Tycoon: I Have an Unlimited Modifier novel Chapter 537

Chapter 537 -291: Miha You Acquired (Part 2)

Jin Ying was very bullish on Spicy King, and her company’s internal resolution was perfectly in line with her own views.

Acquire as many shares of Spicy King as possible, at any cost.

“President Jin, at the current valuation, your company would have to put up 1.5 billion US dollars at once. Are you sure you don’t want to reconsider?”

Yuan Li was quite surprised, and she couldn’t help but marvel internally.

‘As expected of a sovereign wealth fund. When they make a move, it’s always earth-shattering.’

“Don’t worry, President Yuan. We at Temasek aren’t short on capital. We never skimp on our investments when it comes to companies with potential.”

Jin Ying smiled faintly. “And Spicy King is the star project we’re most bullish on. We believe it has the potential to exceed a market cap of one hundred billion US dollars!”

“Of course. However, I need some time to consider this. I’ll give you a reply as soon as possible.”

Yuan Li had gotten the satisfactory answer she wanted from Temasek. Now she wanted to see if the other sovereign wealth funds would raise their offers.

“I understand. I’ll await your good news, President Yuan.”

Jin Ying wasn’t surprised at all. She had been given discretionary authority for this deal.

As long as Spicy King’s valuation didn’t exceed 50 billion US dollars, she had the authority to match any offer.

After seeing Jin Ying out, Yuan Li immediately contacted the other sovereign wealth funds.

The two existing shareholders, Sequoia and Black Ant, were also duly notified.

Given Sequoia’s size, it could still afford to follow on.

Black Ant Capital, however, could only look on with a sigh, completely outmatched.

“President Yuan, we at Black Ant Capital will be passing on this round. We’ll accept the share dilution.”

He Yu wasn’t the least bit upset. In fact, he couldn’t stop a massive grin from spreading across his face.

Judging by the way this funding round for Spicy King was going, Temasek might not get its way with a 30 billion US dollar valuation.

The other top-tier, equally wealthy sovereign funds wouldn’t miss out on a surefire, high-quality project like this.

Just as He Yu had predicted, the sovereign wealth funds of Norway, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar all sent representatives to meet with Yuan Li.

The valuation skyrocketed from 30 billion to 45 billion US dollars.

Once the valuation reached that level, even these sovereign wealth funds began to hesitate.

Jin Ying threw down an offer at a 50 billion US dollar valuation, completely knocking the other sovereign wealth funds out of the running.

Not even Sequoia knew what Temasek had negotiated, but they too chose not to follow on.

Spicy King’s Series C financing round seemed more like a private show staged exclusively for Temasek.

An astronomical valuation of 50 billion US dollars!

Even as Qi Sheng signed the papers, he was flabbergasted.

While he had immense faith in Spicy King, certain it would one day exceed a market cap of a trillion yuan, that was all in the future.

To reach such a high valuation right now was truly beyond his expectations.

The entire investment world was stunned by Temasek’s massive gamble.

The last domestic company to reach a 50 billion US dollar valuation was ByteDance, one of the “new three giants.”

But ByteDance and Spicy King were in completely different sectors.

For a company in the hot pot industry to reach such a valuation was simply absurd.

But Temasek had thrown down cold, hard cash.

It forced many investors to take this new leader of the hot pot industry seriously.

And calling it the leader was no exaggeration.

Before, Haidilao was barely worthy of being a benchmark for Spicy King.

Now, Spicy King had supplanted it as the undisputed leader of the hot pot industry.

The biggest benefit of Temasek’s investment for Qi Sheng was that his own shares were now worth much more.

Unlike an internet company, Qi Sheng had never even considered creating an employee stock option pool for Spicy King.

The talent provided by the system was all fiercely loyal to him.

Besides, the salaries and benefits he offered were exceptionally generous.

So, even after this round of financing, Qi Sheng’s stake in the company was still a staggering 81.22%.

What did that mean?

It meant Qi Sheng’s personal stake was worth 40 billion US dollars.

Converted into RMB, that was a full 280 billion.

If Qi Sheng wanted to, he could replace Old Ma and become the undisputed richest man in the country in a heartbeat.

‘Hmm, I’ll let Old Ma enjoy the limelight for now.’

Qi Sheng planned to pledge some of his shares to secure a loan.

Given Spicy King’s growth trajectory, there was no shortage of banks willing to offer him a loan.

Preferring to stick with who he knew, Qi Sheng found his past collaborations with China Construction Bank to be quite pleasant.

Thanks to his connection, his old friend, Zhou Yu, had even been promoted to Vice President of the Chengdu Branch of China Construction Bank.

It was still a vice president position, but the status was on a completely different level.

Naturally, Zhou Yu was incredibly grateful to Qi Sheng.

His own connections were one part of his meteoric rise, but more importantly, he had met a great benefactor in Qi Sheng.

“Chairman Qi, our bank has decided to offer you a low-interest loan of 3 billion US dollars. We can get the rate down to as low as 4% for you.”

Zhou Yu had also pulled quite a few strings.

This was possible thanks to Spicy King’s ferocious growth and its recent investment from Temasek.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify