Rebirth begins with e-commerce

On the fifth day of the negotiations, everything went smoothly, and the two sides were short of the final signing.

After all, when half of the equity was transferred last time, there was already a foundation for cooperation.

At the same time, the news media has also contacted and is preparing to hold a press conference to inform the cooperation.

Tomorrow, this transaction of up to $4 billion will once again shake the online car-hailing market.

However, unexpectedly, an order from the US Department of Commerce stopped the transaction.

They investigated the transaction in the name of national security.

Lin Minyi said angrily: "We are just a normal equity transfer. What reason do they have to stop it?"

As the head of the legal team of Pinru's business in the United States, she believes that she has achieved legal compliance in every process.

What's more, this is just a simple equity transfer, and neither the buyer nor the seller has any objection. What does it mean to jump out at this time of the Ministry of Commerce?

"I think they are clearly targeting our Chinese-funded enterprises and deliberately disrupting our business."

"I don't know what crime he will give us?"

"I guess even if I have it, it will be a 'false' charge. It's similar to the reason why Sany Heavy Industry was stopped some time ago and Huawei's business was used."

"Does we really have no way to do it?"

"We have no enemies here, it's not created by SoftBank? Is it a temporary price reduction?"

...

Everyone thinks that the recent investment projects of Chinese companies such as Sany Heavy Industry and Huawei in the United States have been stopped one after another, and their mood is even heavier.

In 2012, Sany Group's affiliated company in the United States, acquired four wind farms in the United States.

Six months later, the then president issued an order to restrict Rawls from entering the wind farm site on suspicion of threatening national security, and required Rawls to complete the divestment of these projects within 90 days.

This ban directly caused more than 20 million US dollars of economic losses to Sany Group.

After many appeals, Sany Group finally reached a "reconciliation" to the public after spending huge lawyer fees.

Sany Group transferred these four wind power projects to third parties in exchange for the group's other businesses in the United States that do not involve national security issues.

This lawsuit, which was particularly defeated, was rated as an unprecedented victory for Chinese-funded enterprises by the Wall Street Journal.

Most relatively weak private enterprises can only suffer the consequences in the face of this situation.

After all, few private companies can spend huge costs like Sany Heavy Industry to fight this multinational lawsuit.

Moreover, the result of the lawsuit can only give you a "innocence" and cannot pay back the money you lost.

For most private companies, innocence is obviously not that important. They would rather stop the loss early and leave the market with losses.

Now, Pinru's business team is worried that Uber's equity transaction will be disrupted.

If the equity cannot be cashed out, no matter how high the value is, it will be similar to waste paper.

After all, online car-hailing is still in the subsidy war, and it is impossible to have any dividends.

Seeing that the team's fighting spirit was hit, Luo Xiu couldn't help but comfort him and said, "Don't be discouraged. The suspension of the review does not mean that the transaction has been ruined. We should actively communicate with the review department at this time to understand their purpose and come up with solutions."

Someone immediately echoed: "President Luo is right. If they don't have a legitimate reason, they will forcefully intervene in this way, which will harm not only our company, but also more international investment institutions' confidence in investment in the United States."

"If a market only allows money from outside to come in and does not allow people to cash in and leave the market, then no one dares to come in this market."

"I also believe things have not reached the worst. This time it may be just a routine review. We just happened to be unlucky to be drawn."

Having said that, the entire business team regained their hearts and went to understand the situation separately.

Someone asked about SoftBank’s attitude, some went to lobbyists to lobby for lawmakers, and some were putting pressure through judicial channels.

Three days later, the Ministry of Commerce finally gave a clear statement.

The reason they reviewed was that Pinru Group originally received a $200 million loan from Citibank, and believed that the loan had violated regulations.

Luo Xiu first received a loan of 200 million from Citibank, and then used the loan to exchange it for 20% of the equity from the uber.

From now on, this investment is equivalent to laying eggs with a chicken.

You don’t have to pay a penny by yourself. Use your bank money to invest in your business. In a few years, you can make a profit of dozens of times.

But commercial investment cannot be reversed by the results. After all, no one knows that the investment will definitely be successful.

If the investment fails, the result will inevitably be that Luo Xiu owes the bank a large debt and high interest.

It’s like we all know that SoftBank made a lot of money by investing in Alibaba, but at that time, who could have liked the startup Alibaba?

The U.S. Department of Commerce cannot stop Luo Xiu from selling uber equity. The only thing they can do is to investigate whether the $200 million loan was reasonable.

After all, if there was no such loan, there would be no investment from uber later, and there would be no cash that would be dozens of times now.

It is said that the investigation team has settled in Citibank and requires all the information on loans that year to review each step of the process.

Even the business manager who just retired from the bank last year was called back because he had handled this business and asked to cooperate with the investigation.

After the news came out, many people expressed their dissatisfaction.

If the investigation team really takes the attitude of picking the bones from eggs, nothing can stand the investigation.

Especially for such a large loan, the system originally formulated by the bank must be very complicated.

In the actual operation, in order to pursue efficiency, some unnecessary programs are often skipped.

This situation is particularly serious for Chinese-funded enterprises, and few companies have completed all procedures 100% according to regulations.

They are used to efficiency first, and in order to pursue efficiency, they often "get on the bus first and then make up for the ticket."

In order to achieve business, banks are also willing to cooperate with the company and skip some cumbersome procedures.

This pursuit of efficiency helps companies win the market faster.

To do the same business, Chinese-funded enterprises may have put their products into the market. After several rounds of iteration and optimization, foreign capital is still quarreling whether to do it.

Without surprise, this pursuit of efficiency helps Chinese-funded enterprises win one overseas market after another.

The problem is that if something happens, this way of doing things like "get on the bus first and then get a ticket" often leads to a catastrophe.

Many companies that are full of energy and want to open up a new world overseas will eventually suffer losses here and are dragged into endless lawsuits.

And now, Pinru Group has also had an accident.

The shadows linger on everyone in the team.

"Who do you remember whether there were any illegal procedures when you took that loan?"

"I don't know, I haven't entered the company yet."

"This project was handled by President Luo. I'm afraid that only President Luo knew what happened."

"That was the company's first overseas business, and there was no overseas office, so it was difficult to do without a handle in the business."

"So, we may be in great danger this time!"

...

Speaking of this, everyone feels that the situation is not optimistic.