As a businessman, Zhang Yida naturally wants to maximize profits.
But Li Bing, Shen Beipeng, and Zhang Sanshi all talked about this, so it would definitely not be good to refuse them coldly.
Li Bing, in particular, has been fooling himself into investing since 2015, but he has rejected him every time.
If you reject the other party this time, what if you don’t come to see you again?
Therefore, it is necessary to invest a little to maintain the relationship, and test the penguin's reaction by the way.
"How much is the convertible bond to be issued? Coupon interest rate? Time? The price at which the debt will be converted into the company's Class A common stock?"
After Zhang Yida made up his mind, he began to ask about the conditions for issuing bonds.
Li Bing's spirit suddenly came to him. He didn't have high hopes for this trip.
But Zhang Yida gave him a big surprise!
Li Bing quickly reported his conditions, "We are planning to issue a long-term convertible bond of US$500 million to US$1 billion, with a coupon rate of 2% and a bond term of three years.
Before the bonds mature, bondholders have the right to convert all or part of the bonds into the company's Class A ordinary shares at a price of US$3.5/ADS."
After finishing speaking, Li Bing looked at Zhang Yida with a smile.
Zhang Yida touched the back of his head, he had a big appetite!
"Three years is a bit long, so it would be more appropriate to change it to one year."
Li Bing smiled and shook his head, "If it is a short-term bond, if you don't convert it into shares at that time, the pressure to repay the debt will be too great."
Zhang Yida nodded, convertible bonds are very interesting. If the company develops smoothly and the stock price rises, bond holders will usually choose to convert into stocks, which is equivalent to changing from borrowers to company shareholders.
If the development does not go as expected and the current stock price is much lower than the debt-to-equity conversion price, then I'm sorry, I can only ask you to pay back the money.
Zhang Yida thought for a while and said: "How about issuing an additional period of short-term bonds, or issuing additional stocks? I will subscribe for 100 million."
When Li Bing heard this number, he felt a little lethargic. Shen Beipeng and Zhang Sanshi also felt that it was a bit low.
It’s just a small goal. Is this ridiculous?
"Yida, you have already subscribed to Tesla for more than 2.2 billion U.S. dollars. Weilan only subscribed to this small amount. It is a bit inconsistent with your status!"
As soon as Zhang Sanshi finished speaking, Shen Beipeng also shouted: "Yeah, why should I occupy ten or eight points of stocks! It's too little, and the hedging effect is not effective at all."
Zhang Yida choked up with one sentence, "Funds are tight. If we issue bonds or increase shares in the future, I will subscribe again!"
"Okay, then thank you, Junior Brother Yida."
Although Li Bing felt that it was a bit lacking in his heart, but people said that he was getting the job, he couldn't keep pestering him anymore.
US$100 million is US$100 million, which is better than not having a dime at all.
As long as Zhang Yida got on his big ship, it would be difficult to get off the ship.
Not two days after Li Bing and his party left, Huang Xin came again with Li Xiang.
It’s over, it’s over!
Zhang Yida knew that he was a piece of cake in the eyes of Chengxin's car-making forces, and everyone wanted to join him.
"Mr. Zhang, hello!"
Li Xiang smiled and shook hands with Zhang Yida. He was not very familiar with Zhang Yida, so he had to ask Huang Xin to introduce him.
Looking at this young man in his early twenties and his terrifying net worth, Li Xiang felt a little envious.
If I had so much money, it wouldn't be so difficult to build a car.
Li Xiang is the founder of Paopao.com and Autohome. He later sold Autohome to Anping Insurance. He founded Chehejia in 2015 and started three businesses. He is also a well-known serially successful entrepreneur.
Chehejia also makes new energy electric vehicles. It has now been renamed Li Auto, which is homophonic to Li Xiang’s name.
Zhang Yida knew the identity of the other party very well, so he basically guessed that he was here to solicit investment.
Huang Xin said directly, "I heard that you have successively invested in Tesla and Weilan. This means you are betting heavily on the new energy vehicle track!
How about, are you interested in investing in Li Auto’s B+ round, or jointly investing in the C round?”
Zhang Yida smiled and said, "How come you know everything at once?"
Huang Xin picked up the coffee on the coffee table and took a sip, and said slowly: "You are so high-profile, now people all over the country know that you are deploying electric vehicles.
Along with Weilan Auto, Tesla's share price has risen a lot, making it much easier for the entire industry to raise funds and issue bonds."
Zhang Yida laughed and chatted with Huang Xin without too much restraint. There was little competition between the two companies and there was almost no collision except for the fresh food industry.
"This is all nonsense, so I just cast it blindly!"
While Zhang Yida was chatting, he greeted Li Xiang, who was sitting next to him and was laughing and saying nothing: "Mr. Li, you're welcome, let's drink coffee!"
Li Xiang smiled and responded, "Okay!"
He never got to the point, and it was hard for him to start promoting the company.
But he was not in a hurry. Huang Xin, who was close to him, must pry some money from Zhang Yida, a wealthy man.
"Li Auto's first mid-to-large range-extended SUV, Li ONE, was officially launched last month, with a price of 328,000 yuan after subsidies."
Huang Xin finally got down to the topic and asked Zhang Yida: "What do you think? At this price, is it possible to compete with Tesla and Weilan?"
Zhang Yida did not answer the question and asked Li Xiang, who was sitting next to him: "I heard that the main selling point of Ideal is the range extender?"
Li Xiang nodded, "Yes, at present, it will take a long time for new energy vehicles to be fully popularized, and the weak endurance of electric vehicles is a very big pain point.
And charging piles are not popular enough, so I think the range extender model will definitely impress a large number of car buyers."
The so-called range extender, in layman's terms, is a pure electric vehicle equipped with a small auxiliary generator set to charge the battery when the battery is low. This small auxiliary generator set is called a "range extender"
”.
In fact, to put it bluntly, it is equivalent to adding a mobile power bank.
The advantage is that in an environment where charging is convenient, it can be used as a pure electric vehicle, without refueling, and the cost of use is low.
And it has all the characteristics of electric vehicles such as quiet driving and fast speed.
Compared with pure electric vehicles, since there is an engine for charging, when charging cannot be done through a charging pile, energy can be obtained through a "range extender". That is to say, as long as there is a gas station, this type of vehicle can
You can keep driving.
In addition, extended-range electric vehicles do not require large-capacity batteries and can also control costs.
Of course, nothing in the world is perfect, there are advantages and disadvantages.
Since the engine and generator do not directly drive the wheels, it will cause a waste of energy, such as high fuel consumption.
Zhang Yida always feels that this model can only be a transitional product. Once car batteries make breakthrough progress in energy storage and volume reduction, pure electric vehicles will definitely beat these gasoline-electric hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and other such models.
Extended range electric vehicles.
However, there is currently no hope in this regard, otherwise many car manufacturers would not be foolish enough to develop these outdated technologies.
It seems that the fully electric spring is coming, but it is also possible that it will die on a winter night before spring comes.
Since Li Auto was established in 2015, it was a year late to the mainstream. It was very difficult to raise funds in the early stage, so it has been desperately saving costs in order to survive first.
In this capital-intensive and technology-intensive industry, war is really a bit cruel. One to two billion is thrown into it, and the cars produced have various troublesome problems such as spontaneous combustion.
It is estimated that it will take another two or three years for the domestic car-making forces to really reap the rewards.
Zhang Yida thought for a while and said: "Let's do this. Let's invest US$100 million in the B+ round first!"
Huang Xin looked at Zhang Yida with disgust and said, "Do you want this? Show your courage to invest in Tesla?"
Zhang Yida really can't show that much courage. Tesla has been established for more than ten years and has been on the market for almost ten years. It made profits for two quarters last year, but it still suffered losses for the whole year.
But in general, based on this sales volume, Tesla has basically reached the break-even line, and its prospects are much brighter than those of China's new car manufacturers.
With so many new car-making forces in China, it shouldn’t be a big problem for one or two to survive. I just don’t know who will be the king of the remaining ones.
Li Xiang did not expect that Zhang Yida would think so highly of Li Auto and himself, directly comparing Wei Lan's treatment to investing US$100 million.
Li Xiang was also an early investor in Weilan Automobile. Seeing that Li Bing was having a great time starting a business, he came to build cars himself.
Although Weilan's losses are exaggerated, in terms of brand awareness and sales, it is better than expected, and it is firmly ranked first among China's new car manufacturers.
Li Xiang knew these situations very well, so he hurriedly thanked Zhang Yida with a smile.
Huang Xin was just talking. Zhang Yida's investment of 100 million US dollars exceeded his expectations, so he did not continue to tease.
Like Weilan, this investment was also made through Yanhuang Investment.
Li Auto's pre-money valuation was US$2.4 billion, and Yanhuang Investment invested US$100 million to acquire 4% of the shares.
This shareholding ratio is a bit higher than that of Weilan Auto, which only holds about 3% of the shares after convertible bonds are converted into shares.
We spent US$100 million to send away Huang Xin and Li Xiang, Zhang Ying from Matrix Partners, GGV Tong Shijie, Zhang Sanshi, and Lei Jun brought He Xiaopeng to beg for help.
He Xiaopeng, the co-founder of UC Browser, was later acquired and joined Ali. Now he is the founder and CEO of Xpeng Motors, worth more than 20 billion yuan.
Xpeng Motors also has a series of star shareholders behind it, including Ali, Gaoling Capital, Rice Group, CICC, etc. The shareholder team is slightly lower than Weilan but stronger than Li Auto.
Zhang Yida also didn’t expect that Ali people would actually come to him for financing.
After communicating with He Xiaopeng, Zhang Yida spent another US$100 million to acquire a 2.78% stake in Xiaopeng Motors, with a post-money valuation of US$3.6 billion.
Then, Byton Automobile, Leapmotor Automobile, Bojun Automobile, Sailin Automobile... who came after hearing the news were not so lucky.
Zhang Yida stopped buying tracks and closed the door to investment.
This has caused many entrepreneurs in the new car manufacturing industry to be disappointed!
They thought that the richest man would be lucky this time and invest in ten or eight companies.
Facts have proved that they did think too much.
Buying a track is not a random purchase. After careful analysis, Zhang Yida and his team believe that the three companies they invested in have a high chance of success.
Li Auto is actually a little behind, but Huang Xin also gave Zhang Yida a clear idea that he will pledge his own shares of Magnesium Group to invest in Li Auto with a loan of US$300 million, and additional loans will be made in the future depending on the situation.
The real intention is to enter driverless driving through Li Auto and launch "unmanned delivery" and other businesses in the future.
There is also WM Motor, which Zhang Yida and his team are also optimistic about. It is a Qiandu brand, and Penguin and Blackshirt Capital have also invested in it.
The current market structure is like this, with top venture capital and Internet companies investing in the field.
Just betting on a company is not stable and can easily overturn!