At nine o'clock sharp the next morning.
When Liu Mingyu pushed the final draft to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange HKEXnews platform,
My finger paused on the mouse for a moment--
He has been the secretary to the board of directors for so many years and has handled hundreds of announcements.
But the weight of this portion is different from all the previous ones.
The pledge announcement says "Pledged" and the compensation announcement says "will compensate".
The third announcement reads, "All remaining Principal and Interest will be repaid in advance and the pledge will be completely released."
From "pledged" to "will be compensated" to "will be paid off",
Three announcements and three different verbs correspond to the three stages of Henglong's stock price.
Liu Mingyu took a deep breath and pressed the send button.
A few minutes later, Market Reaction arrived as scheduled.
The stock price of Henglong jumped high from 101.5 Hong Kong Dollar, and the first Call Auction broke through 15 Hong Kong Dollar.
In the first fifteen minutes, Trading Volume exceeded 1.5 billion Hong Kong Dollar, and Buying Pressure poured in like a tide.
The K line on Time-sharing Chart has almost no retracement and is pushing all the way up.
102, 103, 104--There is a short scramble before each integer checkpoint.
But not long after the sell order was posted, it was completely eaten up by the buyer.
Liu Mingyu was in the office looking at the time-sharing line on Bloomberg Terminal that was constantly moving up. The phone in his hand rang.
The call came from Hong Kong Stocks, an analyst at a leading domestic securities firm, with irrepressible excitement in his tone.
"Mr. Liu, we have read the announcement just made by your company.
Repay all pledged financing in advance - this time point is at least one year earlier than we expected.
Zhao Zong This is a complete removal of all levers."
The analyst paused,
"Can you please disclose the specific repayment pace? Is it a one-time early repayment in cash, or in batches?"
Liu Mingyu repeated the words that Zhao Chen had explained in advance:
"The source of funds is the assets in the personal name of Major Shareholder, which does not occupy any cash flow of Listed Company. The specific rhythm will be gradually disclosed in subsequent announcements."
He didn't say much, but the analyst on the other end of the phone had already understood the full meaning from the expression "Assets under Major Shareholder's personal name".
After hanging up the phone, Liu Mingyu compiled the analyst's questions into a briefing and sent it to Zhao Chen's mobile phone.
The stock price closed at around 109.5 Hong Kong Dollar at midday, only 50 cents away from the integer mark of 110 Hong Kong Dollar.
After the market opened in the afternoon, a buy order for more than 500,000 shares was placed at the position of 110 Hong Kong Dollar.
It's not a market order, it's a limit order - someone is holding it firmly at this position, not chasing higher or pushing it higher, but just silently guarding the line of defense.
Liu Mingyu recognized the source of this order from the seat analysis. It was a long-term foreign fund that had been collecting funds near 85 Hong Kong Dollar.
They started building positions when the annual report forecast was released last year, and experienced the associated impact of the Tesla Short Selling storm.
Experienced the market panic caused by the SEC whistleblower letter, experienced the short-term sell-off after the disclosure of the Henglong pledge announcement--
But every time it fell to a critical position, this fund would appear on time and take away all the panic selling.
Liu Mingyu looked at the buy order hanging on 110 Hong Kong Dollar on the screen, and suddenly remembered what Chen Xi said before--
"Those who truly believe in Henglong don't chase after it when it rises, but hold on to it when it falls."
The closing bell rang, and Henglong closed at 110.2 Hong Kong Dollar.
The market value officially exceeded the 60 billion Hong Kong Dollar mark.
The next day, Liu Mingyu received a formal reply from Hong Kong Stock Exchange Listing Committee.
This reply was mailed to Henglong Hong Kong office and forwarded to Chongqing. Kraft Paper Envelope was stamped Hong Kong Stock Exchange with Blue Postmark.
When Liu Mingyu got the reply letter, he didn't open it and took it directly to Zhao Chen's office.
"Stock Exchange Listing Committee reviewed the supplementary materials for pledge financing submitted by us, and the conclusion is--"
He handed the reply letter to Liu Mingyu and asked him to read it.
Liu Mingyu took the reply letter and cleared his throat, his voice was not high but the words were clear.
"Stock Exchange Listing Committee has carefully evaluated the case of Henglong Group Controlling Shareholder Mr. Zhao Chen's violation of the voluntary commitment of 'no pledge'.
After review, the supplementary disclosure document of the pledge announcement submitted by Henglong Group,
Independent Director Supervisory Committee Charter, and annual compensation commitment letter issued by Major Shareholder,
Stock Exchange believes: Henglong Group has conducted a full, timely and complete Information Disclosure investigation on the incident,
Major Shareholder's voluntary compensation arrangement of 200 million Hong Kong Dollar per year has exceeded Stock Exchange's normal handling standards for similar cases.
Independent Director The establishment of the Supervisory Committee ensures the independent operation of compensation funds.
Based on the above situation, Stock Exchange Listing Committee decided to give a warning to Henglong Group and Controlling Shareholder Mr. Zhao Chen, but not to take any further disciplinary action.
Stock Exchange acknowledges Henglong Group Controlling Shareholder's proactive commitment to repay all pledged Financing Principal and Interest's follow-up arrangements in advance,
We will continue to pay attention to the implementation of this commitment. This case is closed."
Chen Xi leaned on the armrest of the sofa and exhaled a long breath when he heard the last four words.
She said that Stock Exchange used words very carefully--
"A warning but no further disciplinary action",
Warnings are necessary because violations do exist;
But "no further disciplinary action" means that Stock Exchange recognized Henglong's remedial measures.
What's more important is the last sentence "approve of the follow-up arrangements"--
Stock Exchange is telling the market in their own way that this matter has changed.
"It's a warning, not a condemnation."
Zhang Qingxue added from a legal perspective,
Make the words "warning" and "condemn" very clear,
Explain that in the Hong Kong Listing Rules disciplinary ladder,
Warning is the lightest grade and is a non-public disciplinary record;
The condemnation is public and will be permanently posted on the Stock Exchange website.
The gap between the two was filled by Henglong with that compensation commitment and early repayment plan.
Stock Exchange gives warning instead of condemnation,
This in itself shows that they believe that Henglong's remedial measures have far exceeded the standards for handling similar cases.
Zhao Chen Put the teacup next to the reply.
The morning light from Jiangbeizui outside the window was coming up from Two Rivers Confluence, coating the book wall in the office with a thin layer of gold.
He remembered that he was in the hotel Suite in New York a month ago,
The silence when he confessed that he was the actual controller of Era Vanguard to more than a dozen small windows of Board of Directors online at two o'clock in the morning,
I remember the expressions of those Independent Directors from shock to relief.
He didn't know at the time how the case would end, but he was betting that supervision would not be monolithic -
As long as there are enough real remedial actions and enough real gold Silver is dropped on the table, the regulator will respond in its own language.
Now this reply letter is here, Stock Exchange's Blue Postmark is like some kind of silent recognition, telling him that he made the right bet.
"Liu Mingyu, publish the full text of this reply. Stock Exchange's case closing notice does not require any modification."
Liu Mingyu responded, turned around and went out to make arrangements.
Su Wantang put away the herbal tea in front of Zhao Chen and poured another cup of hot tea.
She didn't speak when she did these things, but her movements were slower than usual, as if she was extending every detail for a few seconds.
From 2017 when Henglong Holdings was raped by Short Selling, she sat with him in the same office,
Now Stock Exchange's reply letter for closing the case is on the table. How difficult is this road?
She never said a word to him, but the water in the teapot never got cold.
He suddenly remembered what Lin Shicheng said to him when he was still at New York -
Wall Street The most established rating agencies never rate the compliance of non-Listed Company.
But once an institution is willing to go through every SEC procedure, the rating itself will become the safest moat.
And the line he got now at Stock Exchange is "warn without condemnation",
Placed side by side with the SEC's conclusion of the case, it is the best pass for Henglong and Era Vanguard in the global capital market.