"Norman attended a reception for foreign investors in the Kremlin last week and met Yeltsin. He mentioned your recent selection of girls in Russia."
Dume Point Estate.
The time is Friday, January 28th.
Simon and Anthony Johnston had just sat down in the reception area with a great view of the sea by the curtain wall of the Shell Villa, when Anthony talked about it.
Janet personally brought coffee to her husband and brother. She was originally going to sit down next to Simon, but when she heard this, she gave a look of "My brother took it out on me, please be careful" and walked away on her own initiative.
Simon had no guilt, and was not surprised that Yeltsin knew that he was recruiting Wei family maids in Russia. A skinny camel is bigger than a horse. If Russia, which inherited the KGB intelligence system of the former Soviet Union, could not detect such a thing, There may be worries about complete overthrow of the country.
Simon also knows that he has been the focus of governments around the world from a very early stage, whether openly or covertly.
After all, he is the only self-made billionaire in the world.
After taking a sip of the coffee brought by Janet, Simon smiled and asked, "What did Yeltsin say?"
Anthony had no intention of starting an attack on his sister's behalf. For his brother-in-law, who was an anomaly, it was difficult for him to assume the role of his brother: "Yeltsin said that all girls in Russia are excellent, but your selection criteria are too strict. In addition, he also invites you to visit Moscow if you have the opportunity."
"There may be a chance. In fact, I would also like to visit Moscow."
Anthony nodded, but couldn't help but said: "Why choose so many girls?"
Simon didn't hide anything, and said: "I plan to train some maids for the family. You know, the ones you train yourself will definitely be more reliable."
Anthony said: "Like Sofia Fessey, Alice Ferguson and Claire Gein?"
Sophia, who is in charge of Melisandre's company, Alice, who is in charge of Ygritte's e-commerce business, and Claire, who founded Tinkerbyle Company, are all considered to be maids from the Westeros family.
Although these are rarely discussed in the public media, the circle is still very fond of the women around Westeros who are challenging each other. There are countless women who want to get close to Simon for this reason.
Women like Sophia Fessi were only selected by Simon after their personal abilities were basically finalized. Now, his brother-in-law plans to train them from scratch. Anthony thought about how his brother Norman, who was in charge of the Russian business, had talked to him about this matter and how Yeltsin had said that Simon's selection criteria were too strict. He could be sure that these girls would only become better in the future.
He almost couldn't help but ask Simon for one or two assistants, but Anthony gave up even as he spoke.
As an uncle and brother-in-law, it doesn’t seem very solemn to say this.
So he changed the subject and said: "Speaking of Russia, Dad scolded Norman last Christmas. He said that you should not show too much political field to our agent in Russia, Mikhail Friedman. Ambition’s reminder was spot on, and Norman was warned to break his legs if he got too close to Yeltsin.”
In recent years, the collapse of Russia has created a large number of capital oligarchs, who have taken advantage of the country's promotion of privatization to accumulate assets in various fields.
Russia's emerging oligarchs cannot have much of their own funds, so they rely on overseas capital for blood transfusions. The Westeros system has not let go of this gluttonous feast.
Simon selected Mikhail Friedman, one of the seven major oligarchs in Russia in the 1990s in the original time and space, as the spokesman for the Westeros system, including the Johnston family, in Russia. The reason why it is the other party is because Mikhail Friedman is the only 'survivor' among the seven old oligarchs after the Great Emperor came to power.
This is no accident either.
Mikhail Friedman is a businessman who is very good at assessing situations and actively avoids getting too involved in politics. Although this made him the last among the seven old Russian oligarchs, when other capital oligarchs who interfered and manipulated Russia's political situation were taken down one after another, the very sensible Friedman was affirmed by the emperor.
Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Westeros system has contacted Friedman before other capital and funded the establishment of Alpha Group. In recent years, it has bet more than $500 million on this businessman. This amount of money is nothing to the Westeros system, but it is enough to buy a lot of things in Russia.
Although Mikhail Friedman had no political ambitions in his memory, Simon was not sure whether he would still do so after the time-shift incident, so he took the initiative to remind him more than once.
Listening to Anthony's tone at this time, Simon asked: "Tony, you don't understand either?"
"Norman has always been in charge of things in Russia. I was not there that day, and my father didn't explain it to me later." Anthony shook his head and said, "I just feel that this is not your previous layout style?"
Simon has always attached great importance to the political layout of North America and Australia, and Anthony also knows that the Westeros system secretly funded the current President Clinton. Therefore, Russia, which is still in a state of turmoil, is the best platform for political layout.
Simon sorted out his thoughts and explained: "Russia is different from us. Although it has implemented a federal system, the country's political genes that have lasted for nearly a century cannot be changed. This is destined to be a country more suitable for strongman politics. On this point, I am actually very unfavorable to Yeltsin, he is more of a speculator than a qualified politician."
Anthony thought for a while and said: "You mean, there is likely to be another strong national leader in Russia in the future?"
Simon nodded: "The probability of this is very high, and once such people appear, they will definitely not allow business oligarchs who like to interfere in national politics to exist. At that time, the oligarchs will be liquidated. Therefore, in Russia, we try our best to only It’s business, not politics.”
Anthony probably understood Simon's thinking and said: "It's impossible not to talk about politics at all, right?"
"Of course, so we funded Yeltsin's campaign and expanded our political connections as much as possible without interfering or even manipulating. I understand that doing so may prevent us from fully integrating into Moscow's inner circle," Friedman said in recent years. The results are not as good as those of other oligarchs, but this is the long-term solution.”
Anthony nodded and said, "I will explain your point of view to my father when I get back."
Simon was confused: "Huh?"
Anthony smiled and said: "Since my father didn't explain it to me last time, he probably didn't understand it very well. He only warned Norman out of his trust in you."
Simon laughed too.
With the old man's character, even if he didn't understand the matter, he would not ask him directly, and he would be even more simple and rude to his son.
Simon also discovered a small mistake on his part. When he reminded Mikhail Friedman, he forgot to explain his intentions to Norman Johnston.
Simon has many memories of two lives, and he lived on the other side of the ocean in his previous life, so he can easily understand these joints.
In comparison, Raymond Johnston, who has always lived in an open political environment like Australia, has been accustomed to safeguarding his family's interests by exerting influence on the government. Therefore, even if he has enough life experience, it is probably not easy to understand other people. The thinking model of a political figure within the system is even less likely to be able to see the future like Simon.
Ultimately, Simon is truly an anomaly.
Insight into worldly affairs is all knowledge.
Human life is limited, and even the most savvy and sophisticated people cannot cover everything. They will inevitably have their own limitations of knowledge and thinking.
Simon is equivalent to having someone else live more than ten lives, and his insight into the future is a super bug.
While chatting like this, Anthony remembered another thing: "The Westeros Company's office in Russia is set up in St. Petersburg, and the headquarters of Viper Communications Company is also there. Is there any special arrangement for this?"
Simon hadn't expected Anthony to mention this detail.
The answer is of course yes.
Someone is working as an assistant to the mayor of St. Petersburg at this time. The core of the former Moscow basically came from the St. Petersburg family. Maybe some things will change in this time and space, but there will be no harm in establishing a good relationship at this time. Even if the Westeros system can provide assistance at certain critical moments in the future, it will definitely receive more generous returns.
It's just that this matter cannot be explained frankly to Anthony.
Fortunately, this question is also easy to answer.
"Westeros' current investment in Russia is mainly in the telecommunications business. As you know, St. Petersburg is very close to Helsinki. Both cities are on the shores of the Gulf of Finland. The distance is less than 300 kilometers, which makes it convenient for Nokia to cooperate with Russia. "
Anthony nodded, feeling nothing wrong with Simon's explanation.
Verizon Telecom of the Westeros system and two agents in Russia Mikhail Friedman established VimpelCom two years ago. VimpelCom is registered in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, one of the most popular tax havens in Europe, mainly carries out mobile communications business in Russia, and of course also includes other businesses such as Internet services. However, the penetration rate of PCs in Russia is too low at this stage, so the focus in the short term is still on mobile communications.
Nokia, which also belongs to the Westeros system, is naturally the only base station and terminal equipment supplier for Wiper Communications.
Verizon Telecom provides technical and operational support, and Nokia is responsible for equipment supply. The two companies have joined forces and are now the largest mobile communications operator in Russia. They have a considerable number of users in Moscow and St. Petersburg. They are also trying to Expand business in Eastern European countries such as Ukraine, Czech Republic, and Poland.
In terms of equity, Verizon Telecom and Alpha Group each hold 50% of the shares, and Verizon Telecom is responsible for corporate operations.
It seems that no one has a controlling stake, but in fact, Westeros Company still holds 15% of the shares of Alpha Group. The Johnston family also holds 15% of the shares of Alpha Group. Mikhail Fried Mann's nominal shareholding ratio is 60%, but only 30% of the shares actually belong to him personally, and the remaining 40% is only held on behalf of others.
Not to mention the secret shareholding structure of Alpha Group, through indirect shareholding, the Westeros system actually has absolute control over Viper Communications. Similarly, using this indirect shareholding model, the Johnston family actually has absolute control over the oil and mining assets of Alpha Group.
According to the estimates of the Johnston family, the actual total value of the oil and mining assets acquired by Alpha Group at low prices exceeds US$5 billion, while the cash investment for acquiring these assets is less than US$300 million.
The Westeros system has entered the Russian telecommunications market, and its simplicity is far beyond Simon's imagination. Even "reckless" is not enough to describe it.
The rashness here certainly does not refer to the Westeros system itself.
After several years of watching with cold eyes as an empire collapsed and dissipated at the hands of careerists and speculators, Simon felt strong pity more than once.
Feel like a crocodile.
Having said that, if it were not for the layout of the Westeros system in Eastern Europe and Russia in recent years, the selection of Wei family maids would not be so smooth this time. The personnel team is ready-made, Simon only needs to give orders and someone will execute them. Otherwise, it would be strange if other upstarts with only a large sum of money and lack of real strength dare to play like this without being eaten up by a large number of local snakes and then cut off a piece of meat.
Simon understood very early that if he wanted to get rid of labels such as 'upstart' and 'fat sheep', the most critical step was to transform the capital he owned into a real right to speak.
From 1986 to now, in more than seven years, Simon not only has personal assets of more than 100 billion US dollars, but these personal assets have also been successfully transformed into the Westeros system in media, fashion, entertainment, politics, finance, and telecommunications. Ubiquitous and powerful influence in , technology and other fields.
Apart from personal wealth, this transformation of strength is what makes Simon most satisfied.
Anthony Johnston isn't in Los Angeles for no reason.
Preparations began in the middle of last year. The acquisition was officially launched in August. The two parties reached an agreement in October. After more than three months of government review, just this Wednesday, the Australian authorities officially approved the consortium represented by Johnston Holdings. Capital’s acquisition of Australian mining giant Billiton.
This transaction also means the further integration of the Johnston family into the Westeros system.
The transaction is approved and the next step is to pay the money.
It was this matter that Anthony came to North America to deal with.
Due to factors such as the continued downturn of the Australian economy over the past half year and the depreciation of the Australian dollar against the US dollar, Billiton's acquisition price was ultimately A$21.6 billion, equivalent to US$15.1 billion, which was lower than the initial cost estimate of US$16 billion to US$17 billion. estimate.
However, the valuation of Johnston Holdings' own mining assets in this merger was also reduced to A$3.9 billion, equivalent to US$2.8 billion, lower than the original valuation of US$3 billion.
The final total transaction size was A$25.5 billion, equivalent to US$17.9 billion.
Worldwide, the total size of this transaction is second only to the $33 billion Reynolds-Nabisco merger in the late 1980s and the $18 billion merger between Philip Morris and Kraft Foods. Moreover, unlike the previous two leveraged buyouts that created huge debts of tens of billions of dollars, Johnston Holdings and its allies will use all their own funds this time and will basically not incur additional debt, so they appear to be even more generous.
Since the two parties reached an agreement in October last year, the acquisition has attracted intense media attention.
On the other hand, the Johnston Holdings Group initially only hoped to obtain 35% of the new company's shares. However, affected by the continued decline of the Australian economic environment and the downturn of the steel industry, Morgan Stanley and other external parties were originally interested in jointly participating in the merger. Capital reduces the investment share, resulting in Johnston Holdings and the Westeros Corporation having to take on more funds.
Therefore, in the final plan, the original mining assets of Johnston Holdings were integrated into the new company, and the converted shareholding was 15.6%.
Rio Tinto's transaction price of US$15.1 billion is still based on the original cash and stock payment model. The cash payment is US$8 billion determined when initially preparing for the acquisition, and the remaining US$7.1 billion is converted into shares of the new company.
After completing the acquisition integration, the new company will remain listed.
However, according to the original plan, the Johnston family and the Westeros company only needed to invest US$1.5 billion each, and the remaining funds were covered by other shareholders of Johnston Holdings and external capital. Now, because the original investment share of Morgan and other allies' capital has been reduced, the total cash payment required by the Johnston family and the Westeros company has increased to US$4 billion.
US$4 billion is not too much for Simon, but the Johnston family is in some difficulty. Even the initially determined US$1.5 billion requires a partial loan. After negotiations, it was finally decided that the Johnston family's share of investment would remain unchanged, and the Westeros Company's share of investment would increase from US$1.5 billion to US$2.5 billion.
This also means that after the acquisition is completed, Westeros' shareholding in the new company will reach 13.9%. This is already a very high proportion for a large mining group. The original Billiton was a public holding company. , there are very few shareholders holding more than 5% of the shares.
The Johnston family's US$1.5 billion and US$1 billion from other shareholders of Johnston Holdings also obtained 13.9% of the equity.
Including the 15.6% of Johnston Holdings' original mining assets invested in the new company, the total shareholding of Johnston Holdings will reach 43.4%, far exceeding the initial expected 35% shareholding ratio, and it is already close to absolute control. Not far.
In order to prevent monopoly capital from controlling the country's core industries and manipulating the market to affect the economy, the Australian government reviewed the acquisition for more than three months and finally passed it reluctantly.
Moreover, this is already considered lucky.
Because the World Trade Organization will be formally established in April this year.
If it is delayed for a few more months, if it involves a core resource industry such as iron ore, which is very sensitive around the world, and a huge merger with a total transaction size of US$17.9 billion, it will definitely need to go through other member states of the World Trade Organization. It will only be released with approval, which will only make it more protracted.
After completing this merger, Johnston Holdings wants to go further in accordance with Simon's vision and build the BHP Billiton Group in the original time and space. Will it increase significantly? Therefore, the first thing to do next is to increase efforts to lobby the Australian government to formulate a more relaxed antitrust supervision bill for the iron ore industry.
Emphasis on capital, strong supervision, and cyclicality.
These are important shortcomings in the field of energy and mining. If the Westeros system had not already accumulated sufficient capital and had an absolutely trustworthy partner like the Johnston family, Simon would not be willing to get involved in this field. .
However, investing in capital-intensive fields such as energy and mining is a necessity for the Westeros system. Because with the current size of the Westeros system, it is impossible to focus on small things worth millions or tens of millions of dollars.
According to rough statistics of the annual financial report, in the past year alone, the Daenerys Group's full-year net profit reached US$2.27 billion.
Although the current profit scale of core companies in the Westeros system such as Verizon Telecom, Melisandre Company, and Cersei Capital cannot be compared with Daenerys Entertainment, they also continue to generate very considerable profits. Even companies such as Igrit and AOL that are still losing money do not need Westeros to invest too much money due to the increase in turnover and the development of external equity and debt financing.
This will cause the entire Westeros system to continue to generate more and more financial surpluses.
Simon continues to buy luxury properties all over the world, buying large tracts of land that cannot be developed at all, spending as much as training a princess to train Wei family maids, and frequently giving vases worth millions to those around him Expensive gifts in US dollars, etc., seem to some people to be extravagant to the point of outrage. However, personal spending in the past year was less than US$500 million. This amount is only equivalent to the annual profit of Verizon Telecom, or even It’s all less than what companies such as Daenerys Entertainment, Cersei Capital, and Melisandre are spending.
So, what should the entire Westeros system do with the huge amount of cash that comes in every year
Of course you have to invest!
Otherwise, these funds will only continue to depreciate in dollar inflation.
In my memory, Buffett's massive purchase of tens of billions of dollars of Apple stock was considered unwise by many people. The key is that these people ignored one thing. Berkshire Hathaway has a cash reserve of hundreds of billions and receives large sums of cash every year. , the only targets that can be invested are corporate giants like Apple with a market capitalization of trillions of dollars.
In the early 1990s, the gold content of the U.S. dollar was still very high, and most corporate giants generally only had one to two billion U.S. dollars. As a result, the Westeros system, which earns billions of dollars every year, is now beginning to face the problems that Berkshire Hathaway will have twenty years later.
After completing the layout of relatively familiar industries such as entertainment, technology, and fashion, if the Westeros system wants to continue to expand, Simon can only expand into other unfamiliar areas.
Moreover, if you still want to have the right to speak in the investment process, there are actually not many areas in which you can invest.
For example, Simon really wants to buy Boeing, which currently has a market value of only about 20 billion US dollars. However, Westeros Corporation and Cersei Capital's funds, which continue to absorb Boeing's shares, have not yet reached 10% of the shares of this aviation and giant. , has received a letter of inquiry from the Federal Department of Justice, requesting Westeros Corporation and Cersei Capital to explain their intention to buy Boeing shares.
After several negotiations between the two parties, although the Westeros System was not prohibited from continuing to buy Boeing stocks, the Department of Justice restricted the Westeros System to a maximum of one seat on Boeing's board of directors. It is conceivable that if Simon wants to fully acquire Boeing, the result will only be 100% rejected.