Chapter 508 The bigger the storm, the more expensive the fish (4k)
It is not enough for the "Iron Man" movie to have Iron Man's IP. The "Black Widow" and "Nick Fury" who appear must also be authorized by Marvel.
However, Lu Fei did not immediately "buy, buy, buy". After all, the project had not yet been finalized, and the script had not even been finalized. It must not be exposed to alert others and alert Marvel Studios.
So he found another way and approached Merrill Lynch on the grounds of the subprime loans of the Trisolaris Fund.
Because Marvel mortgaged 10 superhero IPs including Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, and Nick Fury to Merrill Lynch.
"Citigroup, Lehman, Bear Stearns, UBS..."
As CEO, Stan O'Neill looked at the collateralized loan bond market ranking list. Merrill Lynch was only ranked 7th on the list, and he couldn't help but get angry:
"Fake, what the hell are you doing! What I want is for you to use your brains to be in the top five, not your mouth. What grade is Greenwich? Is the size of the subprime mortgage similar to ours at Merrill Lynch?"
"Stan, I have long suggested that we buy our own lending company. Which one of the top five subprime mortgage companies is not there? Last month, Bear Stearns swallowed up Encore Credit's subprime mortgage business, and Citigroup also launched an online P2P
The business has reached 1 billion."
Michael Bloom sounded emphatic, emphasizing that subprime mortgages and P2P lending are simply golden chickens that lay golden eggs.
"I firmly oppose it!"
John Anguru frowned, "Have you all forgotten the reputation of First United and Lehman's 'predatory loans' back then?"
"Childish! Despite its bad reputation, the most important thing now is to revitalize Merrill Lynch and return it to its original position."
Stan O'Neal sneered. He came to the position during the dot-com bubble collapse. Only by bringing Merrill Lynch out of the trough, the bonuses for professional managers will be more generous as it reaches the top.
His order was simple: Merrill Lynch wanted to be the leader in subprime mortgages!
"If you must get this market, you must do it at all costs. The first thing is to poach people. The competition for circulation is nothing more than the competition among star traders."
Michael Blum puts it bluntly: “The top five investment banks all have their signature traders, Lehman has Tim Fitzpatrick and Matt Miller, Bear Stearns has Mike Nirenberg and Jeff
·Weschlesser, we also need Merrill Lynch’s ace trader.”
"Hey, be careful what you say! Although I don't have any star traders, my overall business competitiveness is no worse than any of the top five subprime mortgage companies."
John Anguru glared back.
"Is that almost enough? What I want is transcendence!"
Stan O'Neal became more and more dissatisfied. He ruthlessly removed John Anguru, who was in charge of subprime mortgages, and replaced him with Michael Bloom. At the same time, he pointed his hand at the door: "You, get out!"
When Michael Bloom saw John Anguru, who was like a bereft dog, he gloated over his misfortune, suppressing his laughter and said: "Stan, thank you, I will follow you to fight Merrill Lynch's subprime mortgage war..."
Just when he was expressing his loyalty, the secretary knocked on the door suddenly, reminding him that the appointment time was up and Lu Fei and his party had already arrived at the company.
"Michael, we must take this order!"
Stan O'Neill's tone was full of imperativeness: "Do you understand what I mean?"
Michael Bloom did not expect that the first test of taking office would come so quickly. This time Lu Fei wanted to sell high-quality subprime mortgages with ratings of 3A and 2A for US$350 million.
1.7 billion new COD.
It is equivalent to mixing 50% fresh and delicious fruits and 50% rotten apples, bananas and other rotten or nearly rotten fruits into a beautiful fruit platter, and sell it at a normal price or even higher than the market price. Do you think it tastes good?
At least Lu Yun from Ant Financial has to say: It smells so good!
"Hello, O'Neal."
Lu Fei led the team forward and reached out his hand proactively.
"Lu, it's nice to see you."
Stan O'Neal shook hands with him. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Ivanka in the army and was surprised: "I thought the youngest son of the Bullock family would come to meet and talk with you."
"Ivanka is also my right-hand man. Don't underestimate her just because she is beautiful and blond. She is not the silly blond girl in Hollywood movies. She is absolutely indispensable in this business."
Lu Fei patted Ivanka on the back.
Ivanka glanced at him with emotion, her eyes flickering, and she wanted to eat him alive if it wasn't in a public place.
"I don't mean anything else, hehe, please come in."
Stan O'Neal introduced Michael Bloom and others one by one, and then the two teams merged and formed a crowd, pouring into the conference room.
"I'm more straightforward and like to get straight to the point."
Lu Fei unbuttoned his suit, "I think Bullock has told you very clearly, O'Neal, for some reasons that everyone knows, I am planning to sell 350 million U.S. dollars in subprime mortgages, but these hot-selling items,
I’m not willing to sell at a fair price.”
“Nowadays, the market mentions USD 105,106, and Merrill Lynch usually buys it at USD 107, but considering that this batch of high-quality goods is a mixture of 2A and 3A, we are willing to pay USD 109.”
Michael Bloom looked straight at it.
"Lehman and Bear Stearns both quoted $110."
Lu Fei made a rough calculation and found that the net profit from the sale was US$31.5 million. Although the average annual return rate was 4.5%, the difference of one US dollar meant that he lost US$3.5 million in vain, which is equivalent to a Beverly Hills villa.
"But Merrill Lynch offers the most lenient repurchase conditions."
Michael Bloom glanced at Stan O'Neill and confidently said that generally institutions have 90-day buyback clauses.
After all, the Wolf of Wall Street is not a husky. What if the thunder explodes as soon as it reaches your hand?
Therefore, there are preset conditions. If the loan sold is delayed in payment or the principal is defaulted within 90 days, the seller must redeem the loan at the original price. However, if something happens to the loan pool after 91 days, it will not matter.
.
Merrill Lynch's advantage is that it changed the 90 days to 60 days.
"I don't seem to have any reason to refuse."
Lu Fei shrugged, "But I have a small condition."
"You said." Stan O'Neill said.
Lu Fei said: "I don't want all the $31.5 million in cash. I want to use it to buy the superhero IP that Marvel has pledged to you."
"Lu, do you want us to transfer the mortgage rights to Trisolaris?"
Stan O'Neill was surprised and felt that there was fraud.
Michael Blum whispered in his ear: "Lu is a collector of Marvel superheroes. He spent a lot of money to buy the copyright of Iron Man. Stan, I think there is nothing wrong with it. This is a good deal. We can save tens of millions."
of cash.”
"Lu, why do you care so much about Marvel's IP?"
Stan O'Neal crossed his arms, still feeling something was wrong.
"This involves a secret project. If you can promise God that you can keep it secret, I can tell you."
When Lu Fei saw him nodding solemnly, he wrote "Ivanka wants to make a Marvel movie" on the note and handed it over.
Stan O'Neal opened it and looked at Ivanka on the left and Mr. Lu on the right in surprise, and suddenly understood -
Damn it, you spend so much money trying to pick up girls!
Thinking about Ivanka's father again, he instantly dispelled his worries: "I have no problem, but Lu, I want to remind you that the creditor has no right to use the mortgage during the mortgage period. Even if you get the mortgage right, you can't use it.
"
"I understand this."
The corners of Lu Fei's mouth turned up, "So I need the help of Merrill Lynch to work together with Marvel and license the IP she wants to Han and Tang. We don't want much, one or two will be enough."
Stan O'Neal and Michael Bloom looked at each other, then unanimously turned their attention to Ivanka. She was expressionless, but she always looked at Lu Fei with affection.
"Is it difficult to do?"
Lu Fei noticed that they were scrutinizing, and worried that Ivanka's poor acting skills would be seen through by the old foxes, he knocked on the table hard, drawing the attention of everyone present:
"O'Neal, the reason why I didn't go to the top five subprime mortgage institutions and chose you is because Merrill Lynch has the IP of Marvel Comics. As for 90 days or 60 days, it is not the most important."
"calm down."
Stan O'Neal glanced at him and said, "Find out the detailed list of Marvel's collateral and let them choose." He looked at Lu Fei and Ivanka, "Marvel took 525 million US dollars from us, Lu,
US$31.5 million may only be enough to buy an IP, or it may not be enough, such as Captain America.”
"If it exceeds, I will make up the difference."
Lu Fei performed the whole show, grabbed Ivanka's hand in public, played with it like a toy, and couldn't put it down.
After a while, a pile of collateral lists appeared in front of me.
Ivanka landed on [Black Widow] on the list at first glance, and it clearly said:
Marvel's B-level heroes, superheroes without superpowers.
The commercial value assessment is C+ for the following reasons: a female agent character often seen in spy movies cannot support magnificent battle scenes with various dazzling special effects... Superhero movies with female protagonists are risky, refer to Halle Berry's "Cats"
female"……
The final price of the collateral was $18 million.
After looking through the 10 collaterals one by one, she pulled out two forms and said, "Just her, and this Nick Fury (Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.)."
"are you sure?"
Lu Fei glanced at it and saw that he still had 1.5 million US dollars left.
"Yes, dear." Ivanka nodded coquettishly.
When Michael Bloom saw the two of them flirting with each other, the "old white man" in his heart made him envious and jealous. How could he pick up a blonde girl even though he was kicking Nitz? Damn it, it's great to be rich!
Stan O'Neal noticed that something was wrong with him and dismissed: "Michael, you and Ivanka and the others go out to discuss the details of the transfer. There are some things I want to talk to Lu alone."
Soon, there were only two people left in the huge conference room.
"Whiskey, brandy or tequila?"
Stan O'Neill walked to the small wine rack in the corner.
"Tequila, thank you."
Lu Fei took out a cigarette from the cigarette case and crossed his legs at the same time.
Stan O'Neill poured the wine and said, "Lu, your coming this time really makes me feel very confused."
"Why do you say that?"
"You are the author of "The World is Flat". In your book, you successfully predicted the prosperity of the real estate market and also predicted financial innovation, especially Internet financial innovation. P2P has contributed to real estate and subprime mortgages, but
I don’t understand, if you’ve made so many predictions so accurately, why aren’t you optimistic about subprime mortgages?”
"Because I am the main author of the China part, and the American part is basically the work of Thomas Friedman."
"But you made the opposite judgment and invested in John Paulson's bearish fund."
Stan O'Neill cuts fresh lemons into slices.
"I'm really not optimistic about it."
Lu Fei blew out a smoke ring, "I don't know if you have counted it. Since 2004, the Federal Reserve has tightened policy and raised interest rates by 25 basis points 17 times in a row. Until this month, it has raised interest rates to 5.25%. Don't you think
Too often?"
"No no no."
Stan O'Neill shook his head: "On the contrary, such frequent interest rate hikes cannot curb the wave of home purchases. The subprime mortgage market is very good, and its potential is far from being exhausted. On the contrary, John Paulson's fund has been losing money now.
It’s over 10 million, shouldn’t you think about how to stop the loss?”
"Haha, no, I'm just the opposite too."
Lu Fei grinned and laughed: "I heard a fish seller say that the bigger the storm, the more expensive the fish, so I wanted to increase my bets. It happened that John set up another fund to short ABX."
Stan O'Neill, a veteran, immediately thought of the "Subprime Home Loan Bond Price Composite Index/Subprime Derivative Bond Composite Index" that was just created this year.
Holding a wine glass in one hand, a small bottle of table salt and cut lemon slices in the other, he said in a complicated tone:
"Lu, I can't comment on whether your choice is right or wrong, but the current situation is that housing prices continue to rise, and there is no possibility of falling. OK, even if it falls, the Federal Reserve will not wait to save the market, and will save the market by cutting interest rates.
House prices will not fall, and the entire subprime mortgage market is very safe."
"Thank you for your advice, O'Neal."
Lu Fei put out his cigarette in the ashtray and told the most ridiculous lie in the most sincere tone: "Since you said so, I will reveal a little secret. This is the third pack of cigarettes I smoked today. In fact, I don't smoke much.
, but in order to relieve this pressure, John goes to Central Park for a five-mile run every day."
Stan O'Neal's eyes suddenly flashed: "I understand how you feel. If it were me in your place, I'm afraid you would have gone insane and would have to move to St. Elizabeth's Hospital."
"Haha, cheers."
Lu Fei laughed, sprinkled salt on the tiger's mouth on the back of his hand and licked it, then took a bite of the lemon slice between his fingers, and finally drank the tequila in one gulp.
The wild and wild Mexican way of drinking, done in one go.
It's totally different from Stan O'Neal's gentle way of drinking.
In a matter of seconds, the basic framework of the mortgage rights transfer agreement has been set up. All it takes is adding some details.
“A pleasure to work with.”
Lu Fei walked into the elevator.
“A pleasure to work with.”
Watching the elevator descend, Stan O'Neal's fake smile closed instantly and he turned to look at Michael Bloom, "Don't you think something is strange?"
"What's weird?" Michael Bloom asked puzzled.
"When encountering such a situation, many experienced people will choose to exit the transaction and stop the loss. Lu would not know this, but the strange thing is that the loss seems to have made him more determined."
Stan O'Neal's face darkened: "Did he really find the traces of the subprime mortgage collapse?"
"Impossible, absolutely impossible."
Michael Bloom repeatedly denied, presenting facts and data. In the second quarter of this year, although the subprime mortgage delinquency rate (more than 90 days of delinquency) and the foreclosure rate (the foreclosure rate) were on the rise,
But basically stable.
The default rate of substandard goods is 6.7%, of which the serious delinquency rate and foreclosure rate are 4.8% and 1.9%, which is extremely safe.
"Am I overthinking it?"
Stan O'Neal was uneasy. After all, Lu Fei was as famous as Buffett. He had three victories in soybeans, oil, and gold, and even defeated consortiums such as Goldman Sachs, which were backed by the Federal Reserve.
How could such a son of God make a stupid mistake?
"Stan, Lu's motivations are actually easy to understand."
Michael Bloom laughed and said: "It takes a lot of courage to admit the mistakes you have made. The more successful you are, the prouder you are, the less easily you think you will make a mistake. Even if you are really wrong, you will deliberately pretend to be asleep."
, how can you not wake up a person who is pretending to be asleep?"
Stan O'Neal thinks it makes sense. Perhaps Lu Fei has a tough mouth due to the burden of being the idol of the Chinese stock god.
Thinking about it this way, I couldn't help but regret: "It's a pity that we can't do CDS, Cheap American Bank, Citigroup, Chase and others."
"Isn't there still a chance?"
Michael Bloom showed a smirk, "Didn't Lu tell us that he wants to short ABX, why can't we go long?"
Stan O'Neill's pupils shrank slightly, and he turned his head sharply, staring straight at him, neither agreeing nor disapproving.
"You can also contact Goldman Sachs. How did we win the gold war? We have to make him spit it out twice as much this time!"
When Michael Bloom thought of Ivanka, a sneer appeared on his face. Do you think God will always be on your side?
