After the Oscar, Simon did not immediately rush to Australia as scheduled to follow up on the filming of "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice."
The acquisition of the asset management arm of State Street Bank, which Cersei Capital's Blackrock Asset Management has been promoting since last year, has finally been finalized after more than half a year of ups and downs. The biggest obstacle to this matter originally lay in Washington. After last year's midterm elections, many issues no longer mattered.
After Simon quietly withdrawn all previous political arrangements in Florida, in return, some of the last opposition voices from the Republican Party also died down.
As for the media and the public, at this stage, there are almost no media in the United States that dare to directly confront the Westeros system. It has been delayed for so long, and it is no longer news. Therefore, the whole incident has caused very little ripples in the media. Such a highly professional financial M&A was too far away from public life and lacked the media's support, so even fewer people paid attention to it.
The Simons flew to Boston on March 29 to formally sign a merger agreement with State Street Bank.
After more than half a year of development, coupled with this merger and acquisition, the total scale of assets controlled by Black Rock Asset Management has reached an unprecedented US$370 billion. At this stage, no fund company can compete with Black Rock.
Speaking of which, because it is mainly engaged in the asset management business with low risks and stable returns, Black Rock's controlled assets seem to be huge. After merging the asset management department of State Street Bank, it is expected that the annual revenue from management fees and consulting fees will be as high as Only about $1.5 billion. Due to the nature of the enterprise, Black Rock's net profit margin attributable to shareholders is relatively high, reaching 30%, so the annual profit is approximately US$450 million.
Such profits were less than one-tenth of the earnings of Cersei Fund Management, a hedging company, last year.
Relying on the crazy hedging against many technology stocks in the first half of last year, coupled with the harvest brought about by the Mexican peso crisis in Latin America in the second half of the year, in the end, throughout 1994, after deducting all handling fees, Cersei Fund Management still gained A total of huge profits of up to 6.9 billion US dollars.
However, compared with the total size of Cersei Fund Management Company's US$5 billion at the beginning of 1994, Simon currently controls this fund to around US$3 billion through continuous settlement and returns, and it will continue to shrink in the future.
Because as more and more money pours into the capital hedging industry, uncertainty in this area will increase significantly according to Soros's famous reflexive theory of the interaction between market participants and the market itself.
Moreover, capital hedging is a zero-sum game after all. Cersei Fund Management made $6.9 billion last year, which actually means that many people lost so much money, which may unknowingly contribute to the Westeros system. There are many enemies under the tree. The assassination in the first half of last year and the subsequent Woodfield Manor bombing all boiled down to the fact that someone was losing money in the capital hedging market and wanted to take a different approach.
Simon didn't want something to happen a second time.
Therefore, Simon even plans to completely withdraw Cersei Capital from the hedging field in the near future, at least not to personally participate in this part of the business, and then shift more resources to Apollo Management Company and Black Rock Asset Management Company.
Compared with the hedging business that continues to shrink, the scale of the other two subsidiaries continues to expand. This is the "real soldier" in the financial field.
During the primitive accumulation period, because the chips are too small, it doesn't matter how many times you use the 'surprise weapon'. Even if you lose them all, you won't lose too much.
Once capital develops to a certain level, it would be very irrational to continue doing this.
Moreover, for Black Rock Asset Management, although the income is far less than that of hedge funds, what Simon values is not at all, but the control of this financial giant over capital in North America and even the world. For many years to come, A large part of the world's power lies in capital.
If you control capital, you have power. The more capital you control, the greater your power.
In the original time and space, Lawrence Fink, who single-handedly controlled the Black Rock Asset Management Company with assets of US$7 trillion, was often ranked at the top of the list of powerful people in the world together with many heads of state.
Now, this hidden power will belong to the Westeros family.
After this merger, Cersei Capital, controlled by the Simons, reduced its stake in Black Rock Asset Management to 32%. However, out of trust in the Westeros family, State Street Bank will retain the 22% it received during this merger. % of the voting rights for shares of Black Rock Asset Management were granted to the Simons for a period of five years.
With a total of 54% of the voting rights, the Westeros family has absolute control over Black Rock Asset Management.
It is undeniable that Lawrence Fink is a very outstanding senior manager in the financial industry. However, whether it is State Street Bank's sale of its asset management department or the investors of its department's assets who are willing to transition to Cersei Capital, more is still valued.' Westeros' surname.
The main reason Janet pushed for this merger was to discover that Lawrence Fink was trying to erode Cersei Capital's control of Black Rock Asset Management through continuous dilution of equity. With the completion of the deal, Fink will not be fooled as long as he is not stupid. Will try this again, otherwise Simon doesn't mind kicking the other guy out.
Many small funds with assets of hundreds of millions and billions of dollars often cannot survive after losing their core people. However, the current Black Rock Asset Management Company is already a huge capital machine that can operate smoothly without anyone.
Simon accompanied Janet to stay in Boston for a day. After the merger contract was signed, Janet stayed in Boston to deal with some follow-up matters. Simon rushed to New York the next day, where there was also a lot of work accumulated for him to deal with.
As a result, the couple's planned trip to Australia has been postponed to April 3.
For two consecutive days on March 30 and March 31, Simon held professional and lengthy meetings with teams from Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and First Boston to discuss the IPO of Igret, Nokia’s listing in North America, and May. Three things to know about Lysandra's IPO.
Among them, Nokia's listing in North America will be held earliest, probably in May.
Simon chose to list Nokia on the U.S. stock market mainly to pave the development path of this communications industry giant in North America. Only by linking Nokia's interests with North American investors will it avoid all kinds of trouble in the future. , Therefore, about 10% of the additional shares will be issued this time.
As a support to Grace's husband, Bill Spurter, Nokia's listing and additional issuance will be mainly handled by First Boston.
In the past year of 1994, global mobile phone shipments continued to explode, reaching 31 million units. Nokia, which had overtaken Motorola, occupied 41% of the market share, with annual shipments of 12.7 million units. Including Nokia's base station equipment and other businesses, the company's annual revenue reached US$4.31 billion in US dollars, with a net profit of US$460 million.
Affected by the rapid growth of Nokia's performance, coupled with the popularity of new technology concepts and the fact that the company itself is a Westeros concept stock, the current market value of Nokia, which was listed on the London stock market two years ago, has reached 21.7 billion pounds. , equivalent to US$32.6 billion.
Therefore, this additional issuance of 10% shares has a financing amount of more than US$3 billion.
Completely handed over to First Boston, Simon spared no effort in supporting Bill Spurter.
The qualifications accumulated from this transaction are enough for Bill Spurter to completely secure his position as the head of the First Boston Securities Trading Department in the next few years. It is not impossible to further fully control this investment banking subsidiary affiliated with UBS in the future. Simon doesn't have any extravagant expectations. As long as he doesn't go crazy, the Swiss will definitely not allow an American to get involved in the core power of the behemoth UBS.
For the other IPOs of Ygritte and Melisandre, the lead underwriters are still jointly led by Goldman Sachs and Morgan, who have a sworn relationship with the Westeros system.
After Nokia's additional issuance in May, the IPO rhythm of Igret is basically the same as last year's Daenerys Entertainment. The employee stock ownership plan will be completed and the prospectus will be officially submitted to the SEC next month. It is expected to be officially listed in July. trade. As for Melisandre, the IPO plan has just begun, and the official listing will probably wait until early next year.
Of the three companies, Nokia and Igret, two technology companies, Simon will choose to list on the Nasdaq market, while Melisandre, a relatively traditional company, will list on the New York Stock Exchange.
April 1st, April Fool's Day.
This is Saturday.
Simon is still in New York, but Janet returned directly to Los Angeles after finishing her work in Boston yesterday. She will also take Jennifer and the three little ones on a plane to Australia this morning.
The original plan was for just the couple to rush to Australia.
It's time for two.
Janet called the old man to talk about it. He was very angry and said that if he didn't take his precious grandson with him, he wouldn't go back. Janet was not afraid of anything but her father, so she could only agree.
Because of a tacit understanding formed by the family without knowing it, the two women rushed there with their three children, and they booked first-class seats on commercial flights.
Simon will leave next Monday as planned.
After two consecutive days of meetings, Simon came to the manor in the northern suburbs of Greenwich last night and made an appointment with Celia Miller in the morning.
In the study room of the villa.
After giving a detailed report on the recent developments of the three private military companies of the Westeros family, Celia finally mentioned one more thing, about the last time she was in Ukraine, she talked about sending UFMS mercenaries to Yugoslavia to perform secret missions.
The whole story is about to be revealed.
Just at the beginning of the month, a group of mysterious armed forces suddenly attacked an armed oil train in Serbia. Not only was the train bombed, but it also caused irreversible damage to the two-kilometer railway and killed more than 30 Serbian government troops. of casualties.
After the disintegration of Yugoslavia in 1992, various ethnic groups in Serbia have been in a state of turmoil with the support of various forces.
The melee that had lasted for three years had just gotten better at the end of last year, and now, suddenly, it happened again.
No party claimed responsibility for the attack.
However, the war rekindled.
Oil shipments to Europe from the Middle East, which has just recovered somewhat, have also been hit hard again.
Even if he didn't know that someone had secretly seconded 200 soldiers from the UFMS, Simon could roughly figure out the details.
In fact, many people are well aware of this.
It's nothing more than a game.
In the final analysis, it is still about petrodollars.
When ordinary people talk about the various disputes provoked by the United States in the Middle East, they always subconsciously think that this is because the Americans want to plunder the oil resources in the Middle East.
This is not the case.
At least not the main reason.
The fundamental purpose of Americans doing this is to maintain the U.S. dollar-based oil settlement system. There is no volume of commodity trading around the world that can compare with oil. Tying the U.S. dollar to oil basically determines the U.S. dollar's settlement currency status in the global market.
Only by ensuring this can the United States harvest global wealth by controlling the issuance of dollars, and even pass on the losses that should be borne by the United States to the world when an economic crisis occurs.
The subprime mortgage crisis in 2008 is the most typical case of the United States passing on the crisis.
That crisis spread across the world, and even Africa was not spared. Many African countries fell back into turmoil due to the economic recession after 2008. However, the U.S. economy quickly rebounded after a brief downturn in 2009 and restarted a decade-long economic boom.
Unlike the rising economic data of the United States, the economies of other established capitalist countries, such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany, etc., fell into long-term turmoil and stagnation after 2008. All of this is because the United States successfully used the U.S. dollar in 2008 to deflect a major crisis that should have completely destroyed the U.S. economy.
Therefore, whether it was before 2008 or after 2008, in order to maintain the petrodollar and maintain the hegemony of the US dollar, the United States would definitely not hesitate to launch any war.
This was the root cause of the decade of turmoil in Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
This area happens to connect Europe and the Middle East.
Therefore, Europe has always wanted to build a road oil channel directly connecting Europe and the Middle East. Once this channel is completed, it will not only significantly reduce the cost of energy acquisition in Europe, but most importantly, it can also bypass the US dollar settlement system to a large extent. , realizing direct local currency settlement transactions between Europe and several Middle East oil-producing countries such as Syria, Iraq and even Iran.
As the only superpower after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States will certainly not allow this to happen.
Hence the decade of turmoil in Yugoslavia, a key node on this road.
So, starting in 1992, the melee lasted for three years. As soon as the parties calmed down a little, an oil train was bombed, and then the fighting continued.
In Simon's memory, the fighting didn't stop until after the millennium.
As for the reason.
The fate of Syria, Iraq and Iran is clear at a glance.
No one in the remaining oil-producing countries in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Kuwait, dares to mention the oil channel on a certain road. The countries in the former Yugoslavia that have finally stabilized have come to their senses, and no one is in trouble again. Otherwise, the country will be destroyed in minutes.
Although he is dominated by a soul from across the ocean, Simon also knows that the interests of the Westeros family are destined to be closely tied to the country where he lives.
In the past, as a bystander, Simon naturally criticized the brutal behavior of the United States.
Now, Simon doesn't see anything wrong with Washington doing this.
After all, this is a world of the weak and the strong.
No matter how civilized it is on the surface, it is still the law of the jungle and the strong. Countries that do not understand this or do not respect this have no future in this world.
Only by maintaining the aggressiveness derived from our genetic instincts can a country or a nation survive for a long time.
This is like two people, one is tall, strong, arrogant, and full of aggression, and the other is not small, but always holds the idea that it is better to do less than to do more, to endure the calm for a while, and to take a step back to open up the world. As a result, the arrogant and unreasonable person If you find that the other person is always tolerant of giving in, you will naturally keep attacking, and you may kill the other person accidentally.
If there are no rules that can restrict the barbarian in the world where the two of them live, then the result will only be that the barbarian takes over the good man's house, sleeps with the good man's wife, and then beats up the good man's child.
This is the final outcome.
Natural selection, survival of the fittest.
The key lies in the word 'competition'.
In Simon's memory, under the constant exaggeration of various forces, many people maintain a prejudice against Russia, believing that Russia is aggressive and belongs to the axis of evil in its core, and should beware of it.
However.
Many people seem to have forgotten the fact that Russian, the most popular language in the world, is not even ranked in the top five.
The one with the biggest head is called 'English'.
Then, there is French, which is dubbed beautiful and elegant, and is spoken in most of Africa. There is also Spanish spoken throughout the world, most widely in Latin America. Even, German and Italian.
However, because the countries behind these languages occupy enough resources, have enough voice, and occupy the moral commanding heights, they have become the symbols of civilization in the world and the makers of rules, and then use them to formulate rules. The rules continue to plunder.
If you disagree and dare not fight for it, of course you are uncivilized and evil and need to be eliminated.