pertwk Chapter 376 Issuing New Funds
Chapter 376 Issuing New Funds
Ling Yun stood by the window, looking outside. It was already getting dark. Most of the sycamore leaves had turned yellow; a few fell with a gust of wind, swaying gently. He stood there for a while, then turned and sat back down at the table. Several documents lay on the table—the database test report Jiang Feng had left behind. He flipped through a couple of pages, but didn't get into it, so he closed the document and set it aside.
There was a knock on the door. Chen Lingling walked in and said, "President Ling, Li Ziyu, President Li is here. He said he had an appointment with you."
Ling Yun nodded and said, "Let him in."
Soon, Li Ziyu walked in. He looked a little heavier than the last time I saw him; his face was rounder, and he had a thicker chin. His hair was still neatly combed, but a few strands of gray hair had appeared at his temples. He smiled as he entered, shook hands with me, and sat down opposite me at the desk.
"Mr. Ling, it's been a long time." He placed his briefcase at his feet, patted the surface of the bag, and said, "The last time we met was last year in Hong Kong. I've been so busy this past year."
Lingyun asked him, "What would you like to drink? Tea or coffee?"
Li Ziyu said, "Tea. Do you have Longjing tea? The last one was quite good."
Ling Yun pressed a button on the phone on the table and said, "Make two cups of tea." After hanging up, he looked at Li Ziyu and asked, "About the fund?"
Li Ziyu nodded, picked up his briefcase, unzipped it, and took out a folder, placing it on the table. The folder wasn't thick, just a few pages, with neat edges, and a label on the cover that read "Nebula Capital Phase II Fund Plan." He pushed the folder towards Ling Yun and said, "Take a look at this first."
Ling Yun opened to the first page. Several lines of numbers were printed in large print. Established in January 1998, with an initial size of 120 million RMB. Projected net asset value at maturity in October 2000: 17.8 billion RMB. In three years, it had increased nearly fifteenfold. He glanced at it for a few seconds, closed the folder, and placed it on the table. He looked at Li Ziyu and said, "Do outsiders know about this rate of return?"
Li Ziyu said, "I know, it's been around for a while. People started asking about it at the end of last year, and they started looking for it at the beginning of this year. You can't keep news secret; the more you try to hide it, the more curious people become. If you don't want to talk about it, others will spread it for you, and the numbers just keep getting bigger and bigger. Some people say it's increased twentyfold, some say it's increased thirtyfold. I explained to people that it wasn't that much, only a dozen or so times. They said, 'A dozen or so times and you say "only"? Listen to that, is that even human language?'"
Chen Lingling pushed open the door and came in, carrying two cups of tea. She placed one in front of Ling Yun and the other in front of Li Ziyu. Li Ziyu picked up the cup, took a sip, and winced from the heat. He put the cup down and said, "This is better. I drank coffee in Hong Kong for three years and got sick of it. Now I feel nauseous just looking at coffee."
Ling Yun picked up his teacup, blew on it, took a sip, and put it down. He looked at Li Ziyu and asked, "Who contacted you?"
Li Ziyu pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket, unfolded it, and placed it on the table. The paper was densely covered with writing—names and companies. He pointed to each one, reading aloud: "ICBC Private Banking Department, General Manager Liu, contacted me in March, saying he wanted to invest. CCB Asset Management, General Manager Wang, contacted me in April. Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of Communications, all contacted me. Also, China Merchants Bank, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, CITIC Bank, these joint-stock banks, contacted me. And some trust companies, insurance companies, local commercial banks, too many to remember. I've listed the main ones; you can look at them yourself."
Ling Yun glanced at the paper and asked Li Ziyu, "They all want to vote?"
Li Ziyu said, "Everyone wants to invest. And not just a little, but a lot. ICBC said they'd offer 200 million. CCB said 1.5 billion. CMB said 100 million. In total, just from the banks alone, there are over a billion in intentions. There are also some state-owned enterprise finance companies and local government guidance funds that have inquired. I roughly estimated that if we take them all, we could raise 3 to 4 billion."
Lingyun asked him, "What did you tell them?"
Li Ziyu said, "I told them the fund hadn't started raising funds yet and I'd let them know when there was news. They waited and called every few days. A bank executive flew to Hong Kong last month to see me, invited me to dinner, and said he wanted to talk in person. I said there was no need to talk, I'd let him know as soon as I had a plan. He wasn't reassured and insisted on meeting. When we met, he grabbed my hand and said, 'Mr. Li, I missed the last round and regretted it for three years. You must reserve a quota for me this round.'"
Ling Yun didn't speak, picked up his teacup, and took a sip.
Li Ziyu looked at Ling Yun, waited a while, and then said, "There's one more thing. The investors from the last round have also contacted me. They said that their funds have matured, they've received their money back, and they don't know what to do with it. They're afraid to buy stocks, house prices aren't rising, and bank interest rates are too low. They want to continue buying funds. Some want to increase their investment, and others want to use their principal and profits to buy more."
Lingyun asked him, "Are they satisfied with the return rate from the last period?"
Li Ziyu said, "Satisfied? Too satisfied. So satisfied that it's almost scary. There's a foreign trade boss who invested five million and came out with over seventy million. He said he'd been in foreign trade for twenty years and had never earned that much. He said the money came too easily, and he felt guilty. I said, 'Why are you guilty?' He said he was afraid the money wasn't his own. I said, 'Your name is on the contract, your name is on the bank statements, how can it not be yours?' He thought for a long time and said, 'That makes sense.'"
Ling Yun didn't laugh. He leaned back in his chair, deep in thought. With such a large amount of capital, he needed to carefully plan the investment direction before determining the amount of the fund to issue. Li Ziyu sat opposite him, waiting.
After about a minute, Ling Yun sat up straight and looked at Li Ziyu. He asked, "Do you think this market is still viable?"
Li Ziyu said, "It's possible. When the internet bubble burst, the Nasdaq fell from 5,000 points to 3,000 points, a drop of 40%. Even the stocks of good companies fell. Cisco, Dell, Yahoo—these companies' fundamentals haven't changed, their businesses are still operating, and they're still making money, yet their stock prices have fallen by half. It's not because the companies are bad, it's because the market is bad. A bad market is an opportunity. If you don't buy now, when will you? By the time the market recovers and stock prices rise, it will be too late."
Lingyun asked him, "How do you know it's the bottom now? And is Yahoo a good company?"
Li Ziyu said, "I don't know if this is the bottom. But I know that the value of those companies is higher than their current stock price. Cisco switches are used all over the world. Dell's direct sales model has lower costs than anyone else. Yahoo's portal is visited by tens of millions of people every day. These things won't disappear just because the stock price drops. The stock price drops, but the company is still the same company. Buy now, hold it for three years, and when the market recovers, the stock price will naturally come back. How did we make money in the last round? Wasn't it during the Southeast Asian financial crisis, when others dared not buy, we bought? It's the same now. When others are fearful, we are greedy."
Ling Yun smiled. "You're being like someone trying to find a sword by marking the boat where it fell. There's no investment strategy that works everywhere. Forget it, I won't explain it to you. We haven't reached the bottom yet. Issuing funds is fine. I'll let you know when to act and what assets to invest in."