Chapter 156 This Apple is Really Sweet
The ringing of the bell at the IPO of Apple has great historical significance, but it is such a vain thing that Liu Zhicheng does not need to join in the fun.

Today's scene will definitely be widely reported by media outlets across the United States.

Citizens of the United States who have some interest in new technology and stocks are paying attention.

This is not a good thing. At such a historic moment, a Chinese person ran up to ring the bell.

It doesn’t matter as long as I’m just being targeted by investors.

If you are targeted by a member of parliament, you will be in big trouble.

Therefore, it is best not to attract such attention as much as possible. There is no need to cause trouble for yourself.

Everyone went down to participate in the bell-ringing ceremony, except Liu Zhicheng, who stayed upstairs and watched Jobs and Wozniak ring the bell one after another below.

When the bell rings, it means that Apple’s stock has officially landed on the Nasdaq market and the stock can begin trading.

As the stock trading began, investors began to scramble for it.

The traders in white shirts are busy serving the endless stream of investors.

There are even more phone trading requests. Some investment institutions have already arranged personnel to buy Apple's issued stocks.

More than 10 million shares of Apple stock are being sold quickly, and the stock price is constantly hitting new highs.

Before the market closed, Apple's stock closed at US$31.85 per share, up 76%. Its total market value exceeded US$20 billion, exactly double the market value that Jobs had expected.

When Liu Zhicheng first invested, he used US$100 million to hold a 30% stake. Later, after several rounds of financing and listing, his shares were diluted.

As a result, his total stock ratio dropped to 16.6%, which is worth $3.2 million based on the current market value.

In the previous rounds of financing, in order to prevent his shares from being excessively diluted, Liu Zhicheng invested nearly 10 million US dollars in Apple.

Today, the market value of this part of shares is 3.2 million US dollars, which has doubled and made a net profit of 30 times. This is the benefit of being a prophet.

However, as an original shareholder, Liu Zhicheng is not allowed to cash out within six months.

But he was not in a hurry, as it would take several years before Jobs left Apple.

In the next two years, Apple's market value will continue to rise, and it will be the best time to cash out then.

If the company were to liquidate the stocks in hand, it would have to issue an announcement, which would surely lead to a sharp drop in the stock price and dissatisfaction among the board of directors. It would have to have a suitable excuse.

Liu Zhicheng's excuse was that a year or two later, Orange Technology launched its own computers and officially became a competitor.

Not only will you have a reason to quit, but it will also make everyone happy.

All investors and Apple’s management are very satisfied with the success of Apple’s IPO.

A technology company that has only been established for a few years became one of the top 500 listed companies in the United States just after its listing, which is also one of the few major events in the history of science and technology.

At the party, under Jobs' passionate speech, many people were full of confidence and believed that Apple would be the next IBM.

"Hello, Mr. Liu, it's a pleasure to meet you here." A thin man about 50 years old walked up to Liu Zhicheng and said politely.

"Hello, Mr. George. Nice to meet you here." Liu Zhicheng nodded politely in response.

"Mr. Liu, I have now been transferred from being in charge of the Asia region to the headquarters to work on investment affairs. Listing of companies is one of my businesses.

If your Orange Technology or other companies have a need to go public, we at Citibank will be happy to serve you." George said.

"Okay, we have had a pleasant cooperation before. If my company needs to be listed in the United States, I will consider Citibank first." Liu Zhicheng nodded and said.

Banks in the United States, like HSBC, have their own investment institutions.

In addition to assisting investors in their investments, another important business is to underwrite stocks for listed companies.

The latter also has high profits. In the past, Chinese companies listed in the United States were basically monopolized by a few investment banks.

Whether your listing in the United States is successful or not depends first on how famous you are, so publicity is very important.

But if there is not enough publicity, how many people in the whole United States will know when your company will go public?
Without sufficient pre-market momentum, how can we attract more funds?

So sometimes people would rather be ripped off by these big investment banks than seek underwriting from small investment banks.

Because their propaganda is simply not on the same level.

This is completely different from Hong Kong. As a city, if a company is preparing to go public, Hong Kong can spend some money to buy a few newspapers and report on it, and almost everyone will know about it.

For example, for Apple's IPO, the amount of money that needed to be paid to the investment bank was as high as 2000 million US dollars.

Assuming that companies like Orange Technology also want to go public and raise funds in the United States, they will also need to cooperate with such institutions.

"Mr. Liu, Citibank is also preparing to enter the mainland. I heard that you have invested in several large projects in the mainland. Perhaps there is room for cooperation." George said with a smile.

"Welcome Mr. George to visit Hong Kong and invest in the mainland. If you, Citibank, are interested, you are welcome to participate as long as the price is right." Liu Zhicheng nodded and said.

His relationship with HSBC has improved over the years.

However, when the two highways with a total investment of more than one billion US dollars were decided, HSBC alone could not take on the loan.

Therefore, Liu Zhicheng has always wanted to introduce some banks from RB and Southeast Asia, but these years there was the oil crisis and global foreign exchange fluctuations.

There has been no agreement on which country's exchange rate should be used to settle the loan.

Since the construction period of the highway in the mainland is relatively long, Liu Zhicheng is not too anxious.

Now that Citibank has taken the initiative to ask to join, Liu Zhicheng is of course more than happy to do so.

Not only can it solve the funding problem of highway construction, but it can also strive for better loan conditions. After all, being active and being passive are two different things.

"Then I will report this matter to the headquarters. I also hope that we can cooperate in many fields." George said.

"Yes, in the future, my company intends to make large-scale infrastructure investments in the Mainland and port investments around the world. These will require cooperation with investment institutions."

Liu Zhicheng painted another big picture: as long as the hook is put down, a big fish will naturally take the bait.

Of course, Citibank will not be the only one. In the future, domestic infrastructure alone may require tens of billions of US dollars, not to mention global port investment, etc. The demand for funds will be massive.

After all, most of the investment in ports and infrastructure must be funded by loans. For example, for a highway with an investment of one billion US dollars, he only needs to provide 5000 million US dollars in start-up capital.

"I hope we can reach a strategic cooperation agreement as soon as possible." George nodded and said.

After the party, Liu Zhicheng stayed in North America for another day and visited the game console chain stores in Lyon.

Since he proposed the conditions for home game console agency rights to Lyon last time, he has opened more than a dozen game console stores in North America.

After inspecting a physical store on site, Liu Zhicheng felt that this model was still a bit too stingy, so he decided to bring him to Hong Kong to take a look at his own Jingxi model.

………Beijing West Electric Queen’s Road Central Store, Central, Hong Kong.

Liu Zhicheng and Lyon came here to visit the Jingxi Electrical Appliance Chain Supermarket.

"It looks quite luxurious." Leon said as he looked up at the exterior of the electronics store.

"It will be more luxurious inside." Liu Zhicheng said with a smile.

After saying that, the two of them walked into the electronics supermarket.

The lights inside Jingxi Electric are all light orange, which gives people a very bright feeling but not dazzling.

It is not very hot in Hong Kong in May, but the air conditioning inside has been turned on.

The cool breeze makes people feel refreshed, and the comfortable temperature and humidity always make people feel in a better mood.

The first thing you see when you enter the door is the special sales area for Orange Walkman and home game consoles. The high prices make it prohibitive for most people.

On the other side is a small shop that is being renovated. This is Liu Zhicheng’s special area for Apple computer sales.

Going further inside, there are places where various large household appliances are stored.

There are color TVs, refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners, washing machines and water heaters.

There are also various office printers and copiers.

There is an area that specializes in selling kitchen appliances, with various brands and models available. Because the area is large enough, it is much more comprehensive than ordinary supermarkets.

At the same time, because summer is coming, all kinds of electric fans are available, and the most conspicuous one is naturally the Orange brand fan.

After the two arrived at a conference room, Leon asked: “Mr. Liu, is this Jingxi Electric Appliances mainly home appliances?”

"That's the case for now." Liu Zhicheng nodded and said, "But in the future, there will be more electronic products. Will the Apple computer that was just listed on NASDAQ a few days ago appear here?"

Electronics were indeed the future, but in 1981 the product line was still too small.

Liu Zhicheng hopes that Jingxi can first focus on home appliances and then start planning the sales of electronic products.

"Mr. Liu took me to see Jingxi Electric Appliances today. Does he want me to build such an electrical appliance chain supermarket in North America?" Lyon said with a smile.

Lyon was quite aware of Liu Zhicheng's several large investments in the United States. The success of these investments made Lyon admire Liu Zhicheng very much.

"Apple's revenue last year was only about 2000 million US dollars, and its net profit was also a little over million US dollars.

If it were a normal industry, it would be incredible for such a company to have a market value of 3 million US dollars after listing. "Leon, do you see the reason?" Liu Zhicheng asked Leon.

Leon shook his head, indicating that he couldn't understand.

"This is possible because many people believe that in the future, everyone will have one or even several computers at home.

All companies will also have computers to assist with their work." Liu Zhicheng said slowly.

Leon seemed to have an epiphany, nodded, and said: "Mr. Liu, if this is true, then the scale of this market is unimaginable."

Liu Zhicheng glanced at Leon and said, “The current computer sales model cannot meet future consumer demand.
So I hope Mr. Lyon's game console store can expand in scale and increase computer sales.

Then, we will build them in major cities in North America so that everyone in North America can buy the computers or other new electronic products they need.”

"Mr. Liu, the investment cost is too high and I can't afford it all at once." Lyon shook his head and said to Liu Zhicheng.

He knew that Liu Zhicheng would not call him to Hong Kong for no reason and bring him to see such an electrical appliance store.

"I can invest in you and help you expand quickly and capture the market. How about that?" Liu Zhicheng asked.

"Of course there is no problem. It is my honor to work with Mr. Liu." Lyon said with a smile.

Leon was very happy that the two of them finally had another chance to tie up a chariot.

"Okay, how about we jointly invest 50 million US dollars and each hold half of the shares? Of course, your game console chain store can be counted as capital contribution." Liu Zhicheng said with a faint smile.

"No problem, I will push this matter forward as quickly as possible. How many stores do you think we should open at one time?" Lyon said with a smile.

"I think we should open a few in New York first, and once we have some experience, we can replicate it across the United States," said Liu Zhicheng.

Leon nodded. He also understood what Liu Zhicheng meant and said, "We will have to open dozens of stores this year."

"Okay." Liu Zhicheng said.

For this kind of electrical appliance chain, only when you become large in scale and dominate the sales channels will you be able to get products at lower prices and make greater concessions to consumers.

.........

Steal a little time to relax in this busy life, and enjoy the beauty of the world.

During this period, Liu Zhicheng was too busy, and there was a major strategic plan soon, so he decided to go out to sea to relax.

Liu Zhicheng and Lin Qingxia boarded their yacht and went on vacation in the waters south of Hong Kong Island.

The yacht is still his own Mountain Yacht, which is not considered very luxurious considering his current status.

But he has no plans to change it for the time being, because there are no rich people in Hong Kong who have a yacht that can surpass his.

After mooring the yacht in an area with rich fisheries, Liu Zhicheng sat in a chair and prepared for sea fishing.

However, how could the beautiful Lin let him be so idle? Soon she set up a chair next to him.

"what?"

Liu Zhicheng looked at Lin Qingxia. Why was she disturbing him while he was fishing instead of enjoying the delicious food and wine?

"Watching you fishing and chatting with you at the same time!" Lin Qingxia said in a coquettish voice.

Liu Zhicheng looked at her with contempt, and his good mood was immediately gone. He just wanted to be alone!

While fishing, I can relax and calm my mind, that's all.

Women are such a hassle sometimes. Can’t you even fulfill such a small request?
"Honey, can you tell me the detailed process of your investment in Apple?" Liu Zhicheng asked curiously.

Liu Zhicheng turned his head and looked as if he didn't recognize Lin Qingxia!

"What's the matter? I'm your woman after all, I just want to know a little about you!" Lin Qingxia said coquettishly.

Liu Zhicheng's face gradually twisted, and at the end he couldn't help laughing and said, "Let's not talk about work today, let's talk about romance."

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(End of this chapter)