Among the Big Three BAT, he invested in two: Baidu and Tencent. In addition, in the past ten years, he has invested in more than 800 enterprises such as JD.COM, Meituan, Didi, Gree, Midea, Ctrip, Qunar, Weilai Automobile, mobike and Blue Moon, which is known as "no one dares to lose face" in the industry.
As the godfather of China's "value investment" field, he has always insisted on long-term value investment, bought and held company stocks for a long time, wanted to play positive sum games and refused zero-sum games.
Today, he has become one of the richest investors in China. More importantly, he has profoundly influenced the e-commerce pattern in China. He is Zhang Lei of Gaoying Capital.
From 65438 to 0972, Zhang Lei was born in Zhumadian City, Henan Province. His father was a cadre of the Foreign Trade Bureau and his mother was a lawyer. Although not rich, it is also a middle-class family.
When I was a child, because my parents were very busy, I didn't have time to discipline Zhang Lei, which made him a very independent personality and had many tricks.
Zhang Lei showed his business talent at the age of seven. At that time, his family lived near the railway station. During the summer vacation, he put a small chair next to the station and rented his comic book to people waiting for the bus, making some money.
When he was in primary school, Zhang Lei got poor grades. Because it is close to Shaolin Temple, my mind is full of the idea of "going to the end of the world with a sword" and wanting to "go to Songshan Mountain". He almost didn't even get into junior high school. The minimum admission scores for elementary schools and junior high schools are 140 and Zhang Lei 14 1, which is just a little more 1.
Although he doesn't like school work, he likes reading all kinds of books. He thinks there are books that others know; But there are some things in the book that others may not know. The world seen from books is much bigger than the real world.
From a bad student to a bully, besides reading more books, he was also influenced by one person, namely Shi, an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences and a professor of Tsinghua University. Shi is from Henan, and he is half a fellow villager. I was inspired by reading the article on history. He thinks that life should not be wasted, but should be accomplished.
So, in the second year of high school, Zhang Lei began to study hard.
It is admirable that Zhang Lei can learn and make money.
In high school, Zhang Lei mobilized his classmates to bring books from home to the railway station to set up a stall and set up a mobile book lending station. In the summer vacation of senior three, while everyone else was enjoying the first summer vacation without holiday homework, Zhang Lei was expanding his book rental business, buying a lot of magazines and reselling them, and later selling mineral water, instant noodles and Hunan sausages.
1990, 18-year-old Zhang Lei was admitted to the Finance Department of China Renmin University with the result of being the top liberal arts student in the local college entrance examination. When he left his hometown for Beijing, he had made a net profit of 800 yuan RMB, which was enough to pay for his tuition! You know, the monthly salary of civil servants at that time was only 100 yuan.
During his study in the National People's Congress, Zhang Lei was thirsty for knowledge for four years, and he also accumulated four years of personal resources. "Now I have made many good friends when I was studying at the National People's Congress. Among them, some are friends, some are deep partners, and some are engaged in some public welfare undertakings together. " Zhang Lei recalled.
1994 After graduation, Zhang Lei wanted to work in a central enterprise and joined Minmetals as he wished.
In Minmetals, Zhang Lei often took the train to all parts of the country to buy mining assets, which cultivated his insight into society.
Because I have been doing this job for a long time, I feel that my future development is limited, so I want to study abroad.
From 65438 to 0998, Zhang Lei went to Yale University for further study. The trip to Yale not only changed the fate of Zhang Lei, but also changed many "Liu Dongqiang people" who longed for development but suffered from no huge investment at that time. This is another story.
Zhang Lei, who just arrived at Yale University, is facing a serious financial crisis, because his fresh energy is short of money before it passes.
At that time, I chose Yale University because I realized that Yale University was the only university that could offer scholarships. Moreover, Yale is a world-class university with a history of more than 300 years, which has trained countless celebrities, including five American presidents.
It is said that Yale teachers often joke: "If you are not careful, you will teach a president."
However, after arriving at Yale, Zhang Lei realized that he only got a one-year scholarship, and the whole postgraduate stage lasted for three years. He had to pay his own tuition and was in urgent need of finding a job.
Like many anxious and confused young people, Zhang Lei submitted countless resumes, and finally fell into the sea. He went through numerous interviews and finally got no answer. Every time is full of longing and sad.
However, life has endless despair and unexpected warmth. When he dragged his tired body back to school again and again, he had no idea that the opportunity was waiting for him where he started.
Zhang Lei wrote in Value that the first meeting with David Svencen was in the classroom, but the close meeting was in the Yale Investment Office.
In the interview room of Yale Investment Office, Professor David Svencen, Zhang Lei's tutor, gave him a valuable opportunity to practice with him. David Svencen is the Chief Investment Officer of the Endowment Fund of Yale University. In the field of global investment, he is an investor on par with Buffett. He not only has a profound theoretical foundation, but also trained many talents in the investment field.
Before that, Zhang Lei had never really been exposed to investment.
David asked Zhang Lei many questions about investment, and Zhang Lei answered most of them honestly "I don't know". Later, Zhang Lei asked David why he accepted a little white who answered "I don't know" to many questions. David said that in many cases, honesty is the most important quality.
Zhang Lei later recalled that there, he found the coordinate system of his career and chose to enter the investment industry.
During her internship in Yale Investment Office, Zhang Lei was sent to the timber industry to do industry research. When he came back a few weeks later, Zhang Lei produced an in-depth report on the industry, which was 2.5 cm thick, equivalent to the thickness of a book.
This report reflects many insights that Zhang Lei has read. His solid analytical ability and attitude coincide with David's long-term value investment philosophy.
David saw great investment potential in Zhang Lei. He was impressed with him, taught what he had learned all his life, and introduced him to many financial leaders on Wall Street.
In that valuable internship, David answered hundreds of basic questions about investment raised by Zhang Lei.
From 65438 to 0999, Zhang Lei, who thought he was full-fledged, decided to return to China for development.
In 2000, Zhang Lei founded China Venture Network, whose main business is to help Internet companies in China raise funds. At that time, Zhang Lei firmly believed that Yahoo and Amazon in China would be born within five years, and China Venture Network was the catalyst of this revolution. Since then, hundreds of investment and financing matchmaking meetings have been organized, and friendship has been forged with Zhang Chaoyang, Ma Yun, Ma and others.
Only half a year later, China Venture Network began to make profits, with more than 13000 member enterprises and more than 200 investment institutions, covering more than 20 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and San Francisco. It has been rated as the most influential investment brand in China by overseas media. In the golden age, his popularity was extremely high, and he appeared on the front pages of The New York Times and many media together with the company name.
However, the global Internet bubble burst in 200 1 year, and Zhang Lei's first venture ended in failure. That year, 28-year-old Zhang Lei experienced the first ups and downs in his life.
Since then, Zhang Lei has disappeared from the public eye and returned to the Yale Alumni Foundation. Later, he moved to global emerging market investment funds and new york Stock Exchange, and served as the chief representative of China of new york Stock Exchange.
2005 was a magical year for the Internet industry.
At that time, all eyes in the industry were focused on Li Yanhong. On August 5th, Baidu was listed on NASDAQ. On the day of listing, its share price soared from $27 to 120. When the bell rang, Li Yanhong burst into tears.
Baidu's soaring has also inspired a group of aspiring young people to fight, so in 2005, many Internet companies were born: Qunar.com, 58 Tongcheng, car home and so on.
Zhang Lei realized that China was about to rise-"The whole country is full of energy, everyone can make a fortune, and many energetic entrepreneurs and high-tech startups have emerged in China."
Therefore, 32-year-old Zhang Lei brought back $30 million from Yale's mentor and set up Gaoling Capital Company. High-profile capital literally means "strategic location", which has existed since its debut.
It is said that the $30 million is the $20 million that David Svencen allocated from Yale Investment Fund as the start-up capital to help his disciples, and then he added $6,543,800+million. I have to say that David is really a noble man in Zhang Lei!
The first real investment in Zhang Lei's life was related to QQ.
In 2005, Tencent was only a small company listed in Hong Kong, with a market value of just over one billion dollars. Its main users are "three lows"-low age, low education and low income, and MSN is the leader in the instant messaging market.
From the perspective of value investment, Tencent is definitely not a good company. However, Zhang Lei only invested $30 million in Tencent.
What people don't know is that before investing in Tencent, Zhang Lei went to Yiwu Commodity City for investigation. Each vendor's business card is printed with QQ number, and the local investment promotion office also has its own QQ number, which is probably the direct reason why Zhang Lei is all in Tencent.
Some people say that Zhang Lei's investment in Tencent is too risky, but Zhang Lei, a loyal fan of Warren Buffett, has always adhered to the belief of long-term value investment: "Society will reward entrepreneurs who continue to create long-term value crazily sooner or later."
Later, this investment made him get a return of more than 200 times.
But what really made Gao Made Ling get the ticket to the top investment circle and become famous in World War I was his investment in JD.COM.
20 10, JD.COM is preparing to establish a logistics distribution system. Most of Liu's income and the new financing of 2 10/00000 USD in 2009 were used for the construction of logistics systems, such as setting up controlled logistics subsidiaries and purchasing new storage places. It can be said that it is an investment period that urgently needs money and can't see the benefits at the moment.
This asset-oriented business model is not favored by the capital market and can never make up for investment funds.
At that time, 37-year-old Liu found an alumnus of the National People's Congress who was one year older than him, hoping that Gaoling Capital could invest some more money.
After knowing the basic situation of Liu, ask Liu how much money he needs. Liu hesitated and squeezed the figure of $75 million through his teeth. He thinks it is difficult for Zhang Lei to invest so much. Surprisingly, Zhang Lei insisted that he would either invest $300 million or not invest at all.
This was one of the biggest single investment transactions among early Internet companies in China at that time, and Gao Ling was once ridiculed as "stupid, making more money".
But the huge development potential behind JD.COM has made Zhang Lei see it.
In his eyes, JD.COM is like Amazon in those days, and Bezos regrets that when Amazon was founded, the United States already had a logistics giant like UPS, so it lost the opportunity to do supply chain integration. JD.COM has no such rival in China, so it faces a better historical opportunity. For JD.COM at that time, if we didn't spend enough money on logistics and supply chain system, we couldn't see the core competitiveness at all.
It is Gaolin's huge investment of $300 million that has won Liu a long enough period to successfully establish its unshakable leading edge in B2C e-commerce, and even deter new capital from investing in competitive companies in this field to a certain extent, so as to expand JD.COM. The absolute leading position of COM.
At that time, US$ 300 million was also a huge sum of money for Gaochun Capital. If the investment fails, the whole army will be wiped out. Zhang Lei's anti-human investment has made him labeled as "alternative" in the investment field. However, he won again.
2065438+In May 2004, JD.COM successfully listed on NASDAQ, and its market value rose to $26 billion. JD。 COM's investment earned more than 12 times, reaching $3.8 billion.
More importantly, Zhang Lei has deeply influenced the mode of e-commerce in China.
In 20 14, Tencent e-commerce merged with JD.COM, and Tencent became the largest shareholder in JD.COM. Zhang Lei is the driving force behind this great change.
Today, the scale of Gaochun Capital Fund has soared from the initial $30 million to $60 billion. It has increased by 2000 times in fifteen years, with an average annualized rate of return of 65%. Gaoling is also the largest fund in Asia for many years.
With the development of domestic economy and the continuous upgrading of industry, Gaoyou's investment field has also diversified.
Not only has it invested in Internet companies such as Tencent, JD.COM, Meituan, Qunar and mobike, but it also holds shares in manufacturing and consumer goods industries such as Midea, Gree, Fuyao Glass, Blue Moon and Belle.
In 20 17, the biggest investment of Gaoling Capital was holding Belle, the "first generation shoe king". Belle was originally a traditional enterprise selling shoes. After the acquisition of Gaoling, the operation was fierce, with various transformations and capital operations.
In 20 19, Belle was split into sports assets by Gao Xian and listed separately. The market value far exceeds the valuation when Belle was privatized, and Gao Xian made a fortune. After Belle, Yin Gao began to worship God in the investment circle of China.
In 20 19, Gao Yan Capital officially took over the 0/5% equity of Gree Electric/Kloc-0 transferred by Gree Group and became the largest shareholder in Gree Electric.
Later, when Gao Xian invested in Blue Moon, he brought JD.COM in to cooperate, which not only helped Blue Moon develop new products through the background data of JD.COM, but also solved the problems of online sales and supply chain management.
The capital market is changing rapidly, and Zhang Lei has always adhered to the concept of "holding a heavy position in China" and has never changed. The story about Zhang Lei is still going on, and his past life experiences and values are also worth pondering.