America's Road to Wealth

Chapter 218 Versailles Balloons and Energy

Even Bloomberg and Robert.

I don't know why Abel is so obsessed with Hudson's Bay Square.

Hudson's Bay Square is indeed very profitable.

If it can be done and more than half of the profits can be obtained.

That is enough to support the emergence of a billionaire.

This will definitely be the largest real estate project in New York in the future.

But let's not talk about the difficulty of making it appear.

Just from the perspective of its interests, Bloomberg and Robert also feel that Abel does not need to be so persistent.

Because to put it bluntly, Hudson's Bay Yards can't go it alone.

Not even if the owner of the white house came.

Not even Rockefeller and Morgan together.

This means that it is necessary to share the profits to make things successful.

The profit is one cent, although it is still scary, it is very impressive.

But this profit, compared with Abel's gains in the capital market, is not very attractive.

They all felt that Abel should not bother about this matter.

It's better to go to the capital market more, make a few more transactions, and get more money faster.

Rare potential allies were there tonight.

Robert Morgenthau replaced Bloomberg and asked this question.

"Abe, I'm curious. Why do you seem to be so proactive about this project?"

"Huh?" Abel didn't understand.

"Hudson's Bay Square," said Robert:
"You seem to care more than anyone else. It feels like the two of us combined are not as enthusiastic as you alone."

Bloomberg nodded beside him.

The founder of Bloomberg is also very curious about this.

Abel's fingers couldn't help rubbing the red wine glass he was holding.

After thinking about it, Abel said:

"Maybe it's because I feel that if this thing is done, it will give me a sense of accomplishment."

"Sense of accomplishment?" Robert was puzzled.

Abel decided to speak the truth.

"Because in the capital market, no matter how much money I make, I don't have any pleasure."

"I take it for granted. They should be mine. I make that money as easily as I breathe."

"But while doing other things. Like running a media conglomerate, like this Hudson's Bay Yard."

"Making them successful gives me a sense of accomplishment"

"Because in these fields, I am not very good at it, maybe even worse than some ordinary people."

"You should understand, right?"

"The kind of things that we take for granted no matter how much we do in the field we are good at, will not make us passionate."

"However, a little achievement in a field that we are not good at often gives us a great sense of pride!"

"That's right, that's probably how it feels. It's this sense of accomplishment that pushes me to work hard to build Hudson's Bay Square."

As he spoke, he looked eagerly at Bloomberg and Robert Morgenthau.

After listening, Bloomberg couldn't help but look at Robert.

The future mayor of New York found that the latter was also looking at him.

Bloomberg: [Do you understand this feeling? 】

Robert: [I don’t understand, do you understand? 】

Bloomberg: [I don’t understand either. 】

At this time, two New York bigwigs, if they are two Chinese netizens.

They will definitely say loudly that Abel is a Versailles.

But aside, Paige listened to these words from Abel.

Her eyes were a little bright.

"It's that simple. Believe it or not." Abel shrugged.

He really thought so.

This is like a cheater who plays in the middle and late stages of the game.

There are already very few things in the game that will make him happy.

But at this time, there was another game next to him, and he wasn't very good at it, and he couldn't fully use cheats either.

Then when he plays this game, he will be very happy to produce some results.

Probably this is the reason.

Bloomberg and Robert didn't want to distinguish whether what Abel said was true or false at this time.

Anyway, if this thing can really be successful.

Then their share can't escape.

As for where Abel's motivation is, they don't care.

"Even if you are so eager." Robert said clearly:
"I still have to wait until Michael is really successful before trying to start."

Bloomberg nodded too.

If he can't succeed this year, he probably doesn't even have the qualifications to be an ally of equal status to the two in front of him.

That's a premise for Robert, and certainly not for Bloomberg.

The two expressed their views again, and Abel felt a little dull.

Bloomberg left quickly.

He is the host of tonight's reception, and he can't stay in any circle for too long.

He wants to greet all the guests and try to fix this kind of contacts.

In that case.

Even if he loses the election this year.

When we make a comeback in the future, we will be able to get more support.

What's more, even if this road doesn't work, don't take this road.

Bloomberg feels that these extra contacts and relationships will also make it easier for him to better manage Bloomberg.

Robert also has to maintain his social connections, not for long.

The two old guys left.

Abel has two options.

One is to stay here and chat with Peggy.

Or strike up a conversation with other people to expand your network.

In the end, he chose neither, and he chose to leave early.

Abel left the banquet hall of the Intercontinental Hotel and came to the entrance of the InterContinental Hotel.

He looked up and saw that the cold rain was still falling in Manhattan.

To be honest, in Manhattan, the weather is good from May to October every year.

Other times, it's freezing as hell when it snows.It will be cold when it rains.

Shaking his head, Abel got into the car and left under the umbrella protection of two bodyguards.

In the car, he thought about it and called Grandpa Alex.

Abel is in regular contact with his family.

But there are relatively few contacts with grandpa and father, mainly because there are more contacts with grandma and mother.

The conversations with Arya and Emily are naturally biased towards daily life.

This time he called Alex mainly to find out about Fossloh.

The grandfather and grandson talked on the phone for half an hour.

After talking for half an hour, Abel felt his eyes were wide open.

It turns out that this kind of thing has happened in the history of the United States.

The U.S. was almost on another path it hadn't envisioned.
Abel could only sigh with emotion, the world is really big and full of strange things.

".grandfather."

At the end of the phone call with Alex.

Abel hesitated, he was hesitant to tell the story of Charlize.

Tell him his plan.

"Ok?"

Alex's clear voice came from the phone's microphone.

"It's nothing. It's raining here in New York, and you should take care of yourself in Houston."

"Oh, of course."

Eventually he said goodbye to Alex without saying a word.

The next day, early morning.

Abel is at 63 East 8rd Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

He and Ikana woke up in the third-floor master bedroom.

He came to live with Ikana last night.

Ikana has been getting close to Paris recently, and the two New York socialites are in pairs.

Paris Hilton even became Ikana's brand YKM, a special model and a special designer.
At first, Abel was suspicious of Paris Hilton.

She is about to embark on the wandering road she took in the parallel time and space.

He was thinking of keeping Ikana away from her.

But in reality, Paris Hilton did not start to wave.

She just had a close relationship with Ikana.

And many other New York ladies, often appear in fashion newspapers and magazines in New York or the United States.

And it seems that she is really serious about designing YKM clothes.

It's just that Abel looks a little ugly with her design.

So much so that when Abel came over last night.

Only to find out that Paris Hilton is also here.

He was in the living room at the time.

Kuma Dai and Kuma II holding Ikana.

Kissing Ikana so hard that he didn't even have a chance to speak.

When I was taking off the belt and wanted to go to Malaysia.

Paris Hilton came out of the adjacent kitchen with a plate of cut fruit
Another little confusion.

Paris Hilton quickly ran away afterwards, and went to bed in the guest room upstairs.

Abel was able to grab Ikana and go to the master bedroom on the third floor to exercise.

Abel who wakes up automatically following his own standard biological clock.

He looked at the sleeping beauty next to him, and couldn't help but grab Xiong Da and Xiong Er.
Then he played the round Simmons.

He looked at the beautiful antique clock in the bedroom, it was just past seven o'clock.

When he finished washing and went down to the restaurant on the second floor.

Around 07:30 or so.

In the dining room, Abel saw Paris Hilton eating breakfast again.

Paris was born in 1981 and just turned [-] this year.

It can be regarded as the time period with the best comprehensive conditions in all aspects among the women of the Anza race.

At this time, Paris was still very beautiful and had a good figure.

Sitting at the dining table at this time, she looked very well-behaved, giving Abel the feeling that she was also her own woman.

"Good morning." Abel greeted with a smile.

Paris also responded to him with a smile: "Good morning."

But to Paris' disappointment, Abel finished eating quickly and left soon.

The whole process took less than 10 minutes, and I didn't talk to her much.

After Abel left, Paris pouted.

After thinking about it, she stood up and walked carefully to the third floor.

At the door of Ikana's master bedroom, Paris knocked on the door and shouted:

"Ikana? Ikana? Abel is gone, Ikana, are you still sleeping? It was the same way last time, and I slept until noon."

"Ikana? Can I go in?"

Paris got no response.

After thinking about it, the eldest lady of the Hilton family gently held the doorknob.

Click, the door is not locked.

Paris opened the door and went in.

As soon as she entered the door, Paris smelled a strong smell.

Like seafood, mixed with the smell of heather.

She found this peculiar smell unpleasant, but also weird.

If this is replaced by parallel time and space.

That went through Paris a few years later.

It is estimated that you will be able to smell it immediately.

Paris tiptoed and walked into the bedroom, shouting softly:
"Ikana? Ikana? Are you still sleeping? It's almost eight o'clock, and Abel is going to work. Are you going to sleep until noon or afternoon like last time? Ikana?"

"Ikana, wake up quickly. We have things to do this afternoon."

While screaming, Paris came to the big round Simmons.

She saw her best friend lying on Simmons sleeping soundly.

She keenly noticed that there was someone's handprint on the big bear that her best friend hadn't covered.

Paris couldn't help but gently pulled down the quilt and covered Ikana.

She pushed her girlfriend a few more times.

"Ikana? Are you sure you really want to sleep? It's thanks to you that you can bear the strong smell in the room."

Ikana was pushed and murmured:

"Paris leave me alone. I'm so tired. Let me sleep a little longer"

Paris was angry and funny, and said softly:

"Then you should change the room, the smell here is too stinky! What kind of smell is this, um. The trash can smells the most!"

"Is the fresh air system broken? Why can't the smell go away?"

"It doesn't stink. You go out first. I...I'll sleep a little longer." It was Ikana's murmur that didn't open her eyes that answered her.

Paris had to stand up, she decided to leave first.

Ikana looked too tired to wake up.

But curiosity prompted Paris, before leaving, to take a look at the trash can in the room.

She wondered what the hell was inside.

That's why it tastes so great.

In the trash can, she saw some balloons filled with milk.

"what"

Paris left with disgust.

She walked out of Ikana's room and closed the door behind her.

She was still thinking about the trash can in Ikana's room, why there was a milk balloon.

She planned to ask Ikana again after she woke up in the afternoon.

But when she walked from the stairs on the third floor to the living room on the second floor.

A flash of inspiration suddenly appeared in Paris's mind.

One possibility occurred to her.

But this possibility made her feel unbelievable.

Even a little frightened!
"impossible, impossible"

"absolutely impossible"

Paris whispered and went to the second floor.

On Abel's side, he really has something to do today.

With the efforts of his advisory group.

He's going to meet a few people today.

David Mellon made an appointment with these people before, but it was unsuccessful.

The other party did not appear at the Smith Capital reception.

These people are the rich family on the west coast, the three brothers of the Taylor family.

The Taylor family is one of the founding families and one of the major shareholders of Sempra Energy in the United States.

Sempra Energy is an energy services company on the West Coast.

Its headquarters are located in San Diego, California.

The company was merged by two energy giants in 1998 and went public together.

The company currently has nearly 13 employees, mainly engaged in developing energy infrastructure and operating utilities.

The company's California utilities, San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Gas, serve more than 2000 million consumers on the West Coast of the United States.

Simply put, this is the power and natural gas giants on the west coast of the United States, especially near California.

It is the kind of giant company that Abel has always wanted in the energy sector that lacks the most.

Abel's Ales Energy, after several months of expansion in Tarrant County, cost Abel hundreds of millions of dollars.

Today in Texas, it can only be regarded as a small and medium-sized power company.

But Sempra is in California, which provides more than a third or so of electricity and a quarter or so of natural gas.

At that time, Abel told David Mellon that he wanted to buy shares or even acquire energy companies.

David suggested to him the acquisition of Sampra's shares.

Because compared to other energy giants, this company is in the midst of internal strife.

In 1998, Enova and PE, which were combined into Sampra, split between two different shareholder families.

Among them, the Taylor family, the founder of the PE company, because of the sudden death of the old Taylor, the descendants began to compete for the family property.

The Martin family, the founders of Enova, wanted to take the opportunity to eat up the shares of the Taylor family in Sampra, but they couldn't come up with too much cash.

There has been a quarrel between the two parties for half a year.

Late last year, Smith Capital, on behalf of Abe, invited the Taylor brothers over for a reception.

As a result, the matter was found out by the Martin family.

At that time, Martin verbally promised the Taylor brothers that he would give them a better price than Aber.

The Taylor brothers believed it and did not appear at the Smith Capital reception.

But afterward, Martin repented.

The Taylor brothers were so angry that they couldn't help each other.

Because what Martin gave at the time was only a verbal promise, and there were even only three people present.

There are no witnesses, not to mention that even if there are witnesses, it is useless.

The Taylor family, eager to divide their property, had to approach Smith Capital again.

But at that time Abel was not happy with them releasing the pigeons, and he was busy at that time.

At the same time, through Wall Street, Abel knew that the Martin family did not have the strength to eat Taylor's shares for the time being.

He just thought, let the three Taylor brothers hang out.

After airing until the end of last month, Abel felt it was appropriate.

Only then did he let his advisory group get in touch with the other party.

Alan Baker is in charge of negotiating with the other party, and they have been talking for a month.

Talked about some results.

Today, Abel came forward to meet directly with the three Taylor brothers to discuss the final result.

The two sides met in a cafe in lower Manhattan at around nine o'clock.

The three brothers of the Taylor family seem to be over forty years old.

The eldest is called Matthew, the second is called Mark, and the fellow is called Musk. Of course, it is not the Musk you are familiar with.

That Musk is a South African. At this time, he was still struggling in Silicon Valley and working on his PayPal.

The fact that the three brothers can appear here means that they have basically agreed to Abel's offer.

The Taylor family holds a total of about 21% of Sempra Energy.

The total share capital of Sempra Energy is 2.84 million shares, and the current market value is about 58.5 US dollars per share.

The total market value is about 166.14 billion US dollars.

The Taylor family, which holds 21% of the shares, has 5964 million shares.

"Three Mr. Taylor, hello." After Abel came, he smiled and shook hands with the three Taylor brothers.

If it was last year, Abel's fame was mainly limited to the east coast.

But this year, his fame was already in the Smith storm, and he was widely known by Americans.

The three Taylor brothers naturally knew his name well.

The two sides shook hands for a while, and then sat down respectively.

On Abel's side is Alan Baker, and on the opposite side are his three brothers.

As soon as Abel sat down, he went straight to the point and said:

"I've heard it from Allen. With all due respect, Mr. Taylor. Seventy-eight dollars a share is a very good price."

"The premium is as high as 25%. This kind of acquisition premium is very generous even in mergers and acquisitions!"

"What's more, you only have 21% of the shares. Even if I take it, I can't make an invitation for the time being. The Martin family obviously won't give up."

"I'm going to fight them again."

"There's still a lot of trouble ahead."

Looking at the three people who wanted to say something besides their own words.

Abel pressed directly: "If you still can't be satisfied with this price."

He smiled and said, "Then this acquisition can only end here."

(End of this chapter)