After divorce, I can hear the voice of the future

Chapter 744 Pre-Battle Arrangements
"Brother Chao, I just spoke with President Lu on the phone. He asked me to show you around the company first."

With a warm smile on his face, Xu Jiawei led Wen Chao, introducing the situation of each department of the company as they walked.

The two men, both upright and dressed in suits, with an average height of 1.8 meters, walked side by side, like domineering CEOs from TV dramas stepping into reality.

Wen Chao, in particular, with his gentle and refined demeanor and the ever-present smile on his lips, always drew whispers and discussions among the company's employees wherever he went.

"I heard our CEO is only 29 years old this year?"

"So young, a regional governor who is not even thirty years old."

"Thinking about it, it's normal. Our CEO Lu is only 33 years old, and CEO Chao is still CEO Lu's first secretary."

"I feel that President Lu is going to make a big move next, otherwise he wouldn't have called President Chao over as well."

Wen Chao's arrival was like a gust of wind, quickly spreading from Tianxing Quantitative's office area throughout Hong Kong.

Xingheng, this company

This is an important deployment by Lu Liang in East Asia.

Although they do not deliberately hide their existence, they are very low-key in their daily lives and do not show off.

Since its inception, the company has only participated in investments in the Bitcoin market, and this fact was only revealed afterward.

It wasn't until he participated in the acquisition battle of Chinese Estates Holdings that people learned that Lu Liang actually had an investment company in Tokyo.

Moreover, the company's two shareholders besides Lu Liang are both well-known conglomerates from Japan and South Korea: one is Sumitomo Mitsui from Japan, and the other is Hyundai from Korea.

Managing over $10 billion in assets, holding a large amount of Bitcoin, and being one of the major players in the Bitcoin market.

It's an open secret that Skystar and HSBC are locked in a fierce battle, with both sides vying for control of New World.

During this period, Wen Chao's arrival in Hong Kong inevitably sparked much speculation.

As soon as the news broke, the odds of the Zheng family successfully defending the New World jumped by 0.06.

"Xiao Chao, you still have a lot of influence." Lu Liang smiled, his eyes crinkling, as he browsed a Macau gambling website.

The red team represents the home team, Zhengjia, with odds of 1.88 for a successful defense. The blue team represents the away team, Hengtai, with odds of 1.92 for a successful takeover.

Prior to this, the odds were 1.82 to 1.98.

Wen Chao's arrival directly boosted Hengtai's winning percentage by 6 points, which translates to a total of 12 points.

Wen Chao was taken aback, then laughed and cried at the same time: "President Lu, you actually still have the mind to pay attention to this."

Don't you think it's quite interesting?

Lu Liang smiled and Wen Chao glanced at him. He saw that Lu Liang had placed a bet, but it was only a small bet of 50,000. Lan Fang Hengtai was taking over the new world. He smiled wryly and said, "It is indeed quite interesting."

"Don't be so tense, acting like you're facing a major crisis. Relax, it's not a big deal."

Lu Liang put away the tablet and patted Wen Chao on the shoulder.

The two went to the coffee table, Lu Liang made tea, and asked, "How has Meixue been doing lately?"

“Ms. Sakurada is very hardworking and intelligent. Recently, the acquisition of Fuji has reached a critical stage, and she wants to stay at the company 24 hours a day. The person in charge of this project, Satoshi Nakajima, has praised her to me.”

Wen Chao's eyes were full of admiration, and he spared no praise.

Lu Liang chuckled: "I guess it's because Nakajima Tomo saw your attitude towards her."

"That's possible, but Ms. Miyuki's execution ability is indeed among the best of this group of interns."

Wen Chao smiled and did not deny it.

After all, there were rumors within the company that he was pursuing Miyuki Sakurada, which is why they showed no mercy and planned to send Yuya Sato to prison.

"Are we going in?" Lu Liang asked in surprise.

Yuya Sato was Miyuki's direct supervisor and had been relentlessly pursuing her. He also used his power as section chief to sexually harass two interns who were in the same cohort as Miyuki Sakurada.

Lu Liang felt that firing him was too lenient.

So they transferred Wen Chao to the acquisition project team, a department with a lot of lucrative opportunities.

"Yuya Sato accepted a bribe of 800 million yen to help Fuji TV falsely report its actual assets. An investigation has been launched."

Wen Chao smiled and nodded. He had asked his lawyer girlfriend, and according to Japanese law, the minimum guarantee in this situation is three years.

Furthermore, the fact that Yu Sato is also under investigation is a good thing for them in acquiring Fuji TV.

Fuji TV's leadership knew they were in the wrong and were worried that Xingheng would abandon the acquisition, so they made many concessions, hoping to expedite the transaction and avoid any unforeseen complications.

Fuji TV, valued at one billion US dollars, is on the verge of bankruptcy and has also been embroiled in a bribery scandal.

It is estimated that a full acquisition can be achieved for $7 million.

In at most one month, Fuji TV, formerly one of Japan's six major television networks, will become an asset of Star Power.

Lu Liang nodded slightly, as if it were an insignificant little interlude, and skipped over the topic.

He paused for a few seconds and asked, "Tianxing Financial Group plans to issue $300 billion in ABS. I'd like to hear your opinion."

Wen Chao pondered for a moment: "If we rely solely on Hong Kong, it will be difficult to raise so much money. It would be best to bring in several East Asian countries, as well as some Western countries."

Lu Liang hummed in agreement.

Wen Chao continued, "We'll handle Hong Kong ourselves, Japan can be entrusted to Sumitomo Mitsui, Korea can be entrusted to Hyundai Group, but I don't know if we can entrust Singapore to Mr. Lee Chee Kai?"

“Li Ka-shing must need my help with something, so Li Zhe-kai will help with this,” Lu Liang said with a smile.

Whether Sumitomo Mitsui and Hyundai would help was not within Lu Liang's consideration, because they would definitely help.

After all, the collateral for the ABS launched by Tianxing Financial was Xingheng's funds and the Bitcoin held by Xingheng.

With the two companies holding 33.4% and 33.3% of the shares respectively, they had no choice but to help unconditionally.

"Then we'll entrust the subscription channels in Europe and America to Delime Bank?" Wen Chao said.

Lu Liang nodded: "Okay." Wen Chao continued: "Next is the allocation of quotas. Although the bonds are issued in Hong Kong, it is backed by the mainland and is also the region most deeply influenced by Tianxing Financial. We can allocate 1000 billion yuan, and the remaining 2000 billion yuan will be shared equally among Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Europe and the United States."

"However, there's no need to set such a strict limit. Just a general amount is fine, a little more or less is okay."

Wen Chao actually trusted Lu Liang a lot, but the amount of 300 billion US dollars in ABS was still a bit exaggerated.

Moreover, the subscription for New World Development will begin on Friday, leaving them with only two days at most.

Therefore, although they set up five fundraising channels, the source of funds and the subscription quotas in various regions do not need to be set so rigidly.

Whether it's dirty money or legitimate money, once it's in their accounts, it's considered legitimate funds. If they need to recover it later, they can only do so after the expiration of the term.

The black market in South Asia, the grey market in Europe and America...

Those dark forces would probably be interested, after all, they have a lot of money and it can't be done in the light of day.

As long as you can evade regulatory scrutiny during the subscription process, the funds will be completely transferred to a legitimate account when the transaction is settled.

"Private equity firms, quantitative firms, and Xingheng all have some funds that can help raise capital for ABS issuance and buy enough time."

Lu Liang said with a smile that they had prepared $400 billion in working capital in advance for this foundational battle.

Acquiring Chinese Estates was effortless; the total investment was only US$29 billion.

Moreover, Chinese Estates Holdings has $18.2 billion in its accounts, which can be transferred with just a word to Liu Mingwei if they want to.

The acquisition of New World Development has only cost $82 billion so far, of which $32 billion came from Hengtai.

Currently, the three institutions under the Tianxing Financial Group have $321 billion in available funds.

This amount of money should be enough to last until next Monday.

"This way, we'll have more time."

Wen Chao immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

After all, it's Wednesday today. If you have to raise $300 billion in two days, that would be an absolute nightmare.

He added, "This year, the domestic five-year interest rate is 3.92%, and the US Treasury bond rate is 2.78%. Assuming it's a five-year term, the annual interest rate should be at least 3%."

ABS stands for Asset Securitization, which is essentially a very large loan. As with any loan, there will be interest.

Since the currency for the subscription is the US dollar, it must be benchmarked against the interest rate of US Treasury bonds, and it cannot be lower than that of the Federal Reserve.

Lu Liang said after careful consideration: "The five-year rate is 3.45%, which is 0.25% higher than BlackRock's."

Even if it's only 0.25% more, with $300 billion, that means paying an extra $750 million in interest every year.

At an annual rate of 3.45%, the total interest over five years is $517.5 billion, averaging $103.5 billion per year.

"Is President Xu's personal wealth just over 3000 billion?" Wen Chao was shocked and made a joke.

You wouldn't believe it until you did the math. The interest Tianxing paid could create the richest person in Dongda University in just five years.

"More than four hundred billion US dollars, I guess." Lu Liang chuckled, glancing at the wall clock; it was time to meet Chen Jiebin.

He got up from the coffee table, straightened his suit, and said, "Come upstairs with me, let's go see Director Chen."

Whether Tianxing Financial Group can launch an ABS like Ant Group still requires permission from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

The reason for placing the meeting with Chen Jiebin last was simply to let public opinion fly.

Let Lao Chen know that they are at a disadvantage when facing HSBC, and they also intend to force the issue into a fait accompli and put pressure on him.

After all, if Tianxing Financial were to collapse in the future, its $300 billion debt would be enough to set back Hong Kong's economy by three to five years.

At that time, both the Hong Kong Financial Services Authority and Chen Jiebin, as the primary reviewers of the project, will be implicated.

Hong Kong stocks closed at 4 p.m.

Chinese Estates Holdings fell 11.24%, with its share price settling at HK$12.52, exactly the average price over the past three months, not a penny more.

This indicates that investors have no expectations for high-premium buybacks. Rather than risk being suspended from trading for several months and gambling on the conscience of capitalists, they prefer to cash out their profits early.

Compared to Chinese Estates Holdings, New World Development's share price steadily rose, closing at HK$89.5 with a market capitalization of HK$2102 billion.

The daily volume ratio was only 0.01, and the total trading volume for the day was less than 100 million, indicating that the circulating shares were completely squeezed out.

Even if they still hold shares, they are unwilling to sell them at this time, since the second and final battle for shares will break out next Monday.

Selling now is pure idiocy.

Hong Kong-based groups continue to quietly repurchase shares, the Hang Seng Index is steadily rising, and the three major Hong Kong stock indices have officially entered a slow bull market.

At the same time, Lu Liang brought Wen Chao to the office on the 88th floor of the building.

"Lu Liang, have you figured out how to deal with HSBC?"

Looking at the Hong Kong stock market, Chen Jiebin was pleased, but his brows were also filled with worry.

Hong Kong stocks have ended their correction and entered a slow bull market; he, the financial tycoon, deserves the most credit.

But Chen Jiebin didn't forget who brought him this achievement, which is why he was worried.

As the head of the financial department, he knew better than anyone how strong HSBC's overall strength was.

It's not a rumor that China has reserves of hundreds of billions of dollars year-round; the amount would be even greater if liquid funds were included.

Moreover, as a British-owned entity, HSBC is better positioned to attract foreign exchange funds than Bank of China.

Although the Hong Kong Monetary Authority is monitoring the situation, under normal circumstances, HSBC would not dare to misappropriate the US dollars pledged for issuing currency.

However, their surveillance of HSBC was not without its blind spots; on the contrary, it was full of flaws, like a sieve.

HSBC was established before the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), and during the colonial period, HSBC was an absolute financial powerhouse.

If that huge sum of money were misappropriated, they wouldn't be able to detect it immediately.

(End of this chapter)