After divorce, I can hear the voice of the future

Chapter 710 Ant Group Launches IPO
During his stay in Shanghai, Lu Liang stayed at Su Wanyu's house on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and at Wang Chuting's house on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On weekends, he would go to Suzhou Industrial Park to take a stroll and spend time with Li Manli.

Yesterday was Friday. After saying goodbye to Director Zhao in the evening, Lu Liang went to the Tianji Garden residential community where Wang Chuting lived.

Because he was going to Hong Kong soon, which seemed to coincide with Wang Chuting's due date, he wanted to spend more time with her.

Although he had to be careful while sleeping and couldn't do anything except hug her, Lu Liang was happy to have some peace and quiet.

The next day, I slept until I woke up naturally.

Lu Liang walked out of the bedroom and into the living room, where he saw Wang Chuting still exercising.

He leaned against the door frame, crossed his arms, and joked with a smile, "You don't look like someone who's nine months pregnant at all."

Perhaps it was the advantage of her tall stature and large frame that made her pregnant belly appear less disproportionate to her overall body, even as she approached her due date. Unlike Su Wanyu, her pregnancy didn't look so out of place.

She was wearing yoga pants and a tank top and bra, kneeling on one knee with her arms raised as if she were doing a stretching exercise.

"The doctor said that appropriate prenatal exercise can also help with postpartum body recovery." Wang Chuting glanced at Lu Liang.

"Then you can exercise slowly. I'll take you to the hospital to check in this afternoon, and then I'll head over to Hong Kong." Lu Liang arrived at the restaurant, where the nanny had already prepared breakfast.

Wang Chuting's eyes darted around. After finishing her morning exercise, she quietly asked, "Is it for Ant Financial's IPO?"

"With the size of Ant Group, how could it possibly be independently listed in Hong Kong? It would need to at least..."

Lu Liang, who was drinking his congee, suddenly stopped talking, turned his head and asked in surprise, "How did you know Ant Group was going public?"

"It's trending on the internet, and I heard from former classmates that housing prices there have gone crazy."

Wang Chuting looked regretful. She had spent a total of six years in Hangzhou, including four years of university and the first two years of her job.

I have a very deep affection for that city and love its environment. I even plan to move my studio there in the future, and I've already found a place to live.

The villa community she had her eye on had an average price of just over 70,000 yuan per square meter. However, due to Ant Group's announcement of its IPO plan, which is expected to create a large number of millionaires, multi-millionaires, and even billionaires, housing prices across the city skyrocketed.

I glanced at my WeChat Moments a few days ago and the average price was only 72,000 yuan. But when Ant Group announced its IPO this morning, the price instantly soared to over 90,000 yuan.

Looking at the headline news, Lu Liang repeatedly confirmed the authenticity of the news, and couldn't help but sigh, "They've run out of ideas."

If he hadn't met with Director Zhao last night and hadn't known their determination, he might have thought that Lao Ma's plan to make it a fait accompli might succeed.

But now he knows that Jack Ma is doomed, and Ant Group will absolutely not go public.

"Is there something going on?" Wang Chuting's eyes lit up, her reporter instincts suddenly kicking in.

"黔驴技穷" is not a positive expression; it describes a villain who is incompetent and unable to escape their difficult situation.

Lu Liang chuckled and patted Wang Chuting's head: "Do you know how much paid-in capital Ant Group has?"

After thinking it over, Wang Chuting replied, "It should be at least 500 billion, right?"

Lu Liang chuckled and shook his head.

"Dollar?"

Lu Liang shook his head again.

"1000 billion?"

Wang Chuting was very good at creating emotional value; instead of asking directly, she guessed several times in a row.

But none of them guessed correctly. She was furious and threatened fiercely, "Are you going to tell me or not? If you don't, I'll go check Baidu."

“30 billion,” Lu Liang said.

"Dollar?"

"RMB!"

Wang Chuting clicked her tongue in astonishment: "How is that possible?"

Although she didn't graduate with a finance degree, she knew that an institution with such a large amount of savings funds could not possibly have only such a small amount of security deposit.

"Nothing is impossible; it's just that there's an extra step in the process."

Lu Liang remarked with emotion, "Back then, Ant Group received support from banks to issue low-interest ABS bonds, amplifying its funds 100 times to 300 billion yuan. This 300 billion yuan was then used as collateral to mitigate the risk of 1.86 trillion yuan in savings." "The 1.86 trillion yuan in user savings was used for lending for a long time, with interest compounding, which is why it has the current valuation of 175 billion US dollars."

30 billion yuan can leverage 1.86 trillion yuan.

Jack Ma not only wants to control the wallets of hundreds of millions of users, but also wants Alipay to be too big to fail.

1.86 trillion yuan—that's the life savings of countless individuals and families.

If Ant Group goes public smoothly, Jack Ma can simply cash out and leave, leaving this huge debt to society.

This is unlike the 08 financial crisis, where the government adopted a soft landing strategy by addressing the housing market boom.

At least the real estate market has a physical form; if it collapses one day, at least you still have a house. If it's a necessity, you can grit your teeth and bear it. But Alipay has absolutely no physical form.

If a thunderbolt were to explode one day, it would be like jumping into water from a height of 100 meters, with the same effect as hitting a concrete surface.

With a crack, it shattered into pieces on the ground.

This is also why Maradona criticized the Basel Accords.

According to the minimum requirements of the Basel Accords, Ant Group needs to have assets valued at 8% of its assets to go public, even if it's only $140 billion, but it doesn't want to contribute that amount.

That's why we keep emphasizing reputation, reputation, reputation!
But how could a country entrust the wallets of hundreds of millions of people to a businessman based solely on the word "reputation"?

"According to you, Ant Group's IPO is destined to fail."

Wang Chuting wanted to know more, but Lu Liang didn't want to talk about it anymore and instead asked, "Where is that villa you're looking at? Send me the location."

Although Ant Group's IPO is destined to fail and Hangzhou's housing prices are destined to return to their original level, or even lower, the increase of tens of thousands per square meter makes no difference to him.

After all, Tianxing Investment always has eleven figures of available funds lying in its accounts.

Since Wang Chuting wanted it, Lu Liang used the guise of investment to invest in Chu Jun Culture Media Studio, registering the property rights of the villa under her studio's name.

"Oh my, this pregnancy was definitely the right one, even the treatment is different now." Wang Chuting smiled with her eyes narrowed, knowing that the house she was living in was still owned by Lu Liang.

This shows that Lu Liang used to hold back on her, but now he hasn't even asked about the villa that costs at least tens of millions.

Although the investment was in the form of assets, it was mainly to reduce personal income tax. Moreover, she was the major shareholder and general manager of the studio, so she had the final say on how the assets were used.

“Before, she could only be considered a lover, but now that she’s the mother of my child, the treatment is definitely different.”

Lu Liang smiled, lifted Wang Chuting's chin, and gently kissed her cheek: "Go pack your things, I'll take you to the hospital later, and then I'll be heading out too."

"Okay."

Wang Chuting went back to her room excitedly, calling out as she went, "Auntie, I'm going to the hospital now. I'm leaving the house to you."

A short while later, she changed into a loose dress, wore a European-style sun hat, took Lu Liang's arm, and said with a smile, "Let's go, send the luggage over in advance."

Lu Liang chuckled, and on the way to the hospital, he suddenly said, "I can't stay with you all the time, so why don't you bring your mother over?"

Wang Chuting asked excitedly, "Is that okay?"

She never told her mother about her pregnancy, or even about meeting Lu Liang.

She was afraid her mother would overthink things, because she had never met her father since she was a child, and the two of them had always depended on each other.

Although Wang Chuting feels very happy now, her mother may not think so, and her mother is also a bit vain.

What is vanity?

Lu Liang chuckled and teased, "Vanity is what you can't have; what you can have is just an expectation of a better life."

"You can still talk."

Wang Chuting smiled broadly, asked repeatedly, and finally, with a mix of trepidation and excitement, called her mother in front of Lu Liang and bought her a high-speed rail ticket for the afternoon.

Lu Liang asked, "Why not buy plane tickets? If we do that, I won't be able to see my mother-in-law?"

Wang Chuting nestled on Lu Liang's shoulder, a happy smile on her face: "Anyway, we'll always have a chance to meet. She won't take a plane; the high-speed rail is more convenient."

(End of this chapter)