2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 591 The Panic of the Mid-Autumn Festival
Boss Tan had no idea that he slept soundly tonight.

It's rare for me to be home. I played with my younger sister for a while, told her two stories, and then put the little princess to sleep. It was already 10 p.m.

Boss Tan doesn't plan to look for any more jobs. Just as his mother thought, he's been drinking too much lately, and he always ends up drunk. Boss Tan does look quite haggard.

I put my phone on silent and had a good night's sleep.

By the time I woke up, I had missed one of the most exciting periods of the second half of 2008 in the world.

The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers has even been adapted into novels and plays, taking center stage and being described as the final nail in the coffin of the American Dream, demonstrating its immense influence.

Cheng Linfeng's call was intercepted by Li Yaohui, but no one else would.

That night, Boss Tan's private phone received many missed calls, including from Huang Ming, Xie Hongjun, Zhou Kai, and Shen Nanpeng.

Shen Nanpeng made three calls in a row but the calls went unanswered before finally giving up.

If this business tycoon hadn't known that Tan Jincheng had returned to his home in Ningbo, he would have even begun to doubt Tan Jincheng's personal safety. It was only 12 o'clock, how could he possibly be asleep?
Unable to find Tan Jincheng, Shen Nanpeng had nowhere to vent his emotions, so he called Cheng Linfeng, and the two talked for more than an hour.

Transoceanic calls, huh? That's incredibly extravagant.

ByteDance has 20 billion yuan in funds going overseas, all of which was assisted by Shen Nanpeng. He doesn't know what Tan Jincheng is going to do with such a large sum of money.

However, it was later heard that Cheng Linfeng led a group of people, including Tan Jincheng's personal driver, to Hong Kong.

After arriving in Hong Kong, their whereabouts were easy to find out. Cheng Linfeng and his group booked an entire floor of a hotel and rarely went out afterward. If they needed anything, they either went through the hotel or Lai Yiu-fai went out to buy it.

His whereabouts are so illogical. Besides, what could someone who works in the secondary market possibly be doing in Hong Kong?
The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers immediately made Shen Nanpeng think that Tan Jincheng was planning to short the stock! This was because Tan Jincheng had mentioned his concerns about the subprime crisis during a casual conversation.

He had also seen the financial report released when FlashTech underwent its share reform, and it was quite obvious that the focus of exports had shifted this year.

Shen Nanpeng had just chatted with Cheng Linfeng for over an hour. Although Cheng Linfeng didn't explicitly say what they were doing in Hong Kong, Shen Nanpeng could tell from his excitement when talking about Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy that his judgment was probably correct.

"Damn, how did this kid know? This source is top-tier capital on Wall Street, it's unbelievable."

The more you think about something, the more suspicious it seems.

Upon reflection, Shen Nanpeng realized that Tan Jincheng was exceptionally mysterious, as he was able to access information about the subprime crisis in sync with top resources on Wall Street.

Silent all night.

The mysterious Boss Tan got up early, looking refreshed. Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival, and Boss Tan, who hasn't been home for a long time, is going to take little Tan Jinyue out to play. This was something he promised last night.

My father will also be coming over today to celebrate the holiday, as will my father-in-law's family. Today is a day for a big family reunion.

Tan Jinyue is still a few months away from being four years old. Tan Jincheng thinks it's a bit early for her to start kindergarten. However, given her current vocabulary, staying at home any longer would limit her growth.

Going to a smaller class to hang out isn't a bad idea; at least you'll have more peers to play with.

My mom is just too much older than her, and often can't keep up with this little kid's train of thought, while I'm too busy.

In fact, in her previous life, Tan Jinyue was brought to Ningbo to study after starting elementary school. Most of the time, her older brother and sister-in-law took care of her, raising her almost like a daughter. Tan Jincheng had some experience in this regard.

After washing up and coming out of the bathroom, Gu Qingqing woke up.

"You have a lot of missed calls on your phone. You should check them quickly; there might be something important."

"A lot? Who did they all do?"

"Look for yourself. I only saw a lot of message boxes on the screen and didn't pay much attention."

"Oh."

In the electronics sector, Mr. Tan is able to get some products that are more advanced than those on the market. He has now switched to Apple and Android phones and can use his company's apps in his spare time.

Although he felt it was still quite outdated compared to the one he used before, it was much more comfortable than a feature phone.

It's not that feature phones are bad, it's just that I'm not used to them.

Indeed, there were many missed calls, all from business contacts; Zhou Kai, Huang Ming, Shen Nanpeng, and even Zhang Congxun. Tan Jincheng frowned.

"Has something serious happened?"

Let's call Zhou Kai first. Put everything else aside for now; the listing of FlashTech is the most important thing right now: "Mr. Zhou, what was the matter when we called last night?"

"Huh? You're only seeing this now? Something terrible has happened, Lehman Brothers has gone bankrupt." "Lehman Brothers went bankrupt?" Tan Jincheng was also shocked.

Holy crap, they actually came.

"Yes, you should check the news quickly. Your company should have sent you some information too. Speaking of which, you're a bit ahead of me in terms of information. Remember to share some with me later. By the way, the US stock market has crashed. Will that affect our backdoor listing plan?"

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average both fell by nearly 5%, while the Nasdaq Composite fell by nearly 4%.

Orange Technology fell 5% today, but that's still considered a small drop.

Hong Kong stocks and A-shares were closed for a day due to the Mid-Autumn Festival, which can be considered a temporary escape from disaster. However, a correction tomorrow is almost inevitable. The A-share market has a tradition of following the decline but not the rise.

"It might have some impact, but not much. There are quite a few A-share stocks that move independently, so at most they'll just rise a little less. But what does that have to do with us?"

For several years after a domestic listed company goes public, major shareholders like him are not allowed to reduce their holdings; at most, they can pledge their shares, which has little impact.

“That’s true. At most, it will only rise a little less. We can’t reduce our holdings anyway, so let it be. Okay, let’s leave it at that. Keep in touch.” Zhou Kai thought about it and agreed.

The market closed at 2079.67 points on September 12. Without a doubt, it will definitely fall below 2000 points tomorrow.

It has already fallen by two-thirds from its highest point, so what is there to worry about? Just buy it.

Tan Jincheng then called Huang Ming, Shen Nanpeng, and others, all of whom called back about the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy.

After a night of fermentation, this matter has caused a great sensation around the world, and the plunge in European and American stock markets has also shrouded the world in panic about an economic crisis.

"You're not being fair, kid. Did you know beforehand? Cheng Linfeng and his group went to Hong Kong to short sell, right? What are you doing with all that money you made going abroad?" Shen Nanpeng teased, half reproachfully.

If Shen Nanpeng hadn't known that all of this guy's businesses were in China, and hadn't usually shown no interest in foreign countries, he would have thought he was planning to run away with his buckets.

"Hehe, how would I know anything about the news? It's just taking precautions. Businesses need to have a sense of crisis," Tan Jincheng said with a laugh.

Do you think that's some kind of foresight? They've exhausted all of ByteDance's cash reserves, mortgaged all their shares, and even brought in money from their family trust fund.

This is an all-in bet.

"Alright, enough of this nonsense. I'm pretty busy here, and I'm sure you're not free either. You have to treat me to a meal when I get back to China. You guys really hit the jackpot this time."

Tan Jincheng's attitude undoubtedly admits that they are shorting US stocks. Needless to say, the drop today alone is enough for them to make a fortune.

"No problem. By the way, today is the Mid-Autumn Festival. Even though you're abroad, I wish you a happy Mid-Autumn Festival; and of course, I wish you great wealth."

"Easy to say."

This is a time of capital hunting, and the capital lying on top of it, feasting on the corpses, will have no scruples whatsoever. It is inevitable that Sequoia Capital, as one of the Wall Street capital groups, will participate in it.

Like Cheng Linfeng, Shen Nanpeng is also extremely excited.

Several phone calls were made when Gu Qingqing came upstairs, followed by little Tan Jinyue.

"Stop talking, Mom and Dad are here, go downstairs."

"Brother, brother, come down and play."

"Okay, okay, I'm coming right away. That's all for now, I'll hang up now, Brother Zhang."

The last call was made back to Zhang Congxun. He had previously analyzed Flashpoint Technology's financial statements and discovered that Tan Jincheng had made some deviations in the export business, so he wanted to ask what impact the subprime crisis would have on the company.

In addition, the backdoor listing of Flashpoint Technology has also given him some new ideas. ChipSun also wants to go public. Originally, he wanted to go through the normal IPO review process, but now it seems that backdoor listing is also a good way.

"It's simple. If you go through a normal IPO, you'll earn more, but it's much slower and there are a lot of fees. But no matter what, you'll earn more. If you go through a backdoor listing, it's much faster, but you have to give up most of your profits."

If the listing process proceeds normally, Tan Jincheng can maintain at least 55% of the shares, and that's just on the surface. If he were to act unscrupulously, he could hold more than 70% of the shares.

They won't give up at least 7.5% of Xiangcheng City Investment's shares. Based on the current valuation, Tan Jincheng is giving up at least 300 million yuan in profits.

If we calculate based on a 70% stake, then the benefits ceded would be enormous.

However, sharing profits also has its advantages; the premise of everyone making money is that it saves a lot of trouble.

We've opened up hundreds of millions of yuan in profit opportunities; we can't just take the money and not deliver.

(End of this chapter)