After Divorce, I Can Hear the Future

"Taking over Alipay's payment business in East Asia is just the second step. Right now we need to make sure we handle the first step properly."

Last night, Lu Liang had a conversation with Flannery, and both parties agreed to push for General Tianxing's listing on NASDAQ.

The path to listing for well-known companies has always attracted key attention from major investment banks both domestic and foreign.

Take Ant Group as an example: there were as many as eight firms pre-booking its IPO; the listing was forcibly halted, otherwise, the number would have only increased.

If Ant's listing hadn't been halted,

It would have gone public with a valuation of 200 billion dollars.

The subsequent number of shares issued would have had to reach at least one billion to avoid a share price of over 100 dollars.

If we take 100 dollars per share as an example, stock issuers can appropriately raise the issue price according to market investor sentiment; every 1 dollar increase equates to a 10 billion dollar profit.

Furthermore, this doesn't account for the fact that as stock issuers, they have the right to designate exclusive subscription banks, which attract high-net-worth users.

After all, people nowadays find dealing with multiple institutions troublesome; if interest rates, benefits, and services are similar, they'll stick with one bank for the long term once they confirm it.

This is why every time a well-known company goes public, major investment banks scramble to become the stock issuers.

In the past, during the listings of Panda, NIO, and even DiDi, Lu Liang could only watch as the considerable profits flowed into the pockets of those investment banks.

Even if the other party is a hostile force, this behavior is akin to aiding the enemy, but corporate IPOs require their assistance.

Now things are different; Tianxing Finance has its own subsidiary investment banks, keeping the profits within our domain.

Lu Liang designated Guangsheng Bank as the sole stock issuer for General Tianxing in the East Asian market, and Flannery was also willing to give him this nod.

"Is General Tianxing going public this soon?"

Though Wen Chao was delighted, he was also puzzled.

Handling the stock issuance for General Tianxing is perfectly suited to making Guangsheng's debut impressive.

But now, it seems a bit too early, doesn't it?

No matter how much we raise the valuation, at most it wouldn't exceed 30 billion dollars, with a ceiling at 35 billion dollars.

For an ordinary car company, this might be a lot, after all, even the market leader in domestic new energy vehicles, BYD, only has a market value of over 300 billion yuan, equivalent to about 46.3 billion dollars.

But Wen Chao once heard Lu Liang say that General Tianxing's existence is meant to benchmark against the American version of Tesla, or even surpass it.

Both General Motors and Tianxing are not lacking funds; for their joint venture to go public with a valuation not exceeding 30 billion dollars feels a bit like forcing growth prematurely.

Lu Liang lightly sighed: "It is premature growth, but given the current international situation, going public early is also a good thing."

Though initially invited by Trump, General Motors only partnered with Tianxing because he suggested they build a joint factory in Detroit.

Logically, Trump should be covering for them.

Because Detroit is located in Michigan, a traditional swing state.

The United States has seven traditional swing states, and securing each one plays a crucial role in re-election.

But things are different now; back then, the trade war had not yet ignited, and Trump felt everything was under control.

However, since April this year, the trade war between the two major countries has lasted over six months.

The situation has exceeded the expectations of countries around the world, as East Country has adopted a stance of remaining unfazed in the face of adversity.

Although it cannot be said there was no impact, East Country has indeed withstood the pressure from the United States and implemented effective countermeasures.

This is why the incident of Meng Wanqiu's arrest in Canada happened later, because the United States realized they couldn't handle East Country within the rules and had to resort to underhanded tactics.

But it seems like those underhanded tactics haven't been very effective.

Instead, they've put loyal followers on the spot, leaving them in a dilemma.

Trump has reached a point of shamelessness, where such actions are either never done or done countless times; the promises made to Tianxing are likely to end up being worthless.

Lu Liang couldn't help but take precautions, ensuring General Tianxing goes public early to rake in substantial profits from the market and boost the development of investment banks. This is to prevent ending up like Hays Technology, targeted and left with nothing.

Wen Chao appeared thoughtful, nodding in agreement, realizing there's indeed this possibility—when pushed to the brink, the world's number one rogue could do anything.

After pondering for a moment, he volunteered: "Mr. Lu, I'll make a trip to Detroit and then to New York to assist General Tianxing in starting the IPO financing?"

"Be careful in everything, and stay safe."

Lu Liang gave an approving look; Wen Chao, still the secretary he once was, always able to guess his thoughts.

With international tensions rising, Harris plans to confront the IRS head-on, making it inappropriate for him to show up.

But for General Tianxing's listing, someone who can hold down the situation needs to be present, and Wen Chao's identity is most suitable.

Not long after, the two finished their conversation. Wen Chao set the specific date for his US trip, and Lu Liang called for Li Junwei.

He informed him that Wen Chao would be traveling for some time, and that he also needed to go to Tokyo to handle some trivial matters concerning Xingheng.

During their absence, Li Junwei would be in charge of Tianxing Finance, handling all affairs independently.

Although Li Junwei was from the Quantitative Department, the quantitative models had long been trained by Liang Wenhu to the extent that, barring any black swan events, there's essentially no need for manual intervention; every trading day opens with automatic trading on the Hong Kong stock market.