Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 395 Sniper
The auction is scheduled for mid-April, on the 16th.

Chen Xuebing did not stay in Sichuan and returned to Shanghai that afternoon.

Wu Jiaqing, a director of Cheung Kong Holdings, reported that a Hong Kong intelligence team had collected a lot of information about Gu An Group, but the following days were calm and Chen Xuebing's harsh words seemed to have gone unanswered.

Until Tuesday, April 3rd, the only noteworthy news was from Nokia:
Nokia's North American flagship phone, the N95, will launch in China on April 1st, priced at a record high of 5680 yuan for a smartphone.

China Post & Telecommunications Equipment Group Co., Ltd. (CPT) signs Nokia order to sell 30 N95 phones.

"N95 Equipped with WCDMA Expansion Hardware, China Unicom May Be the Biggest Winner in N95 Sales"

Since China Mobile tendered for TD base stations, the outcome of the license competition among China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom has become clear. China Mobile has taken on the TD task and won the first 3G trial operation rights. China Unicom has obtained the WCDMA frequency band. Although China Telecom still has the possibility of obtaining a WCDMA license, all three licenses are intended for China. China Telecom clearly wants the CDMA2000 license, and the possibility of obtaining two licenses is very small.

However, as the leading company, it has stated to the outside world that China Telecom has the capability to operate with dual licenses and is still actively pursuing WCDMA.

China Mobile is also accelerating the deployment of its second batch of TD base stations.

The three operators are all playing a game of wits and strategy underwater, each leveraging their own strengths.

On its first day of operation in mainland China, the N95 sold out all 20 units available, which is not good news for China Telecom and China Mobile.

Chen Xuebing received a call from Wang Jianzhou, inquiring about the production of the Kirin system and the improvement of the Kunlun system. He instructed Qidian to ensure that the Kunlun system was in its optimal version when delivering orders. The eight cities of AoYC will launch TD-SCDMA socialized business testing and trial commercial use in late April.

Mr. Chen has been quite busy these past few days, handling some matters in Hong Kong and overseas, but he still expressed his concern about this important issue.

And asked a question: Did Nokia N95 sales have any contact with China Mobile?

Perhaps out of a desire to encourage him, Mr. Wang answered the question directly: There are plans to develop a TD version of the N95 for the Chinese market, and the baseband may be developed in cooperation with Huawei, but the price has not yet been agreed upon, and Nokia will not be on the first batch of contract phones for China Mobile's 3G trial operation.

Having secured the advantages of 3G trial operation, China Mobile is optimistic about Kirin and wants to take a gamble to maximize the network capabilities of 3G.

Chen Xuebing said with a smile: It doesn't matter if China Mobile signs a contract with N95, but it's best not to rush into negotiating prices, as the market may change, so let's wait and see.

4 month 4 day.

Wednesday is a day of uncertainty for the stock market. Most stocks will not see much change on this day because the news from the previous weekend has been largely digested, and the next round of deliberate stock market manipulation news will not come until Thursday afternoon or Friday, a sensitive period.

Unless there is any breaking news.

Chen Xuebing arrived at the Changzheng headquarters floor on the 16th floor of Huijin Building at 7:30 a.m., and had just hung up a phone call when he arrived at Kan Zhidong's office.

Upon entering the office, he saw Wu Jiesi and Lao Kan waiting and asked:
"Are you ready?"

"The people we sent over have already built up their positions." Kan Zhidong said, somewhat incredulously, "With just 200 million from Alibaba, trying to short Cheung Kong Holdings? Impossible, right? It's HK0001, a constituent stock of the Hang Seng Index. I'm afraid you'll lose all your money."

In the past few days, Chen Xuebing only asked him to arrange for someone to open an account at UBS Hong Kong, and also borrowed HKD 200 million from Alibaba using RMB as collateral for a reverse loan. He then asked him to borrow Cheung Kong's shares through UBS to prepare for a short selling operation.

He wouldn't say why he was shorting the stock.

Two hundred million Hong Kong dollars is a large sum of money, but it's too small when it comes to shorting Cheung Kong Holdings.

With 2 billion shares outstanding and a market capitalization of 200 billion, what are you doing shorting with only 200 million?
Wu Jiesi also felt it was unreliable and said, "Why don't we wait a little longer and bring back the $4000 million from the United States as well? I asked around, and they haven't paid out the money yet. If we go through the Cayman Islands, it can be transferred to Hong Kong in the next day or two."

After the Chinese New Year, Singularity transferred $2000 million to its US R&D center through the Outbound Direct Investment (ODI) filing process. This amount nearly exhausted Singularity's foreign exchange pre-approval quota, and to continue the application, it would have to submit a new investment report.

So the other $2000 million was raised by Liu Chuan, Guo Guangchang, and Lu Zhiqiang. The three of them raised foreign currency. The R&D center needed $5000 million, so after Chen Xuebing and Liu Chuan signed the investment contract, they directly transferred the $2000 million to the R&D center. Once the Goldman Sachs contract was profitable, they would pay the three of them proportionally.

The US R&D center is still short 1000 million; let them overcome that first.

Upon hearing the suggestion, Chen Xuebing waved his hand and said, "Forget it. The R&D center is still short of money. Things are quite tight there. This 200 million is enough. Double the margin lending to 400 million. We also have information to cooperate with this morning. We'll just launch an offensive after the market opens to attract the bailout funds and then withdraw."

Kan Zhidong looked completely bewildered: "What exactly is your purpose? Now you can tell me, right?"

Facing the leaders of these two core intelligence layers of stock security, Chen Xuebing finally opened up: "I need their company information in the BVI (British Virgin Islands). I suspect they are secretly transferring assets to the UK for investment through the BVI channel. I need to obtain their hidden money accounts and company list. This is their absolute dirt."

With a hiss, Wu Jie understood the key to the operation and then gasped.

"That's unlikely, isn't it? The BVI is known for its secrecy; they never disclose shareholder or director information. Besides, there are 80 companies in the BVI. Where would you even begin to look? There's no automatic exchange of tax information between Hong Kong and the BVI, so they can't possibly help you with that, can they?"

As a former president of ICBC, Wu Jiesi had some knowledge of overseas funding information channels.

Hong Kong's capital supervision is weak, and the financial reporting rules for Hong Kong stocks are also very lenient, not requiring the disclosure of BVI subsidiaries. Even if they help supervise the funds flowing into the accounts during this morning's short selling, it would be impossible to find them by searching for a needle in a haystack.

"You don't understand, do you know what BVI scanning is?"

Chen Xuebing tapped the table and laughed, "We found a BVI grey market company. For $500,000, they can use their internal staff to access the list of all BVI companies that sent funds to the Hong Kong stock market this morning. Of course, we can't find a needle in a haystack, but if we target specific companies, we only need $15,000 per company to get all their detailed information. Lao Wu, this is one of our channels for obtaining secret information from overseas. I called you here this morning so you could learn something from them."

Although the BVI has a large number of companies with 80 listings, not many of them will flow into the Hong Kong stock market this morning.

Kan Zhidong's eyes widened in surprise.

What the hell is this grudge?

They spent 200 million to short sell, and they still have so many dollars to gather dirt on them.
Of course, he could imagine the effects of this black material.

If a family like the Li family, which once enjoyed support from the mainland, is found to have secretly transferred large amounts of assets to the UK, trust will be lost, and it will also cause great anger in Hong Kong.

but
"Are you sure they're transferring assets to the UK? What if they aren't? What if they don't transfer money from the BVI? Wouldn't that be a waste of their time?"

"Let's take a shot first, even if we don't have any chance. They've made a lot of investments recently, and their equity pledge leverage is quite high. If the stock price drops sharply, it will trigger banks to chase after them for repayment. This time we're targeting Cheung Kong Holdings. It's unlikely that Hutchison Whampoa's funds will come in. Let's gamble. If we don't succeed this time, we'll try a bigger one next time."

The Li family does not have complete control of Hutchison Whampoa, so it is unlikely that Hutchison Whampoa's funds will be transferred in to help stabilize Cheung Kong Holdings. It is more likely that the Li family's own funds will be used to support the stock price.

Conversely, if we target Hutchison Whampoa, which is a cash flow powerhouse, they can hold a meeting and launch a buyback program, forcing short sellers to surrender.

This is a rare opportunity. If it weren't for the news of Cheung Kong's failed investment in mainland China, and if we were to act on our own, we would have to rely on sheer capital. Large-scale attacks also carry much higher risks.

As for the Li family's transfer of assets to the UK, Chen Xuebing did not explain. This was a cross-century, phased strategy. In the last century, they invested in British port operators, BP, and BT through Hutchison Whampoa, but at that time it was only a small amount of financial investment. It was not until this century that they started to play big, turning investment into acquisition.

The timeline for expanding the scale of funds began in 2000, almost coinciding with Hong Kong's return to China. Hundreds of billions of dollars were successively siphoned from Hong Kong's economy and mainland real estate and invested in the UK, a move that is utterly despicable.

The channel is in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), Chen Xuebing is very certain of this. These days there is no blockchain, only the BVI's confidentiality mechanism can meet the prerequisite for secretly transferring funds to the UK, not even the Cayman Islands.

"Isn't President Cai involved in this? Where is President Cai?" Wu Jiesi asked.

Chen Xuebing smiled slightly: "He went to Hong Kong. Of course, our president has to be involved. He handles everything there except for the funding."

Before joining the group, Cai Zhijian had contact with many companies under the Li family. The startup project he operated in his previous life, AMTD Digital, also had the Li family's shadow behind it, and many people suspected that he was a puppet of the Li family.

When Chen Xuebing recruited him, he never imagined that one day he would be fighting against a behemoth like the Li family. Therefore, Chen Xuebing intentionally entrusted him with the first attack on the Li family, so that he could prove his loyalty to him.

Currently, Cai Zhijian is physically in Cao Cao's camp, but his heart is also there. He executes his orders very decisively and even seems a little excited about being able to fight against the Li family, putting in his utmost effort.

At 8 a.m., it was time to distribute newspapers in Hong Kong.

Newspaper stands, convenience stores, bookstores, and tea restaurants are bustling with people.

Apple Daily and Next Magazine were suddenly bombarded with shocking news.

— "Superman's multi-billion dollar land deal in mainland China under investigation!"

Moreover, it's not just one plot of land, it's two!

There aren't many newspapers that dare to expose negative news about the Li family.

Apple Daily prides itself on "monitoring tycoons," and its in-depth investigation team is adept at cross-border tracking. In 2006, it exposed insider trading by Richard Li during PCCW's privatization, which led to his prosecution but sparked widespread discussion.

Even Superman walks a tightrope; how can Hong Kong businessmen venturing north be fraught with peril?
At 8:40, Ming Pao astutely discovered this information and published an editorial on its website: "The Lion Rock Spirit Needs a Clean Foundation."

At Yung Kee Restaurant in Central, a young man wearing black-rimmed glasses received two newspapers for the day. While enjoying a pine nut and char siu pastry, he made a phone call to mainland China.

"Okay, I understand. Tell the BVI side to scan it as soon as possible."

Chen Xuebing hung up the phone with a smile in Kan Zhidong's office. He then used a VPN to access Google, found the news published by Ming Pao, browsed the latest posts in its website forum, a satisfied smile appearing on his face. He tapped the table and said:
"With more than half an hour left before the market opened, the news was overwhelmingly negative, and Li Ka-shing was powerless to reverse the situation."

Kan Zhidong gripped his phone tightly and asked, "Should we make any changes during the opening auction?"

Chen Xuebing waved his hand: "No need. We can see the opening auction results in Hong Kong at 9:28. Let's plan carefully before we act. We have nearly 4 lots in hand. The purchase price was 101.28. Yesterday's closing price was 101.53. We've made a small profit. If they open with a high price, we can take the opportunity to sell at a high price. We can still make a profit."

"Won't they find our short selling account and stop us? Should we try selling a few hundred lots first?" Wu Jiesi said with some concern.

Chen Xuebing and Kan Zhidong both laughed at these words.

Kan Zhidong explained, "Hong Kong's privacy laws are very strict. UBS is an international investment bank. If they leak our information, we'll make a fortune."

After saying that, he picked up his phone and ordered the Hong Kong traders to wait and see.

The call wasn't disconnected; it was on speakerphone, and all I could hear was the sound of keyboards on the other end.

At 9:28, a voice came from the other end of the phone: "8 orders placed by Qianshou, 101.30! Someone at Cheung Kong has placed a large order to buy up all the goods."

The opening auction has stopped; two quiet minutes.

Kan Zhidong thought for a moment: "How about we test the waters with a wave of selling? The opening price should be above water."

After a moment's thought, Chen Xuebing said, "We haven't made much money yet, and we still have a 2% margin call cost. Let's sell 10,000 lots at the open and then wait and see for a minute."

Kan Zhidong immediately issued an order: "First, sell 10,000 lots, with each order not exceeding 200 lots. Place the order again at the opening to target the cost price of 101.28 and let them turn positive first."

A red color in Hong Kong stocks indicates a decline.

However, a new voice suggested: "How about 20,000 lots? We can break through the round number within 15 minutes. Their previous low in the past 14 days has not fallen below 101 yuan. If there is really a large amount of capital to support the market, the reaction will be more intense. We can make back the 20,000 lots on the spot."

Chen Xuebing recognized the speaker's voice: "Is that Teng Kai?"

"Yes, Chairman."

"Alright then, I'll leave the control of the market to you. You know our purpose. I'll wait and see the results."

Teng Kai was Xu Jin's most trusted disciple and a master of psychological warfare, so Chen Xuebing trusted him quite a bit.

"Okay Chairman."

Now, all that could be heard on the other end was the sound of keyboards, and the occasional calm voices and reports.

"500-800 lots, mid-range orders continue to sell!"

Upon hearing the sound, Chen Xuebing stared at the real-time stock price of Cheung Kong Holdings on his computer.

The impact of the mid-range orders was much greater, and the stock price fell from 101.29 at the opening to below the 101.00 mark. Institutional investors began to place algorithmic stop-loss orders, and the trading volume suddenly increased to three times the usual amount.

Selling like this resulted in a small loss, but the effect was very good; around 100.92, there were large orders supporting the market.

Chen Xuebing immediately picked up the phone and called Cai Zhijian: "A big order has been placed, it should be over 300 million, check it out immediately."

(End of this chapter)