chsdbacks Chapter 321 The financing deal is finalized
Chapter 321 The financing deal is finalized
January 15, 1998, 9:00 AM.
Palo Alto, Star Technology office building.
The conference room was full of people. On either side of the long table, there were twelve people and twelve documents. No one spoke; the only sound was the rustling of pages turning.
Ling Yun sat in the main seat, a thick agreement spread out in front of him. He wasn't looking at it, but rather pressing his finger on the cover repeatedly.
Fiona sat to his left, a calculator in front of her. She wasn't calculating; she was just looking at the people opposite her.
Goldman Sachs' Anderson sat at the other end of the long table, pen in hand, and signed the agreement. He then pushed the agreement to the Morgan representative next to him, who, Winston, took it and signed it as well.
Then came people from HP, then people from Dell, then people from Abu Dhabi, and then people from the French National Investment Bank.
After everyone signed, they pushed the agreement forward a little. The agreement slowly moved towards Lingyun's side, like a paper boat.
Anderson looked up at Ling Yun.
"Mr. Ling," he said, "we're just waiting for you."
Ling Yun didn't move. He looked at the agreement and the signatures on it. Anderson's signature was messy, Winston's signature was neat, and the HP representative's signature was large, taking up three lines.
He opened the agreement and found the page on the shareholding structure.
It says:
Lingyun: 37.6%
HP: 14.6%
Employee stock ownership platform: 13.6%
Dell: 11%
Goldman Sachs: 8.2%
Morgan Stanley: 6.6%
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority: 2%
French National Investment Bank: 2%
Then he closed the agreement, picked up a pen, and signed his name.
The pen tip scratched across the paper with a soft hiss. After signing the last stroke, he pushed the agreement towards Fiona. Fiona took it and stamped it with the company seal. The stamp pressed down with a crisp click.
The meeting room was silent for a few seconds.
Then Anderson stood up and reached out his hand.
"Mr. Ling," he said with a smile, "congratulations."
Ling Yun stood up and shook hands.
Winston walked over and extended his hand. "It's a pleasure doing business with you."
"It's a pleasure working with you."
The HP representative approached; he was a white man in his fifties with gray hair and sharp eyes. He gripped Ling Yun's hand with a rather firm grip.
"Mr. Ling," he said, "we value that 10% equity stake highly and are very grateful for your strong support."
Ling Yun nodded.
"Regarding the OEM manufacturing," the man continued, "we'll arrange the contracts for 40% of the PC production and small-to-medium-sized printer orders as soon as possible. The contracts will be signed next week, is that alright?"
"no problem."
The man nodded, released his grip, and left.
People left the meeting room one by one, until only Ling Yun and Fiona remained.
Fiona leaned back in her chair and let out a long sigh.
"Six billion," she said. "Twelve billion in financing, and HP also acquired 10% of your shares, but the HP representative didn't say how the shares were paid for."
"There is no payment for the equity transfer. This is an exchange with the contract manufacturing. The money from the equity transfer will be reflected in the contract manufacturing price. This matter has already been discussed with Dell." Ling Yun rubbed his temples.
"That OEM deal," Fiona looked at him, "you've thought about it for a long time, haven't you?"
Ling Yun stood up and walked to the window.
"They wanted equity," he said. "So I gave them equity in exchange for what I needed."
"But HP's 10% stake was acquired from you," Fiona said. "Your personal shareholding dropped from 59.5% to 37.6%."
"Um."
Is that enough?
Ling Yun turned around and looked at her.
"That's enough. At least after this round of financing, I can still control more than 50% of the equity," he said.
Fiona didn't ask any more questions. She stood up and began tidying the documents on the table. She neatly folded them one by one and put them into her briefcase. As she zipped it up, she paused.
"Ms. Ling," she said, "this financing went so smoothly."
Ling Yun looked at her with a smile, gesturing for her to continue.
“Goldman Sachs didn’t compete on price,” Fiona said. “Morgan didn’t compete either, Dell agreed immediately, and HP directly acquired 10% of your personal portfolio.”
"Um."
"Don't you find it strange? These people are usually very meticulous, but this time they're not arguing about price, they're only arguing about share, which is not in line with their usual style."
Ling Yun didn't speak, but smiled slightly and waved to her. Fiona took a few steps forward, stood in front of Ling Yun, and listened attentively to his explanation.
Ling Yun whispered a few words in Fiona's ear, and then instructed her to pay attention to the usual behavior of the company's employees, and to keep what he said today a secret, not letting anyone else know, including all the senior management.
Fiona waited a few seconds, processing the explosive news Ling Yun had given her, then nodded and asked no more questions. She picked up her briefcase and walked to the door.
"I have a meeting this afternoon," she said. "At three o'clock, it's with the product department."
"understood."
Ling Yun was the only one left in the conference room.
He stood by the window, looking at the sky outside.
He stood there for a long time.
At 2 p.m., he returned to his office.
There was a fax on the table, sent by HP. It was a draft of the OEM contract, forty pages long, filled with tiny print.
Ling Yun flipped through the documents when his phone rang. It was An Shiyu. He put the documents aside and answered the phone.
"Are you done with your work?" An Shiyu's clear voice came through the receiver.
"We just signed the agreement." Ling Yun's voice sounded a little tired.
"Did it go smoothly?"
"It went very smoothly; the results were available in just one morning."
There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone.
"But you don't sound very happy," An Shiyu said.
Ling Yun asked softly, "Was my emotion that obvious?"
"Is something wrong again?" she asked.
"It's nothing, I'll explain in detail when we get there."
"When are you coming back?" she asked. "The 20th, you said it."
Lingyun glanced at the calendar; it was September 15th, five days to go.
"I'll definitely be able to get back on the 20th," he said.
"Okay." An Shiyu's voice became a little lighter. "My mom said she's going to make your favorite braised pork."
"Um."
"Then be careful on your way."
"it is good."
After hanging up the phone, Lingyun continued to review the initial draft of the OEM contract sent by HP.
Lingyun reviewed the key information in the contract, including the price, quantity, quality control requirements, and core clauses for OEM manufacturing. After reviewing these, Lingyun handed the document over to various departments within the company for detailed review of the terms.
In fact, Lingyun was quite happy. Since making the decision, he was able to exchange Xingchen's equity for some OEM orders, which was still very valuable.