Chapter 443 Shocking Wealth

[In-depth analysis of Song’s capital landscape]

"The core of Songci's assets is undoubtedly the global internet giant Tenda Technology Group.

According to financial information and data provider Bloomberg and internationally renowned credit rating agency Fitch, as of the third quarter of 2012, the latest valuation of Tenda Technology Group reached US$212 billion.

As the founder, Song Ci personally holds a 32.3% stake - 8.075% of which is the Tengda option pool. Although employees enjoy the right to dividends and appreciation, because Tengda Group has not yet gone public, these shares are still registered in Song Ci's name - the corresponding assets are US$68.476 billion.

The second part of the assets came from Song Ci's early investment in Facebook and cashing out the profits. He then bought heavily into shares of many American technology companies such as Apple, Nvidia, and Amazon. The current market value is about US$8 billion.

In addition, Song Ci poet Liu Shishi and her husband own multiple properties in first-tier cities in China and shares in Four Seasons Hotels. After evaluation by professional institutions, this part of the assets is valued at US$3.5 billion.

The above total of approximately 80 billion US dollars is the assets of Song Ci listed by wealth magazines such as Forbes and Hurun Report.

At first glance, although Song Ci's wealth is higher than that of Li Zhaoji's family, it is significantly lower than Li Jiacheng's $150 billion.

But things are by no means as simple as they appear on the surface; the real capital game is often hidden behind the surface numbers.”

Seeing this, everyone was shocked and held their breath, knowing that the next step was the key - whether the title of Asia's richest man was well-deserved depended entirely on whether Song Ci had hidden assets.

However, everyone couldn't help feeling a little hesitant and lost. After all, Song Ci was only 25 years old. Even if he had hidden some of his wealth in just a few years, it would probably be difficult to match Li Jiacheng's half-century accumulation. The throne of Asia's richest man would most likely change hands.

While expressing their feelings, Lin Gengxin and Yuan Hong collected their thoughts and continued to browse the blog.

"At the beginning of this year, Song Ci started his second business and established Dewen Manufacturing Company. Within six months, Dewen Company completed three major plans:

1. Sweeping up stocks in the global and domestic mining markets, hoarding scarce minerals such as cobalt, lithium, and rare earths;

2. Recruit top technical teams with high salaries;

3. Acquire land and build a building in Peking to establish the Dewen headquarters building.

The total investment is no less than US$5 billion, which is by no means a small amount. What is interesting is that:

According to investigations by multiple financial institutions and revelations from other shareholders of Tengda Group, Song Ci has not pledged its equity to any bank or financial institution.

This huge amount of funds, up to US$5 billion, far exceeds the annual dividend scale of Tengda Group, and there is no public financing record.

The funds must have other legitimate sources and could not have appeared out of thin air. Therefore, it can be concluded that Song Ci must have undisclosed and large overseas assets.

It is worth exploring further that the second largest shareholder of Tengda Group is Shanhai Capital, which holds 24.22% of the shares, corresponding to assets of US$51.3 billion.

This investment company, registered in the Virgin Islands, has a prominent reputation in the global capital market. During the subprime mortgage crisis, it aggressively bought the bottom of the U.S. stock market and holds shares in many high-quality technology companies with a total market value of over US$50 billion.

Due to local laws, the company's actual ownership information is kept confidential, but there are always clues to follow, and many anomalies reveal clues:

When Song Ci founded Tengda Group in 2004, he was already a renowned author, earning substantial royalties from his books. Furthermore, having received funding from Peking University during his university years, he had no shortage of funds in the early days of the group.

Shanhai Capital appears on the list of original shareholders of Tengda Group, holding a whopping 30% of its shares. Which startup, with no shortage of initial funding, would give up such a large stake all at once? This clearly defies basic business logic.

As the investigation agency dug deeper, more clues surfaced: Lin Hao, president of Shanhai Capital and director of Tengda Group, was Song Ci’s classmate and roommate at University, and the two had a close personal relationship.

What’s even more interesting is that Shanhai Capital, which holds a 24.22% stake and B shares with ten times the voting rights, obeys Song Ci’s orders in the daily operations of Tengda Group.

He never interfered with decision-making, and all group affairs were decided by Song Ci alone. This highly centralized control was unreasonable.

In addition, every capital operation of Shanhai Capital is highly synchronized with the changes in Song Ci's personal assets.

Based on this, I boldly speculate that the actual controller of Shanhai Capital is Song Ci! However, when Tengda Group was first established, Song Ci made an equity separation arrangement for some reason.

If the $101.3 billion in equity assets held by Shanhai Capital are included, the Song Ci family's actual assets will exceed $180 billion, which is approximately 1.26 trillion yuan based on the latest exchange rate.

Of course, the connection between Shanhai Capital and Song Ci is purely my personal inference and there is no real evidence.

Perhaps some people will think that I am exaggerating and deliberately raising the value of Song Dynasty poetry. To this I can only say that different people have different opinions.

In addition to Microsoft shares, Microsoft founder Bill Gates' family office, Cascade Investments, also holds a large amount of hidden assets.

The world's top billionaires like Bill Gates, Song Ci, and Li Jiacheng are all business geniuses who act with foresight and have long hidden their wealth through diversified investments.

This is also the reason why magazines such as Forbes and Fortune only count the obvious wealth of the rich. After all, everyone has huge hidden assets.

To sum up, Song Ci is undoubtedly the richest man in Europe, and will soon challenge the throne of the world's richest man next year! "

Although the blogger admitted that there was no real evidence to support the claim that Shanhai Capital was Song Ci's asset and it was just personal speculation, netizens were already convinced of it!

How could such a coincidence exist? Shanhai Capital is clearly an industry dedicated to Song Ci.

"It's so obvious! Song Ci clearly controls Shanhai Capital through an offshore structure, and his net worth exceeds Li Jiacheng by $30 billion. I finally understand why the Huo family is so cautious about Liu Shishi's attendance at the banquet.

"I just ran this on my calculator: $180 billion ≈ 1.2 trillion yuan ≈ 328 million yuan a day ≈ 3,800 yuan a second! That's ridiculous! I'm screwing screws in a factory, and it would take me two months to make 3,800 yuan."

"Just now I was actually worried about Song Ci losing his title as Asia's richest man??? I really want to slap myself. Am I stupid enough to worry about being the richest man?"

"Case solved! No wonder Dewen Manufacturing is willing to spend $5 billion on mining and cutting-edge manufacturing! It seems the richest man has so much money he can't spend it all!"

"1.26 trillion yuan—that's an exaggeration. In 2011, China's GDP was 47.31 trillion yuan, and Song Ci alone accounted for 2.66% of the nation's GDP. For the first time, I've grasped the weight of the phrase 'rich enough to rival a nation.'"

“I’m curious, what does it feel like to have $180 billion at the age of 25?”

"He should be checking Weibo like the rest of us right now, the only difference is that Weibo is his, while I'm using the company's Wi-Fi."

"It is recommended that the relevant departments conduct a thorough investigation into the origins of Song Ci's assets and whether Shanhai Capital has legally paid taxes!!!"

"The guy above is an idiot, so anti-rich? Shanhai Capital bought the US stock market during the subprime mortgage crisis, and they made money from the US."

"Holy crap! 180 billion? US dollars? The GDP of most countries in the world doesn't even have that much!"

. . .

At this time, in the corner of the studio, Liu Shishi was video chatting with her husband on WeChat.

Sister Yi looked worried. "Yiyi, is what that blogger said true? Does our family really have that much money?"

On the screen, Song Ci nodded slightly: "This guy is quite capable. He has almost dug out 70% of my assets."

"Only 70% of 180 billion US dollars?!" Liu Shishi exclaimed, then covered her mouth with her hands, realizing that she had lost her composure.

Song Ci had no intention of concealing anything and chuckled frankly, "In fact, Sino-Singapore Investment is also my asset. I originally planned to transform Sino-Singapore Investment into a family office like the Gates family's Cascade Investment, so I made a more complex offshore design.

That blogger probably guessed that Zhongxin Investment was also my company, but without any evidence, he didn't dare say it. Lin Hao and I are too close, so the true situation of Shanhai Capital can be easily inferred."

Song Ci sighed in his heart, after all, his foundation was too shallow!

The subprime mortgage crisis was urgent at the time, and Shanhai Capital and Sino-Singapore Investment had no time to hide deeper. They were busy buying the bottom of the US stock market and made frequent big moves. The flow of funds inevitably left traces, and it was impossible to completely hide it from the eyes of professional institutions.

Liu Shishi held her pounding heart with her hand, took a deep breath to calm it down, and slowly calmed herself down: "Husband, don't show off your wealth. Do you want to reduce the popularity of your Weibo?"

Song Ci shook her head. "Suppressing the popularity of Weibo now is just an attempt to cover up the truth. Besides, the truth has already been exposed, there's no way to suppress it."

Now that things have come to this, I should just keep quiet and downplay the situation. Actually, having my wealth exposed isn't necessarily a bad thing. If there are any scoundrels out there who want to take advantage of me, they'd have to consider the weight of hundreds of billions of dollars.

"I hope so!" Liu Shishi sighed softly. She had never dreamed that one day she would worry about having too much money at home. It was truly a happy trouble and a sweet burden!

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing." Song Ci's voice came through the screen with soothing power.

In a few days, the chief will come to inspect Tengda. With God's blessing, he will have nothing to worry about.

Seeing her husband's calm expression, Liu Shishi felt relieved. After a moment's thought, she suggested, "Should we donate some money to a charity?"

"No need." Song Ci rejected it directly, "Everything is as usual. Our family has always done a lot of charity. Feng Jianlang deliberately made a large donation, but it seems guilty and short-tempered.

My assets were all obtained legally, so now that they've been exposed, there's nothing shameful about them. I'll tell you the details when you get home."

After hanging up the video, Liu Shishi was still a little dizzy, but she couldn't help but raise the corners of her mouth slightly, unable to hide the excitement and joy that was difficult to calm down.

Hu Ge had just finished filming the Spring Festival greeting video, and Cai Yinong invited the Tang Dynasty stars into the studio to take a family photo.

Everyone rushed in upon hearing the sound, and looked at the eldest sister with extremely fiery eyes. A fortune of 1.2 trillion yuan could not be spent in hundreds of generations.

At this time, as the details of Song Ci's assets were exposed, online discussions intensified, and with the instigation of some people with ulterior motives, public opinion gradually went off track.

As the sun sets, in the chairman’s office at the headquarters of Tengda Group.

Song Ci looked at the afterglow outside the window and tapped the table with his fingertips.

He glanced at the increasing number of negative comments on Weibo and muttered to himself, "Public opinion is a bit biased! But it's no wonder. Tengda is a big tree that attracts wind. It's a rare opportunity to cause me some trouble. I'm afraid many people will be restless."

Just as I was wondering whether I should respond directly or just sit tight and wait for a few days until the high-ranking official came to inspect before making any plans, my cell phone suddenly rang.

Seeing the caller ID clearly, Song Ci hurriedly answered the call, saying respectfully, "Hello, Director Li!"

"Comrade Xiao Song, the commander is inspecting Tengda. How are the preparations going?"

"Don't worry, everything is in perfect order and there will be absolutely no mistakes."

"That's good!" Director Li changed the subject, his voice full of praise, "Regarding your overseas assets, the leaders generally know something about it.

Being able to earn American money is your skill, and the leaders are happy to see it happen. It's a hundred times better than those who only fight among themselves."

"It's the leaders' favor." When Song Ci heard this, his brows relaxed instantly, and the last trace of worry in his heart disappeared.

Director Li spoke in a gentle and powerful voice, "You have a good background and have achieved this through your own hard work. The commander is very pleased. There may be some noise online, but you don't need to worry about it. Just focus on preparing for the commander's inspection."

Song Ci's tone was light: "I understand."

After the call ended, Song Ci packed up and left work. With his boss's statement, anyone who wanted to use his assets to make trouble would no longer be able to stir up trouble.

The next day, the official Weibo account of China News Service published a special report titled "Uncovering the Asset Map of Song Ci: Compliance Audits Demonstrate Fairness under the Rule of Law."

The article systematically sorts out the equity structure and cross-border investment flows of Song Ci's core enterprises, and uses past audit reports to confirm the legitimacy of its assets.

The Economic News followed closely and published "The Innovative Code Behind Huge Wealth: Analyzing the Compliance and Contemporary Value of Song Ci Assets."

Analysis shows that the core of Songci's wealth comes from its deep innovation in the field of Internet technology, and is a vivid practice and fresh example of the high-level circulation of "technology-capital-industry".

CCTV's legal program also made a sharp comment: "The wealth story of young entrepreneur Song Ci is essentially an allegory of the times about 'knowledge creates value'.

When we discuss the figure of “180 billion US dollars”, we should pay more attention to the scientific and technological innovation and achievements behind the figure.

As long as it is legal and compliant, the law protects both the one-dollar profit of street vendors and the billions of assets of technology giants.

This kind of non-discriminatory protection is the source of the vitality and greatness of China's market economy, and it also reflects the remarkable achievements of more than 30 years of reform and opening up."

Subsequently, the People's Daily published an article entitled "Protecting people's assets in accordance with the law and building firm market confidence"; and Guangming Daily published an article entitled "The new economy calls for benchmark enterprises to abide by the law and innovate in order to move forward steadily."

Following the voices of a number of authoritative media outlets, public opinion quickly shifted. Attentive citizens noticed that officials remained noncommittal about the specific figure of "$180 billion."

However, the discussion always revolves around "legitimacy", adhering to the principle of "guiding without catering to, resolving doubts without deciphering", and directing the focus of discussion to in-depth exploration of the "wealth creation mechanism".

Those who had originally intended to take advantage of the situation to stir up trouble now understood the attitude of the higher-ups and quietly restrained their actions. The turmoil gradually subsided as night fell.

(End of this chapter)