All-round Athlete

Chapter 855 Trouble with the IPO

Huang Weida's Fidelity Investment Company is Zhang Guan's only overseas investment agent, and it has also helped Zhang Guan make a lot of money in these years.

At the beginning, in 2004, Zhang Guan made his first pot of gold through gambling, and then through Fidelity Investment, he bought the stock of a fruit company, invested in the newly born social media FB, and bought some real estate on Hong Kong Island . In the next few years, almost all the money Zhang Guan earned, as long as it was in foreign currency, was handed over to Fidelity Investments.

When Zhang Guan goes abroad to participate in competitions, the prize money must be paid in foreign currency. In some foreign business activities, the remuneration is also in foreign currency. In recent years, Zhang Guan invested in the F1 team, the 500 million US dollars gamble, boxing appearance fees and bonuses Wait, but they are all hundreds of millions of dollars in income. Compared with them, the previous multi-million dollar game prize money can only be regarded as small change.

Fidelity Investments has also become a first-class investment company on Hong Kong Island. However, Hong Kong Island is a world-class financial city after all. The financial industry is extremely developed. The tax revenue generated by the financial industry alone is as high as 50 billion Hong Kong dollars. Such as investment companies, fund companies, and insurance companies are everywhere, so Fidelity Investment It doesn't seem obtrusive either.

After years of cooperation, Zhang Guan has accumulated a lot of trust in Fidelity Investments, not to mention the investment yield of Fidelity Investments, Zhang Guan is also very satisfied. Being able to make money is naturally the basis for cooperation between the two parties.

On weekdays, Fidelity Investment mostly sends monthly reports to Zhang Guan. Over the years, it is rare to find Zhang Guan in such a hurry.

So after Zhang Guan saw the text message, he called Huang Weida back without hesitation.

"Mr. Huang, I was on the plane just now, and I couldn't answer the phone. Is there anything urgent for you?" Zhang Guan asked.

"It's a matter in the United States. It's really urgent." Huang Weida continued: "Do you remember when we met for the first time in 2004, did you name the FB you invested in? I really admire your vision now. An obscure software is now the number one social software in the world. On Hong Kong Island, one out of every two people in China uses FB.”

"FB? You asked me about FB?" Zhang Guan recalled that it was April 2012, FB should have entered the final sprint stage of IPO, and then asked: "Is it related to FB's IPO? "

Huang Weida was a little surprised. He didn't expect Zhang Guan to think of IPO when he mentioned FB.

"That's right. It's related to the IPO." Huang Weida then introduced FB's IPO situation.

Since receiving the investment from Zhang Guan in 2004, FB has developed rapidly. In 2005, it received a venture capital investment of tens of millions of dollars. In 2005, it received another venture capital investment of nearly 30 million dollars. Afterwards, FB is open to all people. After the registration was opened, it expanded rapidly. Last year, FB had more than 800 million active users worldwide.

So on February 2 this year, FB formally submitted an application for a public offering, or IPO, to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Regulatory Commission, planning to raise $5 billion. And this IPO was also the largest IPO transaction of a technology company in the history of the United States at that time. The market estimated that after the IPO, FB's valuation would reach 100 billion US dollars.

The IPO process went smoothly. The market is generally optimistic about the prospects of FB. Morgan Stanley even served as the lead underwriter for FB's listing transaction. Financial giants such as ****, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch will also be responsible for the underwriting.

The time for FB to land on Nasdaq is determined to be May 18th, and there is still a little more than a month before now. It can be said that the most critical moment for the IPO has arrived. However, at this time, the US Securities and Exchange Supervision Commission has discovered One problem is that Hong Kong Fidelity Investment, the second largest shareholder of FB, is not a direct investor, but an entrusted investor.

Entrusted investment means that the client deposits funds in a financial trust institution in advance as an entrusted investment fund, entrusts the financial trust institution to invest in its designated joint venture or investment unit, and conducts a review of the use of the investment, the operating conditions of the investment unit, and profit dividends. A financial trust business managed and supervised.

To put it bluntly, this is a specific trust business. Different from general investment companies, the investors entrusting investment have established investment units. That is to say, once FB completes its IPO, the second largest shareholder is not Fidelity Investments, but the client behind Fidelity Investments.

It is precisely because of this that it has caused unnecessary trouble.

The U.S. financial market does not exclude foreign investors. For example, in this IPO of FB, Russia’s DST Investment Company holds certain preferred shares. Today’s IPO can allow them to obtain ten times the rate of return; Li Chaoren of the island also owns 3% of the shares of FB Company, and he can also get rich returns after the IPO.

With Li Chaoren's precedent, it is said that Fidelity Investment, which is also on Hong Kong Island, should also be unimpeded. However, the SEC is worried that the investor behind Fidelity Investment will have some official background of the eastern power. Therefore, the US Securities Regulatory Commission requires Fidelity Investments to disclose the information of the client. They are worried that this is not a purely commercial behavior. They are worried that such a large American company, and it is also a social network company, will eventually be controlled by another big country.

In fact, FB Company implements a dual-class shareholding structure of Class A and Class B. At that time, Zhang Guan made concessions in this regard in order to invest in FB. Therefore, the FB shares held by Fidelity Investments are all Class B shares. Although the price and dividends are the same as those of Class A shares, the voting power of the board of directors is only one-tenth of that of Class A shares. Therefore, there is no need for the SEC to worry. However, based on ideology or competition between countries, the SEC still requested that Fidelity Investments disclose the client's information. Otherwise, they would have called for the IPO.

As the largest IPO of a technology company in the history of the United States, if it is suspended, the impact will be great. How can Huang Weida not be in a hurry for a business with a valuation of 100 billion US dollars.

In fact, this practice of the US Securities Regulatory Commission has violated the rules of business. In the case of entrusted investment like this, there are many in the United States, such as American Jews, who like to use entrusted investment the most. Due to historical reasons, after the Second World War, the Jews did not dare to disclose their wealth blatantly, so they would use the method of entrusted investment to run their own business empire.

Another example is that some old financial families in Europe have accumulated capital since the colonial era. If they are said to be rich and powerful, that is to look down on them! They have more money than a country, but have you ever seen their names on the Forbes wealth list? They are more like clients, hiding behind the scenes. They can enter the same company through different investment companies. It looks like different companies hold shares, but in fact there is only one big boss behind the scenes.

Therefore, although this kind of entrusted investment has certain disadvantages, it is a kind of behavior that is acquiesced, and the SEC requires Fidelity Investment to disclose the identity of the client, which is really against the rules.

Huang Weida definitely couldn't make up his mind about this kind of thing, so after receiving the request from the United States, Huang Weida approached Zhang Guan immediately, hoping that Zhang Guan would make a decision.

And Zhang Guan is also thinking about the pros and cons...

The second chapter is delivered, please ask for a guaranteed monthly ticket, thank you Yan, Bookworm Liao Yingchun, Duo Caini, Pi Peng, Bubble 2016, and Shangmo for your rewards!