"Lead line?"

Li Mu heard Steve· Johnson's intentions smiled playfully.

After a while, Li Mu said noncommittally: "Sequoia is the world's top in the investment field, but it doesn't seem to be in the first line in terms of IPO underwriters, right? If Makino Technology wants to find suitable underwriters, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, Citibank, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan should be the best choice for cooperation." ”

Steve· Johnson nodded and said, "I'm not here for Sequoia today, in fact, I'm talking to you today about the lead bank, and I'm representing HSBC. ”

Li Mu frowned.

"HSBC?" Li Mu asked with a puzzled expression, "How could Mr. Steve be involved with a bank in Hong Kong?"

Steve· Johnson smiled slightly: "Mr. Li, in fact, HSBC is a British company, headquartered in London, but it was founded in Hong Kong a few years ago. ”

"Well, I'm alone. Li Mu nodded lightly, and said, "Then what prompted you to win the qualification of the IPO lead bank of Makino Technology for a British company to be listed in the United States?"

Steve· Johnson said with a smile: "First of all, I want to make a statement to Mr. Li, although I joined Sequoia, I am a British, and now Sequoia is no longer an American company, it is just an international enterprise that started in the United States and is headquartered in the United States. ”

Li Mu shrugged his shoulders and laughed self-deprecatingly: "In that case, the $3.3 billion you invested in Makino Technology last time is likely to include the wealth that the British plundered from China during the Opium War. ”

Steve· Johnso nodded very seriously and said, "I can't rule out this possibility at all." ”

After that, he explained: "In fact, although the world is creating a large number of new rich people like you, to be honest, in the huge ocean of trillions of dollars in the entire capital market, the proportion of Old-money may be greater than you imagine, such as a family like Rockefeller, no one can count how much money they have." ”

Li Mu agrees very much with this, the old aristocrats and old capitalists in Europe and the United States often create not a business, but a money empire, the so-called money empire, that is, the invisible is better than the tangible, it is likely that in fact, a company does not operate, but directly or indirectly occupies shares in hundreds of enterprises, and such assets cannot be counted completely.

At this time, Steve· Johnso also explained: "The main reason why I am here today to win the lead line qualification for the IPO of Makino Technology for HSBC is also because of the in-depth cooperation between Sequoia and HSBC, in recent years, the proportion of Sequoia's investment money from HSBC Group has been increasing, and HSBC has long begun to get involved in the US market, especially the stock investment market, we hope that Sequoia and HSBC will cooperate more and more closely, and also hope that Sequoia, The cooperation between HSBC and Makino Technology is getting closer and closer, and if the three parties can reach an in-depth cooperation, then the future common development space will be very huge. ”

Saying, Steve· Johnso also said: "Mr. Li, you are a doer, in the future, you may create more projects, set up more enterprises, belong to the front-end producer, and Sequoia is an investment bank, mainly to invest in projects, belongs to the early and medium-term capital operation, HSBC mainly does large-scale capital operation, especially banking, securities-related business, belongs to the middle and late stage of capital operation, in this way, the three of us can form an industrial chain." ”

Steve· Johnso has always emphasized the qualification of "lead bank" because he knows very well that with the size of Makino Technology, no investment bank can eat it by itself in the scale of IPO raising $20 billion in the future, so what he wants is this "lead bank". It's like the concept of "leading investment" in investment and financing, to put it bluntly, it is to take the lion's share first.

In any stock trading market in the world, new stocks are the object of much attention, but also the potential profit margin of the largest stocks, most of the new shares at the beginning of the listing, the price will enter a period of rapid growth, if investors can seize this opportunity, there is a great chance to make a fortune with the car.

However, the stock offering of U.S. stock IPOs is a very interesting thing, unlike domestic stock listings, U.S. stocks basically do not give retail investors the opportunity to buy new shares.

Domestic stocks rely on winning the lottery, with a high probability of relying on luck, if you hit, although the number is not much, but at least you can make a small profit, which is the standard egalitarianism;

However, in the case of U.S. stock IPOs, the stocks rely on the underwriters to carry out independent sales with great discretion, that is to say, if the brokerage gets the share of IPO shares, it is basically free to decide who to subscribe for most of the shares, whether it is to certain institutions, some stock funds, or to some large customers, these are their own decisions, which means that having the underwriting rights of high-potential stock IPOs in their hands will be a good opportunity for the brokerage subordinate institutions to make money, and it is also a good opportunity to maintain large customers.

Especially Makino Technology, which is highly optimistic about the world's enterprises, if it IPO, the upside after listing is huge, it is worth investors as a long-term investment and long-term holding, who gets the shares of Makino Technology's IPO, who has become the object of investors' chasing, even if it is a customer of other brokerages, may also be able to subscribe for Makino Technology's shares, so as to transfer funds to the actual underwriter's account.

To put it bluntly, the underwriter is like a ticket agent, the more difficult the ticket to sell, the less interested the underwriter is, just like an eighteenth-tier singer wants to hold a concert, at this time, the distributor of the performance asks the underwriter to help sell the ticket, even if the commission ratio is higher.

However, if the singer of the performance corresponding to the performance ticket is Jay Chou or Zhang Xueyou, then the major underwriters have to beg the performance distributor to help them sell tickets, even if the commission ratio is lower;

If Jay Chou is ready to hold 100 concerts around the world a year, corresponding to 2 million tickets, if a ticketing platform can win more than half of the ticket source, it will play a great role in boosting their platform data, brand promotion, and user promotion.

It is no exaggeration to say that Makino Technology can no longer be compared to concert tickets, but should be compared to train tickets during the Spring Festival transportation of the railway department.

At present, whoever gets the lead qualification of Makino Technology's IPO will be equivalent to getting the right to sell more than half of the train tickets during the Spring Festival, and the train ticket price will be completely market-oriented.

Because of this, Li Mucai is not in a hurry about the underwriter's affairs at all, and even he hopes to use the underwriter's qualification as an additional bargaining chip to exchange for greater benefits for himself.

So for such a big thing, Li Mu said that it was impossible to agree to Steve· Johnson, so he was very interested in Steve· Johnson said: "Steve, to be honest, I only understand business, I don't understand capital, we have a special team in charge of capital operations, and we also have a special team in charge of IPO, when to IPO, how to IPO, who to work with, how to price, when to roadshow, when to ring the bell, these are not things I will worry about, if Sequoia wants to cooperate with us, then I can let the team talk to you first." ”

Steve· Johnson knows Li Mu's style of doing things very well, although Li Mu said that he doesn't care about these things, but in fact, the major development strategy of Makino Technology is almost all set by Li Mu alone, when to IPO, how to IPO, these issues must be Li Mu's final say.

So he didn't break it, but said with a smile: "In this case, then we can establish a close communication mechanism, if Makino Technology is ready to go public, HSBC can provide you with more favorable cooperation conditions." ”

Li Mu nodded and said with a smile: "There is no problem with this, establish in-depth communication, and everyone will maintain close contact in the future and communicate with each other." ”

Steve· Johnso then said: "By the way, Mr. Li, there will be a relatively high-end party in London in a few days, and the people who come to participate are basically typical Old-Money in Europe and the United States, and some heavyweights behind HSBC and Sequoia will also attend, in addition, there will be some royal families present, I don't know if you are interested?"

As soon as Li Mu heard that he was going to London to attend a party, he subconsciously wanted to refuse, and tossed thousands of miles to attend the party, which was simply unreasonable for a person like him whose time was life.

However, after thinking about it, Li Mu immediately realized a problem, as an upstart in the capital circle, he has never carefully established his own social circle in the capital field, in other words, although he is already a person in the upper class, he has not integrated into the circle of the upper class.

At the world level, the real upper class society is divided into three levels, the first level is those well-known high-class tycoons, and the next level is the political leaders and political families of various countries, and the third level is those famous families in the world that have been entrenched for dozens or hundreds of years, they not only have money, but also political resources, and even have the ability to influence the political pattern.

And now, at best, he has only reached the first level, and the scope of expansion in the first level is not large, if you want to rise to the second level, or even the third level, you not only need strength, but also need opportunities.

However, for now, Steve· The party Johnso said seemed to be a party belonging to the third class, and for himself, it was a good opportunity to expand his social circle in multiple dimensions.

After thinking for a while, Li Mu had already made up his mind and took time to go to this party to have a look. Johnso saw that he had not spoken, so he took the initiative to remind: "By the way, Mr. Li, I just invited Miss Anne Hathaway, she has agreed to participate, if you can find time in your busy schedule, you can also invite her to be your companion." ”

Li Mu didn't expect Steve· Johnso had already invited Anne Hathaway, but his focus was not on her, so he asked Steve. Johnso: "When is it?"

"In the middle and late of next month, the exact time will be determined in a few days. ”

Li Mu nodded and said briskly: "Okay, I'll participate." ”