Chapter 334: The Predecessor Chops the Tree, the Successor Gets Sunburned

Li Dongling looked at Zhang Yufeng a few times, then looked at Song Zhiliang to the side, seeing that he didn't seem surprised by Zhang Yufeng's words, clearly being in the know. This made Li Dongling have to speculate whether there was some inside story to this.

"What does Zhang Zong mean by this? Founder's IPO shares shouldn't be hard to sell, right?"

Eating a piece of the representative Lu cuisine, scallion-braised sea cucumber—truth be told, this flavor wouldn't be possible to eat in another ten years or so, because the soup used to braise the sea cucumber was Fengtian Feilong fresh soup, made from hazel grouse. How to put it? Twenty years later, not to mention the person who made it being sentenced for a few years, as long as you were sitting at the table, regardless of whether you ate the meat or not, it would be three years to start...

It was only now that things like hazel grouse, bear paws, and tigers weren't regulated yet. Even giant pandas were still performing acrobatics to work for a living, let alone them. That was why there was a chance to get them.

However, in a few years, dishes made from this Fengtian Feilong soup and wild sea cucumber would probably be impossible to eat, because more and more people were getting rich, and more and more people were eating these things. Many were being eaten into endangered species. Could they not become protected animals? It was only these few years that one could taste something fresh.

So in later generations, regarding certain famous dishes, if they tasted bad, it might not be that the chef's skills weren't good, but that certain side ingredients couldn't be used. Just like this scallion-braised sea cucumber, which chef would dare use Fengtian Feilong soup? That would be truly criminal.

After eating a few bites, Li Dongling wiped his lips and tentatively said to Zhang Yufeng, but his eyes were fixed on Zhang Yufeng and Song Zhiliang.

Zhang Yufeng suddenly wanted to give Founder's financing shares to Dongling High-Tech. Li Dongling couldn't help but speculate what he was trying to play at. As for the matter of letting Dongling High-Tech earn Founder's IPO gains for nothing, Li Dongling simply didn't believe it.

One had to know that nowadays, a company going public was not only considered a symbol of "success" but also considered an opportunity to get rich, especially original shares, which countless people squeezed their heads to grab.

IPO shares, although not as good as original shares, but Founder's revenue ability and popularity were right there. There was no reason for a scenario where the issued shares couldn't be sold or where no securities company would subscribe to them.

Zhang Yufeng, however, proposed at such a time to let Dongling High-Tech subscribe to Founder's shares. It was hard not to speculate whether there was some change in the situation.

After Zhang Yufeng and Song Zhiliang looked at each other, Song Zhiliang spoke up. "This time, Founder is prepared to issue 162.5 million shares at a price of 1.98 Hong Kong dollars per share, for a total financing of 320 million Hong Kong dollars!"

After Li Dongling heard this, he couldn't help but be silent for a moment. Founder was making a big move. A financing of 320 million Hong Kong dollars was equivalent to 360 million RMB, which was quite a bit more than Founder's total profit for the previous two years. This financing was equivalent to Founder getting a large amount of cash flow all at once.

To put it plainly, it was using any means necessary. The level of Wang Jizhi, who came from a technical background, compared to Duan Yongji, was really far behind.

Hearing Li Dongling's words, Zhang Yufeng and Song Zhiliang both showed embarrassed expressions. Zhang Yufeng said somewhat awkwardly, "In the Hong Kong stock market, there are some doubts about mainland red-chip stocks!"

Seeing Li Dongling's puzzled expression, Zhang Yufeng knew that Li Dongling might not really pay much attention to the Hong Kong stock market, so he simply broke it open. "Last year, Lenovo went public in Hong Kong with an issue price of 1.33 yuan, but... this year, Lenovo suffered a huge loss of 245 million Hong Kong dollars, and the stock price fell below 40 cents, which also caused the entire domestic red-chip stock market to cool down in Hong Kong!"

Bringing this up, Zhang Yufeng felt unlucky. Founder was completely suffering an unprovoked disaster. Founder and Lenovo's businesses were now completely different.

But Hong Kong didn't care. The investors there only knew that Lenovo and Founder were both companies from the mainland.

The key was that Lenovo was simply too scary. The issue price was 1.33, and in this year or so, not to mention falling below the issue price, it was rushing toward bankruptcy. As a result, the Hong Kong people, who were originally quite enthusiastic about mainland red-chip stocks, were now a bit wary of mainland stocks.

The reason it could lose so much was because Lenovo was now engaged in the R&D of boards and cards for network cards, sound cards, expansion cards, and graphics cards.

But what was Lenovo's situation before? On the outside, it looked like fresh flowers and infinite scenery, but on the inside, Boss Liu and Academician Ni were fighting fiercely.

Lenovo's technical department was Academician Ni's territory. After Academician Ni left, Boss Liu carried out a round of cleaning of Lenovo's technical department, driving away Academician Ni's people or transferring them from their posts.

This was not wrong in itself. A new emperor, a new court. After Academician Ni left, Boss Liu replaced the technical department with his own confidants so that he could command them like an arm, which was also justifiable.

But Academician Ni's departure was indeed a heavy blow to Lenovo, especially the technical department.

Boss Liu, perhaps to prove he wasn't wrong, had never been very willing to invest in R&D, so he went all-in on Lenovo boards and cards. The technical difficulty of developing boards and cards compared to motherboards, chips, and graphics cards was certainly lower. If Lenovo boards and cards could be developed successfully, Boss Liu could be sarcastic about Academician Ni when facing the media, proving that Lenovo could still do its own R&D without Academician Ni.

But facts proved that Boss Liu's layoffs hit Lenovo's main artery. Without Academician Ni, Lenovo just couldn't do it. Now Lenovo's board and card project was a mess, losing 245 million Hong Kong dollars in less than two quarters, and Lenovo's stock price was sliding like an avalanche.

Of course, mouths were on different people, and the words spoken were also different. In his previous life, someone threw the blame for the failure of Lenovo's board and card R&D onto Academician Ni.

He even swore that this was the reason he didn't want Lenovo to do R&D; it was simply too expensive. But at that time, Academician Ni had already been sidelined, and there was no funding for R&D. When he was finally driven away, he was also saddled with a black pot.

In this life, Academician Ni had long been dug away by Dongxin Semiconductor, serving as the chief engineer of Dongxin Semiconductor. The blame for the failure of Lenovo's board and card couldn't be thrown onto Academician Ni. Now Boss Liu was probably already overwhelmed.

Not only was Lenovo unlucky, but its stock price collapse also caused domestic red-chip stocks to cool down in Hong Kong.

Founder ambitiously proposed to issue 163 million shares, accounting for 32% of Founder's entire equity. If the issuance was successful, Founder's equity would become Yan University Asset Management Company holding about 56% of Founder's equity, and Founder management holding 12%.

If the issuance was successful, it could raise 320 million Hong Kong dollars, not only allowing Founder Group to get a large amount of cash flow to do big things, but also allowing the parent company, Yan University Asset Management Company, to eat a big piece of meat!

Why were so many companies now desperately going public? Because borrowing money from banks required repayment, but money raised from an IPO didn't. Just this point alone was enough to make countless companies desperately go public.

Listening to Zhang Yufeng's words, Li Dongling already understood what Founder was trying to do. Now that Founder's financing was cooling down, it wanted to let Dongling High-Tech "pull" Founder, subscribe to a portion of Founder's shares, and hype up the heat so that other investment institutions and investors would follow.

This financing of over 300 million Hong Kong dollars for Founder wasn't much for Dongling High-Tech; eating it all wasn't a problem. In the short term, it might lose money, and falling below the issue price was certain. But in the long term, as long as you held onto it and didn't let go, and Founder's market value peaked at 360 billion in the future, then cashing out would yield a hundredfold return, which was no problem at all.

But whether to pull Founder this time and eat this loss in the early stages required strategy. You couldn't just have Zhang Yufeng open his mouth and have Dongling High-Tech help. If it helped so easily, then later on, Founder might even think that Dongling High-Tech took advantage of it. You had to make it beg Dongling High-Tech!

"Perhaps Founder could try to lower the stock issue price and reduce the financing scale..."

"No!"

Before Li Dongling finished speaking, Song Zhiliang couldn't help but speak first. He hesitated for a moment before saying, "Li Zong, Founder is a university-run enterprise and also a state-owned enterprise, with countless eyes watching from top to bottom!"

"If the issue price is set too low and the financing scale is too small, in the future, it might be questioned as a loss of state-owned assets. At that time, neither Founder nor the Yan University Asset Management Company would be able to bear such a risk!"

To put it plainly, if the stock price was set too cheaply, then inevitably someone would question why Founder's stock price was set so cheaply, rushing to send equity to overseas investment companies. Was there some shady business going on here?

In addition, if the financing scale was small, Yan University Asset Management Company would earn less, and Song Zhiliang wouldn't be able to answer to the Yan University School Committee.

This was Founder's current situation, trapped in an awkward dilemma. Operating Founder's IPO was the first fire Zhang Yufeng burned after being elected as Founder's head. He simply couldn't let Founder give up on the IPO; he couldn't even pause it.

If Founder's IPO failed, Zhang Yufeng's prestige at Founder would vanish. If people's hearts were scattered, the team would be hard to lead, especially for a new head.

Zhang Yufeng had been anxious and angry about this matter during this period, and he had also found many companies and institutions. But regarding Founder's stock issuance, they were either holding a wait-and-see attitude, afraid of losing money if they took over, and unwilling to take risks, or they proposed harsh conditions, and there had been no progress.

As for finding state-owned investment institutions like BOC International, ICBC, CITIC Investment, and China Merchants Investment, that was even harder. If they lost money taking over Founder's shares, these investment institutions would also be questioned, similarly involving the issue of state-owned assets. The heads of these state-owned institutions were also unwilling to bear such risks for Founder.

The news that Li Dongling was sending Li Dongyue to enroll at Yan University gave Zhang Yufeng hope. Dongling High-Tech's strength was currently unique in the domestic tech industry. Plus, with Dongling High-Tech's influence, if it subscribed to Founder's shares, he wouldn't be afraid of others not taking over!

Zhang Yufeng had flown to Hong Kong many times this year. He knew Li Dongling's influence in Hong Kong. Countless people in the younger generation in Hong Kong also pursued Li Dongling, the founder of Dongling High-Tech. Hong Kong media also chased Li Dongling's news. If Li Dongling was willing to make a move, Founder would definitely be able to overcome the difficulties.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 335 =====