"Hi, Paulson, thank you for your help at the critical moment. We have the opportunity to go fishing with Bill Gates and try the apple pie made by Linda. The fighting ability of the two of us is unparalleled, because
I can go down and bring the fish ashore."
"Hey, please don't forget your promise."
"I will, man."
"To be honest, Boss King, I'm very busy right now. There are several calls waiting for me to answer anytime and anywhere. They are all guys with great backgrounds. I'm afraid I can't say anything more to you."
"I really envy you for your fulfilling life. Remember to go on vacation together when you have time."
"Stop your whining and weird words! I'm done."
"OK."
Wang Yaocheng put down the phone in his hand, and the smile on his face gradually faded.
Looking at the hazy peak of Victoria Peak in the distance, a red sun rises from where the sea meets the sky, and the brilliant morning glow fills the sky. It is a vibrant summer morning.
He took a deep breath of the fresh air with the fragrance of earth, and walked towards the cloud top platform.
Overlooking the entire Hong Kong Island from here, the reinforced concrete jungle has become noisy and a new day has begun.
The day's plan begins in the morning, this is a good day!
There is no tenderness in the friendship between big shots, but only naked interest entanglements. The reason why Paulson made this call was that in addition to the private contact with Mr. Merck, a senior partner of Goldman Sachs, Wang Yaocheng agreed to the two parties.
conditions;
First, it announced an investment in Goldman Sachs, with a scale of no less than US$8 billion, to enhance market participants' confidence in Goldman Sachs.
Second, spend money to acquire some financial industry assets in the United States, with a scale of no less than 30 billion U.S. dollars, to reduce the pressure on the government to rescue.
It sounds like the other party is talking too much, but that is not the case. Paulson has worked for Goldman Sachs for more than 30 years and has a deep understanding of the Wang Group's huge ambitions in the financial industry. He is by no means the type to stop at what is enough.
Saving others is equivalent to saving yourself. Taking advantage of the financial crisis to merge and develop has always been the only way for financial oligarchs.
Some people say that HSBC is already the world's largest bank, with assets under management reaching US$3.38 trillion. Does it need further expansion?
This is a layman's term that does not understand the financial industry at all, and development will never end.
According to the operating volume of HSBC in North America, including Canada, it can almost rank sixth to seventh. Its business scale ahead of its peers lies in the Asian region where it is based, the European region where it is focused on development, and emerging markets such as Africa and South America.
market.
In North America, the world's financial highland, and on Wall Street, HSBC is far from the leader.
Citibank's assets under management reached US$3.16 trillion, UBS's assets under management reached US$2.52 trillion, and Bank of America's assets under management reached US$2.41 trillion.
In 2007, seven of the world's top ten financial giants were concentrated on Wall Street, and their assets were more concentrated in North America.
While HSBC continues to grow and develop, world-class financial giants have not stopped developing, and large-scale corporate mergers have been reported in the news from time to time.
In the three years from 2004 to 2007 alone, the value of corporate mergers and acquisitions in the world's financial industry reached US$1.15 trillion. Big fish eating small fish has become the norm, leading the world's financial industry to develop towards transnational and super-large full-financial licenses.
Competition is everywhere, and it may only take one blockbuster merger for HSBC to relinquish its No. 1 ranking in the world.
Faced with the world financial tsunami triggered by the subprime mortgage crisis, which may reshape the world's financial industry structure, if Wang Yaocheng's lofty prestige had not suppressed the situation, it would be difficult for HSBC to suppress the impulse to expand at this time.
9.00 am
A group of three black Rolls-Royces stopped at the grand foyer of the Royal Palace Building. A dozen AIG executives with briefcases got out of the car. They were the core of the negotiation team, including the gray-haired Director Douglas.
Chang is also among them.
Two more Toyota Coaster business vehicles followed from behind, and more than two dozen white business elites got off one after another. These were lawyers and business assistants in the negotiation team. Under the guidance of relevant personnel, they took a special elevator straight to the 155th floor.
There is a business floor dedicated to negotiations, where meetings of various sizes can also be held.
Enter the conference hall
The AIG negotiation team found that except for a bottle of mineral water in front of each person, there was nothing else in the conference hall of Nuo Da, and the negotiation team from the Royal Family Fund did not arrive either. This was very different from the time they had been waiting here early.
Seeing this scene, the people in the negotiation team whispered and couldn't help but complain.
Chairman Douglas sat at the table silently, his eyes slightly closed, as if he was detached from anything else. Seeing this, the other people's voices also muted their discussions and began to make preparations for the negotiation.
After waiting for more than 40 minutes, several male secretaries came in from the door of the conference hall, distributed the bound contract text (draft) to AIG executives one by one, and then said politely;
"Vice Chairman Huo has something important to do and will be here later. He asked us to distribute the contract text (draft) first and ask all gentlemen to criticize and correct us. If there is no objection, we can sign the contract."
Hearing the secretary's words, CEO and President Mr. Thomas Schaefer became furious, stood up and denounced;
"This is absolutely ridiculous. I would like to protest strongly. This extremely important negotiation is still ongoing. We are facing huge differences. Where did the formal contract text (draft) come from? Where is Mr. Huo Jiaguang? If it is because of your arrogance
This attitude has led to the failure of this important negotiation that can be recorded in history. I will personally meet with His Excellency Lord Wang Yaocheng to state that none of you can bear such a heavy responsibility."
The secretary's answer was full of official tone, but also full of arrogance and non-negotiability;
"Unfortunately, I will convey the full text of your protest. Vice Chairman Huo will attach great importance to it. I believe that the chairman of the consortium will definitely support his opinion. However, the formal contract text (draft) cannot be changed. You can choose to accept it or not.
?This is your right."
"Damn it, we are negotiating and we must take into account AIG's interests and concerns."
"I'm sorry, please allow me to say one more thing. Under the current circumstances, you'd better sit down and read the official contract text carefully. Any emotions beyond reason are unprofessional. Finally, let me say it again, not a single word in the contract text will be affected."
It cannot be changed. After signing, you can get 100 billion US dollars. If you don't sign, you also understand the consequences. AIG will inevitably be dismembered. Negotiations with Vice Chairman Huo will be unnecessary. The consortium will be responsible for sending you away.
Heading to the airport, I wish you good luck on your journey."
"you……"
"I'm sorry to bother you! The final decision is still in your hands."
After that, the secretaries filed out of the conference hall and closed the soundproof door.
in the conference hall
Everyone looked at Chairman Douglas, their eyes full of humiliation, anger and injustice. They saw that the stubborn old man with white hair still had his eyes closed, but his eyeballs were shaking rapidly, showing the ups and downs.
His heart is not at peace.
"Mr. Chairman, we..."
"Shut up, everyone! Let the chairman be quiet." Larry King, the company's executive director, stopped everyone's excitement and looked at Douglas with worried eyes. He had never seen the chairman so decadent.
After a few minutes of silence
Chairman Douglas said in a hoarse voice: "Last night, I received a call from Paulson. Regarding AIG's rescue plan, it was ranked very low in priority. The possibility of implementation was less than one in ten thousand. It was time to give up illusions.
Let’s face reality, when we walk out of this door, there will be no room for the whole world.”
After saying these words with trembling lips, Chairman Douglas closed his mouth tightly and did not open his eyes again. He just sat in his position like a clay sculpture, as if he were dead.
He didn't even need to read the official contract text of the royal family fund. It must have been the proposal that came out in the previous negotiations, and not a word has been changed.
During previous negotiations;
AIG hoped to receive an advance capital injection totaling US$90 billion, but the Royal Family Fund flatly rejected it.
AIG hopes to carry out the negotiation plan in three steps. The first step is to inject 30 billion U.S. dollars to support AIG through the current crisis. The second step is to reach an intention to buy shares and then inject no less than 50 billion U.S. dollars. The third step
To carry out comprehensive cooperation to meet AIG's follow-up requirements for funds, the Royal Family Fund flatly rejected it.
AIG took a step back and proposed a follow-up plan, but Royal Family Fund flatly rejected it.
…
The royal family fund requirements are simple;
Before a formal contract is reached, AIG will not receive a dollar.
Royal Fund requested to spend US$85 billion to acquire 75% of AIG's equity. Later, based on the huge losses in the subprime mortgage trap, it revised the amount of investment funds and spent US$100 billion to acquire 89.9% of AIG's equity.
In other words, after Royal Fund invested US$100 billion in AIG, the original AIG equity only accounted for 10.1%. Board members, including Chairman Douglas, will be reduced to inconspicuous small roles, and their individual shareholding ratios will be small.
More than 1%.
This move was so cruel that it took away the entire company.
In the subsequent funding arrangements, Royal Fund promised to invest rescue funds in proportion to its equity. This part of the rescue funds was counted as AIG's financing, which was the only sincerity shown.
This is very important;
Because according to the current bad situation, AIG is expected to lose no less than 20 billion US dollars in the fourth fiscal quarter based on the loss of 35 to 40 billion US dollars in the third fiscal quarter. Only subprime loan junk bonds lost more than 860 million US dollars in the whole year of 2008.
Billion US dollars, this black hole will swallow up most of the cash flow invested by Royal Family Fund.
The reason why AIG gritted its teeth and endured it was that the golden brand of the insurance industry must not be broken. This is the maintenance of all confidence and the basis for AIG's survival.
If hundreds of millions of insurance users around the world no longer trust AIG, you can completely imagine the catastrophic prospect. This huge insurance empire will fall apart in a day.
The disaster is not over yet. As the financial crisis continues to develop, the 1.5 trillion subprime loan financial derivatives in which AIG participated will continue to cause huge losses in 2009.
It may be 50 billion US dollars, it may be 70 billion US dollars or more, it all depends on the future direction of the market.
Only by continuously investing huge amounts of cash flow from the Royal Family Fund and maintaining the confidence of AIG, the golden brand, can it be possible to reduce subsequent economic losses!
This is crucial.
In other words, the Royal Family Fund needs to use the wealth reputation it has built over more than ten years to endorse AIG, especially the dazzling halo of Wang Yaocheng, who has been the world's richest man for more than ten years. The huge wealth of the Wang Family Group of up to three trillion US dollars will not solve the problem.
AIG's current predicament is crucial.
This is like a shot in the arm, allowing the market and investors to regain confidence in American International Group.
In addition, the U.S. federal government's bailout also has the same purpose. It is also using the government's credibility to endorse enterprises.
Looking at the entire world, there are very few people who have the ability to do this. The only one who has the ability to do this and personally participated in the rescue of AIG is the Royal Family Fund. Others have too much time to take care of themselves.
Aren’t AIG’s high-quality assets attractive?
Unfortunately, the most important thing now is to save lives. Financial giants are not yet luxurious enough to squander hundreds of billions of dollars to pick peaches from other people's trees.
If your international appeal is not enough and your position in the financial market is not enough, you need to spend more money to fill the bottomless pit of AIG. Maybe 200 billion US dollars is not enough, and you need more.
This is the bloody reality that AIG is facing. Chairman Douglas said sadly: "When we walk out of this door, the entire world will no longer have a place to stay."