Top of the big era

Zhou Buqi has already made an appointment with Rick Efron, senior vice president of Goldman Sachs, and Jack Evans, director of the capital operation department.

I plan to have a chat in the past to determine whether my general direction of thinking is feasible.

It feels like it should.

Private equity is different from public equity. The biggest feature is "private", which is extremely private and operates in a black box. Except for a third-party supervision platform, there is no need to disclose the investment strategy and funds of private equity funds to anyone or institutions. Usage. Even the names of many private equity funds are highly confidential and only open to a few specific people.

Public funds are basically the same, with little difference; private funds are different, with extremely obvious differences, and various rules and regulations, which can be designed however you want, and there may even be many ridiculous and weird clauses. There are also many private placements in gray areas, such as those specializing in usury and tax avoidance.

The financial world of Wall Street is full of tricks, only unexpected, nothing impossible. The design of my own private equity rules may be very outrageous in other places, but it should be okay on Wall Street.

Just about to go out, I received a call from Zhu Jun from England.

"Old Zhu, have you met?"

"Well, we just finished talking."

When Zhu Jun heard that Zhou Buqi wanted to buy Manchester United, let alone his excitement, he hurried to England as if he wanted to buy Manchester United to help participate in the case.

Zhou Buqi was also more at ease with him, at least than his father, "How is it? Is it going well?"

Zhu Jun said helplessly, "It's not going well."

"how?"

"The current financial situation of Manchester United is very serious, and some people want to buy the bottom."

"Huh?" Zhou Buqi was slightly taken aback, "Is there anyone else interested in Manchester United?"

Zhu Jun said: "There are more than one! There are rich people from Myanmar and a consortium in Bangkok. The two youngest sons of the Glazer family have been talking with them for more than a month. The rich man in Myanmar asked for 800 million pounds, and the consortium in Bangkok offered 100 million pounds." Billion pounds. It's not going well."

Zhou Buqi frowned slightly, "Didn't agree to 1 billion pounds?"

Zhu Jun said "hmm", "Maybe he is waiting for the buyer to bid. I went to talk to them, and the Glazers have always said that Manchester United can be sold, but the offer must be sincere. Ask them what they want, and they keep pushing , do not answer directly."

Zhou Buqi said: "This is the vampire of the United States. It is difficult to impress them without enough offers. I remember that they bought Manchester United for 790 million pounds in 2005, right? It took a lot of effort to buy Manchester United, no Make a lot of money and they're not going to end up."

Zhu Jun said: "I heard from your father that you are talking about investment business with Wall Street, the Federal Reserve, or something?"

Zhou Buqi laughed, "Almost."

"You look for a relationship in the United States and see if you can get in touch. I have inquired about it. The Glazer family bought Manchester United back then. Of the total funds of 790 million pounds, only 272 million pounds were paid by them. It is a usury loan borrowed from a private equity fund, with an interest rate as high as 16.25%. After the acquisition is completed, these debts are transferred to Manchester United, and Manchester United will bear the principal and interest.”

"I rely on it!"

Zhou Buqi was taken aback. The interest rate of 16.25%...is really American, so crazy.

Zhu Jun went on to say: "However, the Glazer family doesn't have much money. The 272 million pounds they paid was also a loan obtained by mortgaging 25 shopping centers in their family. Now that the financial crisis is so severe and property prices have plummeted, I think his family's The pressure should be great. Manchester United can bear it enough, I heard that Ronaldinho will be sold to Real Madrid to raise money."

"Okay, I'll find someone here to understand the situation."

Zhou Buqi accepted this suggestion, it was indeed very important, and it was necessary to act without delay.

Next summer, Cristiano Ronaldo will move to Real Madrid at a record price, bringing Manchester United a transfer income of 80 million pounds. Coupled with the Premier League title won by Manchester United and the bonuses for consecutive Champions League finals, Manchester United's revenue this season created a Premier League record, with an operating profit of up to 91 million pounds.

It seems to be making a lot of money.

But to pay the debt to the boss.

After paying off the settlement, Manchester United lost 79 million pounds that season.

It can be seen how serious the financial crisis encountered by the Glazer family and Manchester United is now.

You have to take Manchester United quickly.

If Manchester United enters the final of this season, Ronaldo sells... the debt pressure is relieved, and it will be even more difficult to get in.

Boss Zhou is already working on this matter. He works on the Internet, and he is best at cross-complementation and ecological synergy.

"By the way, do you have enough funds?" Zhu Jun suddenly changed the subject.

Zhou Buqi hesitated for a moment, "It's okay, I can squeeze it out anyway."

Zhu Jun eagerly asked, "Would you count me as a share?"

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "Okay! It's what I wish for! Such a big club, we should join hands to do it together. You know football better than me, let's play together."

"You're being polite, I'm just kicking around." Zhu Jun laughed loudly, "Well... I'm also a little tight on cash, and I can come up with 100 million US dollars at most."

"No problem, share shares proportionally?"

"good!"

Zhu Jun was very happy, very happy.

Zhou Buqi is also very at ease.

It would be inappropriate to ask Zhu Jun to help in the whole process. Asking him to help is spending other people's money to help others, which is often very expensive and inefficient; letting him participate as a partner is spending his own money to do things for himself, which can be efficient and cheap.

...

At noon, Zhou Buqi invited Rick Efron and Jack Evans to "Buffett's Restaurant" for lunch.

This is the most prestigious restaurant in Manhattan. Many capital predators and business elites will dine and discuss work here. It represents the power center of Wall Street, so it has the nickname "Power House".

And because the world-renowned Buffett charity lunch is here, it also has the title of "Buffett Restaurant".

The main food here is steak.

On Wall Street, food and beautiful women are nothing, the most important thing is to make money.

Zhou Buqi is a major client of Goldman Sachs.

The cooperation between the two parties in the past few months has been very pleasant. This time Zhou Buqi will do private equity, and the partner will be Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs will help with custody, distribution, and supervision, and you can get custody fees, and a certain percentage of subscription fees and redemption fees. It is estimated that there will be an annual income of 0.8%-1%.

Rick Efron is the most powerful figure in Goldman Sachs. He is a chubby middle-aged white man with a bald head and white beard. After reading the material, he handed it to his assistant, Jack Evans, with a natural expression, half a smile, "very adventurous."

As a bigwig on Wall Street, he is well-informed, and he immediately understood the meaning of the "three red lines" in this material. This kid is not investing, he is playing politics!

No wonder such a great achievement at such a young age, this skill is very clever!

From the perspective of investment, these three red lines are very risky, and individuals may lose some profits. If you look at it from a political point of view, it makes too much sense to him.

There won't be an expert behind this kid, right?

Zhou Buqi shrugged and said, "My assistant said that such a rule setting is crazy."

Rick Efron laughs: "Crazy is the nature of Wall Street."

"What do you think of these...well, mainly those three red lines, the three sections I drew the red lines, what do you think?"

"Well enough."

"Can?"

Zhou Buqi raised his eyebrows.

Rick Efron said with a smile: "Where does Mr. Zhou want me to say? Investment? Or something else? My former supervisor, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, is now the US Secretary of the Treasury. What does Mr. Zhou need? , I can help."

Zhou Buqi's heart trembled.

Ho!

Sure enough, he saw through his purpose at once. It's not at all the same as Chen Ran's jabbering, frightened look.

However, it is also understandable that Chen Ran is an accountant, and what he does is financial management, which is characterized by conservatism; the core of Wall Street is financial investment, and the characteristics of this industry are radical, innovative and bold, and are deeply tied to the political system of this country. The relationship between them is all celebrities and dignitaries.

Zhou Buqi lowered his head and cut a piece of steak, not rushing, "We're only talking about investment."

Rick Efron said: "It's a bit weird if it's only limited to investment. Let me talk about the first one, promise 20% annualized return. 20% is actually not much, this year is a crazy year, the housing market a few months ago When it was very lively, there appeared a large number of private equity offerings that promised a half-year return of 50%, that is, an annualized return of 100%.”

Zhou Buqi twitched the corner of his mouth, he was also involved in it at the time, of course he knew about it, "It was a special period, many people's deposits were not enough, and they were desperate, that's the casino."

Rick Efron nodded, "Yes, such a high annualized promise is just a special case, and it happens occasionally. As far as I know, in private equity on Wall Street, the highest annualized return promise is 15%. 20% The annualized commitment of long-term operation seems to have never happened in my memory."

The 15% annualized commitment is almost the same as 20%, and those who dare to play like this are generally crazy.

Ordinary private placements with an annualized commitment of 8% can make steady progress. As long as it is not a black swan year, it is easy to achieve. But 15% annualized return is difficult. Usually, it is operated with several times leverage in the futures market, which is extremely risky.

So there is a strange phenomenon in the market - the lower the annualized commitment, the larger the fund size; the higher the annualized commitment, the smaller the fund size.

Rich people prefer stable growth, and they all invest in low-risk private equity that promises 8%. The decline and the increase are not equal. If it falls by 50%, it needs to rise by 100% to recover the cost. The most important thing in investing is to keep the principal first.

Zhou Buqi nodded, "What about the second one?"

Rick Efron stretched his head and took a look, "Oh, it's very common to refund the management fee. At least 10% of private equity companies have such regulations. But it's different from your setting. If the fund loses money every year, the private equity Part of the management income attributable to the fund will be returned, and the necessary intermediary fees will be deducted. If it is a 1.5% management fee, it can probably be refunded at 1%. However, this clause is a decoration and is almost never used.”

"Why?"

"Funds with high-risk investments will not have such clauses; private equity funds with low-risk investments will only set such clauses. Usually, they invest in some bonds and index stocks, and it is almost impossible to lose money."

"That's right." Zhou Buqi nodded, "The money has gone into their pockets, and they still want to get it back? Fund regulations are all designed by fund managers. How can there be any reason to design rules by yourself and then cheat yourself? It's nothing more than Put it out for investors to see, it's a fool."

Rick Efron laughed.

I despise it in my heart.

As if you weren't!