Becoming the King of Bottom Fishing After Going All-In on A-Shares

Chapter 128 $1500 million 25% stake

The staff area is on the 18th floor of the Renmin University Cultural Building.

Zhao Keke was the first to spring up from her workstation, push her chair back, turn around, and shout to the entire office, "Damn, have you guys checked out Changchun High-Tech Park?"

Sun Hao was startled and almost dropped his phone: "What's wrong?"

"The closing price was 5.19. I bought at an average price of 5.06, and my unrealized profit is almost 500,000." Zhao Keke's voice echoed on the 18th floor, sounding nothing like someone who was just starting work for the first time.

Liu Yutong looked up, glanced at him expressionlessly, and said, "Gree Electric Appliances has been sold off, aren't you going to tell me?"

Zhao Keke chuckled: "Didn't your Yunnan Baiyao become popular too?"

"1.2%, not as much as you." Liu Yutong twirled the pen in her hand, her tone indifferent, but the corner of her mouth still twitched slightly.

Xia Yaozong stood up from his workstation, walked to the middle of the employee area, put his hands on his hips, and looked like he had just ridden ten roller coasters.

Do you know what I'm thinking about when I'm watching the market at noon?

He looked at everyone.

"What are you thinking about?" Sun Hao asked.

"I was thinking, if we lose money, will President Lu throw me off the 18th floor?"

Liu Ziheng laughed out loud from the last row: "All three stocks in your private equity fund closed in the green, and Baogang Rare Earth rose by 4%. Which one are you going to sell?"

""

"You don't understand," Xia Yaozong walked over and plopped down on the table next to Liu Ziheng. "Go all in? Have I ever done something like that? I haven't."

My hands were shaking when I was typing this morning.

I placed an order for Sanan Optoelectronics at 3.90, and the order book wiped it all out in the blink of an eye. My only thought at that moment was, "Oh no, I bought at the top."

Zhang Yixing interjected, "And the result?"

Xia Yaozong laughed: "The closing price was 4.01, up 2.8%, so the unrealized profit of 100 million is more than 2 million. But let me tell you, this kind of game is really not for people with heart problems."

Sun Hao held up his phone and showed the screen to everyone: "Look at this, I bought Gree Electric Appliances at a 1% higher price, and it closed down 0.3%, so I lost 60,000 yuan."

Zhao Keke turned around and glared at him: "What are you panicking about with 60,000? Your Dahua Technology shares went up 3%, and Goertek shares went up 2%. Overall, you made a profit."

Sun Hao scratched his head: "Really? I didn't count."

"You placed the order without calculating the cost?" Zhao Keke's voice rose another eight octaves.

"President Su told me to do it."

Everyone turned to look at Su Qingyuan.

Su Qingyuan sat at her workstation, looking at them expressionlessly.

"What are you looking at?" she said.

"President Su, your statement today, 'Three stocks, three industries, three leading companies, it's not gambling,' was brilliant," Xia Yaozong said, giving a thumbs up.

Su Qingyuan glanced at him and opened her laptop: "President Xia, tomorrow is Monday. Guess whether Baogang Rare Earth will go up or down?"

""

Xia Yaozong's smile froze.

"Don't ask me, ask President Lu."

"President Lu said to buy it with your eyes closed." Su Qingyuan said this without any expression on her face, but there was something inscrutable in her tone.

Liu Yutong stopped twirling her pen and looked at Su Qingyuan: "President Su, do you really think we can just buy it blindly?"

Su Qingyuan turned her laptop screen around, revealing the attribution analysis framework she had worked on that afternoon. More than half of the data for the twenty stocks had already been entered.

"I spent the whole morning researching. Baogang Rare Earth is the leading rare earth company in northern China, possessing a monopolistic resource."

Sanan Optoelectronics is the number one domestic manufacturer of LED chips.

Sany Heavy Industry, a leading manufacturer of construction machinery, is the first to benefit from the infrastructure recovery.

Changchun High & New Technology Industries Group Co., Ltd. is a leading manufacturer of growth hormone products with a gross profit margin of 85%.

Oriental Yuhong, the number one brand in waterproofing materials.

Goertek, an acoustic device manufacturer, has recently entered Apple's supply chain.

She paused for a moment, then continued, "None of these stocks are junk; Mr. Lu's stock selection logic is consistent."

The industry leader has barriers to entry, pricing power, and its valuation is at a historical low.

This isn't just blindly buying things; it's a systematic approach.

The office was silent for a second.

"Why isn't the US$100 million in Hong Kong stocks moving?" Liu Ziheng asked.

Su Qingyuan glanced at him but did not answer.

Wen Zhiyu stood up from behind the secretary's desk, holding a notebook in her hand, and turned to a page: "President Lu said that now is not a good time to enter the market."

Xia Yaozong clicked his tongue: "Can't he just speak properly? He always uses these kinds of words."

"You can ask him yourself." Wen Zhiyu smiled and sat back down.

Yang Cheng stood at the very back and finally closed the book.

He glanced at the darkening sky outside the window and suddenly asked, "Do you think that person who came to see President Lu this afternoon was Liu Qiangdong?"

The office is quiet again.

"You saw it too?" Sun Hao asked.

"That's what Zhao Keke at the front desk said," Yang Cheng said, pointing to Zhao Keke.

Zhao Keke blushed: "I didn't eavesdrop on purpose. I was just standing at the front desk, and he introduced himself as Liu Qiangdong, an alumnus of Renmin University. How could I pretend I didn't hear him?"

Xia Yaozong frowned: "That Liu Qiangdong from JD.com? Isn't he about to go bankrupt? He's been looking for money everywhere lately, and I heard he's met with thirty or forty investors but hasn't succeeded."

Liu Yutong chimed in, "I saw a news report on the subway saying that JD.com's cash flow is about to dry up, and they might not even be able to pay November's salaries."

Sun Hao looked bewildered: "Then why are we looking for President Lu? To ask for money?"

"What else? Come and have some tea?" Xia Yaozong rolled his eyes at him.

Zhao Keke whispered, "They talked in the office for quite a while, and then Xu Xin came too."

"Xu Xin? Xu Xin of Today Capital?" Liu Ziheng's voice suddenly rose.

"Yes, that woman, short hair, wearing a dark gray suit, looks very capable. She came with Liu Qiangdong and stayed in Mr. Lu's office for about an hour."

Liu Yutong stopped writing: "Today Capital is the lead investor in JD.com's Series A round, and Xu Xin has priority investment rights. If Mr. Lu wants to invest in JD.com, he must get past Xu Xin."

"You mean Mr. Lu is going to invest in JD.com?" Zhao Keke's eyes widened.

Liu Yutong didn't answer, but her expression said it all.

Xia Yaozong stood up and walked to the door of Lu Chenzhou's office.

The door was open, and Lu Chenzhou was sitting inside looking at his computer. The screen seemed to show the Hong Kong account interface.

"Brother Lu."

Lu Chenzhou looked up: "What?"

"You voted for JD.com?"

Lu Chenzhou leaned back in his chair, looking at the employees gathered at the door, and his lips twitched slightly.

"You don't need to keep an eye on what I vote for, just do your own jobs."

Xia Yaozong didn't move: "Just tell me whether you voted or not."

Lu Chenzhou remained silent for two seconds.

"I voted."

The entire staff area was in an uproar.

"How much did you invest?"

Fifteen million.

""

"US dollars?"

US dollars.

Zhao Keke gasped, and Sun Hao glanced down at his phone.

He felt bad even when Gree Electric lost 60,000 yuan, but the thought of investing 15 million US dollars in a company that was about to go bankrupt made his legs weak.

Liu Ziheng stood up, walked to the door, and looked at Lu Chenzhou: "President Lu, JD.com is out of money. We might not even be able to pay salaries this month. You invested 15 million US dollars. What did you see?"

Lu Chenzhou looked at him but did not answer directly.

"Liu Ziheng, you've worked in a securities firm, you should know that the cheapest time for a company is when everyone thinks it's going to die."

Liu Ziheng opened his mouth as if to say something, but then swallowed it back.

Su Qingyuan looked at Lu Chenzhou: "Mr. Lu, may I ask you a question?"

"ask."

"Did you invest in JD.com because you believe in its business model, or because you're an alumnus?"

Lu Chenzhou glanced at her: "I have both."

Su Qingyuan nodded, didn't ask any more questions, and turned back to her workstation.

Xia Yaozong stood at the door, hands on his hips, took a deep breath, and then exhaled.

"Fine, anyway, you never miss a beat, not even once."

Lu Chenzhou glanced at him: "Alright, time to go home."

Seeing Lu Chenzhou walking out, Wen Zhiyu quickly followed.

After they left, Zhao Keke was the first to resist, sliding her chair next to Liu Yutong and lowering her voice: "Sister Yutong, you've worked in auditing at the Big Four accounting firms, have you seen JD.com's financial statements?"

Liu Yutong twirled her pen without looking up: "I haven't seen it, but I know one thing: building your own logistics network is a money-devouring beast. Suning and Gome don't do it, but JD.com did, which is why it's broke now."

"Then why did President Lu still invest?"

Liu Yutong put down her pen and glanced at Zhao Keke: "Because Suning and Gome don't do this, they are Suning and Gome. JD.com does this, so it might be JD.com."

Zhao Keke blinked, not quite understanding.

Liu Yutong put down her pen: "What I mean is that if everyone does the same thing, the result will be similar. What Mr. Lu is investing in is not JD.com's current financial report, but what JD.com will be like if it survives."

Sun Hao leaned over from the side: "What if they don't survive?"

Liu Yutong looked at him but didn't say anything.

Xia Yaozong came out of Lu Chenzhou's office with a folder in his hand.

He walked to the middle of the staff area and slammed the folder on the table.

"Alright, stop guessing, let's look at this."

He opened the folder, which contained a few pages of the summary of JD.com's Series B investment intention document.

Zhao Keke was the first to step forward and read aloud: "The post-investment valuation is sixty million US dollars, with Zhizhou contributing fifteen million US dollars, accounting for twenty-five percent..."

She stopped abruptly halfway through her reading, looked up at Xia Yaozong, and said, "The valuation is the same as Series A? During the financial crisis, all companies were cutting their valuations. JD.com's valuation was cut from 200 million to 60 million. Mr. Lu, aren't you going to cut it too?"

"I don't know, I found it on his desk."

Liu Ziheng stood up from the last row, walked to the front, picked up the few pages of paper, and flipped through them one by one.

He flipped through the pages very slowly, his brow furrowing deeper and deeper.

"Is there a problem?" Zhang Yixing asked.

Liu Ziheng didn't answer. After turning the last page, he put the folder down and looked at Xia Yaozong: "Has President Lu said when he plans to withdraw?"

"Does anyone know?"

"What about the shareholding ratio? How are the dilution clauses stipulated?"

"It's all written inside, see for yourself."

Liu Ziheng flipped through the folder again, then closed it, leaned against the table, and crossed his arms.

"What's wrong?" Zhao Keke asked.

"I'm thinking about something. If JD.com wants to build its own logistics, it won't need 15 million US dollars, it will need hundreds of millions or even billions."

After the Series B funding round, there will be Series C, Series D, and Series E rounds, each of which will dilute Zhizhou's equity.

If Mr. Lu doesn't participate in the later rounds of investment, the 25% will be diluted to less than 10%.

97

The office fell silent.

"Then why did he still vote?" Sun Hao asked.

"Because if JD.com succeeds, even if it's diluted to 5%, 15 million US dollars going in could come out as billions or tens of billions."

Zhao Keke gasped.

"What if it doesn't work out?" Sun Hao asked again.

Liu Ziheng looked at him and finally answered, "Fifteen million US dollars, back to zero."

The entire staff area fell silent again.

Su Qingyuan sat at the very front and did not participate in the discussion from beginning to end.

She was wearing headphones, and on the ThinkPad screen in front of her was a QQ account. She was asking familiar friends in a group chat.