Rebirth of England

"what are you thinking about?"

Ivanta asked as she hugged Barron from behind and rested her head on his broad back.

"Are you up? Just looking down from here, it feels like the world has become smaller."

Pennsylvania is right next door to New York. Ivanta, who goes to school in Philadelphia, can easily come to New York to meet Barron.

Last night, the girl was so excited that she told Barron how she invested in MySpace on behalf of IC Capital.

Although his current behavior is a little green, it can be seen that Ivanta is indeed very talented in these aspects.

Of course, in order to reward her achievement, Barron studied hard with her last night...

"What do we do next?"

Barron knew that what Ivanta was talking about was about IC Capital.

"No need to do anything for now, just wait."

"wait?"

"Yes, with the current development prospects of social networks, giants will soon be interested in this field. Woaw technology, which is currently more representative, is definitely impossible to be acquired, so MySpace has become their most suitable target. .”

"However, the gap between MySpace and Woaw is still too big. Although they have exceeded 3 million users through recent marketing after receiving funds, the number of users is still too small compared to Woaw."

Faced with Ivanta's question, Barron patiently explained to her the different positioning of Woaw and MySpace, and finally said:

"Woaw will not easily change its simple interface style, so most of the young people who pay more attention to personalization will choose the MySpace platform. And after Woaw detonates the demand for social networks, the development of MySpace will also enter the fast lane. With the recovery of the entire Internet industry, many traditional media giants will begin to focus here, so MySpace has great opportunities."

…

The location of Zeuss Investment Company is no more than 100 meters away from the New York Stock Exchange.

In order to speed up high-frequency trading, they specially connected a high-speed optical fiber to the New York Stock Exchange.

Being able to do this is also a reflection of the energy of Goldman Sachs Group, another shareholder of this company. It has to be said that before the subprime mortgage crisis, Goldman Sachs Group was still very powerful.

By February, Zeuss Fund had officially started high-frequency trading. Their starting capital was US$1 billion. According to the shareholding ratio, DS Investment Company injected US$600 million into it.

The current operation effect is still good. In this initial period, the technical team of Zeuss Fund has been paying close attention to the operation of the high-frequency trading program, and is always ready to deal with problems as soon as they arise.

"Congratulations, Mr. Blankfein, Goldman Sachs made the right choice."

"Thank you, Your Highness the Duke. I believe our cooperation will become closer and closer."

After going to Zeuss Investment Company, Barron met Goldman Sachs Group's new CEO Lloyd Blankfein, who became the new leader of Goldman Sachs Group after the former CEO retired in December last year.

The last time I saw him was at a reception hosted by Goldman Sachs Group. At that time, Lloyd did not have an advantage in the competition to succeed Goldman Sachs Group.

Thanks to Barron's proactive overtures, his relationship with Lloyd has always been good. Although they rarely meet, they often talk on the phone.

After Lloyd Blankfein took over as CEO of Goldman Sachs Group, Barron immediately called him to congratulate him.

By now, Barron has become one of Goldman Sachs' most important partners, so no one sitting in the CEO position, including Lloyd Blankfein, will ignore him.

Of course, both of them can be said to be busy with everything going on, so this meeting would not be just a casual chat.

"What I want to know is, Your Highness the Duke, do you want to simply invest in Standard Chartered Bank, or are you prepared to control this bank?"

"If possible, of course I hope to hold a controlling stake, but at least I have to acquire enough shares. After all, I am very patient with this bank."

The Standard Chartered Bank they call is often called Standard Chartered Bank in China. It is one of the three major note-issuing banks in Hong Kong and is headquartered in London.

Overseas, it is generally called Standard Chartered Bank (Standard Chartered Bank) because it was formed in 1969 by the merger of two British overseas banks, namely Standard Bank of British South Africa) and India-Xinjinshan-China Standard Chartered Bank. bank.

Today, Standard Chartered Bank is the world's top commercial bank with strong capabilities in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

It has 30,000 employees and more than 500 branches in more than 50 countries and regions. Its main business is in emerging markets such as the Asia-Pacific region, South Asia, the Middle East, and the Americas. However, it does not have many customers in the UK.

In addition, Standard Chartered Bank has the right to issue banknotes in Hong Kong, South Africa, Malaysia and other places.

Since 1999, Standard Chartered Bank has successively completed the equity acquisition of Nakornthorn Bank and Grindlays Bank in Thailand.

The most recent acquisition by Standard Chartered Bank was on January 10 this year, it reached an agreement with the American investment group Newbridge Holdings Private Limited to acquire all shares of the First Bank of South Korea.

"If that's the case, then now is a very good opportunity, Your Highness, but there are also many competitors."

"So I need your help, Mr. Blankfein."

"As old friends, we will do our best to help you obtain the shares from Mr. Qiu. After all, we don't want it to fall into the hands of competitors."

Lloyd raised the wine glass in his hand, clinked it with Barron, and said with a smile.

The Mr. Qiu they refer to refers to Qiu Deba, currently the largest individual shareholder of Standard Chartered Bank and the richest man in Lijiapo.

In 2003, Qiu Deba was named the richest man in Lijiapo by Forbes magazine, with an estimated total wealth of US$2.6 billion.

As early as 1986, the British Lloyds Bank conducted a hostile takeover of Standard Chartered Bank. Qiu Deba, a businessman from Lijiapo, Bao Yugang, a "ship king" from HK, and Robert Holmes, an Australian businessman, became Standard Bank. The "white knights" of Standard Chartered Bank defeated Lloyds Bank with a bid of 1.3 billion pounds at the time and obtained a total of 37% of Standard Chartered Bank's shares, successfully preventing Lloyds Bank from acquiring Standard Chartered Bank.

As a result, Qiu Teck Puat became the largest shareholder and was awarded a knighthood by the British government for his meritorious service in guardianship.

Up to now, Qiu Deba's fingers still hold 13.5% of Standard Chartered Bank's shares, making him the largest individual shareholder of this bank.

Due to health reasons, Qiu Teck Puat has been living in seclusion for several years, but he has always received offers for the Standard Chartered Bank shares he holds.

In the eyes of many consortiums hoping to acquire Standard Chartered Bank, Qiu Teck Puat is "the biggest obstacle to acquiring this bank."

However, recently, it has been reported that Qiu Deba is in poor health, which has also made many acquirers ready to make a move.

This is why Lloyd said now is "the best opportunity" and "there are many competitors."

Because according to current public reports, the list of people interested in the Standard Chartered Bank shares held by Qiu Teck Puat includes Barclays Bank, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Li Jiapo DBS Bank, etc.

For this reason, Barron's bypassed Barclays this time and directly prepared to acquire shares of Standard Chartered Bank with Goldman Sachs Group.

Those consortiums that want to acquire shares of Standard Chartered Bank value its business in emerging regions such as Asia, Africa and South America. Acquisition of Standard Chartered Bank can supplement their own business.

For Goldman Sachs Group, many of Standard Chartered Bank's businesses overlap with theirs, so there is no need for Goldman Sachs Group to acquire Standard Chartered Bank.

This is why Barron's is working with Goldman Sachs to help him make acquisitions.

At the same time, Goldman Sachs Group is also happy to do this. In addition to earning commissions in the process, they also like to prevent Standard Chartered Bank from falling into the hands of competitors including Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase.