Rebirth 2010: I taught Mr. Lei how to make a mobile phone

Chapter 924 Listen~ It's the sound of wealth!

Ant Group officially announced that it has launched a plan to seek a simultaneous IPO on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's STAR Market and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's Main Board.

This news also marks the beginning of the most crucial sprint stage for Ant Group's pre-IPO.

Ant Group's valuation has seen an astonishing leap in its pre-IPO round. It's worth noting that in its previous funding round, its valuation was around $1800 billion due to its compelling story.

Now in its pre-IPO round, its valuation has soared to approximately $3000-3500 billion in just one year, nearly doubling.

Such a growth rate at this scale is extremely rare, fully reflecting the market's extreme optimism about its profitability and growth potential.

It can be said that Ant Group's IPO will be an unprecedented "capital feast" for the Chinese and even global capital markets.

Whether it will "never be the last" depends on whether giants like Beyond Group or Huawei will change their strategies and choose to go public.

This IPO was originally expected to be the largest public offering in history, while the pre-IPO round was the last and most crowded battle for "party tickets" before the festivities began.

Immediately, domestic and foreign capital institutions reacted to the news, all hoping to get a share of the pie.

In general, being able to participate in Ant Group's pre-IPO is considered a "sure-fire" investment.

The market generally predicts that once listed, the stock price will have a significant "listing premium" compared to the pre-IPO price, with a general prediction that the first-day increase may reach 20%-50%, which means huge risk-free arbitrage opportunities.

Numerous institutional fund agents are waving their cash, scrambling to participate, but the share is extremely limited. They are like ordinary consumers scrambling for a limited share of fast-moving consumer goods.

In the nearly one month between Ant Group's announcement in late May and early June, many large funds ultimately received far less allocations than they expected.

The main investors in Ant Group's pre-IPO round have been finalized, including China's largest sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corporation, China S-Bao Fund, China Construction Bank's investment platform, and China Post Group.

Their participation is seen as a strategic investment in core fintech infrastructure, and it conveys a strong endorsement of confidence to the market.

In addition to the "national team," many top global investment institutions have gathered here, such as the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), Temasek, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, The Carlyle Group, and Warburg Pincus.

Being included on an investment list has become a symbol of an institution's strength and status, while most other capital can only look on with envy.

The buzz surrounding Ant Financial's pre-IPO quickly spread to the general public.

If a business that is clearly guaranteed to make money and generates huge profits in the short term were presented to the public, what kind of sensation would it cause?
To meet the needs of ordinary investors, Ant Group, together with five fund companies—E Fund, HFT, China Asset Management, Penghua Fund, and CE Fund—has specially established five "Innovation Future 18-Month Closed-End Hybrid Funds."

These funds will participate in Ant Group's IPO allocation as strategic investors.

Different voices have emerged in the market, such as claims of financial fraud and P2P platform collapses.

The only lesson humanity can learn from history is that humanity has never truly learned from it.

"ZAFB is Jack Ma's product, how could such a big company cheat people out of money?"

People caught up in the frenzy offered their answers.

These five funds were quickly snapped up on the Alipay platform, attracting more than 10 million investors to subscribe, with a total scale of 60 billion yuan, becoming a phenomenal product.

There are also stock market investors who are eagerly waiting to participate in the IPO of Ant Group in a few months.

According to media reports, Ant Financial offered 3.34 million shares to external investors during its IPO.

According to market and financial analysts' predictions, Alibaba's stock price could rise by more than 50% on its first day of trading, and even 100% is not impossible.

It's fair to say that anyone who manages to snag Ant Group shares is guaranteed to make a profit. Many investors are even willing to leverage their investments to simultaneously participate in IPOs in both the A-share and Hong Kong stock markets, hoping to make a huge fortune.

Even the aunties scrambling for eggs in shopping malls and the grandpas fighting for seats on the subway now know that Ant Group's IPO can make money.

Whether it was professional institutions or ordinary retail investors, market sentiment reached a fever pitch in June 2018.

Ant Group has been mythologized as a "never-ending" fintech giant, and its IPO is seen as a once-in-a-century investment opportunity.

Besides strategic investors, Ant Group employees who hold equity stakes have become the most enviable beneficiary group.

The listing prices of second-hand homes within three or four kilometers of Ant Group's headquarters have risen rapidly, with an average increase of 30 to 100 million yuan, and the price changes every day. The housing market has quickly evolved from a warming trend to a "soaring" trend.

Some netizens even joked:
"When Ant Financial went public, in addition to the cheers of shareholders and employees, those who sell large apartments and villas were all smiles. Shouldn't they have a drink to celebrate such a happy occasion? Even those who sell Moutai are cheering."

The emergency overtime during this period made Ant Group employees truly regard these as their "blessings," but they didn't care where these blessings came from.
Even if they knew, they probably wouldn't care. If the sky falls, someone taller will hold it up; after all, they're just doing the work.

Subsequently, someone on Zhiyan (a Chinese business forum) revealed that after Ant Group announced its IPO plan, all employees in the entire Ant Group headquarters building cheered, and the sound lingered for three days.
Suddenly, in the matchmaking corners of Hangzhou parks, Ant Group employees became the most sought-after "hard currency," surpassing all other qualifications. Whether they were tenured, had gone into business, or had a doctorate, none of them could compare to Ant Group at the moment.

Some media outlets have calculated the following based on the prospectus: If Ant Group goes public, Jack Ma, who owns two companies, Junhan and Jun'ao, will have cross-shareholdings of 50% of Ant Group's equity, which translates to 8.8% of Ant Financial's shares.

现如今蚂蚁集团估值足足高达3600亿美元（约2.3万亿人民币），仅仅这8.8%股份就相当于2024亿元财富！    今年3月份福布斯富豪排行榜，前三分别是彼岸陈默财富4241亿、老马财富2387.4亿排第二，小三是恒大的老许，身价在2125.2亿。

With Ant Group's IPO and his existing wealth, Jack Ma's net worth is approaching 4500 billion yuan, potentially surpassing Chen Mo to become China's new richest man.

This wealth-creating feast will also generate a large number of billionaires and multi-millionaires; the math problem is quite simple to solve.

If we calculate based on 1 employees holding shares, the average wealth per person reaches 2.3 million yuan;

Based on 3 people, that's nearly 6000 million yuan per person;

Based on a population of 5, the average amount per person exceeds 4000 million yuan;

Even if we calculate based on 10 people, the average per person would still reach 2300 million yuan.

What concept?
The enormous wealth possessed by these groups, if calculated based on the current average housing price in Hangzhou, would be enough for each of them to purchase a luxury home of nearly 1,000 square meters in Hangzhou.

At least 60 executives and partners from Ant Group and Alibaba Group have become billionaires, with the lowest net worth being 6.65 million yuan.

As for millionaires, they can be mass-produced directly.

Mass production. Production output.
Previously, the IPOs of companies like Tencent, Baidu, Alibaba, and Xiaomi created many millionaires, but compared to this, they all pale in comparison.
Some talented netizens even divided it according to the level system of "Battle Through the Heavens".

"One Ant Emperor (Old Ma), no more than 10 Ant Saints (core executives), 100 Ant Venerables, and 300 Ant Sect Masters;
The above (P10 or M5 management level) are capable of reaching the hundreds of millions level.

500 King Ants (P9) and 1000 Peak King Ants (P8);
These are in the tens of millions; the remaining 4000 Ant Kings and a small number of peak Ant Spirits (P7) are in the millions.
These powerful individuals are extremely rare on the Ant Continent, possessing terrifying strength.

The remaining P6 Ant Spirits and P5 Ant Masters were relegated to the sidelines, only able to watch with envy.

On one hand, there is celebration among current employees, and on the other hand, there is the desolation of former employees.

Two months ago, Du Hong (pseudonym), a former Ant Group employee who had just resigned for family reasons and joined Tencent, told the media:

"When I heard the news that my former employer was preparing to go public the day before yesterday, I had mixed feelings. Although I tried to be positive, it was all real money. If I had persevered for another year, my net worth would have increased significantly."

It's like buying lottery tickets, sticking with the same number for years, and then one day you forget to take the ticket out while doing laundry, only to find out during the draw that you've won 500 million.

And he is not alone in being a former Ant Man.
The IPO frenzy was foreseeable, but the housing market boom in Hangzhou has already begun.

A sales center for a high-end residential project less than one kilometer from Ant Group's headquarters.

Sales consultant Xiao Li has been extremely busy these past few days. Although June has arrived and the traditional peak sales season of "Golden March and Silver April" has long passed, the positive stimulus of Ant Group's upcoming IPO has led to a constant stream of customers looking at and buying houses. He even feels that this may be the busiest period of the year so far.

But he was happy to do it, after all, he could earn in a month what he usually earns in two months of peak season, so he was willing to work himself to the bone for it.

Despite the fact that the property prices have increased by 30% compared to before, half of the units were still sold when the project opened a few days ago.

This was achieved even though the developer intentionally controlled the pace of new launches and temporarily withheld some high-quality large-sized apartments from the market.

Just then, Xiao Li noticed a man and a woman walking into the sales office.

The man had a refined demeanor, while the woman was dressed brightly. When Xiao Li caught a glimpse of the familiar ant logo on the man's T-shirt, her face immediately lit up with a smile, and she warmly and proactively went to greet him.

Without exchanging pleasantries, the man pointed directly to the "king of the building" unit in the center of the model, which was over 400 square meters and faced the central garden and swimming pool.
"Is this set still available?"

The man's tone was as indifferent as if he were asking what dishes were served in the company cafeteria today.

Xiao Li quickly responded, "Sir, you have excellent taste. This unit is still available, but several clients are already in talks with us. The total price is approximately..."

“Around 1600 million, I know.” Lin Tianming interrupted him with a hint of impatience on his face.

As a P8-level algorithm expert at Ant Group, with three years of service, he had heard his colleagues discussing the soaring housing prices in the surrounding area long before Ant Group announced its IPO plans.

So he brought his girlfriend, whom he had only been dating for a short time, to come and see.

He had done his homework beforehand, researching all the data about the property online.

That's why I can say it so easily.

"Uh, sir, that was a quote from a few days ago."

The total price for this apartment type is now 1860 million yuan.

(End of this chapter)