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Chen Ran is ambiguous here, but Goldman Sachs has a lot of information.

It can almost reveal the background of the local tyrants in the Middle East.

There are three major rich countries in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

The ranking of national wealth is of course Saudi Arabia, followed by the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar the least. However, according to the ranking of per capita income, Qatar is the highest, similar to Norway and Denmark, and is the highest level in the world; followed by the United Arab Emirates, with a per capita income of more than 60,000 US dollars, higher than that of the United States; the worst is Saudi Arabia, with a per capita income of less than 20,000 US dollars .

The so-called sovereign fund refers to a fund established by the state to help manage the wealth belonging to all citizens. Many countries have their own sovereign funds, but Saudi Arabia is different.

Saudi Arabia has the most wealth value, with trillions of dollars, but Saudi Arabia has many sovereign funds in name, as many as a dozen. There are only two officially disclosed, one is the Saudi central bank, with about 480 billion U.S. dollars, followed by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, with about 350 billion U.S. dollars.

There are also all kinds of sovereign funds in name. The problem is very serious and they are criticized.

There are more than 5,000 princes in Saudi Arabia, and each prince is very rich. He plays with private jets and lives a rich and colorful life. They all have a huge source of wealth behind them, that is, various National Sovereign Fund.

In contrast, the Abu Dhabi Sovereign Fund and the Qatar Investment Authority under the UAE are much more formal.

The Abu Dhabi Sovereign Fund was established in 1976. Its investment style has always been conservative. The investment choice is mainly to hand over a large amount of assets to foreign private equity funds for management, and the annualized rate of return is between 6% and 9%. After so many years, the total size of the fund has reached 600 billion-700 billion US dollars.

Rick Efron of Goldman Sachs told Zhou Buqi, “Among the Abu Dhabi sovereign funds, the internal strategic investment group has a scale of only US$30 billion. Over 80% of the assets are managed by foreign fund managers. , 65% of assets are mainly invested in stocks.”

"What now?"

"The scale of assets is too large, and it is difficult to make big changes in the short term. The funds withdrawn in the past six months are at most 70 billion to 80 billion U.S. dollars."

"so much!"

Zhou Buqi secretly exclaimed.

No wonder Lao Mei is so nervous, there are so many funds withdrawn! If it is a bull market, this amount of money is nothing to the tens of trillions of dollars in the U.S. stock market. If you want to withdraw, you will withdraw, and no one will care.

But bear markets are different.

The more bear market, the more panic. The withdrawal of 70 billion to 80 billion US dollars may cause a panic withdrawal of 700 billion to 800 billion US dollars.

Withdrawing money from the U.S. stock market and investing it in other countries' stock markets is obviously not what the U.S. side wants to see.

Rick Efron was relatively stable, and said with a smile: "Someone is already thinking of a way, our Congressman Ivan...and the Ministry of Finance official Corey has already interviewed the Abu Dhabi Fund, and they are questioning their sovereign fund transparency. Ask them to establish investment guidelines for sovereign funds. That’s a good thing for you.”

Sovereign funds are not equal to private equity.

Private placement is a black box operation without transparency. Sovereign funds are to help all citizens manage their assets, and there can be no privacy. It is in the interest of the common people to be open and transparent.

The United States used this excuse to attack the Abu Dhabi Sovereign Fund, which can be regarded as directly grasping the lifeline of the other party.

How can a local tyrant in the Middle East be clean under his hands?

Even if the UAE is close enough to modern civilization, and not as excessive as Saudi Arabia, the tricks and the interests of the Sheikh family must be guaranteed.

The Abu Dhabi Sovereign Fund withdrew so much money and was hit by the US side, so it is natural to compromise. The funds withdrawn may return to the US market.

When you come back, who will you vote for?

The local tyrants in the Middle East have lost confidence in local asset management companies on Wall Street.

Fortunately, Wall Street has already made arrangements, and Zhou Buqi is one of them, waiting for local tyrants to wave their money and invest.

Even the well-regulated Abu Dhabi sovereign fund can be easily handled, and the various sovereign funds in Saudi Arabia are even easier.

Zhou Buqi nodded, and understood.

The money of the local tyrants in the Middle East is brought back by the official operation of the United States. After the money comes back, it must be invested in the American market. Unlike Pluto Capital, which Zhou Buqi brought in by himself, he can invest in overseas markets to buy some Ali stocks.

"What about Qatar?"

"The Qatar Investment Authority has been established for a relatively short period of time, and its operations are relatively standardized. The total size is about 60 billion US dollars, and more than 85% of the funds are used for investment funds."

Afterwards, Rick Efron briefly explained, saying that the investment of large funds is very difficult, complex and high-risk. For local tyrants in the Middle East, they are unable to operate such a large-scale capital investment by themselves, so they can only hand over the money to professionals to operate.

Regardless of whether it is Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, or Qatar, their sovereign funds are mainly invested in some private equity funds, and let investment leaders help them manage them.

"Good!"

Zhou Buqi showed a little smile.

If he wants to cooperate, he most hopes to cooperate with an institution with clear wealth planning and standardized operations. It's not that he's worried about being scammed, but that his personal reputation won't get worse after making money. If you help the devil make a lot of money, isn't that helping the evildoer? Qatar is a great partner.

Rick Efron was quite happy to see him, so he shook his head, "Mr. Zhou, regulation is not necessarily a good thing."

"Um?"

"The more standardized, the more complicated the requirements, and the more rules and regulations there are for cooperation. Many private equity... Well, for example, Madoff's private equity fund, the biggest client is a sovereign fund of Saudi Arabia. Because the other party's operation is not standardized, so It is more flexible, and the other party can accept some unreasonable demands."

Zhou Buqi said in a deep voice: "I'm not Madoff, I'm doing business legally and legally. Didn't you appraise my assets? If I really lose money, I will definitely compensate."

Rick Efron said quickly: "Mr. Zhou, you misunderstood, I didn't mean that."

"Um?"

"Qatar has set up many rules and regulations to prevent corruption within the Investment Bureau. The most unfavorable point for you is that there is a clause that the investment ratio generally does not exceed 5%."

"5%?"

Zhou Buqi frowned.

Rick Efron said: "Yes, for example, your Pluto Capital has a total capital of 10 billion U.S. dollars. If you ask the Qatar Investment Authority to invest, they will give up to 500 million U.S. dollars. And the Qatar Investment Authority is not quite like those two. Similarly, M\u0026A and entrepreneurial funds are preferred, focusing on the Nordics, Europe, Asia, Middle East and North Africa and emerging markets."

"All right."

Zhou Buqi shrugged his shoulders. It seems that the Qataris are still quite smart, so much money is not poured into the US market, and they choose to bet heavily on some leftovers. It can not only enhance the country's international influence, but also avoid being cut by Wall Street. This model is almost the same as that of China Investment Group, a domestic sovereign fund.

After being in contact for a long time, Rick Efron also noticed that this young man values ​​his personal reputation very much, and he seems unwilling to cooperate with the local tyrants in Saudi Arabia.

Helping the Saudi sovereign fund make money, the money earned will not fall into the hands of the Saudi people at all, and will be squandered, divided, and enjoyed by the princes.

He smiled and said: "Or the Abu Dhabi Sovereign Fund, I have received contact from the Abu Dhabi consortium from at least 10 channels, and I want to cooperate with you."

Zhou Buqi nodded, "Well, I also received it here."

"See you then?"

"See you."

Rick Efron asked, "When?"

Zhou Buqi asked back: "Has the money from Pluto Capital arrived?"

Rick Efron said: "7.3 billion U.S. dollars have been received. I have sent a notice that the amount of this fundraising is 10 billion U.S. dollars, but the total subscription funds are 11.7 billion U.S. dollars, which is an excess of 1.7 billion U.S. dollars. First come first Well, I can’t get in if it’s too late. It is estimated that all the funds will arrive within this week. The investment layout can be carried out next week.”

"Next week?" Zhou Buqi shook his head, "It's too late next week, let's do it now! Invest the funds that have already arrived in the account first. Time doesn't wait, the sooner the better!"

Rick Efron was taken aback for a moment.

To be honest, he never thought that the "three red lines" of Boss Zhou could all be realized. It didn't matter at all to him that what Goldman Sachs earned was not revenue, but commissions. Regardless of whether Pluto Capital earns or loses, Goldman Sachs' commission will be a lot.

But right now, he really felt that this kid's investment was too hasty.

The money is not fully in place yet, so you can't wait to operate? During this period of time, you have been so busy that you have been focusing on relationships. Have you done market research? Have you done an industry review? Don't know anything, just want to invest?

Zhou Buqi didn't expect him to understand, "I can't do it?"

"Huh? Oh, yes, it can be done!"

Rick Efron immediately called the people in the asset management department, and Zhou Buqi also notified Chen Ran that it could be operated! The operation method is very simple, watch the market, and then call the Goldman Sachs trader, "Pending order, buy 10,000 shares of Netflix, buy 10,000 shares of NetEase, buy 10,000 shares of Adobe..."

Don't eat too quickly, keep the stock price stable, don't pull up suddenly in a short period of time, and collect money at a low cost as much as possible.

After finishing the matter here, Rick Efron was a little anxious and asked, "Let's take a look, when will you meet with the Abu Dhabi consortium?"

"Where do we meet?"

"It's all fine."

Zhou Buqi stretched his waist, "I'm going to Manchester to talk to the board of directors of Manchester United. At that time, let's talk about investment with the Abu Dhabi consortium."

Rick Efron laughed, "Good idea!"

Manchester City has two Premier League teams, one is Manchester United and the other is Manchester City.

Zhou Buqi is planning to acquire Manchester United.

Coincidentally, in August this year, Mansour, the younger brother of the King of the United Arab Emirates, personally led the Abu Dhabi sovereign fund to acquire Manchester City, taking the lead in taking over the Premier League team.