Mediterranean hegemon

In early March, Contini and his party arrived in New York and were warmly welcomed by the Wall Street tycoons. The last time the United Group made a whirlwind purchase was still fresh in people's memory. Now the God of Wealth is here again, how can people not laugh?

However, when the tycoons saw that the female companion beside the two was Vivian instead of Ada, they were still stunned for a moment, because they all had their own information channels and knew that Contini and Ada had established a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. Some people even vowed that next year, that is, in 1928, when Ada turned 18, the two would be officially engaged. What did Vivian mean now?

Although Francesco explained that Vivian was his daughter and accompanied him to New York for a stroll, the tycoons were all cunning and cunning, and they could naturally see the affection between Vivian's eyebrows for the president. More importantly, Contini himself did not seem to shy away from or dislike such feelings. The tycoons knew it. Either the president particularly needed to win over this capable subordinate, or the president had an affair with this beautiful lady. In short, he couldn't neglect her. In fact, both factors were true.

So they all fooled around and treated Vivian as Contini's female companion. However, no one was so tactless as to ask about their relationship, and Contini just smiled. Of course, Vivian was more concerned about her image outside. She tried not to be too intimate with Contini in public, which would damage Ada's impression. No one could break this balance.

According to the agreement signed by the three major investment banks, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, and JP Morgan, and the United Group, they formed a joint sponsor team to escort the United Bank and United Oil to go public. The schedule showed that the United Bank would go public before mid-1927, and the United Oil would go public before mid-1928. However, due to the booming US stock market, several giants have been urging to go public as soon as possible, from June 27 to April, and later said that it could be listed at the end of March. For this giant to go public, all members of the joint sponsor team are working overtime, and even the annual report of Union Bank was quickly relayed from Italy to New York by their personnel using airplanes.

Originally, major investment banks valued Union Bank at $400 million, and then issued 25% of shares to make its value reach $500 million, and then it is expected to break through 600 million by the end of the year. However, in order to raise funds for the listing last year, Rio did not transfer losses, but instead made Union Bank show profits to a large extent. Therefore, the valuation of 400 million is a bit low, and the consortiums suggest that the valuation should be directly set at 500 million. The question now is whether to issue 20% or 25% of shares, which needs Contini to decide.

The advantage of issuing 20% ​​more shares is that it will not dilute the equity of the United Group, so that its control rate of the bank can still barely approach 50%. The advantage of issuing 25% more shares is that it can raise more funds, but the control rate of the United Group will drop to about 46%. Although it is still the largest shareholder, it may face challenges. As an investment bank, it is natural to hope that the more shares issued, the better, so that they can get more issuance fees.

Contini smiled and said nothing.

Francesco clearly expressed his attitude and still hoped to pursue diversified shares. The United Group did not seek to dominate the market and was willing to make a fortune with the American consortium. At the same time, he also stated that it might acquire some small and medium-sized banks as branches in the United States through the issuance of additional shares after the listing is completed, but promised that it would not challenge the current Wall Street giants. This bank is mainly for the European-American financial circulation.

This statement made all parties very happy. Issuing additional shares to acquire? Doesn't that mean that there will be more issuance fees?

The second focus is on the issue of United Oil: Since Libya has recently raised its reserve volume, and the Benghazi pipeline has been laid and oil production can be considered, Wall Street is urging Contini to include the Libyan oil fields in the United Oil system and list them together, so that the current valuation can be increased from 800 million to more than 1.2 billion.

However, Contini rejected this idea. His attitude is very clear. United Oil, as a holding company, will not be listed, but Algeria and Libya Oil will be listed separately.

This statement made investment bankers feel a little puzzled: Why should two companies with similar nature and content be split separately? Afraid of antitrust laws? But let’s not talk about the fact that the US antitrust law cannot deal with foreign companies. These two oil fields themselves do not constitute a monopoly.

However, Contini still briefly explained the relationship between the Algerian oil fields and the French. Everyone understands that the French government is now retreating, but this time bomb may still explode, but Libya is different. It is obvious that the reliability and safety of Libyan oil will be better.

So Contini's arrangement is very interesting: Algerian oil plans to be listed at the end of this year or early next year, while Libyan oil will be postponed for half a year. The public reason is that Libya's pipeline and oil production are still unstable. Algeria can produce 5,000-6,000 tons of oil per day, while Libya can only produce more than 1,000 tons. The difference is too big. In fact, everyone understands the subtext. He wants to sell it at a good price.

The consortiums are very enthusiastic to intervene. Everyone thinks that Algerian oil shares have been divided up. The shareholding rate of the United Group has been reduced to about 42%. After issuing another 20% of shares, the shareholding level will be reduced to a little more than 33%. They can only try to maintain their position as the largest shareholder and veto power, and have lost the absolute majority.

"We were talking about how to move American money to Italy."

"Do you still have to worry about this? Use cashier's checks and checks... That's how I got back the millions of dollars last time."

"But what if it's not millions?" Contini gently hugged Vivian's waist and whispered in his ear, "I have hundreds of millions of dollars to transfer back, and I don't want the Americans to discover the truth. "

"Um..." Vivian was also stunned. She didn't expect that Contini would say this. After thinking for a long time, she said, "Then I can't think of it. I only have a stupid way to change the money into gold." , jewelry, diamonds and other valuables and then ship them back! It’s best to use gold. Not only does it maintain its value, it’s also easy to value! Jewelry and diamonds are sometimes expensive.”

"Baby, you are so smart!" Contini was not overjoyed because Vivian reminded him that he could transfer wealth with gold and diamonds, but he suddenly remembered that after the Great Depression, the United Kingdom and the United States and other countries successively left the gold standard, and the United States If it is still implemented, it is really a financial war that can continue large-scale speculation. Not only can wealth be accumulated rapidly, but there is no need to bear as big a political risk as shorting the U.S. stock market. I was overjoyed and couldn't help but pick up Vivian and move around. Three laps.

"It's disgusting, people are knocked unconscious by you..."

"Let me check it for you." Vivian felt dizzy because it was her head, but the area the overbearing president "checked" was the lower part. In order to facilitate the "check", she even started to take off her clothes...

After spending the afternoon with boundless spring scenery, we continued to sit down and think about how to maximize capital benefits during dinner. Now that the plan to transport the money back has been figured out, even the idea of ​​hoarding precious metals such as gold and silver has been approved by Francisco. The focus of the problem is how to harvest the stocks without causing a market crash. In other words, at least the stock market cannot collapse until our own stocks are cleared.

"There are two ways: First, we will continue to reduce our holdings starting next year. Such a large amount of stocks must be exchanged. It cannot be done in a day or two, a week or two weeks, or even a month and two months. It must be continued. It takes a long time, so it is impossible for all stocks to be sold at the highest point, and we must continue to retreat, taking advantage of an opportunity to retreat or sell every time; secondly, we set up a securities company to conduct regular over-the-counter transactions..."

Contini curiously asked: "What is a formal OTC transaction?"

"The so-called over-the-counter trading does not actually hold real positions. Instead, the organizers use their concentrated advantages to make bets before investors. If they cannot find a suitable counterparty, they will bet with investors." Francisco Xiaoxiao, "But you are different. You hold a large number of stocks, so if they want to buy, you can just transfer the stocks directly. In this way, the price is locked and hedged without entering the market. If you really want to sell, At that time, it doesn’t matter what the price is. It’s already locked anyway. Of course, it has to be the actively traded part, not the inactive stocks…”

Francisco talked enthusiastically for most of the night, telling all the tricks on how to cut leeks: what is pulling up to counter the trend, distributing on highs, selling on good news, accumulating on bad news, selling after the trend, creating concepts, and shaking the market. They were all theories that Contini had heard of but had never practiced. Leo also talked about these principles, but what Leo told was too convoluted and theoretical, and not as vivid and lively as Francisco’s image. As expected, theory and practice are not the same. It's the same thing, whether you have experience or not makes a big difference.

"Of course, I am talking in general terms. After all, I only realized it after observing. Real operation requires hiring a few good traders. A good strategy is the prerequisite, and traders are tactics and must be coordinated." Francisco said with a smile. , "But we are different from ordinary stock speculators. Banks consider finance, credit, interest rates and cash flow comprehensively, so sometimes their methods are relatively conservative. They are not as radical as they are. Either they will get rich or go bankrupt. The risks of banks Control prevents me from doing this, so we usually don’t bet on one side. We basically consider it in conjunction with the foreign exchange, bond market and even the bill market. If we do it in the United States, we don’t need to consider so much, so you Good traders are needed.”

Contini smiled and nodded: "Trader, don't worry, I have the right person."