My Age of Investment

October 30th.

The Anfield Stadium in Liverpool, located more than 300 kilometers away from London, is currently hosting the 10th round of the Premier League. Liverpool plays Portsmouth at home.

In the stadium, more than 50,000 seats were filled with fans wearing red jerseys. At a glance, it looked like a sea of ​​red.

These fans seemed to be tireless. Their cheers and cheers were like a roaring mountain and a tsunami, and they barely took a breath. Liu Xiaoduo, who was watching the game up close for the first time, was stunned.

She listened to the fans singing the Liverpool team anthem "You'll Never Walk Alone" in unison, and murmured to herself: "It is indeed more shocking than watching football on TV!"

Next to her, a silver-haired old man wearing a black suit, a red tie, and a red scarf laughed and said: "This is the charm of football! Liverpool is a Premier League giant with a glorious history of 116 years... …

To be more precise, it should be the first team in the Premier League. We have won the most league championships and Champions League championships among all teams in the Premier League. "

Xia Jingxing on the side couldn't listen anymore, coughed dryly, and interrupted: "Mr. Gillette, the first team should be in the history of the last century!

It has been almost 20 years since the old League One was changed to the Premier League, and Liverpool have not yet won a Premier League championship. Fans and friends are waiting anxiously! "

George Gillette was already seventy years old, and he felt a little embarrassed after being ridiculed by Xia Jingxing.

He adjusted his glasses and said confidently: "Our fans are the best fans in the world, and they have always been loyal to the team.

This season, we will definitely give them a satisfactory answer. . "

Xia Jingxing stared at the players running on the court, and his eyes were fixed on Xavi Alonso for a moment.

Before coming, he asked someone to investigate and found that Liverpool's performance this season was actually very good, and they were qualified to win the league.

Although the club's debt pressure is quite serious, as long as there are results, the valuation will not be cheap.

Xia Jingxing said with a smile: "The fans are pretty good, but I don't know if they are sensible enough.

I don't want to experience the tragedies of Heysel and Hillsborough.

I am a dedicated businessman and I still want to do business in Europe, but I don’t want to be boycotted by the whole of Europe. "

George Gillette was so confused by Xia Jingxing that he didn't know how to answer the phone. Why were he always bringing up old scores?

But having said that, Liverpool fans are indeed as fanatical and bloody as the red clothes they wear.

The Heysel tragedy broke out in 1985. Liverpool and Juventus were in the Champions League final, and Italian and English fans had serious physical conflicts, resulting in a total of 39 deaths and more than 300 injuries.

Afterwards, all English teams were banned from participating in the three major European cup competitions for five years, causing Liverpool to be hostile to all British teams.

In the 1989 Hillsborough tragedy, a serious stampede occurred on the stadium due to the negligence of the British police, resulting in 96 deaths and more than 200 injuries.

Nearly 20 years have passed since this incident, and the British police have kept the truth hidden and put the blame on Liverpool fans.

It has been recognized by the outside world that Liverpool fans are drunk and drunkenly, leading to chaos and tragedy at the stadium.

British football hooligans are already notorious, and Liverpool fans are even more stinky, so there is nowhere to redress their grievances.

It will have to wait until the British government releases top-secret investigation documents in a few years and Cameron apologizes for the government that the Liverpool fans will be cleared.

Because of this bad record, Liverpool, from the team down to the fans, is looked down upon by other teams and fans in the UK, and even teams and fans across Europe.

At the same time, the Liverpool team was founded by Americans. In terms of pedigree, it was also looked down upon by other teams founded by local British nobles.

Perhaps it was also because the results in the last century were so good that other teams were constantly overwhelmed, leading to isolation. After all, even Manchester United lamented at the time: When will they catch up with Liverpool!

However, things have changed, and today's Liverpool is far worse than it was back then. It was three years ago that they staged a "Miracle in Istanbul". After trailing AC Milan 0-3 in the first half, they equalized in the second half and ended up in overtime. He scored a penalty kick in the match, won a Champions League, and could barely maintain the final dignity of the giants.

With its glorious history, it can compete with Manchester United.

Compared with the current situation, this season should be the last afterglow. After that, it will be difficult to compete for the top four and qualify for the Champions League.

It would take almost ten years for the club to regain momentum and the club's valuation to rise again.

Seeing that his partner was speechless by Xia Jingxing, Tom Hicks, another 50% shareholder of Liverpool, thought about it for a while and decided to stand up and help: "Mr. Xia, these are all from the last century. It's a long time ago, but now the Premier League is very orderly and is the football league with the highest commercial value in the world.

Although Liverpool's results are not as good as those in the glory days, in recent years our league results have all remained in the top four, and we won the Champions League three years ago.

With such results, in the entire Premier League, only Manchester United can compete with us.

Chelsea controlled by the Russians, Manchester City controlled by the Middle Eastern oil tycoons, and Arsenal only compete for the top four every year. Compared with us and Manchester United, they still have a little bit of background. "

Xia Jingxing smiled and said that he was so good that he deserved to be a famous sports businessman.

Tom Hicks and George Gillette both have their own ice hockey and baseball teams in the United States. They are relatively well-known in the industry, but they are not real tycoons. They are just small business owners worth one to two hundred million US dollars. boss.

When the two of them acquired Liverpool, they did so with debt. This also resulted in Liverpool not having enough funds for subsequent development, and eventually they were reduced to selling their star player Alonso to Real Madrid.

Xia Jingxing glanced at the two of them and found that they were both looking at him with a smile.

According to the information he received, the two had completely broken up half a year ago.

Gillette didn't want to play anymore, so it turned to the oil tycoon, Dubai International Capital Corporation DIC of the United Arab Emirates.

But his partner Hicks rejected Dubai International Capital's offer of up to £400 million for Liverpool.

Gillette later said it could sell its stake to Hicks, but the latter couldn't come up with the money.

So the two were in a stalemate, looking for a buyer and at each other's throats.

Now the two seem to be in harmony, but the actual situation should be faked in front of him, a potential buyer.

Xia Jingxing felt that his time was very precious, and he did not intend to play Tai Chi with these two people. He made it clear directly: "In January this year, you borrowed 350 million pounds from the Royal Bank of Scotland to repay previous debts.

Not only does Liverpool not have sufficient development funds on its books now, it also needs to repay £100,000 in interest every day.

If this continues, by the end of this season, Liverpool may become a weak team. Let alone win the championship, they will not be able to keep the top four. "

Seeing that Xia Jingxing was so aware of the internal situation in Liverpool, the two of them stopped being a little bit cautious.

Didn’t it mean that Chinese people don’t play football? How do you know so much?

With full of questions, George Gillette said: "Mr. Xia, how much offer are you willing to give to Liverpool? Don't mention it if it is less than 400 million pounds. Dubai International Capital made this offer, but we rejected it."

"We will assume all of Liverpool's existing debts and pay you £10 million each."

Xia Jingxing's words made the two old men in their 60s and 70s stunned for a long time, and then they laughed together.

George Gillette smiled and said: "Mr. Xia, today is not April Fool's Day. You must know that a year and a half ago, we paid 435 million pounds to win the Liverpool Club."

Xia Jingxing sneered: "Of the 435 million pounds, half of it was your promise to build a new stadium, but in fact you only paid half of the acquisition price, which was just over 200 million pounds.

For this money, you borrowed it from the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The money later invested in the transfer and the interest paid on the previous acquisition loan all came from the second loan of 350 million pounds you borrowed from the Royal Bank of Scotland. "

The two old men looked at each other, and then Tom Hicks spoke on behalf of the team: "But we have brought many positive changes to the team in more than a year and introduced several stars."

Xia Jingxing smiled and said: "I have made it very clear that you have not invested a single cent of your own money for Liverpool. The acquisition of the team and players were all borrowed, and these debts are all reflected in Liverpool's financial statements.

The interest on the loan alone is enough to suffocate the team, unable to recruit new players, and naturally the team's performance cannot improve.

Once the team's performance collapses, the debt will be overwhelming and you won't get a penny.

I will give each of you 10 million pounds now. At least for this year, your salary will be comparable to that of most Fortune 500 CEOs. "

The two old men thought about it silently. George Gillette was a little tempted by Xia Jingxing's plan. Not only could he get out of the debt-ridden quagmire of Liverpool, he could also take away 10 million pounds.

But when I think about it carefully, I still feel a little reluctant.

Why did the Glazer family's leveraged buyout of Manchester United not only carry no big baggage, but also thrive?

It is precisely because they saw the great success of the Glazer family that the two of them, as well as some American hedge funds and private equity funds, aggressively entered the five major European leagues, all wanting to become the next Glazer family.

Xia Jingxing didn't say anything to urge him, and let the two old men think for themselves.

He felt that he was generous enough. He not only helped the two old men get out of trouble, but also gave them a pension, which was enough to live comfortably in their later years.

The water in football is very muddy and two old men cannot control it.

Gu\u0026lt;/span\u0026gt;Do you really think anyone can replicate the success of the Glazer family?

The success of the Glazer family is that the club they acquired is called Manchester United. If it were any other club with low commercial value, it would still be dragged down by debt.

Because Manchester United has been too successful in commercialization, the large amount of income every year can not only help the Glazer family repay the loan interest and principal of the leveraged buyout, but also have money left to buy players. The team's performance is not hindered by debt at all, and has even become worse and worse. The better, the game can continue to be played.

As time passed and the loan was repaid, the Glazer family changed from negative assets to net assets. They successfully completed the project and successfully landed.

This is a fairly classic PE leveraged buyout case. One of the most important success criteria is whether the target's annual cash flow can cover its annual debt exposure.

Obviously, Liverpool cannot cover the debt, and the debt is snowballing.

In just over a year, the debt of more than 200 million pounds at the time of the two acquisitions has grown to more than 300 million pounds.

Then the two old men played the "borrow new and repay old" method commonly used in many Ponzi schemes, taking out new loans to continuously repay and replenish the old loans.

Unless Liverpool's performance immediately takes off, winning three consecutive championships, and its commercial value increasing several times, the debt vortex will be inevitable, and sooner or later there will be a thunderstorm.

Tom Hicks suddenly said: “Mr.

We gave him a quote of 600 million pounds. He and his partners are currently raising funds and will get back to us soon. "

Xia Jingxing smiled and said nothing, he really didn't cry until he saw the coffin!

Thinking of this, he was not in the mood to deal with two greedy old men and let them die on their own.

Xia Jingxing began to watch the game intently.

When the two old men saw that Xia Jingxing was ignoring them, they did not move forward.

They thought they had seen through Xia Jingxing's little trick, which was to keep the price high by retreating. They had enough patience.

Off the field, the first half of the game was over, no one scored, 0-0.

After the start of the second half, the two sides changed sides and fought again. The battle for possession of the ball was very fierce, both trying to win the game.

When the game progressed to the 75th minute, a Portsmouth player and the Senegalese international committed a handball foul in the penalty area, and Liverpool received a penalty kick.

There were only ten minutes left before the end of the game. For such a key goal that determines the outcome, Liverpool naturally sent their own general Steven Gerrard to take the penalty kick.

The current captain of Liverpool and the captain of the England national football team lived up to the fans' hopes. He first made a fake move to trick the opponent's goalkeeper into moving, and then easily kicked the ball into the dead corner of the other side of the goal.

When the football hit the net, more than 50,000 fans at the scene all stood up, clapped and cheered loudly, and called captain Gerrard's name.

Ten minutes later, the referee blew the whistle and the game officially ended. Liverpool defeated Portsmouth 1-0 and scored three league points.

Tom Hicks looked at Xia Jingxing with a smile, and said with some pride: "Mr. Xia, is this game interesting? Liverpool are undefeated in ten games this season, ranking first in the league in points, 3 points ahead of second place Chelsea! "

Xia Jingxing smiled and didn't want to pay attention to the old man's pretentious behavior.

If you don't take the debt issue into account, Liverpool's current lineup and playing style are actually very good.

Manchester United, Chelsea, and Real Madrid have all been beaten by Liverpool this season.

But this is the last afterglow of the dynasty, and it will sink for ten years.

Of course, if he lends a hand, Liverpool will at least not be worse than Chelsea and Manchester City, which are financially supported by Abramovich and Mansour.

Just as the two Liverpool bosses were feeling proud of their victory, there was a sudden noise from the seats in the stands next to them, and some shouts and curses could be faintly heard.

Xia Jingxing was shocked. Didn't the Liverpool fans riot again?

He quickly looked in the direction of the noise, and it turned out to be true!

A group of fans dressed in red held up various banners and slogans with words such as "Americans get out of Liverpool", "Club parasites", "liars", "thieves" and other words.

Others stepped on the chairs and shouted loudly at the two club owners with a loudspeaker.

People around him responded with laughter and yelled and cursed after him. The scene was very lively.

After seeing this scene, Gillette and Hicks' faces were ashen.

They wanted to call the security guards to drive them away, but they were afraid that they would not be able to drive away the football hooligans and would instead cause riots.

Xia Jingxing asked calmly: "Is this the person from the "Spirit of Shankly"?"

Gillette and Hicks did not expect that Xia Jingxing even knew the name of this extreme fan organization. Their eyes quickly met in the air, which further strengthened their opinions in each other's hearts.

The financial tycoon who has made tens of billions of euros must be interested in Liverpool! Otherwise I wouldn’t have put so much thought into it!

Thinking of this, the two of them took reassurance and were no longer so anxious.

The two old men sent Xia Jingxing out of the stadium and watched him get into the car before turning around and leaving, appearing very polite.

Liu Xiaoduo, who was sitting in the passenger seat, turned to Xia Jingxing, who was sitting in the back seat, and asked, "Mr. Xia, I see that those two old men look like they are convinced of you."

"Are you convinced of me?" Xia Jingxing pretended to be confused.

"Yes! I think George Gillette was initially a little tempted by your proposed acquisition plan, but he didn't seem to be in a hurry anymore.

He doesn't think you have to buy Liverpool, does he? Consider you a die-hard fan? "

Xia Jingxing smiled and said, "You are right, these two old men have clearly convinced me.

They didn't have much wealth to begin with, but they caught up with the financial crisis and fell into Liverpool's debt quagmire. They wouldn't stop until they made a big profit. "

Xia Jingxing thought of DIC and Huang Jianhua, the Dubai International Capital Corporation of the United Arab Emirates, whom they had just talked about, and their quotation had increased from 400 million pounds to 600 million pounds.

If his prediction is correct, Tom Hicks has the bigger appetite of the two. George Gillette will be satisfied as long as he sells for 400 million pounds, while the former wants 600 million pounds.

This means that after excluding the Liverpool Club's own debt of more than 300 million pounds, it will have to pay more than 200 million pounds in transaction consideration.

He is not short of such a small amount of money, but if a dignified financial tycoon is ripped off by others, it will become a complete joke. Maybe even LP will have to reconsider cooperation with Vision Capital.

British football is not about football, but about finance.

To clean up the two stinky fish and rotten shrimps, naturally we have to return to financial means.

"Call Li Yaozu immediately and ask him to arrange a time. I want to meet with the CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland."

Liu Xiaoduo had just listened to the conversation between the three of them, and had been with Xia Jingxing for so long. He had accumulated a lot of business knowledge under his influence, and he immediately understood the boss's meaning.

She looked at the boss with wide eyes, was this another free prostitution?

But then again, the boss likes free prostitution the most!

To use a saying he often says, an economist who doesn't know how to have sex for free is not a good wolf... Xianping.

Spending a small amount of money to do big things is nothing. Doing big things without spending money is the real deep integration of industry, academia and research.

She had never understood the ultimate meaning of these words before, but now she understood.

Seeing Liu Xiaoduo's sudden realization, Xia Jingxing smiled and joked: "What are you thinking about? Girls, don't think about that word all day long!

Aren’t the shares of Bank of China still wandering overseas like a wanderer? Let's talk to someone from the Royal Bank of Scotland and try to get it back cheaper.

At the same time, we also reciprocated and helped Royal Bank of Scotland dispose of non-performing assets.

Let’s help each other and build a harmonious financial society! "

Liu Xiaoduo chuckled. He finally saw clearly what his boss was like. He always spoke the most honorable words, but always did the most deceptive things in his hands.

But these methods are only used against bad people!

In her opinion, those two old men were obviously not good people. They got Liverpool by deceit and trickery, but in the end, they did not have the strength to run the club well, so they came up with the idea of ​​deceiving the takeover man.

Even the fans recognized the true colors of these two people and couldn't wait to tell them to get out of here.

But that’s fine, there won’t be much resistance for them to receive it.