Basketball: The Chosen Victim

Chapter 313 Spiral Ascension Plan!

Joe Johnson, another Atlanta Double Eagle king, fled to New York, but he still couldn't escape Wu Di's sniper. He was defenseless and lost his temper. He could only lament that the Cavaliers' Iron Curtain has enveloped the entire NBA!

The Cavaliers are progressing smoothly, but other conference semifinals coincidentally ended in a 2-2 tie.

Also in New York, the Knicks, who have a higher record, are trapped by the Pacers' iron barrel formation.

Roy Hibbert, the incredible man who later asked the league to modify the defensive rules around the basket, averaged 2 blocks for Anthony per game, which made Melo's head buzz.

The Knicks, who had just eliminated the Heat and were in full swing, were unable to hit the inside and felt cold on the outside. The Knicks, who had just eliminated the Heat, were finding it increasingly difficult to withstand the situation. The shortcomings of the lineup were exposed, and Tianwang Mountain had a tendency to become a gate of hell.

New York is about to overturn, and Oklahoma City is in trouble.

They could have defeated the Nuggets easily, but Westbrook tore his meniscus in the last round of the game against the Rockets, leaving Durant alone and unable to survive, and the Nuggets took advantage of their bug-level home court advantage to continue to encroach. Helplessly equalized.

The situation of the Spurs and Warriors is different from that of the Knicks and Thunder. The Warriors, Black Seven and Lakers have shown momentum, especially Curry, who has shown confidence!

The Spurs were careless and underestimated their opponents, and both G1 and G3 lost the game by small margins.

It is said that Popovich was extremely angry about this and planned to use the defensive strategy originally intended to deal with Wu Di to deal with Curry in advance, vowing to take down Tianwang Mountain.

The excitement belongs to other teams, the Cavaliers are boring.

They eliminated the Nets on May 5, and the Eastern Conference Finals will not come until May 13. In other words, they have an 5-day window.

Good guy, how can you survive this day!

On the night of the 13th, after discussing with Wu Di, Scott decided to give the players a four-day holiday on the spot.

So Wu Di did not go back to Cleveland, but went to Columbia University to find the student girls Reba and Nazha.

The two girls received a good response after filming "The Hunger Games" last year, but due to language problems and acting skills, their acting careers encountered some setbacks.

It's not that I'm worried about the role. After all, Wu Di is covering me. Except for not being able to get the lead role in a big production, I don't have to worry about the role in other movies or dramas.

But in the long run, if they want to break out, they still have to hone their abilities, so the two devoted themselves to studying art in Columbia.

Wu Di's arrival made the girls very happy. They had just finished the finals and their test scores had improved. They took the opportunity to ask Wu Di to reward them.

So, after hundreds of millions of generous rewards, the girls were so satisfied!
Of course, shopping on Fifth Avenue, watching Broadway shows, and checking in at Michelin restaurants are also indispensable.

Compared with Wu Di's other girlfriends, the cost-effectiveness of female college students is too high. The two girls rent a long-term suite at the Four Seasons Hotel for US$9000 per month, with living expenses of US$1 per month, plus an additional credit card with a US$10 limit. The annual tuition of $15 is enough.

Wu Di was even surprised to find that as long as he had enough money and status, the girl would even go out of her way to impress him by being frugal and never swiped a credit card.

If you use the money to buy a Horch, you still won't be able to catch your first love, but it will be enough to buy the company of a female college student.

More importantly, the tuition fees from prestigious schools and support for his performing arts career gave Wu Di a sense of accomplishment in helping his studies succeed.

Maybe this is the romance in the bones of Chinese people. It is our responsibility to attach importance to investment in education and carry forward traditional virtues.

On May 5, Wu Di took his two girls to play at Arena's family horse farm nearby, and visited one of Arena's brothers, Steven.

Steven currently works for JPMorgan Chase, the family's core financial group. He has just become MD and is responsible for M&A. He is considered a face of the new generation.

In addition to being a racing driver, Ariana has also practiced equestrian since she was a child. Her level is not only the best in her family, but she has also reached the level of top professional riders in the entire circle. She acts as a coach and leads several people to learn equestrian, and she is under pressure from them. They are all a bit big.

However, excellent players often have strong communication skills and are familiar with the difficulties that may be encountered in this skill. Coupled with the Aiwujiwu effect, the last few people not only had a lot of fun, but also made rapid progress in equestrian skills.

After playing horseback riding for a while, the two girls were taken to visit the manor by the housekeeper, while Wu Di had afternoon tea with Ariana and Steven.

Of course, we also want to talk about some follow-up business cooperation:

"For 20 billion US dollars, in exchange for 15% of the shares, we will be your strongest supporter. Moreover, if we endorse you in the acquisition, the chances of the merger and acquisition being successful will be greatly increased..."

Steven lobbied eloquently that M&A (mergers and acquisitions) business is one of the core businesses of investment banks. As intermediary investors, they will also choose to hold shares when faced with good targets.

Wu Di listened attentively. They were discussing a series of giant acquisitions. If successful, Wu Di would have his own sports brand. However, this matter involved huge and complicated matters.

Wu Di's endorsement contract with Under Armor is about to expire, and Under Armor has proposed a new endorsement contract.

Although the amount of this contract has doubled compared to the previous contract, reaching 3000 million US dollars a year, and after Hearst's fight, the original share award terms were retained, but it only lasts for four years. The contract period exposed Under Armor President Kevin Plank's calculations.

He calculated that Wu Di would not be at his peak for very long due to his style of play.

Who would want this?

You know, in the past three years, Under Armor's market value has increased from 110 billion US dollars to more than 400 billion US dollars!

Thanks to this shareholder trend, Plank's net worth has soared by more than [-] billion U.S. dollars!

But Wu Di only received US$4500 million in endorsement fees and 1.475% of the shares, equivalent to US$6 million.Most of the money from the first contract was made by the capitalists, and Wu Di didn't complain too much. After all, it was a blessing in disguise. However, the information revealed in the second contract was quite uncomfortable.

"They lack proper respect for you!"

When Arena analyzed this contract, she said that Wu Di has become a banner in today's sports world, with more fans than Cristiano Ronaldo, and the Invincible brand has huge product appeal whether it is a series of sneakers or running shoes. Sold out immediately upon release.

Under such circumstances, Under Armor still came up with this short contract, obviously thinking that it had made sure that Wu Di would not break out of the contract.

Wu Di really can't get out of the contract. At his level, other brands have no way to sign him again. Nike and Adidas didn't even make an offer.

On the one hand, they are also not optimistic about Wu Di's career length.

Last year, Wu Di ran a marathon at the London Olympics. Although he achieved an unprecedented feat of winning the championship, numerous sports scientists analyzed after the game that Wu Di had deeply damaged his physical vitality and his career would be shortened by at least 10 years.

On the other hand, Wu Di's highlight moments are all wearing the Invincible brand, and his image has been strongly bound to the brand. For these brands to spend such a high price to sign Wu Di, it is difficult to balance the risks and benefits.

In this case, if Wu Di was an ordinary athlete, he would only suffer a loss because of being dumb, but Wu Di is not an ordinary athlete. He has a chance to stand up and become the boss!

In the serial acquisition case, the ultimate goal is to acquire Under Armour, but Under Armour's current market value is US$410 billion. JPMorgan Chase dares to raise 20% of its shares for US$15 billion. It is simply an impossible task, and Wu Di's public net worth It's 40 billion U.S. dollars, but the actual funds available are only 5 million U.S. dollars, which is even more impossible!
Acquiring Under Armor is a fantasy, but if it is to acquire two listed companies, it is really possible.

It sounds like a joke, but that's the magic of Wall Street.

The serial acquisition plan is for Wu Dixian's mortgage asset group consortium to privatize another listed sports brand company, that is, Lululemon.

This is the most magical step. When Wu Di acquires Lululemon, the market will naturally expect that Wu Di will not renew his contract with Under Armor and instead develop his own brand. By then, Under Armor's stock price will plummet, and it may even be cut in half to US$200 billion. .

After all, the capital market invests in expectations. Although Wu Di will face injuries in the long term, he is the absolute business pillar of Under Armor in the near future!

Lululemon is currently just a little-known Canadian niche brand with a market value of less than US$60 billion and is seriously underestimated by the market. Even if it is a leveraged acquisition, the overall cost will not exceed US$80 billion.

Wu Diming's assets of US$40 billion are twice leveraged, and the target is Lululemon, which has an original market value of more than US$50 billion. This leverage ratio is quite stable for this project on Wall Street, and it does not even need to use Ariana's family connections.

After acquiring Lululemon, the next step is to acquire Under Armor. In theory, Wu Di's net worth has not changed, and he even owes a lot of debt. How can he make up US$200 billion out of nothing?

This part is the professional field of Wall Street. What they are best at is stepping on the left foot and rising to the sky with the right foot. They can come up with a lot of feasible solutions, and two of them are relatively conventional and effective.

The first method is to spend about a year integrating Lululemon's business, using Wu Di's influence to expand the brand's reputation, opening more stores and broadening sales channels, etc. In any case, it is to tell new business and new stories, create a thriving brand image, and then carry out the second Listed financing.

By then, the initial target price of Lululemon, which originally spent US$80 billion to privatize, will be far more than US$80 billion. US$120 billion or even US$160 billion is also reasonable.

After all, in order to ensure that their own interests are not damaged and Wu Di has sufficient solvency, the creditor investment bank will also turn to underwriters to help Wu Di raise the price.

Of course, it would be better if there is family connection endorsement.

25% of the listed financing is equivalent to US$120 billion in cash based on US$30 billion. Cash financing is used for acquisitions. The leverage ratio of 3 to 5 times is generally controllable for Wall Street. For reference, the world-famous Bill Huang is 5 times .

This is 150 billion U.S. dollars, plus the 10 billion U.S. dollars brought by the appreciation of the stock price, which can be leveraged at least 3 times, it has reached 180 billion U.S. dollars. Although it is still short of 20 billion U.S. dollars, it is not far behind.

This method is relatively robust, but the disadvantage is that it takes a long time, and Under Armor will have a long reaction time to counter-snipe.

The second method is faster. The steps for the previous privatization acquisition of Lululemon are the same, except that for the time being, the company is focusing on listing and raising funds. Instead, it directly negotiates with investment banks or PEs for debt-for-equity swaps or unlisted financing.

This part is very telling. In theory, it is also an act of raising prices, that is, invisible leverage, but there is a lot of room for maneuver. This is where the Ariana family relationship can be used, which is what Steven asked for at the beginning. US$20 billion for 15% of the shares.

After exchanging 20% of the shares for 15 billion U.S. dollars, Lululemon's market value will reach 130 billion U.S. dollars. First, Wu Di will receive 20 billion U.S. dollars in cash, which can be leveraged to 100 billion U.S. dollars.

The $50 billion increase in market value only requires 2 times the leverage to make up to $200 billion!

After such a combination, the overall cost is US$80 billion for the acquisition of Lululemon and US$200 billion for the acquisition of Under Armor, which adds up to US$280 billion.

But in fact, as we all know, the actual fair value of Under Armor with Wu Di is US$410 billion, and the market value of Lululemon before the acquisition was more than US$50 billion!

After the acquisition of the sports brand group, Under Armor focuses on men's sports products, and Lululemon focuses on women's sports products. Their own products are complementary, and the distribution channels can be integrated with each other to achieve the purpose of reducing costs and increasing efficiency...

And the most important thing is that Wu Di not only did not leave Under Armour, but was more firmly bound to the brand!
These stories will be the propellant to boost the stock price of the sports brand group during its secondary listing and financing!
It can be expected that the market value of the newly integrated sports brand will definitely exceed US$460 billion. Subtracting the cost of US$280 billion, the net income generated by the acquisition will reach at least US$180 billion!

In other words, Wu Di can not only turn around and become a boss through the acquisition, but his net worth can also skyrocket by more than 100 billion US dollars in an instant!

True Spiral Ascension!
As for the debts he owed before, he can slowly cash out his stocks to repay them at this time. Originally, Wu Di did not need to completely control these large groups. He only needed to retain a certain amount of shares to ensure that he was firmly in the position of actual controller. That's it.

In other words, after the acquisition is completed, Wu Di only needs to sell some shares. Not only can he repay the US$200 billion in previous leveraged loans, but he can also transform himself into the group's spokesperson.

But this is only theoretical. The process of such a huge acquisition is extremely complicated, and the risk of leverage is also very huge!
But the smell of blood revealed has already attracted the Wolf of Wall Street to make a move!
After afternoon tea, Wu Di, Ariana, and Steven did not reach a complete consensus.

But Wu Di is not in a hurry. After all, such huge interests are involved. The steadier the steps in the early stage and the more fully prepared the bullets are, the more cards he can play when the actual acquisition is carried out later!

And he also has to prove his dominance in the NBA and win this year's championship in order to win over more allies!

(End of this chapter)