Listening to the advice of his good friend Ma Mingzhe, Shi Yuzhu asked The External Brain McKinsey to consult on the management and strategy of giant networks.
On April 24, 2019, Shi Yuzhu held a wrap-up meeting with McKinsey's team at his headquarters in Shanghai.
Man sits in his home, and "woe" comes from heaven.
Suddenly, explosive news came out on the Internet: Shi Yuzhu was taken away in Hangzhou for investigation.
As soon as the news came out, everyone was looking for Shi Yuzhu.
Lu Zhiqiang, Ma Yun, Cao Guowei, Yu Feng and a dozen other bigwigs almost exploded Shi Yuzhu's mobile phone.
The eagerly awaited netizens can only look for traces of Shi Yuzhu on the Internet.
At ten o'clock in the evening of the same day, Shi Yuzhu broke his mouth on Weibo and scolded: In order to undermine the approval of giant network major asset restructuring projects, some people have recently gone to the Securities Regulatory Commission to smear me, and today they publicly rumored that I was taken away by the Hangzhou police. There is no bottom line for being a person for selfish interests, then it is not a human being a beast.
The next day, for the condolence phone calls of more than a dozen big guys, Shi Yuzhu was quite proud to show off on Weibo: Haha, suddenly found that the popularity of big mouth (Shi Yuzhu self-deprecating) was still good.
However, Shi Yuzhu, who has recently been popular, can't get up, because he has been sued by an old friend for many years.
One
On October 8, 2021, Minsheng Trust sued Shi Yuzhu, Zhao Wei and Huang Youlong in court for a guarantee contract dispute.
Zhao Wei and Huang Youlong are already dead pigs who are not afraid of boiling water and are regular customers in the defendant's seat. But their good friend, Shi Yuzhu, was a rare guest in the defendant's seat.
Eight years ago, Shi Yuzhu was also guided by Huang Youlong to visit Zhao Wei's winery in Bordeaux, France. Not long after, Shi Yuzhu also acquired a winery in Bordeaux.
The three of them also enjoyed drinking red wine together, but they did not expect that many years later, they sat on the judgment table together.
Unexpectedly, the Minsheng Trust, which sued Shi Yuzhu in court this time, was actually controlled by his long-time close friend Lu Zhiqiang.
Lu Zhiqiang is Shi Yuzhu's long-time friend and has always been a brother on the same front.
After the capital chain of the Giant Group was broken, Shi Yuzhu, who was famous for a while, was introduced by Liu Chuanzhi and joined the most cattle chamber of commerce at that time, "Taishan Society".
With the help of the big men of the Taishan Society, Shi Yuzhu made a comeback with "brain platinum" and "golden partner" and turned over.
In 2000, China's financial industry opened the door to private capital; Lu Zhiqiang, with the "oceanwide system" that had begun to take shape, caught up with Minsheng Bank before its listing, and entered Minsheng Bank, becoming the second largest shareholder.
Feng Lun, the ninth largest shareholder of Minsheng Bank, sold 143 million yuan of corporate shares to Shi Yuzhu at the original price due to the planning of listing for his Wantong.
Since then, the stock reform of Minsheng Bank, Shi Yuzhu has increased his holdings of Minsheng Bank many times, and has formed a close comrade-in-arms with Lu Zhiqiang.
In 2004, Shi Yuzhu founded Giant Network and entered the online game industry.
In 2007, with the popular online game "Journey", Giant Network landed on the New York Stock Exchange, laying the foundation for Shi Yuzhu's jianghu status in one fell swoop.
Time came to 2011, when the stock price of Minsheng Bank fell all the way, Shi Yuzhu bought while falling, bought while buying, and was ridiculed by a large number of investors.
In 2013, the stock price of Minsheng Bank regained its upward trend, and Shi Yuzhu made a huge profit of 5 billion yuan, becoming famous in the financial industry.
Shi Yuzhule blossomed, announced his retirement early, and aspired to be an idler; Lu Zhiqiang also made a lot of money, and the brothers both made money.
Tasting the sweetness of the capital market, Shi Yuzhu couldn't sit idle, thinking of dry tickets bigger, taking friends around him and making another handful of money together.
Two
In November 2013, Shi Yuzhu repaid Liu Chuanzhi with a peach and four major consortiums, including Lenovo's Hony Investment, invested US$2.8 billion to privatize Giant Network and successfully delist from the United States.
Compared with the price-earnings ratio of the US stock market, which is only a few times and more than ten times, A shares have a higher valuation for Internet companies, and the price-earnings ratio can often reach dozens of times, or even a hundred times.
There is a huge arbitrage space here.
In June 2015, Shi Yuzhu pulled in 6 consortiums, including Ma Yun's Yunfeng Fund, to increase the capital of Giant Network.
Subsequently, Giant Network's backdoor Century Cruises was approved, and Giant Network successfully landed on A shares.
The stock price of Giant Network has pulled 19 up and down boards, becoming the largest demon stock of the year. The valuation of 13 billion yuan when Giant Network borrowed from the backdoor was inflated to 160 billion at the highest time.
Shi Yuzhu once again experienced the magic of capital, and he took the opportunity to have a bold idea to put an Israeli gambling company into a listed company.
If the plan is successful, this is yet another opportunity to make a lot of money.
This time, in addition to Ma Yun's Yunfeng Fund, Shi Yuzhu also came to pull Lu Zhiqiang's Oceanwide Capital, Zhao Wei and Yu Guoxiang's Shanghai Yiyi.
Among them, Zhao Wei and his wife borrowed Sun Dan, and Yu Guoxiang borrowed Yu Peifang, each holding 50% of Ningbo Baili Agriculture. Ningbo Baili Agriculture became the controlling shareholder of 99.99% of Shanghai Yiyi.
At this point, Lu Zhiqiang, Shi Yuzhu and Zhao Wei finally came together.
After gathering several big investment groups, in July 2016, they set up a shareholding platform called Alpha, which cost $4.4 billion to buy the Israeli game company Playtika from Kaiser Entertainment in the United States.
Subsequently, Giant Network, which had just successfully listed through a backdoor listing, threw out a 30.5 billion yuan acquisition to put Alpha, which has three times the assets of Giant Network, into a listed company.
This is tantamount to a snake swallowing an elephant, and Shi Yuzhu dials thousands of dollars to let his friends pay for it.
The investment funds of these major groups are short-term borrowings, and if they cannot be listed and withdrawn within three years, Shi Yuzhu needs to buy back shares in cash.
The investment funds here involved the funds of the Minsheng Trust, and only later did the guarantee contract dispute case.
It is these acquisitions that are mostly short-term borrowings, and the largest part of Playtika's ownership involves gambling slot machines, and the regulatory authorities are pending the acquisition.
To this end, Shi Yuzhu had to buy the plan three times.
However, the short-term loans of many consortiums are about to expire, and the loans of some consortiums have been extended several times.
At that time, the investment Tiantuan began infighting, and the contradiction between Yu Guoxiang and Shi Yuzhu broke out.
In Shi Yuzhu's words, it is to suffer personal security threats and cyber rumor attacks.
As Alpha's second largest shareholder, Yu Guoxiang played his own small calculation.
He acquired a listed company in Hong Kong, and if he wanted to inject Alpha into his own listed company, he could enjoy the fruits of the capital alone.
Hindering the merger and acquisition of Giant Network, and even to the smear of the regulatory authorities, this seemingly "suicide" move is well understood.
However, the other consortiums could not hold on, and Shi Yuzhu was naturally unwilling to give the fruits of victory to others.
In order to increase his control over Alpha and fulfill his commitment to the investment consortium, Shi Yuzhu paid out of his own pocket and spent tens of billions of yuan to acquire the equity of Yunfeng Fund, Oceanwide Capital and other consortiums, but Yu Guoxiang's equity has always been there.
Lu Zhiqiang originally wanted to take this opportunity to make a profit, but he did not expect shareholders to fight and had to cut his position and quit.
In September 2019, Giant Network's plan to acquire Alpha ended, ending a capital market alchemy.
To this end, Shi Yuzhu was seriously injured, and is still fighting with Yu Guoxiang in Alpha's equity and mergers and acquisitions.
Three
Lu Zhiqiang's ocean-going system began to stagnate, facing a huge debt crisis, and had to sell his property.
The roof leaked during the overnight rain, and from the end of 2020, the Minsheng Trust controlled by Lu Zhiqiang began to have large-scale overdue payments.
Lu Zhiqiang and his Oceanwide Group became the executors of the court, and a generation of capital tycoons fell lonely.
Lu Zhiqiang, who is in crisis, and his Minsheng Trust, can only actively carry out self-help.
At this time, not caring about the friendship of many years, Minsheng Trust sent Shi Yuzhu, Zhao Wei and Huang Youlong to the defendant's seat together.
The specific content of the trial of the case, because it has not yet been made public, there is not enough information.
For many years, comrades-in-arms tore their faces, and can only say that the life of the big guy is not good.
In 2021, Shi Yuzhu also had a rather unhappy life.
In August 2021, Shi Yuzhu's equity interest in Ningxia Giant Venture Capital of 1 million yuan, equity in Giant Investment Co., Ltd. of 114 million yuan, and equity of Yunxi Investment of 65 million yuan were all frozen by the Beijing Financial Court.
This is the first time that Shi Yuzhu has encountered a share freeze after repaying the rotten debt of the Giant Building.
Giant Network's revenue has not increased significantly, the jiangshan of online games has long been divided by Tencent and NetEase, and Giant Network has missed its leading position.
Reflecting on the stock price, Giant Network has fallen from the most crazy market value of 160 billion yuan to today's 22 billion yuan, down 86%, hurting the hearts of countless shareholders.
How beautiful it used to be, how depressed it is now.
If the giant network is successful in its backdoor listing, When Shi Yuzhu embarks on the peak of his life, he will not expand to acquire overseas game companies, perhaps, the small boat of his friendship with Lu Zhiqiang will not turn over.
This is an era when the big guy is worse than anyone, and Lu Zhiqiang, who is difficult to protect himself, cannot care about the so-called friendship, and can only fight to save himself.
But history does not assume that when a man reaches the top, he will want to create another peak; he did not think that it would be a trap that would make him walk off the altar from then on.