Getting a Bargain Wasn't That Easy

East Asia Power had issued a total of two billion shares to the public. Their destinations could roughly be divided into three parts: one portion had been absorbed internally by the STAR Demonstration Reactor project team, while another had gone to banks, social security funds, and so on.

As for the final portion, that was what truly counted as a public offering to all sectors of society.

But in reality, even when it came to something as worthwhile as spending money to support national development, ordinary people need not even dream about it.

Private equity funds that had learned the news in advance through various channels would swoop in like vultures scenting carrion and drain the last drop of soup the moment the shares were issued.

By the time ordinary people actually got the chance to see the stock, it would probably already be sitting far above the daily limit-up on the A-share market. And by the time they could buy it, East Asia Power's market capitalization would be heading toward a trillion at the very least. By then, the room for appreciation over the next several years would already have been exhausted...

Of course, those funds and investment firms that needed supercomputers, multithreaded operations, and blazing internet speeds to snatch up leftovers did not really have particularly formidable backing.

After all, no matter how fast their internet was, it only increased their odds of winning an allocation. How much they could ultimately buy still depended on luck.

As for those funds and investment companies with real connections and the nature of white gloves, all they needed was to obtain subscription qualifications from those "eligible enterprises" and hitch a ride through private placements.

For instance, besides the two billion shares issued to social capital, there were another two billion shares