"The final payment from the auction will be paid to you in one week, that is, after I take over the sunken ship!"
"Yes, Mr. Liu!" The staff member nodded.`
After pondering for a while, Liu Dong said: "Your auctioneer should know who the salvager of this ship is? Can you introduce him to me?"
"Mr. Liu, you know! Our auction house keeps the information of our auction customers confidential!" The staff member looked embarrassed.
"I know! Don't worry, I have no other intentions. I just want to discuss some cooperation with the person who disturbed the shipwreck!" Liu Dong said.
"cooperate?"
Looking at the other party's questioning expression, Liu Dong said calmly: "In fact, I am also interested in salvaging the sunken ship!"
"Oh!" The staff member suddenly understood.
The Mediterranean Sea has been a place of prosperous commerce for nearly five thousand years, starting from the ancient Egyptian civilization, Cretan civilization, Mycenaean civilization, and later the ancient Greek civilization and the ancient Roman civilization in the second and third millennium BC.
Over such a long period of time, the number of shipwrecks sunk in this ocean accounts for almost one-sixth of the number of shipwrecks in the world's oceans. It is also the most famous among the world's seven ocean treasures, and has more sunken treasures than the shipwrecks in Nanyang, China.
.
Therefore, the number of companies and individuals who have salvaged sunken ships in the Mediterranean, spawned by the attraction of wealth, is simply overwhelming.
In addition to adventurers who dream of getting rich overnight, there are also rich people who are interested in this.
At this moment, in the eyes of the staff of Philip Auction House, Liu Dong is a rich man who is interested in shipwrecks.
"I can contact you, but I can't guarantee whether the other party will agree!" Considering that the other party is a major customer of his company, the staff hesitated and said.
"Thank you very much!"
Just when Liu Dong left the boat maintenance agency on the seaside and returned to the rented villa in Marseille, Cui Dongchen hurriedly came up to him with a stack of newspapers in his hand.`
"Chairman, this is the major newspaper I just received this morning. Take a look, the front page headlines are all about us!"
Frowning slightly, Liu Dong took the newspaper in Cui Dongchen's hand and looked at it. Sure enough, the front page headline of the Wall Street Journal, the world's most influential financial newspaper, was about Standard Chartered Bank's acquisition of Abbey National Bank in the UK.
!
"An empire of hundreds of billions. Standard Chartered Bank successfully surpassed Wells Fargo and became the ninth largest bank in the world with total assets of US$954 billion!"
“The rise of Standard Chartered, the birth of a financial giant worth hundreds of billions of dollars!” This is the front page headline of the Financial Times, the world’s second largest financial newspaper after the Wall Street Journal!
"From the success of Standard Chartered Bank, look at the rise of China's economy!"
This is the front page headline of the largest financial newspaper in Japan, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, which is known as the world's largest.
Moreover, compared with the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, more words were devoted to Standard Chartered Bank’s acquisition of Abbey National Bank. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun obviously devoted a lot of its words to Liu Dong.
.
In addition to these three newspapers, the "Washington Post", "The Times", "Le Figaro", "Bild", "European Times", and even the domestic "Central Daily", "People's Daily", etc.
The world's most influential comprehensive newspapers reported the news of Standard Chartered Bank's acquisition of Abbey National Bank in the UK in the financial section or directly on the front page.
Moreover, most newspapers put their own color one-inch bareheaded photos on top of their reports.
However, as he looked at the newspapers one after another, Liu Dong did not feel the joy of becoming famous all at once. Instead, he frowned more and more.
Cui Dongchen obviously understood what Liu Dong was thinking. Although the success of Standard Chartered Bank's acquisition of Abbey National Bank was indeed big news that could shock the global financial community, it would not be reported by all the global media overnight.
Obviously, there is a huge driving force hidden in the darkness behind these numerous reports.
"Chairman, the current situation is very unfavorable to us!" Cui Dongchen said seriously.`
"I know! How much has Standard Chartered's share price risen now?"
"I just called and asked that the share price of Standard Chartered on the New York Stock Exchange has reached 112 US dollars per share, the share price on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange has reached 1078 Hong Kong dollars per share, and the share price on the London Stock Exchange has reached 100 Hong Kong dollars per share.
£76 per share!”
"That is to say, the current market value of Standard Chartered Bank with a total share capital of one billion shares has reached 112 billion US dollars!" After silently calculating, Liu Dong said calmly.
"Yes, after acquiring Abi National Bank, our market value increased by nearly 3 billion US dollars in two days!" After a pause, Cui Dongchen looked directly at Liu Dong and said with caution, "Chairman, now
Standard Chartered’s share price continues to rise, but that’s not a good thing!”
Of course Liu Dong knew that this was not a good thing.
If Standard Chartered's stock price remains at US$8 billion after the acquisition of Abbey National Bank, then Standard Chartered Bank's previous debt ratio of nearly 50% will be able to make up for it.
But the current rise in stock prices has not only made Standard Chartered Bank’s stock price falsely high and inflated the bubble even bigger. It has also made Standard Chartered Bank’s ability to resist risks even weaker!
"How much equity do we still have in Standard Chartered Bank?" Liu Dong frowned.
"After acquiring Abbey National Bank, our shareholding within Standard Chartered has increased to 6173%!"
"6173%!"
Nodding, Liu Dong looked at the beautiful scenery of Marseille outside the window. After thinking for a while, he said in a solemn tone: "Sell!...Old Cui. You immediately fly to the headquarters of Standard Chartered Bank in the United States and be responsible for selling the shares held by Hanhua Group.
Some Standard Chartered shares!”
“Selling on highs?”
"That's right!"
"Chairman, how many shares should we sell?"
"Before the stock price drops sharply, sell as much as you have!" Liu Dong said firmly.
"yes!"
After his lips moved, Cui Dongchen didn't ask why.
"Also, don't stop selling bank assets during this period... Also, pay attention to Sally's actions!" Liu Dong said calmly.
"The chairman is suspicious...?"
"It's good that you know, but don't make it public for now!"
Looking at the increasingly majestic young man in front of him, Cui Dongchen, who has been in the business world for a long time, was shocked. He quickly lowered his head and said: "I understand!"
"Well, go ahead! If anything happens, remember to call me and let me know in time!"
"Understood! Then, Chairman, I'll leave first!"
"Um!"
Liu Dong waved his hand.
Looking at the other party's hurried away figure, Liu Dong narrowed his eyes, and a look of deep thought appeared on his expressionless face. Now he felt more and more that he had made some mistakes in the management of Standard Chartered Bank.
In addition to the somewhat rash appointment of Sally Krawcheck as group president, she was not given too many constraints. There was also no strict crackdown on Standard Chartered Bank, which was formed by the merger of more than a dozen large and medium-sized banks.
The decentralization and reorganization merely maintained the original structure after unifying the management and finance.
If Liu Dong is given more than ten or twenty years to digest, these are not big problems. But just two years are not enough to eliminate all these internal problems caused by mergers and acquisitions.
When Standard Chartered Bank was prospering, these problems were nothing, but once the bank encountered a major setback, these small problems that were not noticeable at first were enough to cause huge troubles that destroyed a business empire worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
!
During this period, Liu Dong, who had been studying various internal and external issues of Standard Chartered Bank, became keenly aware of these things that he originally did not care about.
"I hope it's not too late!" Liu Dong said worriedly.
Although he has prepared US$37 billion to solve possible troubles, Liu Dong still has little confidence in whether he can plug the hole in Standard Chartered Bank.
Liu Dong, who was thoughtful, walked around the living room a few times, then took out his cell phone and dialed again.
"Master!"
"José, have you received the gold I sent you?" Liu Dong said directly.
"Already received!" Jose Aguilar said quickly.
"That's good! You immediately organize the people in the smelting plant to work overtime to smelt all the gold again, and follow my orders at any time!" Liu Dong ordered.
Although he sold 1500 tons of gold in the Tsar's treasure to the country, Liu Dong still still has two small gold mines that he accidentally found when he went to Mongolia to look for Genghis Khan's treasure, plus the gold sand and gold he got when he discovered the Tsar's treasure.
Gold coins, plus a large number of gold coins that Liu Dong found when he salvaged the sunken ship.
All these gold coins and gold sand can be added together to get about 15o tons of gold!
In the past, Liu Dong would have been reluctant to smelt all these gold coins with great artistic value into gold, because this would be a kind of damage to ancient works of art. But at this moment, Liu Dong, who needed more funds, could no longer care about it.
Moreover, so many gold coins have also lowered their original value in the international art trading market. Therefore, after retaining some for collection and selling them at Chenxiang Pavilion and Puhua Red Star Auction House, most of the remaining Liu Dong
They plan to smelt them all into 24k gold!
"I understand, young master, I will immediately follow your instructions!"
"Well, that's good! Jose, is there anything else?"
"have!"
"What's the matter?" Liu Dong asked after noticing that Jose Aguilar's tone on the phone suddenly became serious.
"The people from the God of War Mercenary Group have lost contact!"
After finishing speaking, Jose Aguilar suddenly felt the silence on the other side of the phone. However, he did not speak immediately, but respectfully waited for Liu Dong's reply.
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ps: Thank you to book friend ‘Rookie Book Fan 1’ for your 1oo starting coin reward and support, thank you very much!