"Take the lead?"
After Li Mu heard Steve Johnson's intention, he smiled playfully.
After a moment, Li Mu said noncommittally: "Sequoia is the world's top in the investment field, but it seems that it is not even in the first line in terms of IPO underwriters? If Makino Technology wants to find a suitable underwriter, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, Citibank , Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan should be the best choices for cooperation."
Steve Johnson nodded and said: "I am not here entirely for Sequoia today. In fact, I am talking to you about the lead bank today, and I represent HSBC."
Li Mu frowned.
"HSBC?" Li Mu asked with a puzzled look on his face: "How come Mr. Steve is related to a bank in Hong Kong?"
Steve Johnson smiled slightly and said: "Mr. Li, actually HSBC is a British company headquartered in London, but it started in Hong Kong in the early years."
"Okay, it's just that I'm ignorant." Li Mu nodded slightly, and then said: "Then what prompted you to seek the qualification for a British company to be the lead banker for the IPO of Makino Technology listed in the United States?"
Steve Johnson said with a smile: "First of all, I have to make it clear to Mr. Li that although I joined Sequoia, I am a British person, and Sequoia is no longer an American company. It is just a company that made its fortune in the United States and is headquartered in the United States. As an international enterprise, a lot of the capital behind Sequoia comes from British and American Old-Money. To be honest, the money Sequoia is investing now even has the wealth accumulated during the British global colonial era."
Li Mu shrugged his shoulders and said with a self-deprecating smile: "So, the US$3.3 billion you invested in Makino Technology last time probably included the wealth that the British plundered from China during the Opium War."
Steve Johnson nodded very seriously and said, "This possibility is not ruled out at all."
After that, he explained: "Actually, although the world is creating a large number of new rich people like you, to be honest, in the huge ocean of capital that often amounts to trillions of dollars in the entire capital market, Old-Money's share The proportion may be beyond your imagination. For example, no one can count how much money a family like Rockefeller has.”
Li Mu agrees very much with this. The old aristocrats and old big capitalists in Europe and the United States often create not a company, but a money empire. The so-called money empire means that the intangible is better than the tangible. It is very likely that no company actually operates, but However, they directly or indirectly hold shares in hundreds of companies. There is no way to completely count such assets.
At this time, Steve Johnson explained: "The main reason why I am here today to fight for the qualification of the lead bank for Makino Technology IPO for HSBC is because of the in-depth cooperation between Sequoia and HSBC. In recent years, Sequoia has invested in The proportion of money coming from the HSBC Group has become larger and larger, and HSBC has long been involved in the US market, especially the stock investment market. We hope that Sequoia and HSBC will cooperate more and more closely, and we also hope that Sequoia, HSBC and Makino Technology Our cooperation is getting closer and closer, and if the three of us can achieve in-depth cooperation, there will be huge room for common development in the future."
After saying that, Steve Johnson added: "Mr. Li, you are a doer. In the future, you may create more projects and establish more companies, and you are a front-end producer. Sequoia is an investment bank, and it mainly invests in projects. In the early and mid-term capital operations, HSBC focuses on large-scale capital operations, especially banking and securities-related businesses, which belong to the mid- and late-stage capital operations. In this way, the three of us can form an industrial chain."
Steve Johnson has always emphasized the qualification of "lead bank" because he knows very well that with the size of Makino Technology, no investment bank can handle the US$20 billion in IPO fundraising in the future, so he wants to It is this "lead bank". It’s like the concept of “lead investment” in investment and financing. To put it bluntly, it means taking the big lead first.
In any stock trading market around the world, new stocks are the object of much attention and are also the stocks with the largest potential profit potential. When most new stocks are listed, their prices will enter a period of rapid growth. If investors can seize this opportunity , there is a high chance of making a fortune by following the car.
However, the stock sale of U.S. stock IPOs is a very interesting thing. Unlike domestic stock listings, U.S. stocks basically do not give retail investors the opportunity to buy new shares.
Domestic stocks rely on winning a lottery, which is highly likely to depend on luck. If you win, although the number is not large, you can at least make a small profit. This is standard egalitarianism;
But for U.S. stock IPOs, the stocks rely entirely on the underwriters to carry out independent sales with great discretionary power. In other words, if the brokerage gets a share of the IPO stocks, it can basically decide freely who will give most of the stock subscription opportunities. It is up to them to decide whether to give it to certain institutions, certain stock funds, or certain large clients. This means that having the underwriting rights of high-potential stock IPOs will be a good way for affiliates of securities firms to make money. Opportunities are also good opportunities to maintain big customers.
Especially for a company like Makino Technology, which is highly optimistic around the world, if it IPOs, it will have huge upside potential after listing, and it is worthy of investors to hold it as a long-term investment. Whoever gets the IPO shares of Makino Technology becomes an investor. Even the clients of other securities firms may be the target of investors' competition to purchase shares of Makino Technology, thereby transferring funds to the account of the actual underwriter.
To put it bluntly, an underwriter is like a ticket agent. The harder the tickets are to sell, the less interested the underwriter will be. Just like an 18th-tier singer wants to hold a concert. At this time, it is the distributor of the performance. Just ask the underwriters to help sell tickets, even if the commission rate is higher.
However, if the singer of the performance corresponding to the performance ticket is Jay Chou or Zhang Xueyou, then the major underwriters will have to beg the performance issuer to help them sell tickets, even if the commission rate is lower;
If Jay Chou plans to hold 100 concerts around the world a year, corresponding to 2 million tickets, and if a certain ticketing platform can capture more than half of the tickets, it will have a significant impact on their platform data, brand promotion, and user improvement. have a great stimulating effect.
It is no exaggeration to say that Makino Technology can no longer be compared to concert tickets, but should be compared to train tickets during the Spring Festival travel period of the railway department.
Whoever is qualified to be the lead bank for Makino Technology's IPO will have the right to sell more than half of the train tickets during the Spring Festival travel period, and train fares will be fully market-based. As long as they can be sold, it doesn't matter how high they are sold. This is simply awesome.
Because of this, Li Mucai is not worried about underwriters at all, and he even hopes to use his underwriter qualifications as an extra bargaining chip to exchange for greater benefits for himself.
Therefore, it was impossible for Li Mu to agree to Steve Johnson on the spot for such a big matter, so he said to Steve Johnson: "Steve, to be honest, I only understand business and not capital. We have a dedicated team in charge of capital operations." , IPO also has a dedicated team in charge of it. When to IPO, how to IPO, who to cooperate with, how to price, when to do road shows, and when to ring the bell, these are not things that I will worry about. If Sequoia wants to cooperate with us, At that time, I can let the team talk to you first."
Steve Johnson knows Li Mu’s style of doing things very well. Although Li Mu says he doesn’t care about these things, in fact, almost all major development strategies of Makino Technology are determined by Li Mu alone. When and how to IPO must be made by Li Mu. Calculate.
So he didn't point it out, but said with a smile: "In that case, we can establish a close communication mechanism. If Makino Technology is ready to go public, HSBC can provide you with more favorable cooperation conditions."
Li Mu nodded and said with a smile: "There is no problem with this. We have established in-depth communication. We will keep in close contact in the future and exchange information."
Steve Johnson then added: "By the way, Mr. Li, there will be a relatively high-end party in London in a few days. The attendees are basically the typical Old-Money people in Europe and the United States. Some heavyweights behind HSBC and Sequoia are also attending. Will attend, in addition, there will also be some royal family present, I wonder if you are interested?"
As soon as Li Mu heard that he was going to a party in London, he subconsciously wanted to refuse it. Traveling thousands of miles to attend the party was simply unreasonable for a person like him, for whom time is of the essence.
But then he thought about it, and Li Mu immediately realized a problem. As an upstart in the capital circle, he had never carefully established his own social circle in the capital field. In other words, although he was already a member of the upper class, he had not integrated into it. The circle of high society.
At the world level, the real upper class is divided into three levels. The first level is the well-known high-income tycoons, the next level is the political figures and political families of various countries, and the third level is those who are deeply rooted in the world. A famous family that has existed for more than ten hundred years, they not only have money, but also have political resources, and even have the ability to influence the political landscape.
Now, I have only reached the first level at best, and the expansion range in the first level is not large. If I want to rise to the second level, or even the third level, I need not only strength, but also an opportunity.
However, the party Steve Johnson is talking about seems to be a party belonging to the third class. For him, this is a good opportunity to expand his social circle in multiple dimensions.
After thinking for a moment, Li Mu had already made up his mind to take time to go to this party to see it. Just when he was about to agree, Steve Johnson saw that he had not spoken, so he took the initiative to remind him: "By the way, Mr. Li, I just invited Annie... Miss Hathaway, she has agreed to participate. If you can spare time from your busy schedule, you can also invite her to be your companion."
Li Mu didn't expect that Steve Johnson had already invited Anne Hathaway, but his focus was not on her, so he asked Steve Johnson: "About when?"
"The specific time will be determined in a few days in the middle to late next month."
Li Mu nodded and said cheerfully: "Okay, I will participate."
(End of chapter)