"Lead bank?"
After hearing Steve Johnson's intentions, Li Mu smiled with a playful expression.
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 top tier of IPO underwriters, right? If Makino Technology wants to find a suitable underwriter, 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 entirely here for Sequoia today. In fact, I'm talking to you about the lead bank today on behalf of HSBC."
Li Mu frowned.
"HSBC?" Li Mu asked with a puzzled expression, "How did Mr. Steve get involved with a Hong Kong bank?"
Steve Johnson smiled slightly and said, "Li Zong, in fact, HSBC is a British company with its headquarters in London, but it started in Hong Kong in the early years."
"Alright, I'm the one who's ignorant." Li Mu nodded slightly and said, "Then what prompted you to fight for the leading bank qualification of Makino Technology's IPO in the United States for a British company?"
Steve Johnson smiled and said, "First of all, I have to make one thing clear to Li Zong. Although I joined Sequoia, I am British. And now Sequoia is no longer an American company. It is just an international company that started in the United States and is headquartered in the United States. A lot of the capital behind Sequoia comes from the British and American old-money. To be honest, the money Sequoia is investing now even includes the wealth accumulated by the British during the global colonial era."
Li Mu shrugged his shoulders and laughed self-deprecatingly. "In that case, the 3.3 billion US dollars you invested in Makino Technology last time is likely to include the wealth that the British plundered from Hua Xia during the Opium War."
Steve Johnso nodded seriously and said, "I can't rule out that possibility."
After that, he explained, "In fact, although the world is creating a large number of new tycoons like you, to be honest, in the huge sea of trillions of dollars in the entire capital market, the proportion of old-money may be beyond your imagination. For example, no one can calculate how much money a family like the Rockefellers has."
Li Mu agreed with this very much. The old aristocrats and big capitalists in Europe and the United States often did not create a single company, but a money empire. The so-called money empire was invisible. It was very likely that they did not operate a single company, but they directly or indirectly held shares in hundreds or thousands of companies. Such assets could not be counted at all.
At this time, Steve Johnso explained, "The reason why I'm here today to fight for the leading position of Makino Technology's IPO for HSBC is mainly because of the deep cooperation between Sequoia and HSBC. In recent years, the proportion of money invested by Sequoia has been from HSBC, and HSBC has long been involved in the US market, especially the stock market. We hope that the cooperation between Sequoia and HSBC will become closer and closer. We also hope that Sequoia, HSBC, and Makino Technology will become closer and closer. If the three of us can reach a deep cooperation, then the space for common development in the future will be very huge."
As he spoke, Steve Johnso continued, "Li Zong, you are a man of action. In the future, you may create more projects and set up more companies. You are a front-end producer. Sequoia is an investment bank, mainly investing in projects. It is a front-end capital operation. HSBC's main focus is on large-scale capital operations, especially banking and securities-related businesses. It is a mid-to-late capital operation. In this way, the three of us can form an industrial chain."
Steve Johnso had always emphasized the qualifications of a "lead bank" because he knew very well in his heart that with the size of Muye Technology, no investment bank would be able to handle the scale of US $20 billion in the future. Therefore, he wanted this "lead bank". It was like the concept of "leading investment" in investment and financing. To put it bluntly, it was to take the lead first.
In any stock market in the world, new shares were the object of attention. They were also the stock with the greatest potential profit. Most new shares would enter a period of rapid growth when they were first listed. If investors could seize this opportunity, they would have a high chance of making a fortune.
However, the sale of shares in the US IPO was very interesting. Unlike the listing of domestic stocks, the US IPO basically did not give individual investors the opportunity to buy new shares.
In the domestic stock market, the listing of new shares depended on luck. Although the number was not much, one could at least make a small profit. This was the standard egalitarianism.
However, in the US IPO, the shares are sold by the underwriters, and the underwriters have a lot of autonomy. That is to say, if the brokers get the shares of the IPO, they can freely decide who to give most of the shares to, such as some institutions, some stock funds, or some big clients. These are all decided by the brokers themselves. This also means that the underwriting rights of the high-potential IPO is a good opportunity for the subsidiaries of the brokers to make money, and it is also a good opportunity for them to maintain their big clients.
This was especially true for a company like Makino Technology, which was highly valued by the whole world. If it went IPO, there would be a lot of room for growth after it went public. It was worth holding it as a long-term investment. Whoever got the IPO shares of Makino Technology would become the object of competition. Even the clients of other securities brokers might transfer their funds to the accounts of the actual underwriters in order to subscribe to the shares of Makino Technology.
To put it bluntly, the underwriters were like ticket agents. The harder the tickets were to sell, the less interested the underwriters would be. It was like an unknown singer who wanted to hold a concert. At this time, the distributor of the performance would ask the underwriters to help sell the tickets, even if the commission was higher.
However, if the corresponding singer of the concert tickets was Chow Jielun or Zhang Xueyou, then the major underwriters would have to beg the distributor of the performance to help them sell the tickets, even if the commission was lower.
If Chow Jielun was going to hold 100 concerts around the world a year, corresponding to 2 million tickets, and if a ticket platform could get more than half of the tickets, it would play a great role in their platform data, brand promotion, and user improvement.
It was no exaggeration to say that Makino Technology could no longer be compared to concert tickets. It should be compared to the train tickets of the railway department during the Spring Festival.
At present, whoever got the leading qualification for the IPO of Makino Technology would get the right to sell more than half of the train tickets during the Spring Festival. Moreover, the train ticket price would be completely market-oriented. As long as the ticket could be sold, it did not matter how high the price was. This was simply awesome.
Because of this, Li Mu was not anxious about the underwriter at all. He even hoped to use the underwriter qualification as an additional bargaining chip in exchange for greater benefits for himself.
Therefore, it was impossible for Li Mu to agree to Steve Johnson on the spot for such a big thing. Therefore, he said to Steve Johnson, "Steve, to be honest, I only know business, not capital. We have a special team in charge of capital operation, and there is also a special team in charge of the IPO. When to IPO, how to IPO, who to cooperate with, how to price, when to show, when to ring the bell, these are not things that I will worry about. If Sequoia wants to cooperate with us, I can let the team talk to you first."
Steve Johnson knew Li Mu's style of doing things very well. Although Li Mu said that he did not care about these things, in fact, almost all the major development strategies of Makino Technology were decided by Li Mu alone. When to IPO, how to IPO, these issues must be decided by Li Mu.
Therefore, he did not point it out. Instead, he said with a smile, "In this case, 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, "That's not a problem. Establish in-depth communication, we will keep in close contact in the future and exchange what we need."
Steve Johnson then said, "By the way, Li Zong, there will be a relatively high-end party in London in a few days. The people attending are basically the typical old-money people in Europe and the United States. Some of the heavyweights behind HSBC and Sequoia will also attend. In addition, some royal families will attend. I wonder if you are interested?"
When Li Mu heard that he was going to London to attend the party, he subconsciously wanted to refuse. It was simply unreasonable for a person like him, who thought that time was of the essence, to travel tens of thousands of miles to attend the party.
However, on second thought, Li Mu immediately realized a problem. As a new rich person in the capital circle, he had never put in the effort to establish his own capital field social circle. In other words, although he was already a person of the upper class, he had not integrated into the circle of the upper class.
At the world level, the real upper class had to be divided into three levels. The first level was those well-known high-yield tycoons. Further up were the politicians and political families of various countries. The third level was those famous families that had been rooted in the world for decades or even hundreds of years. Not only did they have money, but they also had political resources. They even had the ability to influence the political situation.
Now, at best, he had only reached the first level, and the scope of expansion in the first level was not large. If he wanted to rise to the second or even the third level, not only did he need strength, but he also needed opportunity.
However, the party that Steve Johnson was talking about seemed to belong to the third level. For him, this was a good opportunity to expand his social circle in multiple dimensions.
After thinking for a moment, Li Mu had already made up his mind to take some time to go to the party. Just as he was about to agree, Steve Johnson saw that he had not spoken, so he took the initiative to remind him, "By the way, Li Zong, I just invited Miss Anne Hathaway. She has already agreed to participate. If you can take some time out of your busy schedule, you can also invite her to be your female companion."
Li Mu did not expect Steve Johnson to have already invited Anne Hathaway, but his focus was not on her, so he asked Steve Johnson, "When will it be?"
"Late next month. The specific time will be determined in a few days."
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