After the Divorce, I Could Hear the Voice of the Future-Chapter 371 - 368: The Long-Awaited Meeting Gift
Chapter 371 -368: The Long-Awaited Meeting Gift
“Godfather of Business, that’s a pretty good name~”
Dusk enshrouded the back of the car as Lu Liang’s whisper resonated.
He didn’t know whether this was right or wrong, but as there were no drawbacks, he decided to just go with it.
“Bro, where to?” Fang Shiyu asked.
“Back to the company.”
Today was the 13th, and the new energy vehicle conference would begin on the 15th on Hai Island, Boao, with many national leaders attending.
The conference would last three days, going on until the evening of the 17th.
Unless something unexpected happened, Lu Liang planned to first head to Tokyo on the 18th, then fly directly from Tokyo to Edinburgh.
By the time he returned from Edinburgh, it should be around the 25th, and the Federal Reserve was poised to announce another interest rate hike.
The schedule was tight, as the fourth phase of the fund had just finished subscription today, and the funds wouldn’t be fully in place until three days later.
So, Lu Liang needed to get back to the company to give some early instructions on the preparation of the funds to avoid being caught off guard.
This time, they planned to enter the foreign exchange market.
With the Federal Reserve hiking rates again, they were resolutely implementing Old Te’s quantitative US Dollar policy, and global funds were going to flood into the United States; the most direct method was to buy government bonds.
Good for the US Dollar, bad for all other currencies besides the US Dollar.
At that time, yen, British Pounds, euros, and RMB were all expected to plunge significantly.
Lu Liang, with US Dollars in hand, planned to play a different game, opening up four battlefields, using high leverage to go for large gains with small bets.
“It’s also time to give old friends, new friends, a long-overdue welcome gift,” Lu Liang murmured with narrowed eyes.
Late at night, on the 22nd floor of the New International Building.
“Leave the Tesla stock alone; even if it hovers around the hundred billion mark, unable to climb higher or fall lower, it doesn’t matter.”
Lu Liang flipped through the asset details, instructing, “Take $3 billion from the third phase fund and combine it with the $3 billion from the impending fourth phase fund, making it a neat $6 billion.”
“Divide the $6 billion into four parts, creating four small teams, eight people each managing a sum, with you overseeing them.”
“While I’m gone these next few days, leverage this money up to ten times its volume through financing.”
“Just like before, spread it out over several institutions, as much as possible, to prevent our funds from being traced.”
Even after more than two years with Lu Liang, Sun Yutao was still used to Lu Liang speaking in half-sentences, leaving half unsaid.
At least until that day came, Sun Yutao only knew they intended to utilize a tenfold super high leverage.
As for the specific destinations of the four sums of money,
whether they were going short or long, he had no clue.
Sun Yutao nodded; he was accustomed to being the tool-man, with Boss Lu guiding his every move.
The two conversed until past three in the morning, laying out a preliminary plan and agreeing to adjust the details as needed later on.
That night, Lu Liang went nowhere.
He lay comfortably on the leather sofa in his office, where he had always felt at ease, and drifted to sleep.
The next afternoon, Lu Liang again visited the Hilton Hotel; Wilson and his party were leaving, and he came to send them off.
At the same time, they set the time for their next meeting: the Panda would have a roadshow in Modu in mid-next month and then in New York at the beginning of the following month.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, they would meet at the start of October.
“Lu, you really do care,”
Wilson couldn’t help but chuckle, realizing that Lu Liang was clearly reminding them not to forget Panda’s IPO.
“Mr. Wang is my friend, and even after Panda’s listing, I’ll still hold an 8.235% stake.”
Lu Liang openly acknowledged, with a beaming smile, “With hundreds of millions of dollars at stake, wouldn’t you take it to heart if you were in my shoes?”
Wilson laughed heartily, “I like your candidness. If you had no desire for wealth, how could you talk about controlling it?”
“I look forward to your return at the beginning of October.”
Wilson, Cruick, and the others waved goodbye, boarded the coach, and planned to stop by Xiangjiang first, as the international recognition of the RMB was too low, and their companies were all based in Xiangjiang.
“Have they left?”
Suddenly, Liu Qing emerged from beside Lu Liang; she too had stayed at the Hilton Hotel the previous night.
“Mr. Liu, how about a cup of coffee?”
Lu Liang invited Liu Qing as they moved to the hotel’s restaurant, “How did your conversation go last night?”
“De Mei JPMorgan are very interested; it’s just not known whether the Ministry of Commerce will approve.”
Liu Qing sighed; she was contemplating whether to bypass the review and go for a direct listing in the United States.
DiDi was valued at 50 billion US dollars, a valuation that did not materialize out of thin air. In the past five years, DiDi had financed 18 rounds, totaling an investment of 17.5 billion US dollars.
To secure this capital, DiDi had signed countless wager agreements, which included clauses about when and where to go public.
Lu Liang couldn’t help but be amazed, this woman’s courage was nothing short of extraordinary, and he couldn’t help but remind her kindly, “One ban, and DiDi ceases to exist.”
“Mr. Lu, that’s a bit of an overstatement, it wouldn’t come to that,” she said.
Liu Qing shook her head slightly and added, “But that’s also a last resort out of desperation.”
Suddenly, she took a call and after a while, she returned and said, “Mr. Lu, I am deeply grateful for your recommendation.”
“It’s just that I have some matters to attend to back in Beijing shortly, so I might not be able to chat with you at length.”
“No trouble at all, Mr. Liu, go ahead with your business,” Lu Liang replied.
Lu Liang stood at the hotel entrance, wearing a smile, and watched Liu Qing’s car drive away until it disappeared completely.
He made a call to Li Junyi, “Director Li, could you possibly inform me what exactly DiDi has done wrong?”
If it was just the accusation of providing high-precision maps, it obviously wasn’t worth Liu Qing taking such a risk, even considering bypassing the regulators to list directly in the United States.
The cost would be too great, nearly pushing DiDi into the fire pit and losing its potential for development.
‘If you don’t do it, there are plenty of others who will.’
This saying applied not just to bosses and employees but also to nations and companies.
After all, DiDi wasn’t like DJI, which stood out alone with its impressive flight control technology.
If DiDi dared to bypass scrutiny and go public directly in the US, the state would surely strike hard, and companies like Douyin and Meituan would dare to reignite the warfare in the ride-hailing industry.
E-commerce, food delivery, group buying, online lending—the happy family bucket of ride-hailing is a target for every internet company.
Li Junyi fell silent for a moment before suddenly asking, “Mr. Lu, when will you come to Beijing again?”
“Probably next month, or even later,” Lu Liang answered.
“How about I inform you in person when you are here?” Li Junyi suggested.
“Hmm, that’s all we can do then.”
After ending the call with Li Junyi, Lu Liang was taken aback, suspecting that DiDi might have committed no small offense, but in this way, the geographical advantage was definitely on his side, leaving the other two elements of timing and harmony yet to be obtained.
He wondered when he could gather them all.
In the afternoon, Lu Liang returned to Sinograin No.1 to have Li Manli help pack his suitcase, and he boarded the flight to Hai Island.
At a little past eight in the evening, the plane landed at Boao Airport, where he met Lei Jun, Wang Chuanfu, and others at the airport entrance.
“Mr. Lu, the world really is small, we met yesterday and here we are meeting again,” Lei Jun said with a smile and a wave.
Wang Chuanfu also smiled and said, “Mr. Lu, it’s been a long time. How about joining us for dinner later?”
“The big brother’s arrangements are fine,” Lu Liang said with a gesture of respect.
Old Wang’s expression darkened, and he couldn’t help but curse with a laugh, “Don’t call me big brother, I agreed to it once before, and as a result, you poached dozens of engineers from me.”
“Big brother, let’s not bring up unhappy things, right, Mr. Lei?”
Lu Liang looked profoundly at Lei Jun, turning his head towards him.
Lei Jun had silently visited Tianxing in Beijing while he was away, fortunately, most of their employees were poached from other companies.
Each one had signed a three-year labor and non-compete contract; otherwise, he would probably share Wang Chuanfu’s empathic misery.
“Mr. Lu is right, Mr. Wang, let’s not bring up unhappy things again,” said Lei Jun.
Feeling embarrassed, Lei Jun chuckled awkwardly, “Gentlemen, although the sea breeze is intoxicating, how about we settle in the hotel first and then have a good chat, what do you think?”
“You guys~”
Old Wang shook his head with a bitter smile, feeling world-weary.
Although Lei Jun didn’t manage to poach from Tianxing, he did poach from BYD, and not only from Tianxing and Xiaomi, but almost every company like Weiliao had poached from BYD several times.
Eventually, BYD would be plucked clean by these people.
“Mr. Wang, I’ll see you later then.”
Lu Liang and Lei Jun exchanged glances and an awkward smile, quickly got into their respective back seats, and headed to their destination.
Twenty minutes later, the car crossed a sea bridge and arrived at the permanent venue of the Asian Forum.
A naturally formed Hai Island, with an area of 2,600 acres, connected by two sea bridges at each end, guaranteed the highest level of security.
Be it vehicles or invited guests, everyone had to disembark for inspection, ensuring a worry-free environment.
Because this was the inaugural World New Energy Automobile Conference, many leaders from Beijing would be attending.
Hai Island was just the host of the venue; the actual organizers were the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Beijing Municipal Government, the Science Department, the Energy Department, the Market Supervision General Administration, and other heavyweight departments jointly organizing the event.
The development of new energy was a national strategy, and there was no doubt about that.