Chapter 414: How to know good and bad fortune
Chapter 414: How to know good and bad fortune
It’s late at night at Inwangsan Villa.
In the master bedroom on the second floor with only a dim light on, An Rushong turned over and sat up from the soft bed.
The noise he made when he stood up did not wake up Sun Manzhu who was sleeping in the middle of the bed, but it did wake up Li Caicao who was sitting across from Sun Manzhu. There was no way, Li Caicao was a light sleeper during her pregnancy, and would be awakened by the slightest noise.
Seeing Li Caicao getting up from the other side, An Rushong gestured to her to keep quiet, and then whispered, "I can't sleep. I'll go to the study for a while. You can go back to sleep."
Li Caicao didn't say anything, just nodded, and then lay back down.
An Rushong put on his slippers, turned around and covered Sun Manzhu with a quilt, then tiptoed towards the bedroom door.
It was almost two o'clock in the morning, but for some reason, An Rushong, who had drunk a lot of wine tonight, was still full of energy. He lay in bed for more than two hours. During this time, he seemed to have slept for a while, but it seemed that he did not sleep at all. In short, he woke up suddenly, and then he could not fall asleep again. He even felt uncomfortable when he closed his eyes, as if there was sand in his eyes, rubbing his eyeballs.
There was a dim light on in the living room outside the bedroom. An Rushong walked to the door leading to the corridor from the living room, opened the door, and listened carefully. He could vaguely hear voices downstairs. It should be the bodyguards on duty saying something.
Just as he was listening to the noise downstairs, a figure flashed out from a door not far away in the corridor. It was Han Sulan, who was wearing casual home clothes. If nothing unexpected happened, she should be on night shift tonight.
Since the attack on the Inwangsan Villa, An Rushong changed the security contract with Blackwater International. In addition to Luo Minzhi and Han Sulan, he hired more than a dozen bodyguards. From then on, An Rushong truly became a "big customer" of Blackwater International.
Now, Luo Minzhi and Han Sulan are the "leaders" of these dozen bodyguards. All security matters surrounding An Rushong are arranged by them, including the arrangements for the night shifts, which are also taken turns by these two.
Seeing An Rushong standing at the door of the master bedroom living room, Han Sulan nodded at him, then turned around and went back to her room.
An Rushong closed the door again, poured himself a glass of juice in front of the small bar in the living room, and then took it to the study.
There was a faint smell of cigarettes in the study. There was no way around it. As a real smoker, and one with an increasing addiction, there was always a faint smell of cigarettes in An Rushong's study. Even though Sun Manzhu cleaned and removed the odor for him every day, this smell of cigarettes could not be removed.
Of course, An Rushong himself didn't care, mainly because he couldn't really smell it.
He turned on the desk lamp and walked to the chair inside to sit down. An Rushong took a sip of the juice, then took a bottle of toner from the table and sprayed it on his numb face to wake himself up. Then he almost instinctively took a pack of cigarettes from the table and lit one for himself.
As a pungent smoke rushed into his lungs, his originally groggy mind finally became completely clear, and An Rushong's thoughts shifted to the things that had been bothering him all night.
Tonight's meeting with Robert is very important to An Rushong. The reason why he couldn't sleep all night is closely related to this.
As an independent director of BlackRock, Robert was sincere about cooperating with NGN. He not only offered generous cooperation conditions to An Rusong, but also brought him a lot of extremely valuable information.
Judging from the cooperation conditions alone, BlackRock's appetite is indeed not big. The shareholding ratio of no more than 15%, the promise of not interfering in the daily operations of NGN, and the redemption ratio at the highest valuation are all sincerity that An Rusong cannot refuse.
What do you mean?
This roughly means that once NGN accepts BlackRock's cooperation request, then when NGN launches its B round of financing, BlackRock is willing to invest in NGN at the highest market valuation in exchange for no more than 15% of NGN's equity. At the same time, as an investor in NGN, BlackRock is willing to maintain a consistent position with An Rusong, the chairman, that is, BlackRock will support An Rusong as the chairman of NGN as a shareholder.
Why did BlackRock only seek to acquire no more than 15% of NGN's shares? The reason is very simple. After the first round of financing, NGN's shareholders included five parties: An Rusong, the chairman and founder of the company; NGN's investors Defeng Ju and Apple; Han Meiyan, a small shareholder holding 5% of the shares; and the last party, the shares in the company's equity pool.
If NGN launches a B round of financing, then the shares that An Rusong is prepared to take out for financing will definitely not be too many. Twenty percent is almost the upper limit, and this upper limit is determined by the current share structure of NGN and the company's valuation. As a multinational investment group that has always been paying attention to NGN, BlackRock can naturally estimate this upper limit. In An Rusong's plan, NGN will do at most three rounds of financing before listing, that is, after the B round of financing, there will be a C round of financing. Therefore, in order to ensure that he holds a certain proportion of shares in his hands, and because he has sufficient confidence in the future of NGN, he is destined not to sell too many shares in the B round of financing.
If the plan is to sell 20% of the shares in the B round of financing, this 20% of shares will certainly not be paid by An Rushong alone, but the various shareholders of NGN company will dilute their respective equity ratios in proportion. If any party does not want their shareholding ratio to be diluted, they will have to continue to invest more funds in NGN company.
Of course, how this issue will be finally resolved will depend on subsequent negotiations among shareholders including BlackRock, Ann Rusong, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Apple.
Considering that DFJ and Apple have previously signed a priority financing agreement with Ann Rusong, that is, once NGN launches its second round of financing, DFJ and Apple will have investment priority under the same valuation conditions. Therefore, whether BlackRock can enter the market smoothly depends on whether DFJ and Apple will give their approval.
Today, NGN has a bright future, and everyone knows that investing in it will definitely make money, so under normal circumstances, it is definitely not that easy for BlackRock to enter the market. But Robert revealed a piece of information to An Rusong, that is, BlackRock is 100% sure in persuading Draper Fisher Jurvetson.
According to Robert, the subprime mortgage crisis that is currently sweeping the world has dealt a huge blow to almost all financial institutions in the United States - yes, those affected by the subprime mortgage crisis include not only those financial institutions related to mortgage loans, but also those financial institutions that have nothing to do with the mortgage business.
In the final analysis, it is this storm-like subprime mortgage crisis that has fundamentally hit the confidence of investors. Everyone has tightened their wallets and dared not make any moves. Such a reality can only lead to one result, that is, the depletion of liquidity, which is exactly what all financial institutions fear the most.
According to Robert, Draper Fisher Jurvetson is also in trouble. Its large investments in the medical field have been hit hard. In addition, its investments in the Internet, wireless communications and other fields have been challenged by its peers, forcing it to make major adjustments to its investment strategy.
The news that Robert brought to An Rusong was that Draper Fisher Jurvetson would likely make major revisions to its investment direction in the second half of this year. They would focus their main energy on the Chinese market and seek to deepen their presence in the Chinese market while major venture capital companies were seeking to exit.
If this news is accurate, then when NGN launches its Series B financing in October, Draper Fisher Jurvetson will most likely not increase its investment in NGN. Not only will they not increase their investment, they will most likely seek to sell their NGN shares in order to raise more funds to enter the Chinese market.
Of course, even if the news is inaccurate, it does not matter, because BlackRock has already started contact with DFJ, and Robert is confident that he can convince DFJ's top management to give up certain interests in exchange for the other party's support for BlackRock's participation in NGN financing.
In short, Robert's meaning is very clear, that is, BlackRock is determined to cooperate with NGN. The reason for this is that BlackRock is seeking opportunities to enter the primary market. Listing NGN can not only obtain a good qualification case for BlackRock, but also boost investors' confidence in BlackRock.
Of course, investing in NGN, especially listing NGN operations, can also bring huge profits to BlackRock, which is also what Robert values.
In the study, as a cigarette was finished, light blue smoke began to diffuse in the light of the desk lamp. An Rushong, who was sitting in the shadow of the desk lamp, had an expression that seemed a little uncertain.
To be honest, cooperating with an institution like BlackRock has both positive and negative effects on NGN.
On the positive side, although BlackRock is still far from its heyday, its strength cannot be ignored. Most importantly, because its core management has always paid attention to investment in politics, BlackRock has a strong influence in American politics, especially in the Democratic Party.
Therefore, if they can get the support of BlackRock, both An Rusong and his NGN will be able to obtain strong support, and the development of NGN is also expected to be on the fast track.
But by the same token, due to BlackRock's strong strength and sufficient influence in American politics, it is definitely stronger than Draper Fisher Jurvetson in some aspects. From a long-term perspective, An Rushong cannot see clearly what the follow-up impact of cooperating with it will be.
In other words, it is still unclear whether becoming a partner with BlackRock is a blessing or a curse.
(End of this chapter)