Barron and his party were arranged by Ding Sanshi to stay at the Baiyun Hotel in Yangcheng, which is one of the most famous five-star hotels in Yangcheng. The Cantonese cuisine in the "Baiyunxuan" restaurant there is particularly authentic.
This arrangement also made Barron very satisfied.
On the first day, after learning that the other party was actually a British duke, Ding Sanshi was actually a little skeptical. After he returned, he specially asked someone to look up some information and found out that the Devonshire family was indeed a ducal family with a long history in England.
The current Duke of Devonshire is Barron Cavendish, who inherited the family business and title just a few months ago.
There is no shortage of photos of Barron on local British website news and media, and by comparing them, Ding Sanshi confirmed the authenticity of the matter.
It's not his fault that he is suspicious. It's just that in the process of reform and opening up, there are indeed many foreigners who come to China under various identities. Although DS Capital holds 14.3% of the shares of NetEase, this is beyond doubt, but he still needs to be more cautious.
After confirming this, Ding Sanshi felt better.
How to say it, although the current stock price of NetEase has risen significantly compared to its previous lowest point, it still has not met Ding Sanshi's expectations.
Therefore, in media reports, among the three major portals, the most people are pessimistic about NetEase.
In this day and age, Chinese people highly respect many things about the West - this is also due to the gap in national strength. They are not like the generation twenty years later, who grew up in China's rising period and have greater self-confidence.
In this case, the fact that a British duke is so optimistic about NetEase and holds a large number of its shares is also a very good publicity point for NetEase.
Of course, Barron's schedule was quite tight this time when he came to China. After staying in Guangzhou for a day and visiting the headquarters of NetEase, he prepared to go to Penguin Technology in Shenzhen.
Penguin was founded in 1998, one year later than NetEase, and these early Internet entrepreneurs had met each other before.
Therefore, after learning that Barron's next stop was to go to Penguin Company in Shenzhen Stock Exchange, he asked curiously:
"Mr. Barron, are you also interested in Penguin?"
"Yes, Mr. Ding, I have noticed several Chinese Internet companies, including Penguin."
In fact, it was not until last year that Penguin Company began to make significant progress. Initially, the company had always had more difficulty in financing than well-known portals such as NetEase Cloud Music and Zhalang. Boss Xiao Ma even thought about selling Penguin Company at one point.
This is why, during their last round of financing, Little Superman and IDG were able to take away 40% of the company's shares for US$2.2 million. It is impossible for those widely favored Internet technology companies to raise funds with such a high proportion of shares.
"But they don't seem to have any plans to raise funds recently, and their company has already given most of its shares to a South African investment company..."
Barron did not give a very specific answer to Ding Sanshi's question, but only said that they would visit Penguin Company first.
However, a few days later, as the news spread, Ding Sanshi discovered that the Duke of England did not just go to "visit" Penguin, but had planned it in advance - the South African MIH Group sold most of their Penguin shares to an investment company called DSIIC.
Yes, after Amber Sheehan's efforts, South African Newspapers finally decided to sell 35% of Penguin's shares to DS Asset Management Company, also known as DSIIC, a subsidiary of DS Capital, at a price of US$4,817.2, equivalent to 32.115 million pounds, at a 100% premium to their acquisition price.
After arriving at the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Barron also met with Xiao Ma, the founder of Penguin Company. He told him that DS Capital is optimistic about the Penguin Group in the long term, and they are also willing to hand over their shares and voting rights on the board of directors to Xiao Ma to maintain his operation of Penguin Company.
The South African MIH Group was extremely supportive of Boss Xiaoma at the beginning. When they invested in Penguin Company, they promised that they would only participate in financial investment, fully support the development of Penguin Company, and give all their future voting rights of Penguin Company shares to Boss Xiaoma. Because of this, the other party was confident that the South African MIH Group would eventually hold such a high proportion of Penguin Company shares.
Now that Barron is preparing to buy Penguin's shares from South Africa's MIH Group, it would be best to first obtain the consent of Penguin, which will be beneficial for future cooperation. Therefore, Barron also stated that after purchasing the shares of South Africa's MIH Group, the shares they hold will still be handed over to Boss Xiao Ma, just like the South Africa's MIH Group.
Of course, the Chinese branch of MIH Group was not without opposition to the South African Press's plan to sell its shares in Penguin. Upon learning the news, the vice president of the Chinese branch, who had advocated investing in Penguin, immediately flew back to Johannesburg to persuade the parent company to give up the idea.
But the key point is that DS Capital offered too much. Amber Sheehan increased her offer price for Penguin shares from a 50% premium to a 100% premium. Once the Penguin shares are sold, this investment will be very successful.
However, the persuasion of Hua Xia's vice president was not ineffective. In the end, South African Newspaper Group decided not to sell all of Penguin's shares, but only to sell 35% of the 46.5% of Penguin's shares they held, leaving 11.5% of Penguin's shares.
In this way, on the one hand, they recovered their investment in Penguin and obtained extremely high returns; on the other hand, they retained 11.5% of Penguin's shares. So if Penguin experiences explosive growth in the future and eventually grows up, they will not gain nothing.
Since the parent company has made the decision, the vice president of MIH Group's China branch was helpless and could only accept the result.
Although this time he did not directly buy all 46.5% of Penguin shares from South Africa's MIH Group, but only got 35% of the shares, Barron was already very satisfied to be able to do this and pay more than 32 million pounds.
And this matter is not without additional benefits - after learning that DSIIC acquired Penguin's shares from South Africa's MIH Group at a 100% premium, DIG, another company that had invested in Penguin, also became interested.
Initially, DIG and Superman invested in Penguin Company together, each holding 20% of the shares.
Then, when Little Superman sold its shares to South Africa's MIH Group last time, DIG Capital also sold its 12% stake in Penguin to South Africa's MIH Group.
Now they still hold 8% of Penguin's shares!
Next, they took the initiative to contact DS Capital, that is, Amber Sheehan, who had just arrived in Shenzhen from South Africa, and expressed their willingness to sell the remaining Penguin shares in their hands at the same price.
Upon hearing this, Barron naturally agreed immediately and asked Amber to sign an agreement with the other party to acquire their Penguin shares for US$11 million, equivalent to 7.34 million pounds.
In this way, DS Capital's shareholding in Penguin has reached 43%, which is not much different from the previous 46.5% shareholding of South Africa's MIH Group.
In this process, they need to pay a total of nearly 39.5 million pounds, close to 40 million pounds!
But compared with the huge market value of Penguin Company in the future, these funds are definitely a bargain.
It can be said that even if Barron does nothing from now on, he will be ranked among the world's richest men in the future just based on the shares of Penguin Company he holds.