I'm in the county town, and you say I'm a big shot?

Chapter 761, 760: "There's a saying in our mainland officialdom: If you don't change your mindset, you'll be replaced."

"A/B shares? Wait a minute..."

Chen Delin picked up the landline on his desk and dialed a short number: "Monica, could you please send up two late-night snacks?"

He turned to Fang Qingye, a tired smile on his face: "I've been busy all day and haven't even had dinner yet. My stomach is already protesting."

"President Chen, you've worked hard."

“There’s no way around it,” Chen Delin rubbed his temples, his tone genuinely weary. “The financial stability of over seven million people rests on our shoulders, and we deal with hundreds of billions of dollars in transactions every day. Add to that audacious characters like President Fang, and it’s even more of a headache.”

"Hehe, you shouldn't have a headache anymore now, right?"

"temporary……"

Fang Qingye smiled and didn't continue the topic.

At this moment, the female secretary pushed open the door and brought in two bowls of steaming wonton noodles, then silently withdrew.

Chen Delin took off his suit jacket, loosened his collar, and started eating first. "The cafeteria chefs' skills can't compare to the feasts at your Mandarin Oriental, but the ingredients are high-quality and the cooking time is precise. We old guys are used to this kind of food."

He took a bite of the wonton and said, "In our line of work, we don't have regular hours, and stomach problems have become an occupational hazard. Mr. Fang, you should take good care of yourself while you're still young."

Fang Qingye thanked him, picked up her chopsticks, and tasted it; it was indeed quite good.

After finishing their wonton noodles, Chen Delin got down to business: "Mr. Fang just mentioned A and B shares, is that for Ele.me Group? To be honest, you're the third mainland entrepreneur this month to come to me to discuss this issue."

real? !
Fang Qingye's mind raced, and she immediately made a guess.

"Then... let me guess?" He smiled and continued, "It should be Mr. Lei Jun of Xiaomi Technology and Mr. Wang Xiaochuan of Sogou?"

"Hehe, you guessed right."

“The first two candidates must have already submitted detailed research reports to you,” Fang Qingye said calmly, placing his briefcase on the coffee table. “These include arguments demonstrating the positive impact of dual-class shares on liquidity, or complex voting rights value discounting models, proving the positive correlation between founder control and long-term excess returns… These professional arguments are probably already very comprehensive, so I won’t go into detail.”

Chen Delin picked up his teacup, took a sip, and smiled without saying a word.

Fang Qingye took a thin document out of her briefcase and gently pushed it in front of the other person.

"Mr. Chen, this is a list I recently compiled in my spare time. It records companies that have had to switch from Hong Kong to New York for listing due to equity structure issues over the past 20 years. It's quite interesting."

Chen Delin took it and examined it closely:

Baidu went public in 2005, choosing the NYSE due to its dual-class share structure, thus missing out on listing in Hong Kong.

Manchester United, listed in 2012, went public in the US due to a similar structure; Hong Kong missed out on a top global sports IP.
JD.com went public in 2014, using a dual-class share structure on Nasdaq.
Alibaba went public in the US in 2014 due to conflicts between its partnership system and the principle of one share, one vote, missing out on what was then the largest IPO in history in Hong Kong.
……

These twelve companies are now household names.

Chen Delin's brows gradually furrowed.

Fang Qingye gazed at him, her tone gentle yet her words carrying weight:

"The most regrettable case is Alibaba. In 2013, Hong Kong was Alibaba's first choice for listing. I have some personal acquaintance with Mr. Jack Ma. His core demand at the time was not simply to raise funds, but to ensure, through the partnership system, that the company he personally built could uphold its long-term mission and core culture of 'making it easy to do business anywhere' even after listing."

Fang Qingye's tone carried a hint of reminiscence and regret: "After the Lujiazui Forum last year, I attended a private gathering hosted by Mr. Ma at the Taiji Zen Academy in Hangzhou. The next day, we were fishing by a nearby stream and talked about this."

"What did he say?" Chen Delin asked, showing interest.

"He lamented to me that Hong Kong was his most desired market, but the rules at the time made him feel like a father was being asked to give up his child's naming rights and educational rights. What he needed was not control itself, but the guarantee of fulfilling his long-term commitment to customers, employees, and shareholders. In the end, the rules could not be compromised, and Alibaba was forced to move to New York, setting a record for the largest IPO in history at the time—a glory that should have belonged to Hong Kong."

Fang Qingye looked at Chen Delin: "President Chen, what we lost was not just Alibaba, a giant, but also a signal: it tells all entrepreneurs with dreams and a need for long-term investment that Hong Kong may not be their home turf. Every name on this list is silently asking: when a financial center chooses to become a museum of rules, will it miss the opportunity to become an engine of the future?"

There was a brief silence in the room.

After a long pause, Chen Delin finally spoke, his gaze still fixed on the list. "Actually, I've been thinking about this issue since Lei Jun and Wang Xiaochuan visited."

He raised his hand and gently stroked the gold-embossed cover of the Securities and Futures Ordinance on the table; the lettering on the cover was somewhat worn. "When we participated in drafting it in 2002, we were confident that we had built the most comprehensive investor protection system. We never imagined that more than a decade later, this ordinance, which we were so proud of back then, would become a barrier to innovation in some situations."

“Regulations are static, but the market is dynamic. Even the most perfect rules need to be interpreted by those who implement them with a developmental perspective,” Fang Qingye echoed softly.

Chen Delin nodded slightly and lightly tapped the name "Alibaba" with his fingertip: "Yes... Sometimes the biggest obstacle is not just the rules and regulations themselves, but the people who interpret them."

“There’s a saying in our mainland officialdom: if you don’t change your mindset, you’ll be replaced,” Fang Qingye chimed in at the opportune moment.

"Hehe..." Chen Delin laughed, "Mr. Fang is indeed decisive and efficient in his work."

As night deepened, after chatting for a few more minutes, Fang Qingye got up to say goodbye.

The night passed without major incident.

The next morning, Fang Qingye called Zhang Jinchuan while having breakfast to tell him that she had met with Chief Executive Chen of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority the night before and that everything that needed to be said had been said.

"You went to see President Chen last night?" Zhang Jinchuan on the other end of the phone sounded somewhat surprised.

"President Chen took the initiative to meet with me to discuss some other matters." Fang Qingye's words were vague, and Zhang Jinchuan, being a smart man, did not ask any further questions.

At 9:00 a.m., Fang Qingye accepted an exclusive interview with Chen Ziqing, a female reporter from the South China Morning Post, in her hotel room.

The meeting with Chen Ziqing was much more relaxed. She inquired in detail about the design of Ele.me's dual-share structure from a professional perspective, including details such as the equity structure and checks and balances mechanism.

At the end of the interview, Fang Qingye concluded: "Ms. Chen once wrote a report about the old silk shop in Causeway Bay, right? Why would the third-generation successor prefer to sell the family property rather than list it on the stock exchange?"

He gently turned the sweet white glazed teacup with an incised orchid design, "because the capital market requires them to cut out a dragon robe in six months, but the actual embroidery takes three years."

Chen Ziqing, holding the recorder, looked at Fang Qingye: "So, A and B shares are a 'bulletproof vest' for the founder?"

"It's about leaving a seed for a century-old business." He stood up and looked out at the busy streets. "New York used dual-class shares to retain Google, but we might be forcing the next Tencent or Alibaba to go to Nasdaq. Imagine if the South China Morning Post celebrated its centennial with a front page celebrating that Hong Kong has missed another era?"

“I understand. You are not seeking special privileges, but rather exploring new possibilities for Hong Kong.”

Fang Qingye smiled slightly.

As the interview drew to a close, Chen Ziqing packed up her equipment and suddenly asked, "May I ask another question: The UK will hold a Brexit referendum tomorrow. What are your predictions for the outcome?"

(End of this chapter)