Chapter 643: Launching the IPO Plan, a Valuation of Up to 60 Billion US Dollars! Chen Yansen: I'm Kind-Hearted

Chapter 643: Chapter 459: Launching the IPO Plan, a Valuation of Up to 60 Billion US Dollars! Chen Yansen: I’m Kind-Hearted

After two years of hard work, Zhang Wenbo and Xiang Pengfei had finally met Chen Yansen’s requirements, earning promotions from supervisor to director.

Looking at Pinbei’s executive team, forty percent were promoted from within, while sixty percent were external hires.

Hu Yun calmly connected his device to the projector and opened a business report presentation. He began, “As of July 31st, Pinbei has a cumulative total of 520 million registered users, 370 million monthly active buyers, and 97 million daily active buyers.

In July, our total GMV was 52.94 billion yuan from 340 million orders. The average spending per customer was 97.2 yuan, with an average order value of 155 yuan. Our revenue was 3.96 billion yuan, an 8.5% increase month-over-month and a 32.9% increase year-over-year.”

As he presented the data, he made sure to zoom in on the charts so everyone could see them clearly.

He paused, then continued, “July’s growth far exceeded our expectations, driven primarily by the upgraded ‘Ten Billion Subsidy’ program and growth in our agricultural products category.

We’ve continued to penetrate non-metropolitan markets, with our user base from third-tier and smaller cities now accounting for 65%.

Pinbei International also saw increased contributions, with cross-border orders now making up 12% of the total.”

‘A daily sales average of nearly 1.8 billion?’

Chen Yansen shook his head. Frankly, he wasn’t satisfied, but considering July was the off-season for e-commerce, he didn’t say much more.

Seeing this, Huang Zheng knew the boss wasn’t happy with the GMV and revenue. His heart sank, and he quickly explained, “Boss, after the 618 mid-year promotion, Ah Li and Jingdong both ramped up their marketing strategies, which diverted some of our users. That’s why our month-over-month growth rate fell below 10%.”

“Alright. Get those numbers back up in August. If the month-over-month growth rate exceeds 10%, I’ll add a 0.2 multiplier to the performance bonus system,” Chen Yansen encouraged casually.

His method for motivating subordinates was always simple and crude: just pay them well.

If you wanted employees to give their all, you had to give out big bonuses.

“Yes, I understand,” Huang Zheng immediately replied.

“Advertising revenue reached 2.62 billion yuan, with search ads now accounting for 40% of that. Commission revenue was 1.37 billion yuan, primarily driven by an increase in brand merchants. S-tier merchants make up 7.1%, A and B-tiers make up 63.9%, and D-tier merchants are 29%. Furthermore, merchant fulfillment efficiency has improved. By leveraging Cloud Speed’s intelligent warehousing, the average delivery time has been reduced to 2.7 days, with most in-province deliveries now achieving same-day service…”

Once Chen Yansen and Huang Zheng finished their exchange, Hu Yun continued his report.

Established just two years ago and backed by the two behemoths, Senlian Capital and Penguin, Pinbei wanted for neither funding nor user traffic. It was now firmly in second place in the industry, leaving Jingdong far in the dust.

While a gap still existed between them and Ah Li, it wasn’t an insurmountable one.

Once the non-metropolitan markets entered a true explosive growth phase, and its cross-border business hit its golden age, it wasn’t impossible for Pinbei to surpass a trillion yuan in GMV by 2014.

「Half an hour later.」

Chen Yansen had listened to the monthly work reports from each department, including functional departments like risk control, HR, finance, and legal.

“I’m here to announce a major decision from the group: Pinbei will begin the process of going public in mid-August,” Chen Yansen stated in a level tone.

His words, however, struck them like a clap of thunder.

‘An IPO!’

Every Pinbei executive in the room held at least several hundred thousand stock options.

The company’s IPO was their chance to cash in, their ticket to financial freedom.

When Ah Li and Jingdong had successively filed their own IPO plans, it would have been a lie to say they weren’t envious.

The company’s salary and benefits were good, but who could refuse the chance to get rich overnight?

“The preliminary work, like the roadshow and selecting the underwriters, will take about six months. That means our final GMV for 2013 will determine the company’s valuation—and how much the options in your hands will be worth. Understood?” Chen Yansen added.

“Boss, next month’s target is 60 billion! No, 70 billion!” Huang Zheng said, gritting his teeth.

He held the most options: roughly 1.2 million shares. If they IPO’d at a 50 billion US dollar valuation with a total of 2 billion shares, each share would be worth 25 US dollars. His strike price was a mere 0.01 US dollars—practically nothing.

1.2 million shares were equivalent to 30 million US dollars, or 186 million Hua Yuan!

And Huang Zheng had only joined Pinbei a year ago!

There would be plenty of opportunities for more stock option rewards in the future. At the rate Pinbei was growing, by the time the company went public and the trading window opened, his first batch of shares would likely be fully vested.

Zhang Wenbo and Xiang Pengfei looked at each other and smiled, their eyes full of excitement.

They each held over 400,000 shares in options, which would be worth fifty to sixty million Hua Yuan, at a minimum.

Executives who had joined later, like Chen Peng, Xiong Li, Yang Pinglun, and Cai Qiming, also held several hundred thousand shares each.

The Taiwanese Cai Qiming, in particular, was desperately trying to suppress the corners of his mouth, forcing himself not to laugh out loud.

But the thought that in just a few years he’d be sitting on a fortune worth tens of millions made the smile on his face grow even wider.

“I’m leaving Pinbei in your hands. You’re the CEO, so you set the monthly target!”

Chen Yansen said, patting Huang Zheng’s shoulder.

Pinbei’s market capitalization on the day of its IPO would depend entirely on its performance in the second half of the year.

After the meeting, Chen Yansen remained seated, waiting for the people from Orange Technology to arrive for their meeting.

Huang Zheng and the others returned to the Pinbei Headquarters Building. They announced the news that the company was initiating its IPO plan and also declared the GMV target for August: 70 billion yuan!

No one thought the target was too high; if anything, they thought it was too low.

Pinbei was an e-commerce company where all employees held stock. Everyone had options; it was just a matter of quantity.

The higher the company’s valuation, the more their options were worth.

Zhu Xiaopeng glanced at Meng Xibo and nudged his arm. “Bo Bo, if the company’s market cap breaks 100 billion US dollars, won’t we both become millionaires?”

“I don’t know. A 100 billion dollar market cap is a long shot. I heard Ah Li’s valuation was only 80 billion last year. We’ll be doing well to hit 50 billion US dollars.”

Meng Xibo tended to keep a close eye on the valuations of internet companies.

“Fifty billion US dollars works for me,” Zhu Xiaopeng mused contentedly. “I have 20,000 shares, which should cash out to over three million Hua Yuan. I could buy a dozen houses back in my hometown with that.”

Back in his freshman year of college, he had dreamed of getting a Ph.D., joining a newspaper, and becoming a famous journalist. Now, all he wanted was to work hard and drive up the company’s market cap.

Even though he was just a team lead in the Customer Service Department, he knew he was a crucial link in maintaining the user experience.

“So you just want to be a landlord, you punk?” Meng Xibo laughed.

His position was one level higher than Zhu Xiaopeng’s, so he had more options. At a 50 billion dollar valuation, his shares would be worth at least ten million Hua Yuan.

The other employees in customer service, operations, and R&D held anywhere from five or six hundred to ten or twenty thousand shares. On the day of the IPO, there would be hundreds of new millionaires, ten-millionaires, and even hundred-millionaires (in Hua Yuan). Even a regular customer service representative could expect an extra sixty to seventy thousand.

For a time, everyone at Pinbei, from top to bottom, was swept up in a state of frenzy.

People who usually liked to clock out right on time now started working overtime voluntarily.

The Market Department redoubled its efforts in the non-metropolitan markets, coordinating with colleagues at Cloud Speed Express Service Stations and Orange Phone Direct Stores to launch promotional campaigns, all in the hope of acquiring more new users.

Within just two days, 40% of the staff in the Merchant Operations Department applied for business trips. They planned to fan out across the country to industrial zones and direct-sourcing agricultural bases, re-evaluating potential merchants to find the next big growth opportunity.

「The next day.」

The news that Pinbei was preparing to go public spread like wildfire.

The hype instantly exploded!

“Pinbei, Founded Less Than Two Years Ago, Poised to Set Record for Fastest IPO in History—An Internet Miracle!”

“Shocking! Hong Kong Island Brokerage Gives Estimated Valuation: 56 Billion US Dollars!”

“All Three Major E-commerce Platforms to File for IPOs—Jingdong Most Likely to Land at the Bottom!”

“Nasdaq Extends an Olive Branch to Pinbei! Wall Street Giants Offer Sky-High 60 Billion Dollar Valuation!”

Considering how young the company was, the speed of its IPO was astonishing.

But considering the scale of its business, filing for an IPO at this moment was perfect timing.

‘Jingdong at the bottom?’

Liu Qiangdong stared at his computer screen and cursed out the media outlet and reporter who wrote the article.

‘So what if we’re at the bottom?’

‘It might be true, but do they have to rub it in my face every single day?’

Handsome Dong was furious.

After seeing the news, Li Yanhong’s brow furrowed. Thinking of Qian Du’s constantly falling market value, he couldn’t help but let out a long sigh.

In the past three months, Qian Du had burned through 5 billion Hua Yuan in marketing expenses, yet its market cap had dropped by 6 billion US dollars.

Now he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. If he gave up on the O2O strategy, all the manpower, resources, and capital he had already invested would be wasted. But he didn’t have the confidence to keep fighting against Senlian Capital.

「Meanwhile.」

Chen Yansen received a call from Meng Yuanzhi. After hearing the purpose of the call, he didn’t hesitate and readily agreed to the request.

After all, Deep Blue Battery had taken on tens of billions in orders at once, which would take at least two years to complete.

Outsourcing a portion of the orders to companies like BYD and Ningde Era was perfectly acceptable.

He would take the lion’s share of the profits, but he could leave some scraps for his competitors.

What could you do? President Chen was just that kind-hearted!