Cai Wensheng greift ein, und der Kurs steigt um das Zehnfache in drei Tagen.
Cai Wensheng makes an appearance.
It all starts with an acquisition. On June 24, China Financial Leasing issued an announcement stating that Longling Capital, an investment platform under Cai Wensheng, acquired a 34.96% stake in the company for HK$46.08 million. As far as we can remember, this is one of the few public investment moves Cai Wensheng has made in recent years.
Then, an astonishing scene unfolded: the stock price of China Financial Leasing soared continuously. After a 229% surge at the close yesterday, it rose by over 50% at the beginning of today's trading session. Roughly calculated, since the announcement of the merger and acquisition, the stock price of this company has skyrocketed from HK$0.149 to about HK$1.9 after three trading days on June 12, 25, and 26, representing a more than tenfold increase.
Looking back at the Internet era, Cai Wensheng was once a representative figure in angel investment. He created a super return through Meitu. Now, he is back in the game with the same ambition. Not long ago, Cai Wensheng spent about HK$650 million to buy an entire commercial building in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, and established an AI-Web3 startup center.
Cai Wensheng Bought a Listed Company, and Its Stock Price Soared Tenfold in Three Days
A notice revealed more details.
Specifically, Lin Shusong and an affiliate of Capital Investment sold a total of approximately 121 million shares of China Financial Leasing at a price of HK$0.38 per share, a premium of about 13.43% compared to the pre-suspension price, with a total consideration of approximately HK$46.0799 million.
Meanwhile, this transaction triggered a mandatory general offer to acquire all shares at a cash price of HK$0.38 per share, involving approximately HK$85.74 million.
Such a generous buyer, Longling Capital, is ultimately beneficially owned by Cai Wensheng, the founder and single largest shareholder of Meitu.
The highlight is the subsequent continuous surge in the stock price. The stock price of China Financial Leasing had been hovering around HK$0.1 for a long time until the news of the impending merger and acquisition spread on June 12. On that day, the stock price rose from HK$0.149 to HK$0.335, a more than 170% increase.
Until the evening of June 24, the company issued a merger and acquisition announcement. The next day, the stock resumed trading, opening 646% higher. The stock price closed at HK$1.12 per share that day, a 234.33% increase.
In the following two days, the stock price continued its astonishing upward trend:
On June 26, it rose from HK$1.14 to HK$1.55, an increase of approximately 38.39%;
On June 27, the opening price was HK$1.60, reaching a maximum of HK$2.79, with an intraday increase of over 20%.
Estimated, within three trading days on June 12, 25, and 26, the company's stock price increased by more than tenfold.
So, why did Cai Wensheng buy a listed company?
According to the information, China Financial Leasing Group is mainly engaged in the investment of listed and/or unlisted securities, including warrants, money market instruments, commodities, options, and futures contracts, as well as other collective investment schemes.
The company was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in October 2002. Its investment cases include Smart City Development Holdings Limited, China Hanking Holdings Limited, China Life Insurance Company Limited, Microsoft, VEEAINC, Yuan Universe Education (International) Investment Group Limited, etc., covering fields such as construction, mining, edge computing, AI, VR, and digital entertainment.
As shown in the financial report, the performance of China Financial Leasing Group is not outstanding. In 2024, it achieved an operating income of HK$1.156 million, a year-on-year increase of 48.21%. The net loss attributable to the parent company was HK$2.035 million, a 74.46% year-on-year decrease in the loss.
When talking about the reason for the acquisition, Cai Wensheng said that he will maintain the company's existing listed and unlisted equity investment business. At the same time, he intends to transform the group into an asset management platform, focusing on investing in technology incubation companies in Hong Kong and increasing investment in fields such as artificial intelligence, Web3 industry, and digital asset financial products. In other words, Cai Wensheng is about to make a big move.
The Past of Cai Wensheng
If we look back more than a decade, in the era of Internet venture capital, no one would ignore the name Cai Wensheng. In the early years, people's impression of Cai Wensheng was that he dropped out of high school, didn't understand English or technology, and even spoke Mandarin with a Minnan accent, which made him stand out from most VC groups.
However, his experience is quite legendary.
A well - known version is that he was born in Shishi, Quanzhou, Fujian in 1970. After dropping out of high school, he set up a street stall to sell daily necessities, sold pirated tapes following the trend of pop music, sold cement, and dealt in clothing. He even went to Southeast Asia because his family had business in the Philippines.
During the global Internet bubble in 1999, Cai Wensheng, who was less than 20 years old, bought shares of Pacific Century CyberWorks. This was his first contact with investment. Later, he found that registering website domain names could be profitable, so he started registering domain names and earned his first pot of gold by selling them.
Thanks to this experience, Cai Wensheng launched the website navigation station 265.com in 2003 and quickly received financing from IDG Capital. This broke two conventions of VC investment in Internet companies at that time - he didn't graduate from high school and didn't have a business plan. Four years later, 265.com was sold to Google, and Cai Wensheng completed another round of wealth accumulation.
After that, the angel investor Cai Wensheng emerged.
In the early days, Cai Wensheng invested in 58.com and Baofeng Yingyin respectively, and these two investments brought him substantial returns. Riding on the wave of the domestic Internet boom, Cai Wensheng invested in hundreds of projects, thus establishing his status as a grassroots angel investor in the industry.
But the most classic case is Meitu. In 2008, Cai Wensheng returned to Xiamen from Beijing and invited Wu Xinhong, a fellow townsman in his 80s. The two had known each other since the domain name investment days. Over the years, Wu Xinhong led a team under Cai Wensheng to incubate multiple products. At this time, Meitu Xiuxiu with a filter function was launched.
After that, the number of Meitu users quickly exceeded one million. In 2009, Wu Xinhong officially separated from the company under Cai Wensheng. He changed from a department manager to a founder, while Cai Wensheng changed from a boss to an angel investor. Four years later, Cai Wensheng became the chairman, and Meitu Xiuxiu became his first angel investment project under his direct leadership.
In December 2016, Meitu was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, becoming the largest - scale technology IPO in Hong Kong in the past 10 years at that time. On the day of the listing bell - ringing, Cai Wensheng personally wrote a thank - you letter, thanking everyone from his classmates since the first grade to business partners and investor friends. "He thanked almost all the bigwigs in the investment circle."
That was the golden age of the Chinese Internet. At its peak, the market value of Meitu once exceeded HK$100 billion.
In the following years, Cai Wensheng's interest gradually shifted to blockchain and Bitcoin. After stepping down as the chairman of Meitu in 2023, he gradually faded out of the public eye. Now, there are few angel investors still active in the primary market, and Cai Wensheng may be one of them.
The Next Battle in Hong Kong
This is not the first time Cai Wensheng has made a move in Hong Kong.
The most sensational event was in May this year when Cai Wensheng spent HK$650 million to buy the "PARK AURA" - a 25 - story commercial building with a total area of approximately 53,000 square feet, creating one of the largest commercial real estate transactions in Hong Kong this year.
When talking about this acquisition, Cai Wensheng once publicly stated that he didn't just fancy the low point of the Hong Kong property market. Instead, his dream of incubation needed a real carrier.
The PARK AURA is located in the downtown area of Hong Kong. According to Cai Wensheng's plan, he will set up an AI - CAFE similar to "Garage Coffee" on the lower floors of the building. Some floors will be set as shared office areas, and the remaining floors will be planned as studios in the A1 and Web3 fields, providing a convenient incubation center for Hong Kong startups in terms of transportation and living.
Starting from this building, an AI - Web3 startup center was born. Cai Wensheng plans to rename it - "CAI Tower".
Cai Wensheng has observed that there have been great changes among Hong Kong's entrepreneurs, including many talents from the Chinese mainland. They hope to target the global market. The space in Hong Kong cannot accommodate overly large - scale enterprises. However, with the impact of a series of new technologies such as AI, a unicorn enterprise that usually had more than 500 people in the past may now only need less than 10 people. This may be the next opportunity for Cai Wensheng to connect with Hong Kong.
Based in Hong Kong, a transformation is taking place. A notable event is that the "Stablecoin Ordinance" in Hong Kong will officially come into effect on August 1. The virtual asset trading licenses are booming, and Hong Kong is committed to becoming a global Web3 and digital finance center.
The tides of the times ebb and flow.
Looking back to 1999, Cai Wensheng stopped in Hong Kong due to a turning point. He spent HK$300,000 to buy shares of Pacific Century CyberWorks and earned his first HK$1 million in life. As time goes by, he is about to start a new journey here.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Investment World" (ID: pedaily2012). The authors are Yu Mengying and Yang Wenjing. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.