Entertainment: I just want to be the boss behind the scenes

Chapter 189: Unexpected Slippery Combo
Go to Shanghai, Hongqiao International Airport.

"...It's okay, Mr. Xu. Both parties need to consider raising capital. I understand...Okay, then I look forward to the opportunity to cooperate with you in the future."

After hanging up the phone, Meng Bai couldn't help but shook his head and smiled.

"Why, didn't Xiyin accept the financing either?" asked Chen Jing on the side.

"Yes. They say that the company's business is mainly overseas, so they hope to introduce some overseas funds."

Chen Jing frowned: "They probably still think that our funding is too small. After all, their financing amount for this round is 300 million."

"Maybe." Meng Bai let out a long sigh. "Forget it. Since they have refused, forget about the reason and prepare for the next negotiation. Tsk, why hasn't Huahua come back from buying a drink yet?"

"Maybe there are too many people queuing up." Chen Jing said with a smile: "It's the end of the college entrance examination and it's summer vacation, so there must be more tourists than usual."

"Too."

Meng Bai took a look at the flow of people at the airport. There were indeed a lot of people, with queues everywhere.

"By the way, Sister Jing, how is the stock market today?"

Chen Jing shook her head, a sympathetic expression on her face: "In one word, miserable."

As he spoke, he took out his mobile phone, opened the securities software, and a green light suddenly lit up on the screen.

"Yesterday, the authorities issued a notice to continue to strictly investigate the off-site financing ports. As soon as the market opened today, the Shanghai Composite Index fell below 4000. Of the 2800 listed companies in the two cities, less than 200 rose, and more than 1700 hit the daily limit."

Meng Bai took a look at the data, and even though he didn't invest any money in it, he couldn't help but be shocked.

Over the past twenty days or so, the entire stock market has been in mourning. Almost all investors, including those professional institutions, have been swept away by this wave of stock market crash.

Not to mention all the wailing on the Internet, every time I open his WeChat Moments recently, I can always see all kinds of complaints and sympathy.

He had reminded Wang Wei and Wu Bai before to quit while they were ahead.

Wang Wei had a small amount of capital and didn’t make much money, so he withdrew early when he felt something was wrong.

Five hundred was a large amount of capital and the returns were high, so I was reluctant to part with it. I only took out half of it and left about one million in it.

As a result, this wave of "avalanche" hit me and I fell to the point of being unconscious. I didn't dare to fight any longer and quickly escaped during the rebound in the first few days.

Fortunately, since I had already gone halfway, I still made a profit overall.

But there is a "psychological anchor point" in stock trading. If you go from making 100,000 to 50,000, it is equivalent to losing 50,000, and there is no joy of making money at all.

The entire market collapsed, and naturally no individual stock was spared.

The original stock price trend of Leshi.com was the same as the overall market, soaring into the sky, but now it is also diving downward.

From the highest point of 179 yuan, it fell to more than 140 yuan, right back to the beginning of the year.

Fortunately, since Leshi Pictures is not listed, its real-time valuation cannot be seen.

Shareholders who participated in the transaction before are now hoping for a lucky break - as long as there is no transaction, the valuation will remain unchanged and they will not lose money.

It is said that sometimes humans are not as good as ostriches. At least they dig holes to find food and water instead of burying their heads.

Qin Lan called Meng Bai and expressed his gratitude that he left early. He also expressed his "sympathy" for Liu Tao - it took about two sentences.

The collapse of the secondary market also led to the sluggishness of the primary market. Over the past half month, all kinds of VC and PE transactions have dropped sharply.

All investors are dealing with this "bull-bear transition" and have little energy to engage in other businesses in the short term.

But for Meng Bai, this is a rare opportunity.

After waiting for more than half a month and realizing that there was no hope of a rebound in A-shares, he began to contact several start-ups that he had previously favored.

First, in Beijing North, Meng Bai took a fancy to a short video company called Kuaishou. They completed their A round of venture capital last year, with a financing amount of US$1000 million.

Qiming Venture Partners has a fund size of more than 3000 million, which is about 500 million US dollars at the current exchange rate. So if we refer to the amount of the previous round of financing, there is still a chance to enter the market.

Unfortunately, after I visited them and had a chat with them, I found out that they had received another round of investment from Sequoia Capital this year, and the amount directly reached US$100 million.

This amount of money is enough for Kuaishou to spend for more than a year, so the investment of several million is no longer necessary.

If one doesn't work, try another. Meng Bai has other alternative companies, including Xiyin, who just called, a cross-border clothing e-commerce company based in Guangzhou that specializes in fast fashion.

Unfortunately, so far, each company has more or less had some problems, and none of them has reached a cooperation agreement.

Meng Bai had already anticipated this situation, so he didn't feel particularly disappointed.

After crossing out those that refused to cooperate, Meng Bai only had one company left on his list.

So, when the post-production of "Forensic Qin Ming" was almost finished, he flew to Shanghai with Chen Jing, Hua Yan, and several hired legal personnel.

After waiting for a while, I finally saw the assistant coming back with a few cups of milk tea, coffee and lemonade.

Everyone thanked him and took a cup.

"Brother Meng, your lemonade."

Meng Bai took it and asked casually, "Are there a lot of people queuing?"

"So many!" Hua Yan frowned. "I don't think we need to look for other investment projects. Investing in a milk tea shop is the best."

Meng Bai smiled. He had actually considered the milk tea project.

Although he himself doesn't like this milky drink very much, most people like it.

However, it is a bit late to enter the market now. Companies like Heytea, Nayuki, Chabaidao, and Mixue Bingcheng have already started large-scale chain operations.

After picking up the luggage, the group met with the driver who had been booked in advance. They went to the hotel first, had a simple meal, washed up, and packed up, and then went straight to the Jinhongqiao International Center in the CN area.

After parking the car and asking the driver to wait downstairs, Meng Bai took Chen Jing and others into the building, looked at the floor nameplate, and took the elevator to the 28th floor.

As soon as I came out, I saw the company name hanging in the corridor - Shanghai Xunmeng Information Technology Co., Ltd.

In the corner, there are several roll-up banners with game posters.

Meng Bai recalled the information he had read before. This company started out as a game company. At the beginning of this year, it transformed and launched an application called "Pin Haohuo". Its main business is online group buying of fruits, which is a relatively new e-commerce model.

To be honest, the company itself is not very famous, but its boss Huang Zheng is very famous in the business capital circle.

When he was studying computer science at Zhejiang University, he often hung out in a technical community because of his outstanding abilities. He met Ding Lei of NetEase because he helped "netizens" solve a technical problem.

Later, through Ding Lei's introduction, he met Duan Yongping, the founder of "Little Overlord" and "BBK" which were popular all over the country at that time.

Duan Yongping thinks highly of Huang Zheng, and even took him to the auction lunch with Buffett, treating him as a guide.

Huang Zheng then worked at Google for a few years, and then resigned to return to China to start a business. He started three projects, and his latest project is the group-buying fruit app "Pinhaohuo".

However, what attracted Meng Bai at first was not the company's business, but the company's investors.

Duan Yongping, Ding Lei of NetEase, and Wang Wei of SF Express are all bigwigs in the domestic capital circle.

It’s not a big deal to say that these three people would invest in Huang Zheng, after all, they have the connections.

But what is strange is that the total investment made by these three big guys in Pinhaohuo is only 600 million US dollars, which is a bit confusing.

If you don't think so, all three of them have invested money. But if you think so, it seems that this amount of money can't build an e-commerce platform.

If you don’t understand, there’s no need to force yourself to think about it. After all, there is a lot of information asymmetry here.

With some curiosity, Meng Bai decided to take a trip and ask for the answer himself, which would be much better than figuring it out on his own.

(End of this chapter)