, you will make a profit.

Anyway, I can sell it to Renren for $180 then.

There is someone to cover the back!

Everyone had a unanimous expectation that the stock price would rise. Those who held stocks were reluctant to sell, while those who did not own Renren.com stocks rushed to buy them, which eventually led to a big rise.

Carson Block said quickly: "Guys, I have to get back to the company."

Just as he was about to slip away, Huo Wen stopped him and said, "Why are you in such a hurry? Are you going back to close your positions? Damn it, you can't do that. We have to unite and think of a solution now."

Proskin gave a bitter smile: "Now retail investors all over the world are buying Renren shares. What else can we do? Will they listen if we say it?"

"FUCK! If we don't even try, we will lose miserably, you know that. Our position has exceeded 6% now, if there is a false start, we will lose a lot of money." Huo Wen waved his hands and said, "Don't worry, go back and create momentum first, so that the rising momentum of Renren's stock price will slow down."

After seeing off the leaders of the short-selling institutions, Huo Wen smashed the wine glass in his hand with a bang, somewhat unwillingly.

Then he sent a tweet.

[Renren is like Lehman in 08. They have many similarities, such as threatening short sellers, refusing to raise funds, and publicly going private. When management's reckless behavior led to bankruptcy a few months later, shareholders, creditors, employees, and the global economy paid a huge price. I seriously doubt Chen Pingjiang's motives.]

At the same time, Andrew from Citron also reported Chen Pingjiang to the SEC.

However, given the Americans' efficiency, the SEC will not respond for half a month.

The reason is very simple. How do you, the SEC, know whether I, Chen Pingjiang, am truly privatizing the company or just faking it?
Whenever the SEC wanted to investigate, Chen Pingjiang would pretend to approach the Big Four banks to discuss equity pledges of other companies.

This kind of nuclear bomb cannot be resisted by human power.

Unless Chen Pingjiang changes his words a few days later, or does not take any further action.

As for why investors trust Chen Pingjiang so much, whatever he says is the truth?
Because Chen Pingjiang is really rich. Secondly, Renren's stock price has been shorted, which is a good time for privatization.

No one dares to buy the stock, so the short selling function is lost. In addition, its founder believes that the stock price is undervalued, so what is he waiting for if he doesn’t repurchase the stock?
The most important thing is that no one expected that Chen Pingjiang would be so bold as to bluff people. Who could have thought that he would actually get involved in the game?

If it is proven that the privatization is fake, Chen Pingjiang will not only face lawsuits, but also have to pay fines and resign from his position as chairman of Renren.com. This will cause a big uproar, and no retail investor thinks Chen Pingjiang is so stupid.

What’s funny is that after Huo Wen sent out this tweet, a group of investors almost called him autistic.

"Disgusting short sellers, they are actually delaying our ability to make money!"

"Renren has been privatized. If the short sellers don't run away now, it will be too late! So they are very anxious."

"Everyone hurry up and buy, don't listen to him, there are very few shares available in the market."

What’s even more outrageous is that Twitter officially took action and directly banned several short sellers for 48 hours!

Thus, the world became peaceful!
When Huo Wen saw the message that his account was banned, he became so angry that he smashed his computer.

This time he also felt the pain of having his internet cable pulled out!

There is no way, since Chen Pingjiang is the second largest shareholder of Twitter.

In order to get Twitter to unplug the Internet cables of several short sellers first, Chen Pingjiang reached a series of interest exchanges with his Twitter CEO.

Renren's stock price continued to rise, reaching $162.76 by the morning close.

The pressure from the bears is increasing.

The secretary came in again at this time. Huo Wen was furious and glared at him unhappily: "What's the matter again?"

The secretary said timidly: "The brokerage firm asked us to return the Renren shares today..."

"..."

Huo Wen wondered if he had committed the crime of Tai Sui.

Why are there no good things happening? Bad things keep happening one after another.

After thinking about it, Huo Wen still felt a little unwilling: "First, buy up the goods from the market and return them to Goldman Sachs. I will find a way later. Don't make this matter public for now.

As soon as Huo Wenyi swept up Renren's shares in the secondary market, Renren's shares immediately rose again, further pushing up the share price.

$167.43!

This was actually a stab in the back to other short sellers, but there was nothing Huo Wen could do because the stocks he had borrowed from Goldman Sachs happened to expire today.

After deducting the handling fees, the company still lost several hundred million US dollars.

He planned to return it and then borrow from someone else to continue smashing!
Can the duck in your mouth still fly away?
But Horwin soon stopped laughing.

Just half an hour later, Renren's stock price reached US$172.63!

This made him clearly feel that something was wrong!
…………

Dongjiang River.

Chen Pingjiang was drinking coffee leisurely. Bu Housheng on the other side of the screen smiled and said, "Mr. Chen, there should be a long-term institution entering the market. They have also seen the fatal weakness of the short sellers, but I don't know who they are. They have been holding back and not making any noise, using the name of retail investors to make money from the short-selling institutions."

The situation is now clear.

On the surface, it looks like a drama of peasants fighting against landlords, but in fact it is a Mission Impossible drama in which a group of landlords are hiding among a large group of peasants and fighting against another group of landlords.

As of the close of Monday, Renren's stock price was fixed at $173.41.

As soon as the market opened on Tuesday, Renren continued to open high at $175.16.

The price is already $5 higher than before the short-selling institutions entered the market.

By the afternoon, the stock price had soared to $187!

Proskin of Melvin Capital no longer had his former composure. His eyes were sunken and he shook his head wearily.

The brokerage firm just called and asked him to add additional margin.

He didn't have many options left.

Forced liquidation or margin call!
After just a few minutes of thinking, Proskin chose to close his position without hesitation.

I would rather die than let my friend die. If he continues playing this game, he will be in trouble.

He entered the short selling market of Renren relatively late, and the initial selling price was only US$142.

With Melvin Capital's first surrender, he had to buy Renren shares again in the market and pass the pressure to other short sellers, causing the stock price to rise again.

In fact, a situation of short selling killing shorts has been formed, with short sellers scrambling to close their positions, and the stock price has formed a positive cycle of continuous rise.

Domino's stock collapsed.

The race begins!
Carson of Muddy Waters stared at the soaring share price of Renren.com in amazement, and cursed: "Bullshit, they shouted that they wanted unity, but in the end they ran away and locked us out!"

Renren’s latest stock price is US$201.97!

There is still no demand for this!
Carson couldn't buy enough shares to close his position and could only watch the price continue to rise.

Short squeeze!
It hurts so much!
At three o'clock in the afternoon, Renren's stock price soared to US$297.65!

The growth rate is getting faster and faster.

Because everyone was running and buying Renren's stocks crazily.

Bulls are buying, bears are buying too!

3:15 pm.

The well-known short-selling institution Citadel (hedge fund) lost $20 billion and announced its exit.

Three twenty.

Melvin Capital, a hedge fund with a scale of hundreds of billions, went bankrupt and suffered a loss of 30%.

Gabe Plotkin, fund manager at Melvin Capital, told CNBC that the firm had cleared its short position on Renren on Tuesday afternoon after suffering huge losses.

Andrew, founder of Citron, also told the media: "We have already bought back the shares to cover our position. In the future, our company will not make any comments on Renren shares."

The implication is: I can’t afford to offend you, I can’t afford to offend you, so I’ll just run away as a courtesy!
At the end of the interview, Andrew even said he would sue Twitter. Why did they ban him for 48 hours?
As of the close of trading at 423.54 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, Renren's stock price had risen to a terrifying $.

The market value has reached a terrifying 2640 billion US dollars.

The short sellers are all rushing to run away, but some are stuck inside!
For example, Carson.

He was almost dying of anxiety.

He didn't have enough money to close his position, and couldn't afford the margin. Seeing that his position was about to be liquidated, he began to beg for money from everyone. (End of this chapter)