Chapter 163 Listing Options

After arriving at the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Barron first met the pony boss of Penguin Company.

After all, after learning that the young duke was coming to China again, Boss Xiao Ma came to the airport specifically to greet him.

At this time, DS Capital has replaced South Africa's MIH Group and become Penguin's most important partner.

Barron has also long expressed his full support for the development of Penguin Company. This time when he came to China, Amber, the CEO of DS Industrial Investment Company who came with him, had an important task to complete this task.

Because Penguin Company hopes to start expanding new businesses, which includes the idea of ​​entering the gaming industry - the first step they want to take is to launch a gaming platform, and their target is Lianzhong Games, the dominant online gaming platform in China at that time.

In this case, the Pony boss said that Penguin still needed some funds, but at this time DSIIC's share in Penguin already reached 43%, and they did not want to obtain funds through equity financing.

Regarding this matter, Barron readily stated that he could provide Penguin with a loan of 10 million pounds at a low interest rate to help it with the development of the company.

His move also touched Boss Xiao Ma very much. After this meeting, the relationship between the two sides was very harmonious.

Another thing is that Penguin Company has begun preparing for its IPO.

However, there are still some slight disagreements within Penguin regarding this IPO, the most important of which is where to list.

There is no need to think about domestic A-shares, because A-shares at this time are not "friendly" to Internet companies, because there are strict requirements on the profitability of listed companies, and Internet companies are often in the stage of burning money in the early stages, and it is difficult to meet the A-share listing standards.

Then the other options are only the Hong Kong stock market and the Nasdaq market of US stocks.

At that time, domestic Internet companies that had already been listed, including the three giant portal websites, Zhalang, NetEase and Sohu, were all listed on NASDAQ. At that time, the NASDAQ market was considered the "cradle of the global Internet" and should have been the first choice for Penguin Company to go public.

But Xiao Ma still has some doubts about this...

"You prefer to list on the Hong Kong stock market, right? Pony."

"How do you know?"

"Because I also think it's most appropriate to list it there."

In fact, there is another important reason why most Internet companies are listed on NASDAQ at this time. This is because the main investors of companies including Zhalang, NetEase and Sohu are all American capital. Therefore, listing on NASDAQ makes it more convenient for them to sell their stocks after the company goes public, directly obtain US dollars, and complete the exit of investment.

If it is other stock markets, such as Hong Kong stocks, then converting Hong Kong dollars into US dollars will ultimately involve an extra procedure.

Therefore, the Colts boss was a little surprised by Barron's statement:

"Can you tell me the reason?"

"First of all, the most important thing for going public is to have a good story. For Chinese Internet companies listed on the US stock market, investors will benchmark them against similar American companies to value them. Penguin's main business is instant messaging software. This business model cannot find a corresponding benchmark company in Silicon Valley. Even companies like ICQ, Yahoo Messenger and MSN are all dependent on large companies and have no corresponding profit model..."

Barron smiled and said:

"In fact, American investors, or Americans, are very arrogant. They believe that all Internet innovations should first appear in Silicon Valley, and that Internet models in other parts of the world are imitations of their innovations. Only business models that are successful in America can be successful elsewhere. If Penguin chooses to be listed on NASDAQ now and tells American investors a story they have never heard of, I am afraid no one will be willing to pay for a Chinese story..."

Boss Xiao Ma deeply agreed with Barron's words. Of course, this was what Barron had read in his previous life, the book "Tencent Biography". He sighed and said:

"Another reason is that all our businesses are in China, and our company is also in the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. In comparison, Hong Kong is the closest to us. Analysts and stockholders in Hong Kong definitely know our company better than Americans..."

This is another layer of consideration. In theory, for a company that serves the general public, the closer its listing location is to its local market, the more realistic the company's market value will be.

Although the valuation of an emerging Internet company like Penguin Inc. listed in HK is certainly not as high as that in NASDAQ, at the same time, because stock investors are more familiar with Penguin Inc.'s situation, its stock price will experience less ups and downs than if it were listed in the United States.

Just like the previous incident where Wangyi was investigated and even suspended in the US stock market, if it was listed in the Hong Kong stock market, then I am afraid that the stock price would not fall below $1...

For Penguin, Boss Xiao Ma hopes to pursue sustained growth and does not pay too much attention to short-term market value. Therefore, for these reasons, it is natural that he prefers to list it on the Hong Kong stock market.

At this time, Barron realized that the reason why the Colts boss mentioned this matter to him today might be to explain it to him.

After all, as the largest shareholder of Penguin, DS Capital's opinions on matters such as IPO are very important to Penguin.

Boss Xiao Ma is probably also worried about DS Capital's investment in Penguin, and hopes to make a short-term profit so that Penguin can get a higher valuation when it goes public, so he is unwilling to list in HK, which will eventually lead to differences between the two parties.

In response, Barron just smiled secretly and didn't ask specifically.

What he said just now was enough to show his attitude.

His investment in Penguin is a long-term investment, and he has no plans to reduce his holdings for at least fifteen years.

Not only that, after Penguin Company goes public in HK, he also plans to continue to buy some shares of Penguin Company in Hong Kong stocks.

After all, he remembered that when Penguin was first listed on the Hong Kong stock market, the company's valuation was US$600 million, plus the US$200 million raised through public offerings, the final total market value was around US$800 million. Compared to its subsequent market value of nearly one trillion, it still had a 100-fold increase, so it was totally worth continuing to invest!

After meeting with the owner of Pony, the specific matter of DS Capital borrowing money from Penguin was handed over to Amber Sheehan.

The next day, Barron went to the industrial park in Longgang, Shenzhen, where the new factory of Puma Electronics (Huaxia) Co., Ltd. is located.

After getting used to the construction speed in Britain, Barron finally felt comfortable after arriving in China.

It is no wonder that Hua Xia's future development is so rapid. Up to now, the factories here have already started production, and the three factories originally acquired by Puma (Hua Xia) Electronics have also moved to the new factory. The scale of this factory can be said to be large in the industrial park here in Longgang.

The person in charge of the factory is from Puma Electronics in the UK. After meeting Barron, he also praised the progress here.

You know, the factory here has made the greatest contribution to the current surge in the number of Freeview platform users to 2 million households.

The significantly reduced set-top box costs have also greatly alleviated the financial pressure on Digital UK.

Even Puma Electronics is preparing to transfer part of its latest high-end set-top box production capacity to this factory.