Chapter 675: Time to Split the Profits!

At the mention of dividends, Li Futiao and Huang Lixing both swallowed hard, their throats moving involuntarily.

A couple of days ago, the profits from this investment had been transferred back to Hong Kong through the relevant channels—a whopping 6.727 billion US dollars.

When Li Futiao saw that sum, his whole body went numb!

That’s 6.7 billion US dollars—at the current exchange rate of 7.85 Hong Kong dollars to the US dollar, that’s equivalent to 52.6 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Such a massive sum far exceeded the total assets of the Li family!

More importantly, Li Futao knew full well that when Li Yi went to New York, he had only taken 2 billion US dollars with him.

In other words, by a conservative estimate, the net profit from this investment alone was 4.7 billion US dollars—or even more.

If calculated based on the investment ratio, he’s in for a hefty payout this time!

“Brother Li Yi, are we splitting the money right now?” Huang Lixing asked, sounding a bit excited.

“Yeah, let’s do it!”

Li Yi then took a document out of the briefcase he was carrying and said, “For this gold short-selling project, we invested a total of 2.02 billion US dollars. The pre-tax revenue was 5.315 billion, and the net profit after taxes is 4.81 billion!”

“However, a few days ago I invested in several companies through Zaiying Capital and temporarily borrowed 130 million (out of a total investment of 300 million; we made 180 million in the stock market, and the rest was borrowed from the gold short-selling profits). I’ll deduct that amount from the final settlement!”

Li Futiao and Huang Lixing nodded in unison, indicating they had no objections!

“Old Li, you contributed 350 million USD to this investment, accounting for 16.5% of the total investment amount, so you should receive 793 million USD in dividends.”

Li Yi continued, “However, as we agreed earlier, you’re to give me half of your net profit from this investment. So your share this time is $396.5 million. Do you have any objections to this distribution?”

“No… no!” Li Futao said happily.

In just two months, he had made nearly 400 million US dollars—which, converted to Hong Kong dollars, amounted to over 3 billion. What’s there not to be satisfied with!

Li Yi then turned to Huang Lixing and said, “Old Huang, you invested 100 million US dollars this time, accounting for 5% of the total investment. Based on the profits, you’re entitled to 240 million US dollars. But you’ll also have to give up half of that, so your take this time is 120 million US dollars!”

“Alright, alright… I’m very satisfied. Thanks a lot, brother!” Huang Lixing said excitedly.

“It’s what you deserve!” Li Yi said with a smile.

“By the way, brother, what about the remaining funds? Should we transfer them to the company or…”

Before Huang Lixing could finish his sentence, Li Yi cut in: “Transfer it to the company first. Next, we’ll distribute the first round of dividends to our clients!”

Hearing this, Li Futao and Huang Lixing were both taken aback.

After a long moment, Huang Lixing finally snapped out of it and said, “Bro, our company hasn’t even been around for a year yet. Isn’t it a bit too early to be handing out dividends?”

Li Yi smiled and said, “It’s not like we have to wait a full year to distribute dividends!”

“That’s true, but…”

“Old Huang, we’ve been carrying out a series of large-scale capital operations recently and have indeed made a lot of money. But I’m personally exhausted, so I plan to take a break. There’s no need to keep that much money in the company’s accounts.”

Li Yi continued, “Besides, there’s another reason I’m insisting on a dividend: I’m out of money!”

“You’re out of money?”

Hearing this, Huang Lixing and Li Futiao were stunned once more.

“That’s right, I’m out of money. I’ve poured almost all my funds into the company. If the company doesn’t distribute profits, I really won’t have much left!”

Li Yi continued, “More importantly, I still have to pay Jardine Matheson for the acquisition of the New Territories warehouse. We simply can’t avoid distributing the profits!”

Actually, if that were the only issue, Li Yi could have handled it without having to distribute the company’s entire profit.

But he had to consider the situation back home. The demand for foreign exchange in China had reached a critical point, and everyone—from top to bottom—was eagerly waiting for him to bring money back to address the emergency.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s regulations on investment company funds were still quite strict. Li Yi couldn’t just casually transfer over a billion dollars; if that were discovered, the fines alone would set him back significantly.

So, to address the situation back home, he had no choice but to distribute dividends early—after all, the company wasn’t short on cash right now.

Huang Lixing didn’t know much about business operations, but seeing Li Yi’s firm resolve, he immediately agreed.

Since this was an internal matter at Starry Sky, Li Futiao didn’t feel it was appropriate to intervene, so the decision was quickly finalized.

Subsequently, Li Yi allocated the funds transferred back from New York according to the plan they had just agreed upon.

The funds would be divided into three parts. The first portion consisted of Li Futiao and Huang Lixing’s principal and profits, totaling 966.5 million yuan, which they each transferred to their own accounts.

The second portion was their commission, totaling 516.5 million yuan. This sum was to be transferred to Li Yi’s personal account, minus the 130 million yuan he had temporarily borrowed.

Prior to this operation, Li Yi had already agreed with Li Futao and Huang Lixing that he would take half of the profits from their private investments, and since this performance was not attributed to the company, the commission naturally belonged to Li Yi.

The third portion was the company’s principal and profits, totaling 5.337 billion. This sum would be transferred to Starry Sky Company’s account, awaiting distribution as dividends to all investors.

After completing these tasks, Li Yi left the Li Family Estate!

However, instead of returning to his own Cloud Peak Villa, he went to the company with Huang Lixing.

Since the decision to distribute dividends to investors had already been made, it was best to finalize the details as soon as possible. After all, this involved a great deal of calculation and wouldn’t be completed in just a day or two.

When the two arrived at the company together, they immediately caused a stir; nearly all the employees rushed over to see them.

They had all heard about how Big Boss Li Yi had been dominating the gold futures market on Wall Street. Over the past few days, media outlets across Hong Kong—both major and minor—had been reporting on the story, and the gossip tabloids had spun it into a sensational tale, describing it as if Li Yi had single-handedly stormed a den of wolves, complete with vivid details.

Consequently, the company’s staff were all stunned by their boss’s “heroic exploits.”

Li Yi had anticipated this reaction before arriving, so he didn’t say much.

After chatting with the staff for a while, Li Yi immediately had Lan Xinming notify all management to gather in the conference room for a meeting.

Soon, all the company’s managers were present, and the meeting officially began.

What no one expected, however, was that right at the start of the meeting, Li Yi dropped a bombshell: he announced that he would be distributing dividends to all investors.

Although this dividend did not represent the company’s entire profit—after all, a substantial sum was still sitting in the bank earning interest, set to mature in July or August of this year—the payout covered only the profits from the two gold projects.

Even so, the profits to be distributed exceeded 40 billion Hong Kong dollars!

A dividend of this magnitude—in the hundreds of billions—was unprecedented in the history of Hong Kong’s investment community, instantly sparking heated discussion among the entire management team.

Most were hesitant, believing it would be more effective to wait until August—the company’s first anniversary—to distribute the dividends.

But Li Yi was adamant, and the others knew they had no choice but to agree.

Subsequently, Li Yi began making arrangements according to his plan.

Given the substantial amount of funds involved, Li Yi instructed the finance department to calculate investors’ returns based on their contracts and present a detailed plan as soon as possible.

Fortunately, the investors eligible for this dividend were primarily the wealthy individuals from the first round of funding, and their numbers were not large. Combined with a portion of ordinary investors, the total number of people involved did not exceed 1,500.

Given the capabilities of the company’s finance department, they should be able to complete the necessary calculations within a week.

Of course, they couldn’t afford to sit idle during this week. After all, dividend distributions are of utmost importance to any investment firm, and Starry Sky was no exception—they had to ensure their promotional efforts were well-executed.

So Li Yi ordered the public relations department to spring into action immediately: issue any necessary announcements, launch promotional campaigns, and build momentum.

Following Li Yi’s orders, the entire Starry Sky Company sprang into action…

………