Huang Weida's Fidelity Investment Company is Zhang Guan's only agent for overseas investments, and it has also helped Zhang Guan earn a lot of money sporadically over the years.
It was in 2004 that Zhang Guan made his first pot of gold through Bocai. Then through Fidelity Investment, he bought shares in a fruit company, invested in the newly born social media FB, and also bought some real estate on Hong Kong Island. . In the following years, almost all the money Zhang Guan earned, as long as it was in foreign currency, was handed over to Fidelity Investments for management.
When Zhang Guan goes abroad to participate in competitions, the bonuses must be paid in foreign currencies. Some business activities abroad are also remunerated in foreign currencies. In recent years, Zhang Guan has invested in the F1 team, the $500 million gamble, boxing match appearance fees and bonuses. Wait, these are hundreds of millions of dollars in income. Compared with that, the previous competition prizes of several million dollars can only be regarded as small change.
Fidelity Investments has also become a first-class investment company in Hong Kong Island. However, Hong Kong Island is a world-class financial city after all. The financial industry is extremely developed. The tax revenue generated by the financial industry alone is as high as HK$50 billion. Investment companies, fund companies, and insurance companies are everywhere, so Fidelity Investments It doesn't seem out of the ordinary.
After years of cooperation, Zhang Guan has accumulated a lot of trust in Fidelity Investment. What's more, Zhang Guan is also very satisfied with Fidelity Investment's investment rate of return. Being able to make money is naturally the basis for cooperation between the two parties.
On weekdays, Fidelity Investments mostly sends monthly reports to Zhang Guan. Over the years, there has rarely been such a rush to find Zhang Guan.
So after Zhang Guan saw the text message, he called Huang Weida back without hesitation.
"Mr. Huang, I was on the plane just now and couldn't answer the phone. Is there anything urgent over there?" Zhang Guan asked.
"It's a matter in the United States. It's really urgent." Huang Weida continued: "Do you still remember when we first met in 2004, you named FB to invest in it? I really admire your vision now. You were so good back then. An unknown software is now the world's number one social software. In Hong Kong, one out of every two people in China uses FB."
"FB? Are you looking for me about FB?" Zhang Guan recalled that it was April 2012, FB should have entered the final sprint stage of its IPO, and then asked: "Is it related to FB's IPO? "
Huang Weida was a little surprised. He didn't expect that when he mentioned FB, Zhang Guan would think about IPO.
"That's right. It's related to IPO." Huang Weida then introduced FB's IPO situation.
Since receiving the investment from Zhang Guan in 2004, FB has developed rapidly. In 2005, it received a venture capital investment of 10 million U.S. dollars, and in 2005 it received nearly 30 million U.S. dollars in venture capital. Subsequently, FB opened its doors to all people. After opening up for registration, it has expanded rapidly. Last year, FB's active users around the world exceeded 800 million.
So on February 2 this year, FB officially submitted an application for a public offering, or IPO, to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, planning to raise US$5 billion. This IPO was also the largest IPO transaction of a technology company in U.S. history at the time. The market estimated that FB’s valuation would reach US$100 billion after its IPO.
The IPO process went very smoothly, and the market was generally optimistic about FB's prospects. Morgan Stanley even served as the lead underwriter for FB's listing, among other things. ****, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and other financial giants will also be responsible for underwriting.
The time for FB to land on Nasdaq was determined to be May 18, which is still a little more than a month away. It can be said that it is the most critical moment for the IPO. However, at this time, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission discovered One problem is that Hong Kong Fidelity Investments, the second largest shareholder of FB, is not a direct investor, but an entrusted investment.
Entrusted investment means that the client deposits funds in a financial trust institution in advance as an entrusted investment fund, entrusts the financial trust institution to invest in its designated associate or investment unit, and monitors the use of the investment, the operating conditions of the investment unit, and profit dividends, etc. A financial trust business that is managed and supervised.
To put it bluntly, this is a specific kind of trust business. Unlike ordinary investment companies, entrusted investors have designated investment units. In other words, once FB completes its IPO, the second largest shareholder will not be Fidelity Investments, but the trustee behind Fidelity Investments.
It is precisely because of this that it causes unnecessary trouble.
The U.S. financial market does not exclude foreign investors. For example, in FB’s IPO, Russia’s DST Investment Company holds certain preferred shares. Today’s IPO can allow them to obtain a tenfold return rate; another example is Hong Kong Li Chaoren of the island also owns 3% of FB's shares. He can also get rich returns after the IPO.
With the precedent of Li Chaoren, Fidelity Investments, which is also located in Hong Kong Island, should be able to operate unimpeded. However, the US Securities and Exchange Commission is worried that the investor behind Fidelity Investments will have some official background from a large Eastern country. Therefore, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requires Fidelity Investments to disclose the information of the principal. They are worried that this is not a simple business transaction. They are worried that such a large American company, and it is also a social network company, will eventually be controlled by another big country.
In fact, FB Company implements a dual-class equity structure of Class A and Class B. At that time, Zhang Guan made concessions in this regard in order to invest in FB. Therefore, the FB shares held by Fidelity Investment were all Class B shares and were sold. Although the price and dividends are the same as those of Class A shares, the voting rights of the board of directors are only one-tenth of those of Class A shares. Therefore, the SEC's concerns are unnecessary. However, based on ideology or country-to-country competition, the SEC still made a request for Fidelity Investments to disclose the client's information. Otherwise, they will support the IPO.
As the largest technology company IPO in the history of the United States, if it is stopped, the impact will be huge. How can Huang Weida not be anxious for a business valued at 100 billion US dollars
In fact, this approach of the US Securities Regulatory Commission has violated business rules. Entrusted investments like this are common in the United States. For example, American Jews like to use entrusted investments the most. Due to historical reasons, after World War II, Jews did not dare to blatantly disclose their wealth, so they used entrusted investment to run their business empire.
Another example is some old financial families in Europe. They have been accumulating capital since the colonial era. To say that they are as rich as the rest of the world is to look down upon them! Their money is much more than that of a country, but have you ever seen their names on any list such as the Forbes wealth list? They are more of a client, hiding behind the scenes. They can invest in the same company through different investment companies. On the surface, it looks like different companies hold equity, but in fact there is only one big boss behind the scenes.
Therefore, although this kind of entrusted investment has certain drawbacks, it is a tacitly allowed behavior, and the SEC's requirement that Fidelity Investments disclose the identity of the principal really violates the rules.
Huang Weida must have been undecided about this kind of thing, so after receiving the request from the United States, Huang Weida immediately found Zhang Guan and hoped that Zhang Guan would make a decision.
And Zhang Guan was also thinking about the pros and cons...
The second chapter has been delivered. Please give me a guaranteed monthly ticket. Thank you to Ni, Bookworm Liao Yingchun, Duoduoni, Pipeng, Bubble 2016, and Shangmo for the reward!
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