2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 836 Shopping Spree VS Strategic Cooperation (Seeking Monthly Tickets)

P.S.: There are only two days left for double monthly tickets, does anyone have any left? Give them a vote, let's ship them!
Two days of market intervention have resulted in a decrease in the market value of investors' accounts.

Taking FlashTech and Weilai as examples, their closing prices on July 3 were 17.25 yuan and 85.33 yuan respectively.

By the close of trading on July 7, the stock price had reached 16.79 yuan and 84.16 yuan, which was already a very impressive performance, thanks to the large number of traders who maintained the stock price throughout the trading day.

“There are bad people among the masses.”

"You can't just say things like that. What's up with the call? Is it about Midea?"

"It still has to be our General Manager Lei. Weilai also needs a stable home appliance company to cooperate with. I wonder if General Manager Lei can help make a connection."

There's a new range-extended electric vehicle under design, and it'll be like a refrigerator, a color TV, and a big sofa. We need to find a stable partner.

"You're showing favoritism! Xiaomi is doing the same thing, so why don't you come to us?"

"Hey, what are you saying? Do you guys have that level of skill now? I believe you can do it well in the future, but not now."

He understands Xiaomi's smart home ecosystem and knows that Lei Jun will do a good job, but they are just starting out and do not yet have the necessary conditions.

In the blink of an eye, it's already the fifth generation of Xiaomi. Xiaomi, which has started to develop an ecosystem system, is still not well-regarded and is being ridiculed in various ways.

However, none of this matters to Xiaomi, a company that has been embroiled in controversy since its inception.

"Just kidding, Xiaomi really doesn't have that capability right now; don't worry, I'll help you with this. Speaking of which, Midea should be grateful to you, since you're using real money to support their stock price."

This is absolutely true. ByteDance's sales engine bought 1200 million shares of Midea through block trades and the secondary market in just two or three days, demonstrating the immense selling pressure.

It's not just Midea; any company with a large share capital is facing severe selling pressure.

It's fair to say that any listed company that could afford to invest a huge sum of real money to buy at the bottom during this period would be remembered as a favor.

"Okay, can you help me make some contact? I'll be buying more shares later, so I won't go through private placements; the secondary market is cheaper."

"You're good at doing the math; the secondary market is indeed much cheaper."

Sure enough, the national team, which had been pushing up blue-chip stocks for two consecutive trading days and causing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and growth enterprises to plummet, finally changed its strategy on July 8. It is said that on that day, it used a total of 70 billion yuan to frantically buy up SMEs and growth enterprises.

There were 22 stocks with net purchases exceeding 1 billion yuan. Taking Liangxin Electric as an example, the three major seats of the national team had a total net purchase of 9.32 million yuan on July 8. Based on the limit-down price, the national team bought more than 17 million shares of Liangxin Electric's circulating shares in one day, accounting for 50% of the circulating shares.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and growth enterprises (GEM) had a good day, but blue-chip stocks, which lost their support, were not so lucky. The Shanghai Composite Index plummeted by nearly 6% on July 8, continuing to set new lows, and barely managed to hold the 3500-point mark at the close.

"Yesterday's block trades had a discount, but today there's no discount at all. This market situation is truly unprecedented."

After the market closed, Cheng Linfeng came to report to Tan Jincheng, who, a seasoned veteran of the A-share market, found it outrageous.

Midea Group lost the support of the national team today and opened at the daily limit down. It only managed to open the limit up when the national team bought heavily. The total trading volume of 35.75 billion yuan was almost entirely completed at the daily limit down.

"The next few days should be a seesaw market. If blue chips rise, small and medium-sized enterprises will fall sharply, and vice versa. Everything depends on the national team's decision."

"But speaking of which, you finished building your position in just one day? How did you manage that?"

Tan Jincheng stared in disbelief at the transaction summary submitted by Cheng Linfeng.

Today they bought nearly 900 million yuan worth of shares at the daily limit down price. Over the past three trading days, they have bought a total of nearly 41 million shares. The largest single purchase was actually completed directly on the secondary market.

"Boss, did you see the selling pressure today? It's simply unbearable. Don't be fooled by our 25% share of the total trading volume. I guarantee we'll never be number one on the list of top traders. The national team must have been secretly accumulating shares as well."

"9 million isn't enough to get you to the top of the stock exchange's daily trading list?"

Cheng Linfeng smiled and nodded. He had personally been in charge of the acquisition of Midea Group, and he had been overseeing the entire process for the past three days in order to give his boss more bargaining power.

He was aware of the purpose behind the establishment of ByteDance's advertising platform.

Tan Jincheng didn't know how to respond to that.

During the three trading days from July 6th to July 8th, he watched the market for two days. Although he didn't understand much of the market language, he could still discern some issues from the overall market trend.

Saving the market is not that simple, or rather, retail investors are not among those who need to be saved.

The first two trading days were supposed to be a rescue for blue-chip stocks, and the opening seemed to be a grand affair, but in reality, the stock prices not only did not rise, but actually fell. Ordinary investors were either wiped out by the violent fluctuations or trapped.

Today's change in strategy doesn't seem to have had any positive effect on the market. In the past three trading days, the vast majority of stocks have either hit their daily limit up or their daily limit down.

This trend is completely unlike normal trends. A real market rescue wouldn't be done like this, buying up almost all the circulating shares of a stock in a single day. This tactic is outrageous.

As Cheng Linfeng predicted, after the Dragon and Tiger List was updated, the top buyer was not ByteDance, but one of the national team's dedicated seats, which bought more than 17 billion yuan, accounting for 48.1% of today's total turnover. The fourth and fifth largest buyers were also dedicated seats of the national team.

"The top five sellers were all institutional investors, with net sales exceeding 8.5 million yuan. They were really accumulating shares by suppressing the limit-down list."

"That's right. But we're basically competing with the national team for these spots, and we've snatched so many in one day. Will there be any problems?"

I looked at the Dragon and Tiger List in the study at night, and discussed it with my wife.

Today's market was absolutely explosive. Even Moutai and Weilai shares opened at the daily limit down. Blue-chip stocks were basically wiped out in the opening phase, and the list of top gainers and losers was even more shocking.

Midea Group's list of top traders isn't particularly eye-catching; there are plenty of much more alarming ones.

The trading of Weilai Co., Ltd. alone was much more thrilling than that of Midea Group. Weilai Co., Ltd., which opened at the limit down price, triggered a fierce battle between the bulls and bears from the very beginning of the trading day.

The stock closed at 81.64 yuan. Since it only fell by 3% and there was no list of top buyers and sellers, Tan Jincheng doesn't know which institutions were buying. However, the total trading volume of 49.27 billion yuan for the day makes it obvious who was buying.

This market rescue effort allows the national team to legitimately purchase a large number of high-quality blue-chip stocks and small and medium-sized growth stocks with high growth potential.

"I suppose so, but it's not a big problem. We started buying a couple of days ago, so it's reasonable to continue buying today. Besides, we're not buying for short-term gains."

Among the top five on the Dragon and Tiger List, apart from one institutional seat whose identity is unknown, the remaining four seats are occupied by three state-owned enterprises and one by ByteDance, both of which have chosen to accumulate large amounts of stock.

In addition, ByteDance also made a large number of purchases of stocks such as Kweichow Moutai today.

FlashTech is not a blue-chip stock. Today, the national team boosted the stock price, causing it to jump from its lowest point to its highest point and close at the limit-up price of 18.47 yuan. Therefore, the securities department did not buy much.

However, due to the fact that Weilai shares opened at the daily limit down, quite a lot of people bought them.

According to the report submitted by Cheng Linfeng today, today should be the day with the most money spent by ByteDance Engine in the secondary market since its establishment.

Midea Group spent 900 million yuan, Moutai 1.57 million yuan, Weilai Shares 5.21 million yuan, and other blue-chip stocks added up to nearly 300 million yuan.

Today alone, ByteDance's investment in the secondary market reached 18.78 billion yuan, in addition to the 2.5 million yuan used to repurchase Weilai shares in the previous two trading days and the 3.7 million yuan used by Midea Group (Shanchi Technology used the company's account).
Of the 30 billion yuan used for bottom-fishing, 24.98 billion yuan has already been spent, which is still not enough to cover the 900 million yuan that Gu Qingqing bought using the wrong account.

"Weilai Shares, you've overbought both the shares and the shares you promised to repurchase. What are you going to do about that?"

Tan Jincheng was looking at the Dragon and Tiger List when Gu Qingqing picked up the transaction details her husband had brought back and noticed some interesting details.

"Indeed, Cheng Linfeng is also having a big headache. The battle between bulls and bears was too intense today, and the traders got carried away and couldn't control themselves."

The original promise was to repurchase a maximum of 800 million shares, but due to the intense trading activity over the three trading days, the traders got carried away.

The company spent 7.71 million yuan, at an average price of 81.13 yuan, to purchase a total of 950 million shares of Weilai Co., Ltd., exceeding the previously announced commitment of 800 million shares.

"150 million shares, at this cost, would be worth over 1.2 million. What do you plan to do with these 150 million shares?"

Although most listed companies claim to repurchase shares, they are actually quite stingy. Even if they only repurchase 100 shares within the scope of their commitment, it is still in accordance with the rules.

In the current market, ByteDance's massive acquisitions are unique.

"Let's issue an announcement tomorrow, raising the maximum share repurchase to 1200 million shares. We'll try not to do anything further, but if the share price continues to fall, we'll have to buy more shares eventually."

There is still 5 million yuan in the securities account. Wei Lai has not spent the expected 10 billion yuan. If he repurchases 1200 million shares at the current average price, he will probably spend more than 2 million yuan, which is within the rules.

Although this approach is somewhat irregular, Tan Jincheng believes that under the current circumstances, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) should encourage them to do so.

This is a real money buyback to stabilize the stock price.

"That's all we can do."

As for Flash Technology, since the stock price has stabilized today, I only bought 110 million shares to reach 1000 million shares, spending a total of 1.7 million yuan over three days.

The Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets remained volatile for the next two trading days.

The two markets maintained a peculiar seesaw pattern: blue chips rose while small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and growth enterprises (GEM) plummeted, and vice versa. Everything seemed to be dictated by the actions of the national team, which was completely unlike the behavior expected of a legitimate market.

Weilai Shares' repurchase plan has been temporarily suspended, while Shanchi Technology's repurchase plan is still proceeding normally, although the progress has slowed down considerably compared to before.

Whenever the stock price plummets, FlashTech's securities department intervenes to maintain the price; when it rises, it remains unchanged.

Meanwhile, Tan Jincheng, through Lei Bus's introduction, flew to Foshi with his entourage.

"Mr. Fang, I've heard so much about you." Midea CEO Fang Hongbo is from Zongyang, Yicheng. Tan Jincheng spoke in the Yicheng dialect as soon as he opened his mouth, which made Fang Hongbo feel quite at ease.

"Mr. Tan, you are too kind. You are a young hero and the pride of Yicheng."

They both spoke the Yicheng dialect, but their accents sounded somewhat imperfect. After exchanging pleasantries, they both burst into laughter.

"Haha, let's communicate in Mandarin, otherwise Mr. Lei will be completely confused."

Lei Jun laughed and said, "I told you I didn't need to come. Mr. Fang and Mr. Tan are both from the same hometown, but Mr. Tan insisted on dragging me along."

Fang Hongbo, 48 years old this year, joined Midea after graduating at the age of 25. He has served one company for his entire life. Although he is not the founder, his importance to the entire group is no less than that of the founder's family.

As a professional manager, Fang Hongbo should be one of the most outstanding ones cultivated domestically.

In addition, he is also one of the major shareholders of the group, currently holding 9132.7 million shares of Midea Group, accounting for 2.13%, which is worth more than 30 billion yuan based on the current market value.

This person is also quite impressive. Tan Jincheng has observed the changes in his shareholdings in the US and found that he has never reduced his holdings.

"President Tan made a big move and accurately bought at the bottom, making more than 2 million in just one week. But we should thank President Tan for his patronage of our company."

Tan Jincheng arrived in Foshan on the afternoon of July 10. Due to the continuous large-scale purchases by the national team and ByteDance, Midea Group became a bright spot among blue-chip stocks. It hit the daily limit for two consecutive trading days on the 9th and 10th, and the stock price has now rebounded to 37.25 yuan.

He invested a huge sum of 12.63 billion yuan in three trading days to buy at the bottom, with the cost almost at the lowest point of the week, and made a profit of 2.6 million yuan.

Furthermore, the most ridiculous thing is the repurchase announcement of Weilai Shares, which stated that the repurchase plan had to be increased because the traders were so enthusiastic about buying that it exceeded the repurchase plan.

Indeed, the wording in Weilai's supplementary repurchase plan announcement was so direct that it dazzled the entire market.

According to market statistics, ByteDance's ByteDance Engine and its listed company Flash Technology, both controlled by Tan Jincheng, have invested at least 25 billion yuan this week to stabilize stock prices and buy on dips.

Of that, more than 12 billion yuan was spent on Midea Group.

More than half of the funds were used for Midea Group, which has sparked endless speculation in the market, with people wondering what Tan Jincheng is trying to do.

For a long time, Weilai has been known for its mergers and acquisitions and capital cooperation. Just two months ago, they acquired Malaysian car company Proton and British sports car brand Lotus.

Lotus has also been rumored to have plans to build a factory in the country, which has attracted the attention of many cities.

Fang Hongbo expressed his gratitude to Tan Jincheng for his significant contribution to stabilizing Midea's stock price, noting that Tan Jincheng even contributed to the stock's surge in the following two trading days.

However, at the same time, he was also somewhat wary.

Tan Jincheng's display of wealth and power is truly comparable to that of internet companies, and his style in the capital market is also incredibly aggressive.

Among the leading private enterprises in China, very few can support such a large cash flow as Tan Jincheng.

He can raise billions of dollars whenever he wants.

Outsiders may not know, but Lei Jun knows that Tan Jincheng still holds 18.2 million Apple shares. Apple's 7-for-1 stock split last year caused his holdings to skyrocket, and the current market value is nearly 14 billion yuan.

This asset can be liquidated at any time, which even he envies.

A market capitalization of hundreds of billions or trillions is not as valuable as the tens of billions in cash in one's pocket. So-called professional financial media believe that ByteDance's operations this week were somewhat reckless, having almost exhausted its 30 billion yuan in bottom-fishing funds in just a few trading days, which will put it in a very passive position later.

But what they didn't know was that raising money was incredibly easy for our CEO Tan; 30 billion was nothing to him.

"President Fang, don't overthink it. Our goal with Midea is the same as President Lei's: to find a strategic partner. We will be using a lot of smart home appliances in our future car models, and we want to find a stable partner."

"Of course, it was wrong of us not to notify you in advance of this large purchase of your company's shares. However, please understand, Mr. Fang. I was pulled into a meeting as soon as I returned from England."

Fang Hongbo nodded slightly. This fellow villager was quite formidable; by using the market rescue meeting to pressure him, he was indeed speechless.

"By the way, speaking of bottom-fishing, the media is predicting that your 30 billion yuan is almost used up, which is somewhat detrimental to your company's stock price. What's your opinion?"

As for how we knew that the funds used by ByteDance to buy at the bottom were only 30 billion yuan, that goes back to that market rescue meeting.

A week has passed, and the details of the market rescue conference have spread throughout the market.

"Indeed, there's not much left, which is about in line with market expectations. We currently only have about 5 million yuan left for bottom-fishing, and we will focus on maintaining the stability of Weilai's stock price going forward."

Lei Jun's seemingly unrelated gossip actually helped Tan Jincheng out of a difficult situation.

Fang Hongbo's expression improved somewhat. It was good that they weren't going to continue buying. Strategic cooperation would naturally bring many benefits to Midea, but if ByteDance's shareholding in Midea was too high, it would be difficult for him, as CEO, to explain himself.

Currently, ByteDance's shareholding in Midea Group does not exceed 1%, and they did not make any further purchases in the last two trading days of this week, which shows that this young boss is quite disciplined.

"Mr. Tan, could you elaborate on the specific collaborations?"

"Speaking of which, I was inspired by Mr. Lei. The smart home plan that Xiaomi is working with your company on gave me a lot of inspiration. We also have a car-home interconnection plan. In addition, we will be launching a new energy vehicle model later, which has a lot of connection with smart home appliances. I can't say more about that for now."

"Of course, we will need Xiaomi's help in this process. Mr. Lei, we'll discuss that in more detail later."

Lei Jun nodded, seemingly lost in thought.

The so-called vehicle-home interconnection is nothing more than the Internet of Vehicles, which uses technologies such as the Internet of Things, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence to better connect mobile phones, smart homes, and cars.

This is an idea in Tan Jincheng's mind, and no new energy vehicle company has this idea yet.

From January to June, Weilai delivered a total of 27287 new energy vehicles, accounting for 35.8% of the market. Including the new energy vehicles delivered in previous years, Weilai's total delivery volume of new energy vehicles has exceeded 60,000 vehicles.

If the car market performs better in the second half of the year, it is very likely that the delivery of 10 new energy vehicles by Weilai will be completed within this year.

With a fleet of 100,000 vehicles, it's time to try vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology. It's time for new energy vehicles to officially enter the era of intelligent vehicles.

"That's an interesting idea. You can talk to me about it later."

Lei Jun was very interested in Tan Jincheng's concept of vehicle-home interconnection. Since last year, Xiaomi Technology has entered a stage of rapid development, selling a total of 6112 million mobile phones and generating revenue of 743 billion yuan.

During the Mi Fan Festival on April 9th ​​this year, Xiaomi's website sold a total of 211.2 million mobile phones, setting a new Guinness World Record.

The impressive growth of the mobile phone business has driven the improvement of manageable smart home devices. Currently, Xiaomi manages more than 1000 million smart devices, with approximately 200 million new products launched.

In addition, Xiaomi plans to release a 60-inch Xiaomi TV in October this year, along with a series of smart home products such as balance scooters and air purifiers.

What would it be like to combine Xiaomi's smart home plan with smart cars?
Fang Hongbo nodded repeatedly: "It is indeed a very interesting idea. Mr. Tan, please discuss it in detail."

Unlike competitors such as Haier and Gree, Midea, under the management of Fang Hongbo, adopts an open and cooperative attitude towards the mobile internet, seeking transformation and breakthroughs in its business segments by collaborating with internet companies to develop smart home appliances.

After learning that Tan Jincheng had no other ideas about beauty, cooperating with Wei Lai was a natural progression.

In 2010, Midea's revenue exceeded 100 billion yuan, which was not only due to home appliances, but also because of its achievements in building technology, industrial technology, robotics and automation and innovative businesses.

Forming strategic partnerships with emerging new energy vehicle companies is highly beneficial for the group's business expansion.

It appears to be a win-win collaboration.

Over the weekend, news in the A-share market remained volatile. The national team's operations this week have been heavily criticized, as they not only failed to stabilize the market but also exacerbated market fluctuations.

Over five trading days, the index fluctuated by as much as 16.32%. Although it rose by 5.18%, the performance of small and medium-sized growth stocks was disastrous, resulting in heavy losses for investors.

It wasn't entirely a loss; some veteran stock market investors who had experienced the bull market of 2007-2008 chose to follow the trend the next morning after Midea's stock trading data was released on July 8.

Users who bought at the bottom during the morning's volatility have seen returns exceeding 25% in two days.

In the past two days, Tan Jincheng visited Fang Hongbo, the founder of Midea and his son, and explained his intention to cooperate. The 73-year-old founder of Midea had a magical feeling when facing Tan Jincheng, who was not yet 30.

He was unwilling to take over the business, and his eldest son, who was engaged in financial investment, was very interested in Tan Jincheng.

From his perspective, he can learn more about the inside story of ByteDance's investment platform, an investment institution that has been controlled behind the scenes by this young man since its inception. In his eyes, it is characterized as steady, accurate, and ruthless.

In particular, this acquisition of shares in his own company was perfectly timed; he became one of the major shareholders of his own company in just three transactions.

From a capital perspective, this speed, timing, and decisiveness are all exceptional.

Another point is the sense of boundaries, which this young man has also handled very well. With nearly 1% of the shares, he not only protects his rights but also avoids offending his father and General Manager Fang. He has a very precise grasp of interpersonal relationships.

"Mr. Tan, how about you transfer the 1.5 million shares that your traders bought up to me? I'll buy them for 150 million yuan, and you can include the extra profit in Weilai Shares' revenue. That way, the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the major and minor shareholders won't have anything to say."

On July 10, Weilai Co., Ltd. closed at 91.72 yuan, with a market value of 1995.83 billion yuan, which is 13.05% higher than the average repurchase price of ByteDance's share repurchase program.

Judging solely from bottom-fishing, the 25 billion yuan invested by ByteDance's advertising platform yielded a total return of over 17.33%, netting a profit of 4.33 million yuan.

Blue-chip stocks in 2015 were dirt cheap.

(End of this chapter)