Rebirth of England.

Chapter 657: bargain hunting
时间来到2009年的2月份，整个美股已经刚刚过了次贷危机爆发之后的最低点——道琼斯指数接近6000点，标普500指数接近650点，而纳斯达克指数也跌落了1200点。

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the funds controlled by Baron bought the bottom of companies where he had previously sold off shares, including O2 Telecom, SEM Group, Argos Retail Group, etc., when their share prices were relatively low.

The main way is to convert the convertible bonds they purchase when they carry out mergers and acquisitions into equity at such a time, thereby increasing their shareholding ratio in these companies.

For example, when SEM Group acquired Reuters Group, the Cavendish Trust Fund invested 9.5 million pounds to purchase convertible bonds of SEM Group.

At that time, the share price of SEM Group was around 38.75 pounds. Now, affected by the overall market environment, when the Cavendish Trust Fund was converting debt into equity, the average share price of SEM Group had fallen to around 30 pounds within 25 trading days.

By converting these bonds into common stock, the Cavendish Trust received approximately 3800 million shares of SEM Group.

In this way, the total share capital of SEM Group increased to 2.97 million shares, and the shareholding of Cavendish Trust Fund (DS Holdings) in SEM Group also increased from approximately 40.73% after the previous reduction to 48.32%.

If we add some of the shares that the Mars Fund bought at a low price and Bonnie's shares in SEM Group (acquired by selling Stuart Media to SEM Group), the shares of SEM Group that Barron can control still exceed 50%, firmly controlling the SEM Group.

In addition to SEM Group, the same is true for O2 telecoms and Argos retail group.

When O2 Telecom acquired T-Mobile USA, Caesars Fund also provided part of the funds for O200 Telecom in the form of purchasing $2 billion of convertible bonds; Argos Retail Group acquired Costco and also obtained the main acquisition funds in this way.

Now it is at this moment that they have completed the debt-to-equity conversion.

Of course, apart from Barron, no one else is too sure at the moment. Although the U.S. stock market has rebounded slightly since the end of January, the lowest point of the U.S. stock market after the outbreak of the subprime mortgage crisis has been passed...

At present, there are also many judgments and predictions that the stock market may still fall again - it can even be said that such views are more common than optimistic views.

After all, if you don’t look back from the other end of time, it is still very difficult to accurately judge the key nodes of a large cycle.

It is very rare for a few investors to be able to judge the major trends over a period of time.

Therefore, the funds under the DS Group chose to complete the debt-to-equity conversion operation during this period and did not receive criticism from other investors. Instead, they chose to convert corporate bonds into common stocks. It can be said that at this time, the debt burden of those companies has been reduced - after all, corporate bonds require interest payments, and the conversion to common stocks, although the total share capital has expanded, it also means a reduction in debt and an increase in total market value.

It is also for this reason that such debt-to-equity swaps, coupled with the current absorption of certain secondary market stocks, have led to a significant rebound in the share prices of companies including SEM Group and O2 Telecom.

It can be said that it is a happy occasion for everyone.

……

"belch……"

"what happened, Babe?"

Ivanta had just returned to New York from Silicon Valley, and after seeing her reaction, Barron asked.

"Nothing. Maybe I should go to the hospital. I've been having hiccups since yesterday. I didn't take it seriously at first. After all, I've had this happen before..."

Ivanta frowned and said:

"But this time seems different. I thought it would be fine after a good night's sleep, but it's still like this today... I called my personal doctor earlier, and he suggested that I get a gastroscopy." "Hickey?"

Barron smiled and said:

"Maybe I have a method you can try..."

"I've tried many methods, such as taking a sip of water and swallowing it slowly, but nothing works."

"Just listen to me..."

Barron asked Ivanta to sit upright on a chair, and then found the middle part of her eyebrows near her nose, the depression between the inner side and the eye socket, which seemed to be a place called Zanzhu Point, and asked her to gently press it with her two thumbs...

"Now take a deep breath and try to inhale as much air as possible. Then start pressing this area hard..."

Barron told her the process carefully:

"Then hold your breath, and try to hold it as long as possible. Keep pressing these two positions. When you can no longer hold your breath, slowly exhale the air in your lungs, and at the same time slowly reduce the pressure until you have finished exhaling, and then you can breathe normally..."

Ivanta did just as Barron said...

"How's it feeling, baby?"

Barron asked after seeing Ivanta do this once and open his eyes with a look of disbelief.

"Wait... I really don't seem to be hiccuping anymore! This is amazing, honey, how did you do it?"

"You should know that in Chinese medicine, there is a concept called 'acupoints'. I asked you to press two acupoints. This was taught to me by a Chinese doctor when I went to China. Isn't it very effective?"

"Wow! Magical Chinese medicine, it's really crazy!"

In fact, this happened in Barron’s previous life. He had been hiccuping for two days. After trying various methods, he almost had to go to the hospital for a check-up. As a result, he searched on the short video APP at the time and found this method. After trying it, it actually worked... So he remembered it.

"But since you've been hiccupping for so long, maybe you have some minor stomach problems. It would be better to check it out if you have time, baby."

"It's a pity that the Chinese doctor you know is in China. Why don't you let him take a look? I heard that Chinese doctors can make a diagnosis just by feeling the pulse. Is it really that magical? I wonder if the Chinese doctors in Chinatown are also so good..."

Barron didn't expect that his smooth little trick would make Ivanta interested in traditional Chinese medicine.

"If you're interested, honey, next time we go to China together, we can go and experience Chinese medicine."

Of course, Barron knows that Chinese medicine is indeed magical, but unlike Western medicine, Chinese medicine does not have a "unified process" for different patients, but rather "treats the disease according to the symptoms" based on each person's physical condition. Therefore, truly amazing Chinese medicine doctors are still very rare, and it takes a long time to accumulate experience. It is not easy for ordinary people to come across them.

But this is not a problem for Barron.

(End of this chapter)