Chapter 375: Attention and Gambling by Senior Lion City Government Officials
After hearing this, Li Xiaofan asked curiously: "Mr. Zheng, how did you know this news?"
"After I graduated from Harvard Business School, I worked on Wall Street for a while, and Morgan Stanley was my old employer. Now even after joining GIC Special Investment Company, we still maintain a very close partnership with Morgan Stanley. ..." Zheng Yingjie explained with a smile.
After Zheng Yingjie explained this, Li Xiaofan felt relieved. No wonder he was so well-informed.
"Yes, Mr. Zheng, our Taiping Bay Online Bookstore has invited Morgan Stanley as the lead underwriter for our listing on the Nasdaq market in the United States. We are currently intensively carrying out pre-IPO preparations. If everything goes well, we will This Pacific Online Bookstore project plans to be listed on the Nasdaq market in the third quarter of this year.”
"Oh, great! Director Li, in fact, I have been very concerned about your Yahoo Singapore site and Pacific Online Bookstore projects since they were created last year. Many colleagues in our company are loyal users of these two projects. Fans. It brings a lot of convenience to our work and life!”
After saying this, Zheng Yingjie whispered in Li Xiaofan's ear very mysteriously:
"I heard that some of the big bosses of our GIC company are among those who often log in to your Yahoo! Singapore site and your Pacific Online Bookstore to buy books..."
When GIC was established in the 1980s, it was founded by Dr. Goh Keng Swee, the then Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore and Chairman of the Monetary Authority. The then Prime Minister Lee served as the chairman of the company's board of directors, and the deputy prime minister, Dr. Goh Keng Swee, served as the vice chairman of the board of directors.
It can be seen from this structure that outsiders generally think that Singapore’s Temasek is very powerful. In fact, GIC is the leader of Singapore’s state-owned assets!
The previous chairman of the board of directors of GIC companies has generally been personally served by the Prime Minister of the Singapore government, and senior government managers such as the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance serve as company directors.
It is equivalent to the Singapore government's economic cabinet in managing and making decisions on major affairs and development directions of this company. Indeed, GIC is so important to Singapore. The nearly 70 billion U.S. dollars of foreign exchange reserves it manages are the lifeblood and important asset of Singapore’s current economy, and play a decisive role in the development of Singapore’s economy.
What Zheng Yingjie said means that at least people at the level of minister or deputy prime minister in Singapore are paying attention to the business development of Li Xiaofan's Yifan Company.
However, in a place as big as Singapore, Li Xiaofan started Yahoo Singapore and founded Pacific Online Bookstore here. He also invested in Yahoo in the United States and made more than 200 million U.S. dollars. The news was so big that it attracted the attention of high-level officials such as the Prime Minister and President of Singapore. Very normal.
Those senior officials in Singapore usually read that day's Straits Times every morning, just like our domestic leaders read the People's Daily. The name Li Xiaofan has been somewhat exposed in Singapore recently.
"Oh, that's really an honor for our company!" Li Xiaofan said with a smile.
"Director Li, I am here to visit you today. In addition to learning from you how to invest in the Internet industry, I also want to ask, by the way, does your Pacific Online Bookstore project need financing recently before it goes to the United States for its IPO?"
After hearing this, Li Xiaofan felt excited and asked: "Mr. Zheng, do you mean that your GIC Special Assets Investment Company is interested in investing in our Pacific Online Bookstore project?"
Zheng Yingjie looked at Li Xiaofan seriously and said, "Yes, Director Li, our company is very interested in investing in your emerging Internet project!"
"Mr. Zheng, I heard before that your GIC company mainly invests in overseas developed markets. Why did you think of investing in our local project in Singapore?"
Zheng Yingjie explained with a smile:
"Director Li, maybe our GIC company is a bit mysterious to outsiders because we are a private company in terms of legal structure and do not need to publicly publish statements and data, so many people don't know much about our company. In fact, recently we GIC has changed its investment policy of relying entirely on developed markets and begun to enter emerging markets in Asia. Moreover, from Netscape. After the company was successfully listed on Nasdaq, we have also increased our research on the emerging Internet industry. Your two projects, Yahoo Singapore Station and Pacific Online Bookstore, have been the targets of our tracking and research recently from Morgan Stanley. According to the news, we feel that now may be a more appropriate time to invest in your Pacific Bookstore project, and the risk is relatively small..."
Li Xiaofan smiled and said: "Mr. Zheng, first of all, thank you GIC Company for your attention to our Pacific Bookstore project. It is our honor to be favored by you! But unfortunately, we just completed a new round of financing a while ago. With a post-investment valuation of US$100 million, two American venture capital firms, DFJ and IDG, and three venture capital funds including our Yifan Company Yifan No. 1 Venture Capital Fund were introduced, raising a total of US$25 million..."
"Director Li, we only learned about this news recently through Morgan Stanley. We may have arrived a little late. Now, do we, GIC, still have a chance to invest in it?"
"There is definitely an opportunity. We originally planned to secretly submit an IPO registration draft to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) early next month, but there just happened to be a time window. But now I have said no, I still need to communicate with other members of the company. The decision can only be made after discussion with several shareholders. Moreover, with your participation in GIC, all the materials we previously drafted with Morgan Stanley and other intermediaries will have to be overturned, and the workload will be huge..."
Zheng Yingjie knew that Li Xiaofan was practicing Tai Chi. Now Li Xiaofan controls about 70% of the shares of Yue Pacific Bookstore and has absolute controlling rights and voice.
He guessed that Li Xiaofan might be bargaining.
Indeed, Li Xiaofan sincerely welcomes the joining of such a famous sovereign wealth fund as GIC, the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation. GIC's becoming a project shareholder will definitely help increase the future valuation of the Pacific Online Bookstore project.
Although he was very excited inside, his face was calm. He wanted to get a good price from GIC.
Li Xiaofan said calmly: "Mr. Zheng, if you want me to convince other shareholders such as DFJ, IDG and Hong Leong Group of Malaysia to let your GIC company take a stake in our project before the IPO, you may need your GIC to provide a Attractive enough conditions..."
"That's not a problem. Director Li, if it's convenient, could you please send me the relevant information about your company? We will study it immediately when we get back, and we will give you timely feedback after completing the internal evaluation process!"
"How much time will it take?" Li Xiaofan asked.
"I guess it won't be very slow, because after you started the preparatory work for the IPO, Morgan Stanley has taken the lead in completing the DD due diligence for your project. In this way, our company no longer needs to go through the due diligence process. If you If it’s convenient, just send us the due diligence report from Morgan Stanley!”
Li Xiaofan thought for a moment and said, "Well, sure. Then we both will sign a confidentiality agreement first, and then I can let you take away all the relevant information about Pacific Online Bookstore!"