After the Divorce, I Could Hear the Voice of the Future
Chapter 424 - 421: Pushing His Luck

"Yutao, what are your thoughts?"

Mr. Lu informed Sun Yutao that Wilson planned to take the baton from them.

Sun Yutao, at forty this year, had thirteen years of brokerage experience with Citic and Guotai before he had come over to private equity.

His practical trading experience was tremendously rich, only before at those two companies, he had always adhered to the principle of seeking neither merit nor fault.

At first, when Mr. Lu had set his sights on him and Zhang Jing, he valued their top-tier toolkit persona, but plans cannot always keep up with changes, and not being able to rely on external boosts to speculate on hype-driven stocks, he was somewhat apprehensive.

So he decided to continue playing the sage in silence,

under the guise of testing, to hear his opinions.

Sun Yutao suppressed his excitement and pondered for a long time, "Mr. Lu, I'm not very clear on how to drum up stocks in the US stock market, but if it were A-shares, as long as the hype builds up, it's all about the institutions and speculator capitals taking over from one another."

"Take our cost of 4.95 US dollars and current price of 6.12 US dollars as an example, if the other party is willing to take over at a high price, we can totally let go."

"Firstly, Panda's market capitalization surpassing ten billion dollars is just a market overheating, the investors haven't come to their senses yet, once they do, they will start to contemplate whether this enterprise is worth the price or not."

"Secondly, although we have the power to manipulate the market, at the end of the day, we are still playing on foreign turf, just a newcomer in NASDAQ, we have already earned both fame and fortune, if we keep up the dominance, we run the risk of being isolated."

"Investment is not like speculation, if no one takes over afterwards, market enthusiasm can easily die down. Especially with the lock-up period of six months, it's like the Sword of Damocles hanging overhead, it will drop sooner or later."

Mr. Lu did have a resounding reputation in the international market, but that reputation largely came from speculation.

Investment is a long game, speculation is short-term, Soros may be famous, but his influence doesn't compare to Buffett's.

Last year Berkshire went public, issuing shares at 210,000 US dollars each, a market cap of 320 billion was sufficient to illustrate everything.

With his approach, if someone is willing to take over, they would get in and out quickly, treating this as a speculative opportunity.

Today's market trend shall remain as is, wait until the market opens tomorrow night, then pump it up by around ten percentage points before performing the handover at the peak.

They could offload eighty percent of their holdings, cashing out the investment, and ride the waves with the remaining twenty percent, selling high and buying low.

Although they could no longer be the dominant market maker, there was still a chance to become one of the institutions that would take over subsequently.

By retaining a certain amount of shares, they could also reassure those taking over, keeping the spirit of shared prosperity, just with a switch in primary and secondary roles.

Upon hearing this, Mr. Lu thought it over for quite some time.

Executing Sun Yutao's plan and changing hands at 6.732 US dollars per share would net a profit of 1.78 US dollars per share.

With a total of 58.53 million shares and eighty percent being offloaded, the gain from this move was around eighty million dollars, with an initial investment of three hundred fifty million dollars, the profit rate stood at 23.5%.

Mr. Lu looked up at the stock market chart on the wall, a first-day surge of 178%, with a market value of 11.7 billion dollars.

He had already made his decision,

Panda's market debut was just a process, not the end goal.

If due to greed, no one would play along, then the IPO of Panda would have been in vain.

At four in the morning, the US stock market closed.

Panda's market value was 11.616 billion dollars, a surge of 175%, perfect figures, wrapping up the Nasdaq debut.

Mr. Lu stepped out of the trading room and called Mr. Wilson, who picked up instantly, just like he had said, he had been waiting for the call.

Mr. Lu said, "Open ten points higher tomorrow, then change hands."

"Can do."

Mr. Wilson, with a smile on his face, agreed without hesitation and then asked, "Lu, how much of a stake are you planning to keep?"

He was willing and hoped Mr. Lu would join in, but he didn't want him to end up turning the tables and taking over.

If Mr. Lu completely liquidated his position, it wouldn't bode well for subsequent speculation on Panda.

Because the immense hype for Panda could not discount Mr. Lu's supporting role.

To create a market sensation, one of the elements is market enthusiasm; another is investor diversity—speculators, investors, those shorting or going long, institutions, speculative capitals, and retail investors of all sorts.

Mystery embodies the elusive and highly active nature essential for creating sensational stocks; without whom, it simply wouldn't work.

"Twenty percent stakes."

Lu Liang glanced at Sun Yutao, truly seasoned from over a decade in the industry; he still had much to learn.

"Lu, that's standard risk control."

Wilson spoke with sincerity,

Not questioning how much twenty percent of the stakes were, nor what eighty percent would amount to.

Currently, Panda had no more than 382 million shares in circulation; even if one held more than 10%, let's say 20%, that would be just over seventy million shares, under five hundred million dollars.

The more shares they picked up tomorrow, the more they'd earn when it came time to drive the market.

He just hoped that Lu Liang wouldn't mind; for decades, this had been their way of doing things.

Creating a sensation required both heavy costs and effort. Wilson trusted Lu Liang, but that didn't mean other institutions did.

Only by letting JPMorgan preside as the arbitrator of the market could other institutions feel confident to enter and become the next, or even the following, successors.

Lu Liang said with a smile, "Mr. Wilson, I trust you, just as you trust me, no need for further words."

Wilson also smiled, seeing this as a sign of their deepening relationship, and shared tomorrow's plan, "Tomorrow we'll raise the price by ten points, you just sell off, no need to worry about no one taking over."

The two talked for over half an hour before he said, "It must be nearly dawn in East Country now, I won't keep you from your rest, wishing you sweet dreams."

"Thank you."

Having ended the call with Wilson, Lu Liang returned to the trading room to inform Sun Yutao of tomorrow's plans.

"Alright, Mr. Lu." The excitement in Old Sun's eyes indicated his suggestions had been accepted, passing the assessment set by Lu Liang.

Lu Liang smiled and patted his shoulder, noncommittally, "After you finish up, head home early to rest."

Just after stepping out of the trading room, he received a call from Little Wang, "Lu, have you seen it? The market cap is 11.6 billion dollars!"

A smile played on Lu Liang's lips; through the phone, he could almost see Little Wang's excited shouting.

Little Wang held a 31.55% equity interest, worth 3.66 billion dollars, equivalent to 24.5 billion RMB.

Last year on the Hurun Rich List, the last place was held by the Geng Family couple from Rongsheng Real Estate with a fortune of 26.5 billion RMB.

Panda wasn't Little Wang's only asset; adding investments from Plus, rounding up to 2 billion shouldn't be difficult.

Without any surprises, he could make it onto the list next year.

Lu Liang opened his mouth as though to speak, but eventually smiled and said, "I've seen it, feeling sleepy, heading home to bed."

He actually wanted to say that if they could maintain a market cap of 5 billion dollars in six months, it would be considered a success.

With new stocks listed, shareholders all have a six-month lock-up period, and the ticket-holding institutions wouldn't be generous enough to lift them onto their shoulders.

As soon as they grew bored or the hype died, Panda would inevitably face a plunge and trap a batch of latecomers.

The current high market value and stock prices were all a mirage, ready to vanish with the wind whenever it blew.

But after a thought, he decided against saying it.

Always being the wet blanket was akin to being the party-pooping parent, which wasn't conducive to a child's growth.

Let him soar for a bit then.

However, Little Wang was overstepping his bounds, basking in any ray of sunlight and said excitedly, "Sleep? Get up and live it up!"

"I'll attend the celebration banquet, and after that head back to Modu. Tonight, book the biggest venue for me, I'm going to party until dawn."

"Party my foot, let's talk tonight if there's something," Lu Liang darkened in expression and hung up abruptly.

It seemed tonight he'd need to find some time to give Little Wang a good talking-to, lest he wreak havoc and ruin the scheme to sensationalize the stock.

He sighed helplessly, "I didn't want to dampen the mood, but I can't help it when this guy always wants to stir up trouble."