Reborn multinational giant

After the IT summit ended and the time entered April, Fang Zhe's first important thing to return to Yanjing was to convene a general meeting of shareholders to discuss and initiate Huizhong's listing.

For any company, going public is an important turning point in its development process, from the company’s internal shares, management, investment relations, and financial system improvement before the listing.

After the launch of the listing, the lead underwriter was introduced to form a listing team, completed due diligence, introduced cornerstone investors, registered for approval at the stock exchange and issued a prospectus, carried out roadshow sprints and the final listing. A major test

Fortunately, since Huizhong’s A round of financing signed a gambling agreement with investors to go public within three years, Fang Zhe and all the executives and shareholders of Huizhong have already prepared for the listing, and they have been exclusively in Huizhong. A listing preparatory group was established to prepare for the listing of Huizhong.

The leader of the listing preparatory group is headed by Fang Zhe, but most of the actual work and specific execution are handled by one of the deputy team leaders, Chen Yimei. Now that the specific listing is launched, Chen Yimei is waiting even more.

"At present, dozens of investment banks at home and abroad, including Goldman Sachs, Citi, Merrill Lynch, ****, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Wells Fargo, Nomura Securities, and the domestic CICC, have all conveyed to us I have a strong intention to become our underwriter for this IPO (initial public offering, that is, listing).

In addition, Citi’s global vice president David, UBS CEO An Sijie, and other relevant heads of investment banks are all preparing to come to China to discuss IPO cooperation with us."At the shareholders meeting, Chen Yimei, who was in charge of the preparations for listing, reported to Fang Zhe and all shareholders.

In the conference room, including Fang Zhe, Zheng Siwen, Li Yifei, other core executives who own Huizhong equity and representatives of Apple, SoftBank and other investors are all listed, listening to Chen Yimei’s report on the preparations for listing, sitting in the main seat Fang Zhe on the top tapped the table with his right index finger at random, lost in thought.

There is no doubt that Huizhong’s IPO is a gluttonous feast for global investment banks and capital, because in terms of business scale, revenue and profit, or corporate valuation, Huizhong is already the largest in the history of the world. Listed technology companies, in other words, Huizhong's listing is likely to become the world's largest ever IPO with the most funds raised.

Regardless of the significance of leading and underwriting the world's largest IPO in history to major investment banks in the world, the huge commissions of hundreds of millions of dollars in this IPO alone are enough to attract major investment banks around the world.

Which investment bank to choose as the lead underwriter for Huizhong’s IPO has become a problem for Fang Zhe and the executives of Huizhong.

"My suggestion is that we can choose no less than 3 lead underwriters, no more than 6, and investment banks in the US and Europe should take into account both to ensure the largest range of fundraising."

The first to speak is Huizhong’s second-in-command Zheng Siwen. Before starting his business with Fang Zhe, he worked for Goldman Sachs and a domestic securities company for nearly ten years and has extensive investment banking experience.

If he were not now the chief COO of Huizhong, in charge of the daily work and operation of the entire company, and could not get away from him, Fang Zhe would prefer him to personally take charge of the preparations for the listing of Huizhong.

There are no less than 3 lead underwriters to take into account the differences in the main customer groups and business expertise of each investment bank, and no more than 6 are to distinguish the priority from other secondary underwriters and take care of the interests of major underwriters .

In addition, it is necessary to select an underwriter from the selected lead underwriters as the lead person to be responsible for the promotion and coordination of the entire IPO process. Of course, if no surprises, this investment bank responsible for the lead will also Will become the investment bank that has benefited the most in the entire IPO process.

"Goldman Sachs, Citi, Merrill Lynch, ****, Morgan Stanley and other investment banks are all U.S. investment banks. Our listing location is also in the U.S., so at least two U.S. investment banks must be selected as lead underwriters. , Morgan Stanley has always been ahead of other investment banks in stock issuance, so it should be our must.

Goldman Sachs and Goldman Sachs are the top three investment banks in the world, and both investment banks are very powerful, so my suggestion is to choose both investment banks."Chen Yimei introduced and analyzed.

Sitting next to Chen Yimei, Huang Siyi, who is in charge of Huizhong's investment business, thought for a while and said: "If this is the case, we have selected three investment banks in the US alone, leaving only three places for other regions.

Moreover, this time Citibank specially sent its global vice president to China, and the UBS CEO personally dispatched it. We have to give them some face. In this way, two more places are used, leaving only the last place for Other investment companies."

The executives in the room looked at each other, and in the end they all fixed their eyes on Fang Zhe who was sitting in the main seat. Fang Zhe stopped tapping his index finger on the table and said:

"Give the last place to Deutsche Bank. In Europe, there is only UBS as an investment bank. I am afraid that it is not enough. In Asia, regardless of whether it is CICC or Nomura Securities, they only have a certain influence in Asia. We are listed in the United States, and they will not help. What are you busy?"

"Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, ****, Citi, UBS, Deutsche Bank" after the six leading underwriters were finalized, Chen Yimei spoke again: "It is necessary to make sure that the head of the family takes the lead. I suggest that from Goldman Sachs and * Choose one from ***."

Chen Yimei threw two options.

Fang Zhe didn’t make a direct decision. He looked at Zheng Siwen sitting on the right hand side. Zheng Siwen met his eyes and understood that Fang Zhe wanted him to make a decision. After all, Goldman Sachs is his old club. The face is all in his decision.

"Never mind Goldman Sachs. In the past few years, due to the impact of the financial crisis, many companies around the world have undergone mergers and acquisitions. The focus of Goldman Sachs's business in the past two years has also been biased towards corporate mergers and acquisitions consulting. Therefore, I suggest choosing **** as the lead bank will be more appropriate. ."

Zheng Siwen made the decision. Although Goldman Sachs is his old boss, he is now Huizhong's second-in-chief and second-largest individual shareholder, so it is natural that Huizhong's interests are the first priority.

After the six major underwriters and lead banks were finalized, Chen Yimei continued to report to Fang Zhe on the establishment and arrangement of various listing teams including law firms and accounting firms’ asset appraisers.

There is no doubt that from major investment banks to many accounting firms, including the Big Four, are all trying their best to obtain qualifications to participate in Huizhong's IPO.

By the end of April, a team of hundreds of people dedicated to Huizhong’s listing was finally established, and Huizhong officially announced the launch of its listing in the United States!