On the fifth day of negotiations, everything was going smoothly, except for the final signature.

After all, when half of the equity was transferred last time, there was already a basis for cooperation.

At the same time, the news media have also been contacted and are preparing to hold a press conference to inform about this cooperation.

Tomorrow, this US$4 billion deal will once again shake up the online ride-hailing market.

However, what was unexpected was that the transaction was halted by an order from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

They investigated this transaction in the name of national security.

Lin Minyi said angrily: "We are just doing a normal equity transfer, what reason do they have to stop it?"

As the head of the legal team for Pinru’s business in the United States, she believes that she has achieved legal compliance in every process.

What's more, this is just a simple equity transfer, and neither buyer nor seller has any objections. What does the Ministry of Commerce mean by jumping out at this time?

"I think they are clearly targeting our Chinese-funded enterprises and deliberately disrupting our business."

"I don't know what charges he will lay on us?"

"I guess even if there is, it's a 'groundless' charge. It's similar to the reason used to stop Sany Heavy Industry and Huawei's business some time ago."

"Is there really nothing we can do?"

"We don't have any enemies here. It couldn't have been caused by SoftBank, right? Lowering the price temporarily?"

…

Everyone thinks that the investment projects of Chinese-funded enterprises such as Sany Heavy Industry and Huawei in the United States have been suspended recently, and they feel even heavier.

In 2012, Rolls, Sany Group’s affiliate in the United States, acquired four wind farms in the United States.

Six months later, the then president issued an order restricting Rolls-Rolls from entering wind farm construction sites on the grounds that it threatened national security, and required Rolls to complete the divestiture of these projects within 90 days.

This paper ban directly caused economic losses of more than 20 million US dollars to Sany Group.

Subsequently, after many appeals and huge legal fees, Sany Group finally reached a "settlement" with the outside world.

Sany Group transferred these four wind power projects to third parties in exchange for the group’s other businesses in the United States not involving national security issues.

This lawsuit, which was both successful and unsuccessful, was rated as an unprecedented victory for Chinese-funded enterprises by the Wall Street Journal.

Faced with this situation, most relatively weak private companies can only swallow the bitter consequences.

After all, there are few private companies that can spend huge costs to fight this cross-border lawsuit like Sany Heavy Industry.

Moreover, the outcome of the lawsuit can only restore your "innocence", but not the money you lost.

For most private companies, innocence is obviously not that important. They would rather stop losses and leave the market early.

Now, Pinru’s business team is worried that Uber’s equity transaction will be disrupted.

If the equity cannot be liquidated, no matter how high the value is, it will be no more than useless paper.

After all, online ride-hailing is still in the midst of a subsidy war, and there is no possibility of any dividends.

Seeing that the team's fighting spirit had been hit, Luo Xiu couldn't help but comfort him: "Don't be discouraged, everyone. Stopping the review does not mean that the transaction is ruined. We should actively communicate with the review department at this time to understand their purpose and come up with countermeasures."

Method."

Someone immediately echoed: "Mr. Luo is right. If they intervene forcefully like this without a legitimate reason, it will damage not only our company, but also the confidence of more international investment institutions in investing in the United States."

"If a market only allows outside money to come in and does not allow people to liquidate and leave the market, then I am afraid that no one will dare to enter this market."

"I also believe that things are not as bad as it could be. This time it might just be a routine review, and we just happened to be unlucky enough to be selected."

Having said this, the entire business team cheered up and split up to understand the situation.

Some people asked SoftBank about its attitude, some went to lobbyists to lobby lawmakers, and some applied pressure through judicial channels.

Three days later, the Ministry of Commerce finally gave a clear explanation.

The reason for their review was the US$200 million loan Pinru Group had received from Citibank, which they believed contained irregularities.

Luo Xiu originally received a 200 million loan from Citibank, and then used the loan to exchange for 20% of Uber's equity.

From now on, this investment is equivalent to borrowing a chicken to lay an egg.

You don’t have to spend a cent of your own money. Use your bank’s money to invest in your business. In a few years, you can make dozens of times the profit.

But business investment cannot be based on the results. After all, no one knows that the original investment will be successful.

If the investment fails, the result will inevitably be that Luo Xiu owes a large amount of debt to the bank and high interest rates.

It’s like we all know that SoftBank made a lot of money by investing in Alibaba, but at that time, who could take a fancy to Alibaba, a start-up company?

The U.S. Department of Commerce cannot prevent Luo Xiu from selling his shares in Uber. The only thing they can do is to investigate whether the original $200 million loan was reasonable.

After all, if there had not been that loan, there would have been no subsequent investment from Uber, and there would have been no realization of dozens of times the current amount.

It is said that the investigation team has stationed at Citibank, requesting all information on the loans that year and reviewing every step of the process.

Even the business manager who had just retired from the bank last year was called back because of his handling of this business and asked to cooperate with the investigation.

After the news came out, many people expressed pessimism.

If the investigation team really adopts the attitude of picking bones from the eggs, nothing can withstand the investigation.

Especially for such a large loan, the original system formulated by the bank must be very complicated.

In the actual operation process, in order to pursue efficiency, some unnecessary procedures are often skipped.

This situation is particularly serious for Chinese-funded enterprises, as few companies complete all processes 100% according to regulations.

They are accustomed to giving priority to efficiency. In order to pursue efficiency, they often "get on the bus first and then pay for the ticket."

In order to achieve business, banks are also willing to cooperate with enterprises and skip some cumbersome procedures.

This pursuit of efficiency helps companies win the market faster.

In the same business, Chinese-funded companies may have already put the product on the market and gone through several rounds of iterative optimization, while foreign investors are still debating whether to do it or not.

Not surprisingly, this pursuit of efficiency has helped Chinese companies win overseas markets one after another.

The problem is that if something unexpected happens, this "get on the bus first and pay for the ticket later" approach often leads to disaster.

Many high-spirited companies that want to open up a new world overseas end up suffering here and being dragged into endless lawsuits.

And now, Pinru Group has also had an accident.

A shadow hangs over everyone on the team.

"Do any of you still remember whether there were any irregularities in the procedures when you took out that loan?"

"I don't know, I hadn't joined the company yet."

"This project was handled by Mr. Luo first-hand. I am afraid that only Mr. Luo knows what happened in the first place."

"At that time, it was the company's first overseas business. We didn't even have an overseas office, so it was difficult to have no control over the business."

"So, I'm afraid we are in really bad luck this time!"

…
Chapter completed!