In the first half of April 1990, the four words "Red Cliff Battle" became the most popular words in the film industry across the Taiwan Strait and three places.

The total investment is 30 million yuan, which is more than 48 million yuan when converted into Hong Kong dollars and more than 150 million yuan when converted into Taiwan dollars. This is a record-breaking single-piece investment record no matter where it is.

No one in the film industry can ignore such a large-scale investment, not to mention that this film is also claimed to be the first co-production between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and three places.

After the news of the "Red Cliff War" project spread, the response was so strong that no one expected it.

However, the movie has only just been approved as a project and there is not even a script yet, so everyone is only paying attention to the discussion.

After staying in the Mainland for more than a week, Tao Yushu had just returned to Xiangjiang when a piece of news quietly circulated in the Xiangjiang business community.

On April 10, Hong Kong tycoon Wang Dehui was kidnapped. The kidnappers demanded that the Wang family pay US$1 billion before releasing him.

Wang Dehui is the boss of the Hong Kong Chinachem Group, whose industries span chemical raw materials, western medicine imports, petroleum industrial products, agricultural products, feed and real estate and other fields, with a net worth of billions of Hong Kong dollars.

In Hong Kong society, it is not uncommon for rich people or their family members to be kidnapped. It always happens once every few years. Most of the kidnappers seek money. As long as they give enough money, nothing will happen to them.

The reason why Wang Dehui's kidnapping has attracted widespread attention among wealthy people is mainly because this is the second time he has been kidnapped.

Wang Dehui is a man of good fortune, but one of his shortcomings is stinginess.

How stingy is he? It is said that during the Mid-Autumn Festival, he distributed mooncakes to his employees. He called all his cronies over, but only took out one mooncake, cut it into 16 parts in front of everyone, and distributed it to everyone.

One serving.

Being so stingy, it was naturally impossible for him to hire a bodyguard, so without a bodyguard, Wang Dehui naturally became the best deal in the eyes of the kidnappers.

In 1983, Wang Dehui was kidnapped by kidnappers while driving to work, and the kidnappers demanded US$100 million.

But raising large amounts of cash takes time. The kidnappers finally negotiated with the Wang family and paid 11 million U.S. dollars, and Wang Dehui was rescued.

Later, Wang Dehui hired bodyguards for a period of time for his own safety, but everything went smoothly afterwards. He felt that hiring bodyguards was a waste, so he fired them all.

So, there was this kidnapping this year,

In the past two years, as their company has frequently become the focus of media attention in Hong Kong, Lin Chaoyang and his wife have already equipped their family with considerable security forces.

These people are all from the army, all of them are clean and have extraordinary skills.

Although Lin Chaoyang always likes to joke that kidnappers usually focus on the rich, and rich people like them are not qualified to be kidnapped, but when he heard this kind of news, he still had to be on guard.

He specifically contacted the mainland and asked Du Feng to organize a few more skilled people to come over.

Du Feng is happy to help with this kind of thing. The employment and treatment of veterans is a difficult problem these days.

Working as a bodyguard for Lin Chaoyang's family would cost more than 100,000 or 200,000 Hong Kong dollars a year, even if it were paid to the director.

A few days later, Yulang Institution's investment in Sugar Games was finally implemented, and Tao Yumo was shaking violently.

"The Swordsman" has been on the market for more than two months in Hong Kong. It has also been launched in the Gulf Islands, Southeast Asia and other countries. It has achieved sales of more than 24,000 copies, and its results are outstanding.

The success of "Swordsman" also made Yulang Organization's investment a logical decision. After all, Sugar Games is one of the few game companies in Hong Kong today, with great potential, and it is in line with Yulang Organization's large-scale industry development direction.

The company's valuation of HK$60 million was also reviewed and approved by the Securities Regulatory Commission, and Tao Yumo, the major shareholder, transferred 10% of the shares to Yulang Institution.

I invested 800,000 Hong Kong dollars in starting the company last year, and this year I got back 6 million in one fell swoop. I still have 50% of the shares, which are theoretically worth 3,000.

Thousands of Hong Kong dollars.

Tao Yumo was so happy that she walked happily, and her voice became louder when she talked to Director Tao.

The only thing that makes her unhappy is that she still has to pay taxes after selling her company shares.

More than one-fifth of the 6 million yuan was gone at once, which made her lips tremble with distress.

"The government didn't do anything, but one-fifth of my money was lost?" she protested with grief and indignation.

"As you say, you haven't done anything. Haven't you enjoyed the infrastructure and social welfare?"

"I didn't enjoy it in vain!"

Lin Chaoyang mocked: "Look at your situation, your sister's company pays 100 to 200 million in taxes a year. What did she say? Just be satisfied that she doesn't collect capital gains tax from you."

Tao Yumo couldn't help but mutter: "If I had known earlier, I would have gone for financing."

Share transfer is different from financing. The reason why Tao Yumo made this choice was entirely due to his little financial obsession.

In Tao Yushu's eyes, her method of operation was undoubtedly a huge waste of resources.

But it doesn't matter, they are all family members anyway, and the meat will rot in the pot.

Maggie Cheung asked her: "What do you want to do when you have money?"

Tao Yumo was slightly stunned. She had only thought about getting the money before, but hadn't figured out how to spend it.

She frowned and thought for a while, realizing that she didn't seem to have much to spend money on.

"Save it!" she said firmly.

Tao Yushu was speechless, "Are you selling shares just to save money? These shares may be worth 20 million in two years."

"This is called taking safety, you don't understand!"

Tao Yushu shook his head helplessly, "Okay, okay, I don't understand!"

Maggie Cheung said anxiously: "Don't save it first, don't save it first, treat me to a big dinner first!"

"What do you want to eat?"

The two of them got together and discussed what to eat.

Tao Yushu couldn't help but said, "No wonder you two can get together!"

After May Day, Tao Yushu became extremely busy.

In addition to worrying about the business of Yulang Organization and Lin's Pictures, she has recently devoted most of her time and energy to the listing of the new Ming Pao Group.

From the promotion of acquisitions in June last year, to the merger of Ming Pao Group and Yulang Institutional Media Business in August, and then this year.

After almost a year, the merged Ming Pao Group is finally going to be listed.

May 14, 1990, Monday, the 20th day of the fourth lunar month, is an auspicious day.

At 9:30 am, the brand-new Ming Pao Group was officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under the name of Ming Pao Enterprises Limited.

The assets of Ming Pao Enterprise Co., Ltd. are centered on two first-class daily newspapers in Hong Kong: "Ming Pao" and "Tian Tian Daily".

It includes many high-quality assets such as "Ming Pao Monthly", "Ming Pao Weekly", "Ming Pao Evening News", "Chinese Evening News", "Fresh Weekly", "Youth", Ming Pao Publishing House, Ming Window Publishing House and Cuiming Holiday Travel Agency.

The combined valuation is 1.1 billion, and a total of 150 million new shares will be sold, with a subscription price of 3.2 yuan per share, and a financing scale of up to HK$480 million.

The determination of the listing subscription price of Mingpao Enterprises is completed before listing, which is also the most critical step before the company goes public.

In the capital market, listed companies naturally hope that the higher the subscription price, the better. If the subscription price is high, the stock price will be high, and the market value will naturally be high;

On the other hand, the underwriters and the listing committee want the subscription price to be lower.

The subscription price is low, which is good for the work of the underwriters, and the listing committee wants the stock price to be low, mainly because it does not want to affect investor activity.

The listing subscription price of Mingpao Enterprises was raised twice before it was determined, mainly because investment institutions and investors were too enthusiastic and the subscription market was too hot.

Among these enthusiastic subscribers was Robert Kuok, whom Lin Chaoyang met some time ago when he went to the Huo family for a family dinner.

Currently, Oriental Press has the highest market value among the listed companies in the communications industry in Hong Kong.

Oriental Newspaper owns many newspapers and periodicals such as Oriental Daily, The Sun, and Sun Horse News. It claims to sell millions of newspapers every day. This year, its market value has exceeded the HK$6 billion mark.

The scale of the merged Ming Pao enterprise is no less than that of Oriental Newspaper. Its daily sales of "Ming Pao", "Tian Tian Daily", "Ming Pao Evening News" and "Chinese Evening News" exceed 600,000 copies. The sales of a number of weekly and monthly magazines are also impressive.

The key is that Ming Pao's press standards are much higher than those of Oriental Newspaper, which takes a civilian route. With high press standards, its influence is naturally strong. What the communication industry compares with is social influence.

Therefore, investment institutions and investors simply believe that the stock price potential of Mingpao Enterprises will never be lower than that of Oriental Newspapers, which has led to the hot subscription of Mingpao Enterprises before its listing.

On the morning of the listing, Tao Yushu and Jin Yong stood together in the trading hall of the Stock Exchange and rang the bell.

The reporters who were allowed to enter the trading hall frantically clicked the shutter, and the flash lights in the trading hall lit up, and they took Tao Yushu and Jin Yong into their shots.

Some reporters found very tricky angles and swept in Lin Chaoyang who was standing in the corner. They even thought about the accompanying text for this photo - "The Man Behind the Media Queen".

Ringing a bell on the market is not accurate, but it is actually ringing a gong.

As soon as the gong sounds, there is a thousand taels of gold!

This is a bit exaggerated, but it's mostly true.

Ming Pao Enterprise's listed share price was 3.2 yuan. The share price surged 40% only half an hour after the opening. By the end of the morning market, the share price rose to 5.1 yuan.

Yuan, an increase of 60%.

The afternoon market started after an hour's break, and the stock price was still rising rapidly.

Before the market closed at 4 p.m., Mingpao Enterprises' share price fell slightly, closing at 6.2 yuan per share, leading the increase in the Hang Seng Index, and its total market value reached HK$4.65 billion.

After the listing of Ming Pao Enterprises, Lin Chaoyang and his wife controlled 61.28% of the shares through Mingcheng Media and Yulang Institution.

According to the closing stock price of Ming Pao Enterprise on its first day of listing, the shares held by the couple are worth HK$2.85 billion, which does not include the HK$480 million raised by Ming Pao Enterprise from its listing.

On the first day of Ming Pao's listing, both Tao Yushu and Jin Yong became the focus of media attention. The two accepted interviews from many media on the trading floor of the Stock Exchange.

When talking about retirement, Jin Yong said that he would have to serve Ming Pao for at least another three years. This was a condition that Tao Yushu had negotiated with Jin Yong before acquiring Ming Pao Group.

Ming Pao Group was founded by Jin Yong and has a decisive influence within the group. At the juncture of acquisition, merger and listing, if he withdraws directly, it will definitely be extremely detrimental to the stability of the stock price.

When talking about the issue of corporate control and future development, Jin Yong said:
To be continued...