Chapter 373: Eighty-five billion!
[August 26, the sixteenth day of the seventh lunar month, Gengyin Day, the God of Wealth is due west, it is a good time to seek wealth.]
Meng Bai put down his phone and glanced at the dial on his wrist.
It is nine o'clock in the evening. According to the time zone, it should be nine o'clock in the morning in New York on the other side of the earth.
He is now in the Central Building in Lujiazui, Shanghai. This "tallest building in China" is more brilliantly lit today than usual. The entire hall is crowded with people, and most of them are wearing the same red T-shirt. On the chest and back, there are Pinduoduo's name and logo.
Today is the day when Pinduoduo goes public. The U.S. stock market opens at 9:30. This first new e-commerce stock, which has just been established for three years, will be officially listed under the code name "PDD".
"Mr. Meng!"
Huang Zheng walked over and looked at Meng Bai: "Sorry, sorry, I'm too busy today. I just came back from the government. I apologize for the poor hospitality."
"I understand. Don't bother us." Meng Bai said with a smile: "You are the protagonist today. I just come here to join in the fun. You can just be busy if you have something to do."
"Everything that needs to be done is done." Huang Zheng breathed a sigh of relief, "Next, we will wait for the live broadcast connection with Nasdaq, and the listing bell."
"Come to think of it, I always thought that you would have to go to New York to ring the bell today, but I didn't expect you to stay in Shanghai."
Huang Zheng pointed to his ear: "I can't help it. I have otitis media, an old problem. I feel uncomfortable when I take a plane. It's okay for short trips, but it's unnecessary to fly to the United States for more than ten hours."
After that, he smiled and said: "Besides, ringing the bell is nothing more than a ceremony. It doesn't matter who goes, and it doesn't matter where you ring."
"Haha, Mr. Huang, you are too modest. As far as I know, this is the first time that Nasdaq has arranged a remote bell-ringing ceremony for an overseas company."
As the world's top financial trading center, Nasdaq has only held remote bell-ringing ceremonies in major global events in the past.
For example, in 2012, the New York Stock Exchange held a remote bell-ringing ceremony at its London headquarters to celebrate the opening of the London Olympics, but that was also for the entire market.
It is the first time in history that Pinduoduo has set up a remote bell-ringing ceremony for a company.
"Oh, Mr. Meng, you are too polite. Pinduoduo doesn't have such a big face. What they value is the huge domestic financial market and the entire Chinese concept-listed companies. We are just a representative." Huang Zheng said calmly.
"It's good to be a representative. At least it is very helpful for market confidence." Meng Bai said: "Who knows, because of this, the opening price may rise by two more points."
"Haha, then I have to borrow Mr. Meng's good words." Huang Zheng laughed.
After a brief chat, Huang Zheng said goodbye and went to greet the next invited guest.
Time passed quickly. Not long after, the huge LED screen lit up and the scene of Nasdaq appeared on the screen.
The one who stood on behalf of Pinduoduo at the New York Stock Exchange was a "consumer representative" who was selected by lottery before, a young girl named Zhang.
This girl once relied on her abundant social circle and luck to win the latest version of iPhone for one cent by "cutting a knife", and also won herself a ticket to ring the bell at Nasdaq on behalf of Pinduoduo.
Listening to Huang Zheng introducing the representative's identity and experience on the stage, Meng Bai couldn't help but think of Yang Chaoyue.
Since her successful debut with "luck", this girl has been given the title of "koi". As a witness to various magical scenes, Meng Bai firmly believes that if she had participated in this "cut a knife" event, it is very likely that she would be the one to ring the bell on behalf of Pinduoduo now.
Time passed by minute by minute, and in the blink of an eye, it was close to the opening of the US stock market.
On the stage in the center of the hall, Huang Zheng and a group of Pinduoduo executives and consumer representatives stood in the center, looking at the timer together with the Nasdaq market on the other side of the screen.
Finally, the time on the electronic board came to the last ten seconds, and hundreds of people started counting down at the same time.
"Three-"
"Two-"
"One!"
As the last frame of time jumped, the two ends of the earth, 11,000 kilometers apart, pressed the buttons representing listing at the same time, announcing that Pinduoduo officially landed on the Nasdaq and opened for trading.
There was a jubilation at the Shanghai Center Building, and the invited people began to celebrate and cheer.
Meng Bai, like many other investors, waited for the bell ringing ceremony to end, drank a glass of wine with Huang Zheng, chatted briefly, and then left the banquet first.
Although the secondary market of US stocks has begun trading now, as original shareholders, their shares have a lock-up period of half a year to a year. Moreover, they are engaged in venture capital investment, not securities trading, so they are not in a hurry to act immediately.
As for the opening increase on the first day, there are naturally professional employees under their command who are responsible for it. Just wait until tomorrow morning to see the report.
Everyone went back to the hotel to rest. At the same time, tens of thousands of massive funds, carried by optical fiber signals, gathered from various financial markets around the world to the New York Stock Exchange, starting a new trading day.
The listing of a new company is a brand new opportunity, and everyone wants to make a fortune on the new trend.
Pinduoduo's reputation is not very good among ordinary users and consumers, but it is a popular star stock in the capital circle. For such a high-quality target, everyone thinks that they can make money if they buy it.
There is a famous saying in the capital circle, "SB consensus is also consensus." As long as everyone's ideas are consistent, even if it was originally a lie, it will become true.
With the blessing of this view, Pinduoduo took off directly from the opening, and then it has remained at a high level.
...
"Boss, this is the stock price data of Pinduoduo on the first day of listing."
Early in the morning, Gu Fei and several Qiming Venture Partners staff knocked on Meng Bai's door and handed him the data report prepared overnight.
"..."
Meng Bai half-awake and half-asleep looked at the time. It was only seven o'clock in the morning. Is it necessary to be so early?
Anyway, the market has already been launched, and whether the result is good or bad, it cannot be changed. What difference does it make if it is earlier or later?
Looking at Gu Fei and others who had dark circles under their eyes but were extremely excited, Meng Bai sighed and asked, "You have been working all night, aren't you tired?"
"Don't worry, Mr. Meng, we rested yesterday." Gu Fei said in high spirits, "Besides, venture capitalists are not used to staying up late, don't worry, we can stay up for another two days."
"You are really... great!"
Seeing that the employees were so enthusiastic, he, as a boss, was embarrassed to dampen everyone's enthusiasm. He praised helplessly, and then said to everyone, "There is coffee and tea over there, you can decide what you want to drink, I will take a look at the report first."
After speaking, he calmed down and opened the information in his hand.
Pinduoduo set the listing price at $19, and a total of 85.6 million shares were issued in the IPO. After the call auction of Nasdaq's matching trading system, the opening price jumped directly to $26.5, an increase of more than 40%.
According to this price, the total market value of Pinduoduo, which has just been listed, is nearly 30 billion US dollars.
According to the current market value ranking of domestic Internet companies, Pinduoduo, with a market value of US$30 billion, ranks eighth, only after BAT, JD.com, Xiaomi, NetEase and Meituan.
After several rounds of financing, Qiming Venture Partners only had 4.2% of its shares listed, ranking outside the top ten investment institutions.
But even so, according to the market value on the first day, this share is equivalent to 1.26 billion US dollars.
According to today's exchange rate, it is almost 8.5 billion yuan.
8.5 billion!
Looking at the numbers on the report, Meng Bai's brain, which was originally a little sleepy, suddenly woke up.
Although Tencent had previously offered an astonishing acquisition price of 15 billion to Arclight Films, firstly, that was the valuation, and secondly, the acquisition cooperation was not finally reached, so there was not much feeling.
But this time is different, these shares of Pinduoduo are real assets in front of them.
More importantly, this huge amount of money was only 30 million at the beginning. Even if the subsequent rounds of financing are added, it is only less than 200 million.
In three years, with a return rate of more than 50 times, Arclight will have to make 40 years to make money even if it releases "Wolf Warrior 2" every year.
Moreover, Qiming Venture Partners is still a small shareholder, and there is no need to even announce the placard. As long as you wait for the lock-up period to end and cash out, you can immediately exchange it for real money.
Of course, Meng Bai just thought so.
Pinduoduo is developing rapidly, and its value will only increase in the future if nothing unexpected happens. As long as you hold these shares, it will be a chicken farm that can lay golden eggs.
Unless there is a problem with the funding of Arc Light, or Huang Zheng said that he plans to quit, Meng Bai will definitely not sell all his shares easily. At most, he will cash out part of it for some "pocket money".
"Hu——"
Meng Bai let out a long breath. Regardless of whether he will cash out in the future, he only knows that he and Arc Light will never be short of money again.
After reading the report, he went online to check the news.
There is no doubt that today's hot searches and several popular platform communities are almost all talking about Pinduoduo's listing.
For ordinary people outside, the most eye-catching is naturally Huang Zheng, the founder of Pinduoduo.
However, what everyone cares about is not his entrepreneurial experience or the future development of the company, but how much his assets rank.
Pinduoduo is a listed company, and all capital data are open to the public.
As the largest shareholder of Pinduoduo, Huang Zheng personally holds 44% of the shares. According to the market value, it is 13.2 billion US dollars, 90 billion yuan.
Compared with last year's Hurun rankings, this data is similar to that of NetEase's Ding Lei and Wahaha's Zong Qinghou, ranking 16th in China. Born
in the 1980s, less than 40 years old, he was on par with a group of bigwigs who have been famous for many years when he first appeared on the list. This kind of legendary event is naturally talked about by the majority of melon-eating people.
In contrast, the investment institutions standing behind Huang Zheng have not received so much attention.
Of course, this is for outsiders.
Within the capital market, the names behind Pinduoduo are well-known.
Tencent, Sequoia Capital, Gaorong Capital, Lightspeed China...
Each of them is basically the top investment institution in China. Behind Pinduoduo's three-year listing, it is inseparable from the blessing of these capital giants.
In comparison, Qiming Venture Partners, which is not very prominent, can only be regarded as a small role in this capital feast.
Even because it is not among the top ten shareholders, few people know about such an unknown small venture capital company.
However, this does not include Pinduoduo's shareholders and investors. Only those insiders know that in the "world" hidden under the water, there is a "lucky guy" who joined from the angel round and ate almost all the dividends.
In fact, Meng Bai himself did not deliberately hide it, but just did not publicize it. After all, his main business is film and television, not venture capital, and he has no plans to change careers in the future.
Not publicizing it to the outside world will not affect the internal celebration.
From top to bottom, everyone in Qiming Venture Partners can get a generous year-end bonus. Especially for executives like Gu Fei, the highest bonus is nearly 10 million.
This is the charm of financial capital. The income overnight can be equivalent to the income of ordinary people for most of their lives.
However, Gu Fei and others did not relax. In addition to continuing to maintain various tasks after listing, there is another more important thing, which is the future development plan of Qiming Venture Partners.
"What do you think?"
Meng Bai himself actually didn't think about this question seriously.
According to his original idea, the establishment of Qiming Venture Partners was mainly to provide support to Arc Light from another direction.
However, Arclight is developing well now and has no shortage of funds, so it really can't be used for the time being.
"Boss Meng, I have an idea."
Hearing his boss's question, Gu Fei, the actual person in charge of Qiming Venture Partners, spoke first.
"You say."
"Although Qiming Venture Partners now has the Pinduoduo project, it is actually still a novice in the venture capital circle. We lack the research strength and information data of those large institutions, and it is probably difficult to develop in the VC business." Gu Fei said carefully.
Her words at this time are actually a bit like pouring cold water, after all, the company has just completed a shocking investment.
What she is most worried about is that her boss Meng Bai will become blindly confident because of Pinduoduo's performance and plunge into the high-risk industry of venture capital. But as the person in charge of Qiming Venture Partners, these words have to be said.
Fortunately, Meng Bai did not get angry at her words. On the contrary, he quite agreed.
"Indeed, compared with those big institutions, we are indeed far behind." Meng Bai nodded and looked at Gu Fei: "Go on."
With the boss's affirmation, Gu Fei's confidence increased immediately, and he continued: "There is a saying in the investment industry that people can only make money within the scope of their cognition. I thought about it, we don't need to invest in the entire industry, we can only focus on a certain field. Having said that, we are not without any advantages."
Meng Bai thought for a while: "Are you talking about the film and television industry?"
"That's right, boss. ArcLight has a solid foundation in the film and television industry and is well aware of all the information and rules in the industry. So why don't we just start from this area and focus on film and television. Or, more broadly, face the entire entertainment industry."
"Qiming has capital and ArcLight has strength. I think the combination of the two is the most suitable development direction for the future."
Thanks to the big boss "個人挺好7" for the reward! (By the way, did the big boss make a lot of money today?)
(End of this chapter)
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