Chapter 413

Sheldon invested 1.5 billion dollars, and Windward Group put in 3.5 billion dollars, taking five percent and ten percent of the shares, respectively.

The news of this partnership spread like wildfire. After securing a 3.5-billion-dollar investment from Manchotech, GrabCheap once again secured a massive five-billion-dollar investment.

Aubree’s name was making headlines across the media once more. Now, not only in Rithol City, but even in Nadio and Südlichen Strand, her name was becoming firmly etched into everyone’s mind.

“We nailed this round of financing. Next up, we can kick off the IPO process,” Aubree said.

However, there was still one problem. After all her hard work, she definitely didn’t want to lose control of GrabCheap down the road.

One of the reasons she set up a branch in Südlichen Strand for this project was because of her initial investment agreement with Bowen. According to that deal, she had to give him thirty percent of the shares in all her projects.

But back then, she’d also pulled a little trick. The projects under Bree Technology’s name in Rithol City were the ones covered by that agreement. Bowen didn’t have any shares in GrabCheap.

But Manchotech and the others together had already taken thirty percent of the shares. Birgitte held five percent, and with all the shares Aubree had handed out during the startup phase, Aubree was left with only 24 percent of the shares in her own hands.

If Manchotech and the others ever decided to team up against her, she’d be in a tough spot.

She needed to make sure she held absolute control over GrabCheap’s key decisions.

“Birgitte, come here for a second,” Aubree said.

She trusted Birgitte completely.

After sharing what was on her mind, Aubree asked, “Birgitte, what do you think?”

“What about veto power?” Birgitte suggested. “For any major decision, Ms. Miller, as the largest shareholder, you would have veto power.”

Aubree thought that was a great suggestion. She had to guard against losing control if her shares became too diluted. Back in Rithol City, since Bowen held thirty percent of the shares, she’d always been careful to keep the stock spread in check and deliberately avoided bringing in too many outside investors.

She made sure her own stake always stayed just above Bowen’s.

This way, she could keep the Wilson and Diamonde families from ever setting her up through the stock. As long as she held absolute decision-making power, GrabCheap would always stay firmly under her control.

Not only did Aubree go with Birgitte’s idea of having veto power, but she also set up a brand new investment company and publicly transferred all her shares in GrabCheap to it. That way, even though the shares were no longer in her name, she could still maintain control over GrabCheap through her fully-owned investment company.

Once she pulled off this move, it stirred up another wave of buzz.

Even those who’d been watching GrabCheap from the sidelines had to admit that she was a real genius.

Teaming up with giants like Windward Group and Manchotech, and still managing to snatch a chunk for herself? That takes real guts and brains, someone marveled.

“Indirect control, leaving all the risks behind, and still securing the controlling stake—Aubree really is a genius,” another person exclaimed.

“If I were Ronald, I’d be curled up under the covers bawling my eyes out right now,” someone joked.

When the news reached Rithol City, Ronald slapped his thigh in admiration. “That’s my girl. She’s got a mind like lightning!”

This only made Ronald even more determined to bring Aubree back. Once she returned and started running things at Wilson Group, every last one of their rivals, including the Turner family, would be groveling at the Wilsons‘ feet.

Bryan glanced over and said helplessly, “But Dad, Aubree is our enemy now!”

He thought, ‘If she performs better, isn’t that actually bad news for us?‘

Ronald’s face darkened. “This is all your mother’s fault. She just had to adopt Carmen!”

“Speaking of that, Dad, when we tried to look into Carmen’s background, the trail just went dead. All we could find was that after her parents died, she was sent to an orphanage. There’s no other information at all. We can’t even find out who took her there,” Bryan said.

“If you can’t find anything, that just means something’s off. Keep digging.”