Chapter 334: First Encounter with a Short-Selling Giant

We chatted for more than three hours on the private plane.

Then we went to sleep in the room. There was a 50-inch high-definition TV in the room, so we could watch whatever we wanted.

The room was fully equipped with details, and it didn't feel like sleeping at home.

A private plane worth 700 million is so comfortable.

I lay down and watched TV for a while, closing my eyes and opening them again. It was 10 am in the United States.

They arrived in Manhattan, New York.

The secretarial team of Tong Zelan came to pick them up. She established a North American branch of Honglan Capital in Manhattan.

She also bought a floor of an office building of more than 2,000 square meters here for office use.

Manhattan is a gathering place for global elites.

It is definitely a symbol of strength to have your own headquarters here. At least one-third of the top 500 companies in the United States have their headquarters in Manhattan.

To the south is Wall Street, which is less than 500 meters away. The average annual salary of employees there is as high as 660,000 US dollars.

There are also the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, and skyscrapers in Manhattan that are taller than one another nearby.

Because of the sleep, there is no jet lag.

Tong Zelan stretched her body, her chest was full, and her cars here were two Escalade Platinum Extended Editions.

Chen Pingsheng naturally had to go with her to the North American branch of Honglan Capital. He was not very familiar with Manhattan, but fortunately he had many acquaintances here.

For example, Cai Chengxin, the second-in-command of Alibaba, bought a top-level luxury house here.

There are many Chinese tycoons like this.

Tong Zelan's headquarters is in the Empire State Building, a famous landmark building in New York, and she spent a huge amount of money to buy the 39th floor.

It is worth mentioning that this building was built in 1931 and has a total of 102 floors.

After Chen Pingsheng followed her to the headquarters office, he first sat down with the team and drank two sips of tea.

Then Tong Zelan took a few more documents from the secretary, "Old Chen, take a look at the big house here first. I asked the secretary to carefully select it for you in advance."

Manhattan is mainly composed of top-level apartments, and few people live in villas. That requires going to a more remote area.

Two of the three houses are close to Central Park, and the external environment is naturally impeccable.

Since he came here, he had to settle down first.

After a casual look, he finally decided to buy the 7074-square-foot luxury apartment with a floor price of 380 million yuan.

Tong Zelan asked his secretary to handle the purchase procedures for him. There are special people to help take care of everything for the rich.

He only needs to wait until the evening to move in with his luggage.

Tong Zelan knew that this was his first time here, so he was very careful in all arrangements.

At least after the house was bought, a special person would be arranged to clean it immediately and equip it with a set of the best bed sheets.

In addition, seven or eight sets of top suits and two luxury cars would be prepared and sent to his downstairs.

After all these were bought, he could directly ask him for reimbursement.

Tong Zelan said, "This house is not bad. It's just above me. I can go to see you in the evening and take the elevator."

"It's good to live close."

Chen Pingsheng asked her, "Didn't you arrange an investment institution to discuss the transfer of shares? When will you come?"

"Don't worry, it will take until the afternoon."

Tong Zelan likes to drink coffee, which can refresh her mind and wake her up. "Are you sure you want to sell your 15% Lujiao Coffee shares for 3 billion!"

"Very sure."

"Okay, if most of my money wasn't in the stock market, I would have bought you directly. Lujiao Coffee will be worth more than 20 billion if it continues to develop at this rate!"

Tong Zelan doesn't like to speculate in domestic stocks, mainly because there are too many junk stocks.

It's difficult to make long-term money due to various factors.

It's different abroad, for example, Apple and Facebook, which have been held for many years, have been bought for many years.

The annual income is also very good.

Chen Pingsheng mainly has a random increase, otherwise he wouldn't be so anxious to cash out his shares.

Like Bobo Milk Tea and Feiyangyang, they all hold 5% in the end.

After layers of holding, they strictly control the final decision-making power of the company.

The investment institutions that Tong Zelan arranged are all from the Chinese circle, including Cheng Chang, who specializes in Chinese fast food here.

His ancestral home is in Jiangsu, and he opened a hundred fast food chains here in 2003.

There is also Yang Zhiyuan, the first-generation Internet founder, and Duan Yongping, a well-known investor in China.

These people would not have attended the investment conference for the transfer of Lujiao Coffee shares at the same time, just because Chen Pingsheng is also a top-level billionaire in the mainland.

Everyone came here to recognize their faces.

You have to know that in the United States, as long as they are from China, they belong to a circle.

Under the big circle, there will be small circles divided by various regions.

Only 3 billion, it’s nothing for Duan Yongping and others.

Although he is in the United States, he still controls several top companies in China.

He also cooperated with Chen Pingsheng on Pinduoduo, and they are all investors in Pinduoduo.

A few billion is a small amount of money. They are all optimistic about the long-term development of Lujiao Coffee.

The domestic market is just the first stop for Lujiao Coffee. In the future, it is destined to involve the global market.

By then, the stock price will be far more than 20 billion.

This is also the real reason why they are willing to jointly invest in the purchase.

Chen Pingsheng also heard a lot of news that cannot be heard in China from them, as well as some secret financial news.

Specifically, Manhattan is truly a world-class financial center.

Here you can see the economic development of various regions around the world, as well as national gaming centers.

The height is different, and the vision is naturally different.

Just like Wall Street, it serves as a financing tool for all listed companies and uses the money raised to better develop future technologies.

Whether it’s chips, AI, or artificial intelligence.

The extent of the lead here is not even a little bit.

Moreover, New York has a certain siphon effect on the world's top talents.

To put it bluntly, both international students and graduates from top domestic universities are willing to work here.

Not to mention other things, Tsinghua University alone has more than 20,000 graduates here.

Tsinghua University only graduates more than 3,000 students in a year.

Just think about it and you will know how scary this data is.

Large companies here attach great importance to technological research and development, which has also resulted in the United States alone accounting for half of the world's top 100 listed companies in the technology field.

The real gap can be seen from this simple data.

It is no exaggeration to say that while China is still obsessed with making money through various business models and marketing, companies here have been specializing in future technologies.

Once a key technology breakthrough is made, any business model or marketing method will be worth mentioning.

Just like paper, it breaks when you poke it.

You are like Musk at Tesla. New energy vehicles are just one of his entrepreneurial projects.

He also has a brain-computer interface, a Mars colonization plan, and a global low-orbit satellite Internet service.

It is preparing to launch more than 6,000 satellites in orbit through the Starlink plan to provide space-based network services to users around the world.

Seriously, I have never heard of these projects in the country, let alone tried them.

Domestic tycoons like him, or the top Internet tycoons, are still robbing vegetable vendors of their business.

This is the difference.

Chen Pingsheng heard from Lao Duan that many projects secretly developed by large companies were somewhat shocking.

Deeply aware of the gap.

It has to be said that some technology companies are really committed to promoting the great development of mankind as a whole.

In the future era of global competition, it will definitely not be based on the price of housing prices. The key core will still be real technology.

He spent more than 60 billion on new energy, which is absolutely correct.

From here we can see that new energy vehicles are full of prospects.

New energy vehicles currently account for less than 3% of the domestic automobile market.

As new energy technologies further mature, this proportion will definitely grow.

…

After chatting until night, Chen Pingsheng returned to his newly bought home.

The top-level duplex apartment with a floor area of ​​more than 7,000 square feet has three large living rooms and seven bedrooms, and is full of various details.

Especially the large living room, facing Central Park.

Except for Zhang Wanyi, everyone else went to stay in the hotel first.

If she stays here, she can still make breakfast and handle some urgent business.

Today, Antler Coffee has cashed out 3 billion in funds, and its income is also 3 billion.

This was the capital he needed to get started on Wall Street, so he had to try his luck.

"Ding, congratulations to the host. Today's revenue is 435 million US dollars. Would you like to enable random doubling?"

"Turn on."

Chen Pingsheng, who was sitting in the living room, recited something silently.

The golden dice reappeared, shaking.

Finally stopped at four o'clock.

"Congratulations to the host, you have obtained a fourfold random increase."

One second, two seconds, three seconds passed.

"Ding, your Citibank account has received US$1.74 billion, and the balance is US$2.175 billion."

This is really good luck. After arriving in the United States, my bank card was changed to Citibank.

The settlement currency naturally became US dollars.

The lights in Manhattan are brightly lit at night, compared to the infrastructure in the city.

Manhattan is not as good as there, but it is far behind in terms of economy and global influence.

If I had to use one word to describe the gap between the two, it would be like people who have never been to a big city especially yearn for Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Manhattan is just that, the first global city that gathers the world's elite.

The most noteworthy thing is that there is no need to work overtime here. The role of the labor union is to strictly protect the rights and interests of workers.

"Uncle Chen, several of my classmates are studying here."

Zhang Wanyi finished taking a shower and wiped her wet hair.

In her heart, Chen Pingsheng is not only a boss but also a caring elder.

"That's good. If you have their contact information, you can try to contact them. I can't do it. None of them studied abroad after graduating from junior high school."

"That's because of the restrictions."

Zhang Wanyi explained: "My classmates all went to study abroad because their grades were not very good and they couldn't win the exams at home. After they got here, they discovered that the education methods are completely different. They couldn't win the exams at home, but these people abroad are really good. Very.”

This is also true.

Chen Pingsheng himself often said that if he doesn't study hard, he will only be able to study at Harvard when he grows up.

In China, it is exam-oriented education, while abroad it is teaching in accordance with aptitude.

Learn whatever you want to learn, something completely different.

Those who can get into Tsinghua University and Peking University in China will basically not be able to get out.

"Those classmates of yours are in pretty good condition!"

"No way, it's all because the family scraped together and sold all the houses in order for them to study here for a few years."

Zhang Wanyi's family is average, so naturally she doesn't have the conditions to study abroad.

The cost of studying abroad at a prestigious university, not to mention the tuition alone, is hundreds of thousands a year.

Adding up all the various expenses, if you want to live a decent life, 800,000 a year is the starting point.

"But they all stayed here to work after graduation, easily making 400,000 or 500,000 a year, working a five-day work week, and working no more than 40 hours a week."

This is true, and it is obviously much better than the crazy internal competition here.

Zhang Wanyi smiled and said, "I also learned about them from the classmates group."

"Very good."

Chen Pingsheng said, "We just came to Wall Street and don't know anything yet. You can try to contact them. In addition, I will also go to see if there are suitable office buildings for sale tomorrow."

"Uncle Chen, do you want to buy an office building here?"

"You think too much, buying a floor is enough."

He has no property abroad, so why spend that money to buy an office building?

Besides, the labor costs here are very high. The starting salary for graduates from prestigious universities is 50,000 to 60,000 US dollars a year.

He doesn't want to be a sucker.

After the industry here is sorted out, he will consider investing heavily in an office building.

The next day, Zhang Wanyi prepared breakfast at dawn.

Chen Pingsheng came out to eat a little, and when he went to the 39th floor of the Empire State Building.

Tong Zelan told him that there was a single-story office building for sale upstairs. If the area of ​​more than 2,000 square meters is used to start an investment company, it is definitely enough.

Chen Pingsheng also thought so. He went to find out that the company listed for sale was a British company, and they were going to move their headquarters to the Port of New Jersey.

This place naturally had to be sold, and the price of a single floor was as high as 120 million US dollars.

Chen Pingsheng thought about it and agreed, mainly because there was not much room for bargaining.

This core area in Manhattan really wants this price.

Everything is intact, and you can start working with your bag, but he is busy cleaning up his new headquarters here.

On the other side, something big happened.

I don’t know why the news was leaked, but Lujiao Coffee was targeted by the Wall Street short-selling giant Muddy Waters.

At 9 a.m., Muddy Waters published a long analytical article about Lujiao Coffee’s financial fraud and inflated stock prices.

And it was released with the seal of several major economists.

As soon as the news came out, the stock price fell sharply.

After Tong Zelan came up, he knew that Muddy Waters had borrowed 30% of Lujiao Coffee shares from the investment bank.

The total market value is about 8.5 billion.

There is no doubt that Lujiao Coffee was targeted by the short-selling giant.

The so-called short selling is a stock market game that only exists abroad.

For example, now, the actual value of Lujiao Coffee per share is 12 US dollars, and Muddy Waters borrowed 100 million shares from the investment bank.

It is agreed to pay it back in half a year.

After half a year, if Lujiao Coffee per share falls to only 6 US dollars.

Then he only needs to pay back the shares at a price of 6 US dollars.

When borrowing, it was 12 US dollars per share, and when repaying, it was 6 US dollars per share.

The gap in the middle is the profit of the short-selling giant.

Of course, there is another situation.

That is, when it was lent out, it was 12 US dollars, and when it was returned, it rose to 36 US dollars.

Then it would have to bear huge losses.

It means that when it was lent out, 100 million shares had only an actual value of 8.5 billion.

When it was returned, if the 100 million shares rose to 25.5 billion, the gap in the middle would be made up by the short-selling giant.

Simply put, short-selling means that the lower the stock price is, the higher the profit of the short-selling giant.

If the stock price rises in the opposite direction, it will face huge losses.

Seriously speaking, if the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets can also make money by short-selling, it will definitely be a paradise for short-selling giants.

You can hit it with your eyes closed.

It’s different abroad. The stock price can rise by one or two times in a year. You can imagine the days of these short-selling giants.

Try to find ways to attack those companies with inflated stock prices or poor management from high-quality stocks.

After Chen Pingsheng clearly understood the rules of short-selling, he didn’t care much.

This is different from the time when Xu Daipi, including the so-called Mr. Yan, wanted to seize his business rights through the stock market.

He must fight back.

And Muddy Waters makes money by lowering his stock price.

In other words, the part of the money earned by Muddy Waters is entirely borne by the retail investors who bought Lujiao Coffee shares abroad.

He can say without exaggeration that this matter is beneficial to him personally.

After all, he just sold Lujiao Coffee shares at a high price, and then he turned around and encountered the short-selling giant Muddy Waters.

This can't be blamed on him.

Secondly, when the stock price really falls to a certain extent, he can completely take out another 10 billion to buy back at a low price.

It is exactly the same as the way of making money in the previous two times, so as far as he is concerned, he hopes that Muddy Waters will lower the stock price of Lujiao Coffee.

But this idea cannot be told to anyone.

There is still a need for superficial counterattacks, but no one knows about it secretly.

He also wants Muddy Waters to buy back the 15% shares he sold with 1 billion after lowering the stock price.

The profit from this one transaction is several billion, only a fool would not do it.

Anyway, everyone is betting on retail investors.

As for those big investors, they will naturally not sell their shares at this time. As long as they don't sell their shares, there will be no cash loss.

It will rise again one day in the future.

Chen Pingsheng chose to stay put and let Yang Qian, the president of Hong Kong, keep publishing news and scolding Muddy Waters for being shameless.

He secretly prepared a billion yuan of funds and waited for the stock price to drop to the freezing point before slowly buying back.

The more fierce the scolding in Hong Kong, the more real the investigation report released by Muddy Waters.

Lujiao Coffee milk tea-style coffee is not global at all.

It also involves financial fraud and false profit reporting. A large number of economic experts are invited to send videos to tell these American retail investors.

This is a garbage-type Chinese company. Everyone should sell it quickly.

Chen Pingsheng didn't expect that his second opportunity to make money on Wall Street would come so quickly.

Or it was achieved by robbing American retail investors.

The more unfavorable news Muddy Waters published, the more fiercely the Hong Kong side scolded, and no serious clarification news was issued.

Anyway, just keep scolding, and the stock price is facing the lowest point in the short term.

It is normal for domestic companies to be listed on NASDAQ and encounter short-selling giants.

No one really takes it seriously, at least these things are normal on Wall Street.