章 268: Chapter 268: Ali raises funds again
This time Alibaba's financing is considered their D round of financing.
The first round of financing was led by Goldman Sachs, and only $5 million was raised.
The second time, which was the most famous one, Sun Zhengyi invested 20 million US dollars in Ma and acquired 30% of Alibaba's shares.
According to this calculation, Alibaba's post-investment valuation at the time was approximately US$66.66 million.
The C round of financing was when Baron met with Mr. Ma and acquired 20% of Alibaba's shares for US$20 million. With this round of financing, Alibaba's valuation reached US$100 million.
The reason why Alibaba's valuation did not increase much in this round of financing compared with the B round of financing was mainly because after the Internet bubble crisis, the financing situation of the entire Internet industry was not optimistic. At the beginning, Mr. Ma hoped that Sun Zhengyi's SoftBank Group could invest in Alibaba again, but Sun Zhengyi rejected him because he could not see the prospects of Alibaba at that time. In the end, DS Capital made the investment.
However, this time Alibaba's Series D financing came at a time when the global Internet industry was beginning to recover from the previous crisis and high amounts of financing continued to appear.
In addition, Alibaba launched its C2C business Taobao in May last year, and it seems to be developing well so far.
Its benchmark, the American company Amazon, saw its market value more than double in the past year and currently exceeds $15 billion.
Therefore, Alibaba's market value will also increase, and this round of financing will be the largest financing in China so far.
"After launching Taobao, we need to compete with C2C websites including eBay and Joyo.com. In addition to these, I also plan to develop our own payment system this year to help users shop with more confidence and avoid being scammed."
After meeting Barron, Boss Ma was still in high spirits and talked and laughed, expressing his vision for the development of Alibaba.
"I have to say that Taobao's competitors are very strong. eBay has become an e-commerce giant overseas. However, I am still optimistic about Alibaba and will continue to support you."
Many times, a good relationship between investors and company founders is very important. Therefore, Barron has always been very friendly to these Chinese Internet companies, the future giants. This is also what makes these Internet entrepreneurs, including Boss Ma and Boss Xiao Ma, feel satisfied.
However, looking at the young British Duke in front of him, he couldn't help feeling a little emotional.
As one of the most important investors in Alibaba, not only Mr. Ma, but many Chinese entrepreneurs who have received investment from DS Capital will pay attention to everything about Baron Cavendish.
Including his massive acquisitions in England last year, including TV stations, telecommunications companies, retail companies and football clubs...
According to last year's British Rich List, Barron, who ranked 35th on the British Rich List, had a net worth of 1 billion pounds.
Obviously, the other party's wealth at this time is far more than this, and it may even be ten times or more of this number.
After all, it is said that the current valuation of O2 Telecom alone exceeds 11 billion pounds. Excluding the more than 5 billion pounds of debt on it, this company alone can contribute nearly 6 billion pounds of wealth to the young duke.
You know, when Barron acquired the company, he only put out 500 million pounds of his own money, and the rest of the funds came from financing.
The speed at which wealth grows is simply appalling.
After consultation between Baron and Boss Ma, it was decided that this time they would invest $100 million in Alibaba and acquire 20% of its shares. In this way, together with the 20% of Alibaba shares he held before (diluted to 16% after the D round of financing), he now holds 36% of Alibaba shares.
The 30% stake previously held by SoftBank Group will be diluted to 24% this time, which is lower than the proportion of Alibaba shares held by Baron.
However, this time, the investment will not be made in the name of DS Capital, but by the offshore company Rich23 Capital to participate in Alibaba's Series D financing.
It is already February. In March and April, the various rich lists for 2003 will be released one after another. By that time, Barron's terrifying wealth growth last year will surely attract the attention of many people.
This is also what he wants to avoid. In the future, he will be more suitable to hide behind the scenes, rather than becoming a "wealth idol" like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett now, and Zuckerberg and Musk in the future.
Therefore, from the beginning, he has gradually used various offshore companies and holding companies to hide his directly held shares and wealth in the fog.
"One more thing, Mr. Cavendish. Someone wants to see you..."
As he said this, Boss Ma pointed his finger upwards.
Seeing this, Barron asked,
"Oh? Can you tell me more about it?"
"He's from the province..."
In fact, with the expansion of Barron's investment in China, coupled with his status as the Duke of England, he has gradually attracted the attention of higher-ups.
However, real contact must be passed layer by layer. Therefore, this time, because the scale of his investment in Zhejiang Province is particularly large, he will also be received within the province.
In addition to the Alibaba company invested in Hangzhou, Barron's larger investment came from Argos Retail Group.
While buying The Bund No. 2 last year and preparing to build the Devonshire Bund Hotel there, Argos, the predecessor of Argos Retail Group, had already signed an investment agreement with Zhejiang Province with a total value of 100 million pounds to implement a local partnership program, cooperate with manufacturers that meet its quality system, customize products, and invest in some of these companies.
Later, the scale of investment gradually expanded, and not only Argos but also the Primark clothing chain joined in.
At this time, there are more than 100 OEM factories cooperating with Argos Retail Group, and the entire Argos Retail Group's investment in Zhejiang Province has exceeded 350 million pounds.
Such cooperation is of great positive significance to Zhejiang Province's work of attracting investment and can also expand its exports.
Among these OEM factories, at least half of them have been included in the "priority cooperation list" of Argos Retail Group. These factories have received investment from Argos Retail Group to help them improve production quality and output. The group holds 10%-30% of the shares of these OEM factories, making the cooperation between them closer.
For some reasons, Barron would naturally not refuse this meeting. After all, it would lay a good foundation for the future.
He is also very satisfied with Zhejiang Province's production capacity at this time. After this, Argos Retail Group will continue to expand its investment in Zhejiang Province, and increase investment in regions with excellent production capacity such as Guangdong Province, so that the cost-effectiveness of Argos and Primark products will become their continuous expansion advantage.
For this reason, Barron, who had originally planned to stay in Hangzhou for a day or two before going to Shanghai, waited here for another two days and only left after meeting with the big guys from Shengli.
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