The Royal Tower, the tallest building in the world
"Your Excellency, Chairman, Mr. Douglas of the AIG Board of Directors and his party are here to visit as requested. You see..."
"Invite them to come in and meet them in the small VIP room."
"Understood."
Li Xuxian, who was wearing a well-fitting professional suit, bowed politely and saluted, and then left calmly.
After the Samsung Group was acquired, she is now a senior secretary in the Secretariat, responsible for Wang Yaocheng's personal secretarial team, and is one of the team leaders on shift.
Li Xuxian is the second princess of the Samsung Empire. She was ostracized because of her weak personality and has almost no sense of presence within the Samsung Group.
The reason why he transferred her to work beside him was that Wang Yaocheng hoped to pull her into his camp through subtle influence. Compared with the eldest princess Li Fuzhen, who was very independent, the second princess Li Xuxian was simply a doughy person and easy to control.
many.
After all, Samsung Group is a local company on the Korean Peninsula, and the Lee family has deep-rooted influence.
There is no need for Li Xuxian to have any talents. The prominent life experience of "Li" gives him a natural aura. When necessary, he can be used as a qualified puppet to help him come to power. It can be regarded as an idle move in Plan B.
As for now, I'd rather be a secretary.
Unexpectedly, Li Xuxian quickly started working in the secretariat, did a good job, and really liked the job.
After all, she is a member of the Lee family who has received a high elite education. She is good at Korean, English, French and Spanish, and can also speak some simple Chinese.
Judging from his weak character, he may not be able to control a large company, but being a secretary is more than enough.
a moment later
Mr. Douglas, the board of directors of AIG, and a group of four people came to the small VIP room, accompanied by an old acquaintance - Mr. Merck & Co., a senior partner of Goldman Sachs.
Wang Yaocheng strode in from outside and greeted everyone happily;
"Hey, it's nice to meet you, man. It's especially surprising to see Mr. Merck standing in front of me alive and kicking."
"Boss King, I need you to explain this sentence." Mr. Merck made a serious face.
Wang Yaocheng said: "I want to ask, has Goldman Sachs solved its own troubles? Don't tell me that Goldman Sachs is not involved in those junk bonds. There are no cats in the world who are not guilty of stealing."
"HSBC is a cat that doesn't cheat. To be honest, it's all your fault. Boss King, I think everyone is a very good ally, but you have not done your duty to remind your allies. I have a lot of objections to this.
." Mr. Merck smiled happily, with no trace of blame on his face.
"Is it useful?"
"hehe……"
Mr. Merck did not answer directly, but instead introduced today’s guest; “This is Mr. Douglas, the chairman of AIG, an alumnus of my Harvard University, an old friend of 40 years, a stubborn old man who is rigorous and lacks interest in life.
These are Executive Directors Larry King, Bouyefi, and CEO and President Thomas Schaefer. The three of them are senior senior managers in the insurance industry, and their abilities are trustworthy.
This time, several heavyweights from AIG have traveled across the entire Pacific to meet you. I don’t need to say more about the purpose of their visit. Let them introduce themselves to the following situation."
Wang Yaocheng shook hands with several guests and exchanged greetings. His face looked particularly good. He waved his hand and said, "Don't worry, Mr. Douglas, please sit down and taste the seasonal fruits in Asia. I also have cigars and red wine here. We can take our time."
chat."
After saying that, with a wave of his hand, several graceful female staff members came in carrying trays.
Seasonal fruits, exquisite pastries, red wine and cigars were presented one by one, and in an instant, the coffee table in front of the guests was filled.
Mr. Douglas looked at the exquisite food in front of him, smiled bitterly and said, "Bring me some absinthe bar, I think I need this."
"If possible, I'll have a glass of whiskey, either Scottish or American." Thomas Schaefer also looked gloomy and ordered a glass of strong drink.
"No problem." Wang Yaocheng agreed readily.
Soon, the strong drinks were served.
The gray-haired Mr. Douglas had a cup full of brown French absinthe in his hand, and then drank it all in one gulp, silently feeling the taste of the strong liquor boiling in his body, and his mouth was full of light bitterness.
Wang Yaocheng did not disturb them, but took a puff of his cigar and let the smoke disperse.
"Boss King, is your consortium willing to acquire AIG?"
"Oh, to be honest Douglas, I'm not sure now. I have to understand how deep AIG is in. According to outside comments, it has lost 200 billion, 300 billion or even 600 billion US dollars. Only you know the real situation.
."
Mr. Douglas took a deep breath and said slowly; "It's not that exaggerated. We internally estimate that the loss in the third fiscal quarter will be between 33 billion and 36 billion US dollars, and that in the fourth fiscal quarter it will not exceed 20 billion US dollars. This concentrates 75% of the losses."
For the losses on subprime loans, we need a cash injection of US$100 billion in the early stage. This requirement is very urgent and we must get the money as soon as possible.
Some additional bailout funds may be needed in the future, and the scale should not exceed US$50 billion.
According to the strong strength of your financial group, as long as you are willing to lend your hand, nothing will be a problem.
I can guarantee that AIG's insurance, leasing, investment and securities businesses are all in great health, and now it's the damn subprime loans that are dragging us down, and it's a disaster."
Wang Yaocheng tapped the sofa gently with his slender fingers, thought for a moment and said, "Douglas, I need time to verify your statement. I'm afraid I can't give you any answers for the time being. Everything must be evaluated before being decided. This is hundreds of billions of dollars."
It’s a big business and I can’t make a hasty decision.”
Although he wanted to agree to the other party in his heart, Wang Yaocheng suppressed this immature thought, did not show a greedy look, and answered in a satisfactory manner.
"We understand that this is what it should be. AIG has made all preparations and can accept financial verification at any time."
When Mr. Douglas said this, he felt an almost heartbreaking pain in his heart. He felt the greatest humiliation of his career. Doing so was tantamount to asking a trafficker to strip off her clothes and examine a female slave. There was no trace of dignity left.
In the face of a severe survival crisis, AIG, which has always been proud, must bow its head.
Understand that there is no need to tell lies, brag or use other small tricks in front of others.
In this world, in terms of its rich experience in corporate mergers and acquisitions, the Wang Consortium rarely thinks twice and has always been known for its speed, accuracy and ruthlessness.
"Very good, then we have made a good start. Staff mainly from HSBC and the Consortium Audit Office will go to AIG as soon as possible. I think it won't take long before we get what we want.
We can sit down and discuss the answer in detail at that time."
AIG is headquartered in the International Building in New York, its Asian headquarters is in Hong Kong, and its European headquarters is in London. The consortium has strong capabilities in these places and can dispatch professional accounting personnel to verify the situation nearby, which is only a few blocks away.
Wang Yaocheng smiled slightly, showing his white teeth, and continued; "Mr. Douglas, Asia has charming scenery and unforgettable food. I am honored to invite you to spend an unforgettable vacation and temporarily leave all the unpleasant things behind.
…”
"I'm sorry, King Boss, for interrupting you. I don't think everyone here is in the mood to enjoy it. We just want to end all this pain as soon as possible." Mr. Douglas once again picked up the wine glass in front of him and drank it down with a look on his face.
With a slightly abnormal blush appearing, he stared at Wang Yaocheng with sharp eyes like a falcon and asked, "How long will it take to verify the relevant information?"
"oh……"
Wang Yaocheng pondered for a moment and said, "The consortium has many experienced accountants who only verify the profits and losses of financial derivatives on subprime loans. If you cooperate, I believe it won't take long and should be available in four to five days."
Preliminary results..."
"If so, can we formally start negotiations?"
"Are you so anxious?"
"Yes, AIG must demonstrate its strong payment ability as soon as possible to restore market confidence, which may reduce losses of tens of billions of dollars. And to be honest, all of AIG's cash flow has dried up, and there are no financial institutions and
Banks dare to lend us money. AIG is now a beast abandoned by the lions. With severe blood loss, it will have to bear attacks from all directions alone. We are teetering and will fall at any time, otherwise we will not take the initiative to come to seek help.
Acquisition..."
At this point, Mr. Douglas was too grief-stricken to continue, and sat on his back on the sofa without speaking.
The tragic story of this stubborn old man was touching. This scene made the atmosphere in the small VIP room almost freeze.
certainly
Wang Yaocheng is not included here. He will only be secretly happy and not show any pity.
We are all adults, don't we deserve to pay the price for our greed?
Every core employee of AIG present here should be responsible for the current predicament. It was the greedy decisions they made that brought the well-run international group to the edge of bankruptcy.
"Uh... let's see. I'll arrange for the consortium to send additional manpower to try to figure out the profit and loss of financial derivatives on subprime loans within four days. However, this requires your full cooperation. Otherwise, it will be impossible to complete this tedious task.
Work."
"American International Group will fully cooperate, I guarantee that." CEO and President Mr. Thomas Schaefer replied in a low tone. He couldn't help but look at Mr. Douglas, showing deep regret.
"Okay, let's talk about everything in four days."
"Oh...I'm sorry, I would like to ask again, if the situation is similar to what we said, would you..."
Wang Yaocheng glanced at Mr. Thomas Schaefer, hesitated and said, "There is nothing to hide. As an established Fortune 500 company and a leader in the insurance industry, I naturally have full confidence in American International Group.
We are willing to pay a huge price to acquire it. If the situation does not exceed 30%, we can sit down and talk about the acquisition."
"American International Group hopes to complete this heavyweight transaction through partial equity participation and partial financing."
"hehe……"
Faced with Mr. Thomas Schaefer's excessive demands, Wang Yaocheng smiled indifferently and said;
"I'm afraid Mr. Thomas Schaefer made a mistake. In the face of life and death, I am afraid that the American International Group can only make conditions for me, and you can only choose to accept or reject.
According to Royal Fund’s rich experience in cross-border corporate mergers and acquisitions, we will not be soft-hearted and will definitely get back what we want at a huge cost.
You can imagine that when the subprime mortgage crisis continues to ferment and a bigger thunder explodes, some giant financial companies will inevitably fall.
For example;
Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan or Bear Stearns, which are deeply involved, every financial giant I am talking about here is not inferior to AIG in scale.
The Wang Consortium does not have the ability to save every financial giant that is on the verge of bankruptcy. When the Wang Consortium lends a helping hand to you, it means that they have cut off any hope of rebirth.
We can only choose one or two companies with sufficient value and try to do something to save them. This is the starting point for making all decisions.
The rest have no choice. If the Fed doesn't take action, it will be a dead end.
Will the Fed bail out every company?
Or if we let it go bankrupt and liquidate, will the American people allow the Federal Reserve to do this and use the money of the entire American people to rescue the financial giants on Wall Street?
We all know that they are the instigators of this financial crisis. It was Wall Street's greed that caused all this disaster.
Let us all be clear-headed, no one is the God of anyone... Mr. Thomas Schaefer.
We are no longer children. It involves a bailout plan worth hundreds of billions of dollars. If AIG has no reinvestment value, I will not do it at all. I don’t want to say such nonsense again.”
These words were like those of Hong Zhong Da Lu, which shocked everyone present and returned to reality from illusion. They recognized the cruel reality they were about to face, and lowered their expectations by a big step in their hearts.
This has cleared the biggest obstacle for future formal negotiations. There is no need to raise unrealistic demands at all.
Seeing the dusty expressions of several senior executives at AIG, Wang Yaocheng sneered in his heart, turned to chat with Mr. Merck, and said, "Hey, is Paulson doing anything?"
"He won't report it to me, so how would I know?"
"Haha...Mr. Merck, you are still so cunning. Who doesn't know that Goldman Sachs and the Federal Reserve both wear the same pants? Any major rescue activities they have will definitely go through Goldman Sachs's evaluation and professional opinions. This is already public
It’s a secret.”
Merck was still indifferent, shook his head and said, "You have this time to ask me, why not call Commander George. He is an outspoken person and will definitely not hide anything from you."
Wang Yaocheng sneered and asked, "Federal government officials seized the assets of IndyMac Bank. Don't tell me that Goldman Sachs didn't have any opinions on it. Didn't they ask Goldman Sachs to significantly lower the Federal Reserve's discount rate?"
"I don't know whether there is a specific one, and I'm not interested either."
"Tch, you always know whether to rescue Bear Stearns, right?"
"this……"
Merck is being pressed harder and harder by Wang Yaocheng, and it really feels like a headache.
If this big business is negotiated to bring in at least hundreds of millions of dollars, he can only say vaguely: "I believe that the government will make a detailed assessment of the financial institutions caught in the subprime mortgage crisis. After all, the Federal Reserve is not omnipotent.
Yes, we can only selectively rescue some companies that have a large impact, and financial companies are definitely not among the priorities."
"What's there to hide? Just think about it with your toes. Aren't they the two behemoths Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?" Wang Yaocheng glanced at several AIG executives and said with profound meaning; "Abandoning illusions is the only way.
Even Lehman Brothers gave up on the way out, let alone other companies. If you can hold on to the rope to climb to the shore, don't relax. Be careful when a wave hits and drifts further away. When the time comes, no one else can save you even if they want to.
"
These cruel words hit the hearts of several AIG executives word by word. Mr. Douglas, who looked decadent, silently shed a line of muddy old tears, and several others were also speechless.
Wang Yaocheng originally wanted to say a few more words, but when he saw that they acted wisely, he closed his mouth;
I just typed a few words and cried. Isn't it so fragile?
Mr. Merck gave him a dissatisfied look, and his meaning was obvious;
You can say whatever you want to hurt your heart. Who can stand it if you take away the company that someone has worked so hard for all his life and you only say sad words and be degrading to him?