Chapter 694: The Incident Happened Suddenly (Two in One)

Fang Zhuo met Li Jiacheng by chance at CCTV and learned that he had arrived in Beijing.

Although it was not clear what he was doing in Beijing, it was definitely not just to record a program. Intuitively, it was probably related to the investment of Bank of China.

Unlike the real estate business, even though Li's real estate was much higher than the industry average, the listing of the bank this time would still inevitably create profits beyond the imagination of many people. With such a large investment of 700 to 800 million US dollars, it was normal for Li Jiacheng to pay attention to it.

Lenovo heard that Bank of China might have to make a fund delivery, and things might be becoming urgent.

Considering this, Fang Zhuo did not underestimate Li Jiacheng and made a quick decision to call the head of Bank of China to tell him the latest hedge fund news.

As expected, President Li was furious.

"What? Hedge fund?"

"How dare Merrill Lynch do this?!"

In addition to being furious, President Li also asked President Fang: "Where did you get this news? Is it accurate?"

"The news from the United States is 70% to 80% accurate." Fang Zhuo said vaguely.

President Li knew it must be accurate when he heard what Fang said.

Fang Zhuo added: "I asked the head of MIGA Fund, he had never heard of this hedge fund. Although this kind of fund is secretive, it is indeed a bit too inconspicuous."

Sometimes, the brand is also important.

Li Jiacheng Foundation has the endorsement of Li Jiacheng, and MIGA Fund has the endorsement of Fang Zhuo. Everyone will automatically replace the institution with the richest Chinese and the richest mainlander.

As for a hedge fund that has never been heard of...

President Li automatically defined it as a wild hedge fund overseas!

Scandal, for both himself and the bank!

President Li felt that his hands were shaking unconsciously. He took two deep breaths: "Okay, Mr. Fang, I know, thank you."

Regardless of whether this news is the "huge uncertainty" mentioned in the meeting that night, the most important thing is that Merrill Lynch did it so openly!

Once it is completely done, this will be a major setback before the IPO!

President Li ended the call. Under the condition of a filing, even if it would not look good from the perspective of the Securities and Exchange Commission, it would be much better than what he heard now.

Why did he choose the Royal Bank of Scotland?

President Li calmed down. The first thing he did was to consider stopping the fund delivery that was about to start. The second thing was how to tactfully seek the help of the leaders of the Securities and Futures Commission. Their intervention at this time would inevitably be criticized.

He thought about it carefully and decided to be hospitalized first, and legitimately postponed the meeting that needed to be held.

President Li could not wait any longer, so he called his secretary and said to him seriously: "Drive me to the hospital."

The secretary was surprised: "President, who are you going to see?"

"I have kikuchi and need to see a doctor immediately." President Li was still serious.

The secretary did not dare to be careless and hurriedly called the driver, and asked confusedly: "K, K what?"

"Histiocytic necrotizing lymphadenitis, an emergency, is easily misdiagnosed as lymphoma, can be cured quickly, and will not affect long-term health." President Li introduced seriously.

The secretary was a little confused. The leader had, had awe disease.

His thoughts turned slightly, and he immediately said: "Okay, I'll go arrange a familiar hospital."

President Li nodded with satisfaction.

Soon, the leader came to the hospital as he wished, visited and personally experienced the work in the hospital.

That night, Li Jiacheng and Zhou Kaixuan finished recording the CCTV program and set off for the hotel.

"Mr. Li, I asked the TV station, you will be the last interview guest to be broadcast." Zhou Kaixuan sat in the car and talked about today's program. He did not mention the name of that person, but showed an undoubted comparison.

Li Jiacheng smiled: "Fang Zhuo is the second to last?"

Zhou Kaixuan nodded: "Yes, this shows that it is still possible to distinguish who is more worthy of respect here, and Fang Zhuo was not the last."

Li Jiacheng said slowly: "The last one is the second to last."

Zhou Kaixuan was stunned.

Li Jiacheng looked at her expression and said with a smile: "You are so competitive, what will happen to him in the end? I think this person is very popular in the mainland and does things without scruples. Let's wait and see."

Zhou Kaixuan chewed on Li Sheng's evaluation: "Without scruples..."

"Since recently, he has been more arrogant, speaking against his appearance, without scruples, plotting dangerously, and looking down on the two palaces." Li Jiacheng smiled and said the source of this word.

Zhou Kaixuan listened to Li Sheng's words in a manifesto-like manner, and his mood was quite surging. He lowered his voice: "Fang Zhuo's actions will definitely be reported later."

Li Jiacheng did not speak again. The mainland market is huge. Even if East China suffers a setback, what can it do?

A goose feather flies to the sky, but it will always fall to the ground.

...

The next morning.

Li Jiacheng, accompanied by Zhou Kaixuan, inspected his own real estate's new project in Beijing.

Halfway through the car, he received a message from Bank of China.

"The meeting of Bank of China tomorrow has been temporarily cancelled." Li Jiacheng put down his mobile phone and frowned.

Zhou Kaixuan was surprised: "Why?"

Li Jiacheng replied: "President Li is in the hospital due to illness."

Zhou Kaixuan said: "He is in the hospital, and the bank's work must be carried out. Can't we carry out normal fund delivery because of him?"

Li Jiacheng thought for a moment and said slowly: "The work will definitely be carried out. It is understandable to cancel it. It's just a delay of a few days."

Zhou Kaixuan snorted: "These people don't know how tight Mr. Li's schedule is."

Li Jiacheng said without comment: "Let the directors go to the hospital to send some flowers and fruits to the president, and see how the follow-up arrangements are."

Zhou Kaixuan thought for a few seconds: "I will go in person, so I can rest assured."

Li Jiacheng nodded, this is the best, the other party can feel the sincerity.

Almost at the same time, on the other side, Fang Zhuo also received the latest news from the Bank of China.

"This... is really... a choice made out of helplessness."

He thought about it and said to Kong Yu, who was reporting on the fundraising work: "What is this histiocytic necrotizing lymphadenitis? It's not really contracted, right?"

Kong Yu was also unsure, and hurriedly checked the situation of the disease.

When he heard that it was a disease that was easy to recover quickly, Fang Zhuo sighed: "It's not easy. There is a lot of knowledge to get sick, otherwise how can he be a leader."

Kong Yu asked: "Mr. Fang, when will Merrill Lynch Securities make any moves?"

Fang Zhuo had just spoken to Paulson in the morning and asked about the deadline.

As a result, Paulson didn't know if there was any new situation. The second hedge fund couldn't deal with Merrill Lynch within the originally scheduled half a month, and it would take more time.

He replied: "At least three days, at most a week."

Kong Yu's face was lifted, knowing that the changes of Bank of China had reached the last moment, but it was not clear whether it would be achieved in the end.

...

Time passed slowly but quickly.

As Double Eleven was getting closer, Fang Zhuo had to deal with a lot more work on Yiguo, and many problems and resources needed to be coordinated.

In particular, this time involved many partners, which involved the energy of the company from top to bottom.

Not to mention Yiguo's actual market position in the home appliance chain industry, even if Fang Zhuo had the title of the richest man in the mainland, this title could not control any other small company, so similar business docking would always be a little unsmooth.

However, these smooth or unsmooth can still be handled patiently. When the date was getting closer and closer to the second time set by Paulson, there was still no movement from the United States, which made Fang Zhuo start to think about the changes.

He suspected that the two hedge funds driven by Paulson might directly take over Merrill Lynch.

Although this would increase the holding cost, according to the size and status of Bank of China and the development of China's economy, there must be a lot of profit.

However, can Goldman Sachs really hold back its appetite?

If it takes all of Merrill Lynch's plates, it will only be $750 million.

If it uses Merrill Lynch to dig into the Royal Bank of Scotland's plate, it will immediately be more than twice as much, $1.6 billion.

What factors will affect the gap in the middle?

What relationship is there between Goldman Sachs and Royal Bank of Scotland that he doesn't know about?

Fang Zhuo and Paulson didn't trust each other, so it was inevitable that he would consider more.

However, just as he was thinking about digging deeper into the hedge funds driven by Goldman Sachs, the American media finally made a move on this matter.

The famous financial media "Wall Street Journal" published a large-scale interview with SP Hedge Fund, during which it talked about the fund's recent operations, including but not limited to a strategic investment of up to $400 million in Bank of China.

Subsequently, the Chinese website of the Wall Street Journal translated the article into Chinese and put it online on the website that afternoon.

Along with this action, many financial media in the United States reported intensively on SP Hedge Fund, praising its amazing performance. Among them, some financial reporters mentioned the contradiction between the two identities of hedge funds and banks.

Hedge funds are often involved in financial crises. When they are linked to banks, which pursue stability, what kind of effects and impacts will they have?

In the evening alone, Sohu Finance reprinted the translated article of the Chinese website of the Wall Street Journal.

Sina Finance followed closely and exerted its first-class news level ability. Immediately, one of its reporters called the American SP Fund to try to interview the relevant situation.

However, the reporter could only write in the press release that "the headquarters phone of SP Hedge Fund could not answer the manual service. We turned to find its branch in Hong Kong, but the branch staff refused our interview."

Such news spread in the domestic financial circle, and reporters from the "Huaxia Securities News" began to contact relevant personnel of Bank of China to understand the whole story.

All along, the strategic partner mentioned by Bank of China is Royal Bank of Scotland. Although the latter also found Merrill Lynch and Li Jiacheng Foundation, the reputation of these two companies is barely acceptable.

A hedge fund that suddenly appeared actually claimed to make a strategic investment of 400 million US dollars in Bank of China. Where did it come from?

The spokesperson of Bank of China was shocked when he received the interview call: "What? Hedge fund? This, this, this related information is subject to official explanation."

Even though the spokesperson had reacted quickly to the shocking news, his first words still exposed the situation.

The strategic investment of overseas hedge funds in Bank of China seemed to be unplanned.

In other words, the appearance of Merrill Lynch and Li Jiacheng Foundation was also unplanned.

"Huaxia Securities News" did not give up and quickly called higher-level leaders of Bank of China to explore the truth of the matter.

In this process, the reporter obtained more news materials, such as "There is no such thing", "What? Foreign media said? Don't write nonsense", "Don't report", etc., and finally moved most of them into the news release.

At this point, overseas hedge funds surfaced, American financial media reported widely, domestic media reprinted and followed up, the bank was deeply shocked and reported to the Securities Regulatory Commission... Bank of China has been torn open a bigger hole because of the loophole in its cooperation with the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The listing plan announced by Bank of China is to start an international roadshow in Hong Kong at the beginning of next year to prepare for the IPO of Hong Kong stocks.

At this juncture, the equity distribution of the bank suddenly changed significantly, which undoubtedly cast a heavy shadow on the listing prospects.

Bank of China was shocked, and the leaders were furious. They questioned the Royal Bank of Scotland and Merrill Lynch overnight, and contacted the SP hedge fund to verify the situation. They worked all night and were in chaos.

However, the situation of the SP hedge fund was not clear yet, and another hedge fund named WI-Tyio stood up and announced that it would take over the remaining US$350 million strategic investment in Bank of China by Merrill Lynch.

At this time, all the leaders of Bank of China and the leaders of the Securities Regulatory Commission who were concerned about this matter were... all numb.

Still coming?

Is it not bad enough?

In the end, Merrill Lynch gave a formal and public response: "Comply with the contract, no breach of contract."

According to this statement, Merrill Lynch has nothing to do with Bank of China.

Even its public response also shows its attitude. I acted completely in accordance with the contract. Who do you think you are?

At the Bank of China's temporary meeting, a leader smashed his phone for this and severely criticized the cooperation with the Royal Bank of Scotland.

On the second night after Bank of China encountered an emergency, Li Jiacheng, who had not slept well the night before, just took a nap and was suddenly awakened by the sound of Zhou Kaixuan answering the phone.

He lifted the thin blanket covering his body and asked slowly: "Is there any good news? You look happy."

Zhou Kaixuan held the phone and smiled: "There is really good news."

Li Jiacheng motioned her to bring the tea to him and said: "These two days are all bad news. Merrill Lynch is too short-sighted. Tell me."

Zhou Kaixuan went to the hospital to visit the sick president of Bank of China two days ago. They talked about strategic investment and had common goals. Today, the news he received was about him.

She said, "President Li is coming back to preside over the work despite his illness."

Li Jiacheng was slightly startled, and smiled: "This is really good news. He will definitely be able to stabilize the situation as soon as possible. Although Merrill Lynch has problems, he will surely be able to make up for his mistakes if he tries to save the situation in this state."

He thought for a while and said, "Please call President Li for me and tell him that our foundation has prepared all the funds and is willing to take the lead in delivering the funds to stabilize the situation and fully support his work."

Zhou Kaixuan nodded: "Okay, we will help you in your time of need. President Li will definitely thank us."

Li Jiacheng took a sip of tea. It was just a mutual benefit. He didn't have any better choice.