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Hollywood Hunter - Chapter 595

Published at 26th of October 2021 09:00:54 AM


Chapter 595: 595

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"Norman met Yeltsin at a reception for foreign investors in the Kremlin last week. He mentioned your recent selection of girls in Russia."

Domay point manor.

It's Friday, January 28.

Simon and Anthony Johnston had just sat down in the sea view reception area beside the curtain wall of shell villa when Anthony talked about it.

Janet brought coffee to her husband and brother in person. She was going to sit down next to Simon. Hearing that she lost a look in her eyes that said, "my brother's taking it out on me. Be careful." she walked away.

Simon didn't feel guilty. He wasn't surprised that Yeltsin knew that he was recruiting Uyghur waitresses in Russia. A skinny camel is bigger than a horse. If Russia, which inherited the KGB intelligence system of the former Soviet Union, can't even find out this kind of thing, it may be a complete threat to the country.

Simon also knows that he has been the focus of governments all over the world from a very early age, both overtly and covertly.

After all, he is the only one in the world who has made hundreds of billions of dollars from scratch.

After taking a sip of the coffee Janet had sent, Simon asked with a smile, "what did Yeltsin say?"

Antony didn't mean to ask questions for his sister. For his brother-in-law's unusual existence, he could hardly put on the airs of his brother: "Yeltsin said that the girls in Russia are excellent. Your selection criteria are too strict. In addition, he invited you to visit Moscow."

"I'd like to go to Moscow if I have a chance."

Anthony nodded and said, "what are so many girls for?"

Simon also did not hide, said: "I plan to train some maids for my family, you know, they must be more reliable."

Anthony said: "Sophia faessy, Alice Ferguson and Claire Gaines?"

Sophia, who runs melisandro, Alice, who runs igritte's e-commerce business, and Claire, who founded Tinkerbell, are all sort of waistrows.

Although the public media rarely discuss these, the circle is still very fond of talking about the women who stand out one by one around westrow. For this reason, there are too many women who want to get together with Simon.

Sophia fishy, these women were only selected by Simon after their personal abilities were basically shaped. Now, her brother-in-law plans to cultivate them from scratch. Anthony thinks that Norman, the younger brother in charge of the Russian business, talked to him about this, and Yeltsin said Simon's screening criteria were too strict. We can be sure that these girls will only be better in the future.

Almost can't help but ask Simon for one or two to be an assistant, but Anthony still gives up.

As an elder brother and brother-in-law, it seems that this is not very serious.

So he changed the topic and said: "speaking of Russia, Dad scolded Norman at Christmas last year. He said that you were right to remind our agent in Russia, Mikhail Friedman, not to show too much ambition in the political field. He also warned Norman to break his leg if he got too close to Yeltsin."

In recent years, the collapse of Russia has created a large number of capital oligarchs. Taking advantage of this country's opportunity to promote privatization, Russia has been vigorously expanding its assets in various fields.

Russia's local emerging oligarchs can not have too much of their own funds, so they all rely on overseas capital for blood transfusion, and the westero system has not let go of this feast.

Simon chose Mikhail Friedman, one of Russia's seven oligarchs in the 1990s, as the spokesman of the westero system, including the Johnston family, in Russia. It's the other side because Mikhail Friedman is the only "Survivor" of the seven old oligarchs since the great emperor came to power.

It's no accident.

Mikhail Friedman is a businessman who is very good at judging the situation and taking the initiative to avoid too much involvement in politics. Although doing so made him the bottom of the seven old Russian oligarchs, when other capital oligarchs who interfered and manipulated the political situation in Russia were won one after another, Friedman, who was very knowledgeable, was affirmed by the great emperor.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the westero system got in touch with Friedman ahead of other capitals and funded the other party to set up the alpha group. In recent years, it has bet more than 500 million dollars on this businessman. That's not much money for the Westeros, but it's enough to buy too much in Russia.

Although Mikhail Friedman has no political ambition in his memory, Simon is not sure whether the other party will still be like this after the time shift incident, so he has taken the initiative to remind the other party more than once.

At this point, listening to Anthony's tone, Simon asked, "Tony, don't you understand?"

"Norman was always in charge of Russia. I wasn't there that day, and my father didn't explain to me later." Anthony shook his head and said, "I just don't think it's your old layout style?"

Simon has always attached great importance to the political layout of North America and Australia. Anthony also knows that the westero system has secretly funded the affairs of current President Clinton. Therefore, Russia, which is still in turmoil, is arguably the best platform for political layout.Simon sorted out his ideas and explained: "Russia is different from us. Although it has implemented federalism, the political gene of this country that has lasted for nearly a century can not be changed. It is doomed that Russia will be a country more suitable for strongman politics. In fact, I don't think much of Yeltsin. He is more a speculator than a qualified politician. "

Anthony thought about it and said, "do you mean that there will probably be another strong national leader in Russia in the future?"

Simon nodded: "it's very likely that this kind of person will not allow the existence of business oligarchs who like to interfere in national politics. That's when oligarchs will encounter liquidation. So in Russia, as far as possible, we only do business and don't talk about politics. "

Anthony probably understood Simon's idea and said, "it's impossible not to talk about politics at all?"

"Of course, so we subsidize Yeltsin's participation in the election campaign and try our best to expand our political contacts, but we do not interfere or even manipulate. I understand that this may prevent us from fully integrating into the core circle of Moscow, and Friedman's achievements in recent years are not as good as those of other oligarchs, but this is the way to go for a long time. "

Anthony nodded and said, "I'll explain your point to my father when I go back."

Simon wondered, "well?"

Anthony said with a smile: "since my father didn't explain it to me last time, maybe he didn't quite understand it. He only warned Norman out of his trust in you."

Simon laughed, too.

With the old man's character, even if you don't understand it, you won't ask him directly. It's even more simple and rude for your son.

Simon also found a small mistake. When he reminded Mikhail Friedman, he forgot to explain his intention to Norman Johnston.

Simon has a lot of memories of his two lives. He lived on the other side of the ocean in his previous life, so it's easy to understand these joints.

In contrast, Raymond Johnston, who has been living in an open political environment in Australia, has been used to exerting influence on the government to safeguard his family interests. Therefore, even if he has enough life experience, it is probably not easy to understand the thinking mode of political figures in another system, let alone see the future like Simon.

At the end of the day, Simon is really an outlier.

All things are learned.

People's life is limited. No matter how smart and sophisticated people are, they can't cover everything. They will inevitably have their own knowledge and thinking limitations.

Simon is equivalent to having someone else's life of more than ten lives, and his insight into the future is a super bug.

With this conversation, Anthony thought of another thing: "the Russian Office of westero company is set up in St. Petersburg, and the headquarters of viper communication company is also there. Is there any special arrangement?"

Simon didn't expect Anthony to bring up the details.

The answer, of course, is yes.

Someone is working as an assistant mayor in St. Petersburg at this time. The core of Moscow used to come from St. Petersburg. Maybe some things will change in this time and space, but it won't do any harm to have a good relationship at this time. Even more, if the westero system can provide assistance at some critical moments in the future, it will surely get more generous returns.

It's just that this matter can't be explained to Anthony frankly in any case.

Fortunately, this question is easy to answer.

"At present, westero's investment in Russia is mainly in telecommunications business. As you know, St. Petersburg is very close to Helsinki. Both cities are on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, less than 300 kilometers away, which is convenient for Nokia to cooperate with Russia."

Anthony nodded, feeling nothing wrong with Simon's explanation.

Verizon Telecom of westero system and two agents in Russia, Mikhail Friedman, set up vimpelcom two years ago. The registered place of vimpelcom is Amsterdam, one of the European tax havens. It mainly carries out mobile communication business in Russia, including Internet services and other businesses, But at this stage, the penetration rate of PC in Russia is too low, and the focus in the short term is mobile communication.

Nokia, which belongs to the westero system, is naturally the only base station and terminal equipment supplier of viper communications.

Verizon Telecom provides technical and operational support, while Nokia is responsible for equipment supply. The two companies are now the largest mobile communication operator in Russia, with a considerable number of users in Moscow and St. Petersburg. At the same time, they are also trying to expand business to Ukraine, Czech Republic, Poland and other countries in Eastern Europe.

In terms of equity, Verizon Telecom and alpha group each hold 50% of the shares, and Verizon Telecom is responsible for the operation of the enterprise.

No one seems to have a controlling stake, but in fact, Westeros still holds 15% of the shares of alpha group. Johnston's family also holds 15% of the shares of alpha group. Mikhail Friedman holds 60% of the shares in name, but only 30% of the shares actually belong to him. The remaining 40% is only held on behalf of others.Not to mention the secret ownership structure of alpha group, through indirect shareholding, westero system actually has the absolute control of viper communication. Similarly, using this indirect shareholding model, the Johnston family has absolute control over alpha's oil and mining assets.

According to the Johnston family's estimation, the actual total value of Alpha Group's oil and mining assets and its low price acquisition is more than US $5 billion, while the cash input for the acquisition of these assets is less than US $300 million.

Westero's entry into Russia's telecommunications market is far more simple than Simon's imagination, and even "rash" is not enough to describe it.

The imprudence here, of course, does not refer to the Westeros system itself.

After years of watching an empire collapse in the hands of careerists and speculators, Simon felt a strong sense of pity more than once.

I feel like a crocodile.

In other words, if it had not been for the layout of the westero system in Eastern Europe and Russia in recent years, the selection of waiters would not have been so smooth. The staff team is ready-made. Simon just needs to give orders and someone will carry them out. Otherwise, if it's other upstarts who only have a lot of money but lack the strength, it's strange that they dare to play like this without being eaten by a large number of local snakes and cut another piece of meat by the way.

Simon has known for a long time that if he wants to get rid of the labels of "upstart" and "fat sheep", the key is to turn his capital into a real voice.

From 1986 to now, in more than seven years, Simon has not only owned more than 100 billion US dollars of personal assets, but also successfully transformed these personal assets into the ubiquitous powerful influence of westero system in the fields of media, fashion, entertainment, politics, finance, telecommunications, science and technology.

Besides personal wealth, Simon is most satisfied with the transformation of his strength.

Anthony Johnston wasn't in Los Angeles for no reason.

Preparations began in the middle of last year. The acquisition was officially initiated in August. The two sides reached an agreement in October. After more than three months of government review, on Wednesday, the Australian authorities officially approved the acquisition of Australian mining giant BHP by the consortium capital represented by Johnston holdings.

The deal also means further integration of the Johnston family and the westrow system.

Once the deal is approved, the next step is to pay.

Anthony is here in North America to deal with this.

Due to the continuous downturn of the Australian economy in the past half year and the depreciation of the Australian dollar against the US dollar, the final transaction price of bito was a $21.6 billion, equivalent to US $15.1 billion, lower than the initial cost estimate of US $16 billion to US $17 billion.

However, the valuation of Johnston Holdings' own mining assets in the acquisition also dropped to a $3.9 billion, equivalent to $2.8 billion, lower than the initial valuation of $3 billion.

The total size of the final transaction was a $25.5 billion, or US $17.9 billion.

In the world, the total scale of this transaction is second only to the acquisition of Reynolds nabesk with a total scale of US $33 billion and the acquisition of Philip Morris and kraft food with a total scale of US $18 billion. Moreover, unlike the former two leveraged buyouts, which created a huge debt of 10 billion US dollars, Johnston holdings and its allies will all use their own funds this time, and basically will not generate additional debt, so it appears to be more expensive.

Since the two sides reached an agreement in October last year, the acquisition has been receiving strong media attention.

On the other hand, Johnston holding group I initially only wanted to obtain 35% of the shares of the new company. However, due to the continuous decline of the Australian economic environment and the downturn of the steel industry, Morgan Stanley and other external capital that originally intended to jointly participate in the merger and acquisition reduced their investment share, which led Johnston holding and westero to bear more capital.

Therefore, in the final plan, Johnston holdings integrated the original mining assets into the new company and converted the shareholding to 15.6%.

Rio Tinto's transaction price of US $15.1 billion is still the original cash plus stock payment mode. The cash payment is US $8 billion determined at the time of initial preparation for the acquisition, and the remaining US $7.1 billion is converted into new company shares.

After the acquisition and integration, the new company will continue to be listed.

However, according to the original plan, the Johnston family and westero company only need to invest $1.5 billion each, and the rest of the funds will be held by other controlling shareholders and external capital of Johnston. Now, the total amount of cash needed to be paid by the Johnston family and Westeros has risen to $4 billion because of a reduction in the original share of Morgan and other allied capital.

Four billion dollars is not too much for Simon, but the Johnston family has some difficulty. Even the initially determined 1.5 billion dollars need to be partly loaned. After negotiation, it was finally decided that the contribution share of Johnston family remained unchanged, and that of westero company increased from US $1.5 billion to US $2.5 billion.

This also means that after the completion of the acquisition, only westero's shareholding in the new company will reach 13.9%. For a large mining group, this is already a very high proportion. As a public holding company, the original BHP has few shareholders holding more than 5%.The $1.5 billion contribution from the Johnston family and the $1 billion contribution from other shareholders of Johnston holdings also obtained a 13.9% stake.

With 15.6% of the original mining assets of Johnston holdings put into the new company, the total holding amount of Johnston holdings will reach 43.4%, far exceeding the initial expectation of 35% holding proportion, which is not far from absolute holding.

In order to avoid monopolizing capital to control the country's core industries and then manipulate the market to affect the economy, the Australian government's audit of the acquisition case lasted for more than three months, and finally reluctantly passed.

And it's lucky.

Because the world trade organization will be officially established in April this year.

If we delay for a few more months, it will involve iron ore, a core resource industry that is very sensitive all over the world, and a huge M & A with a total transaction scale of 17.9 billion US dollars, it will certainly need to be approved by other WTO Member States before it can be released, and it will only take a longer time.

With the completion of the acquisition, Johnston holdings wants to go further according to Simon's idea and build BHP Billiton group in the original space-time. Will it increase significantly. Therefore, the first thing to do next is to step up efforts to lobby the Australian government to formulate a more relaxed anti-monopoly regulation bill on the iron ore industry.

We should attach importance to capital, strengthen supervision and periodicity.

These are all important weaknesses in the field of energy and mining. Simon would not be willing to set foot in this field if it was not for the strong capital accumulation of the westrow system and the absolutely trusted partners like the Johnston family.

However, investment in capital intensive areas such as energy and mining is inevitable for the westero system. Because with the current size of the westero system, it is impossible to focus on the small fights of millions and tens of millions of dollars.

According to the rough statistics of the annual financial report, only in the past year, the annual net profit of danielis group reached $2.27 billion.

Verizon Telecom, melisandro company, cersei capital and other core enterprises of the Westeros system, although the current profit scale can not be compared with that of Denise entertainment, they also continue to produce very considerable profits. Even companies like igritte and AOL, which are still in the red, do not need westero to invest too much money because of the increase of turnover and the development of external equity and debt financing.

This makes the whole westrow system will continue to generate more and more capital surplus.

Simon continues to buy luxury houses and large tracts of land that can't be developed. He spends no less than the cost of cultivating a princess to train the waiters of the Uygur family. He often gives expensive gifts worth millions of dollars to vases around him. In some people's eyes, this kind of luxury has been so extravagant that people and gods are angry, but the private expenses in the past year are very low It's less than $500 million, which is only equivalent to the annual profit scale of Verizon Telecom, and even less than Daniels entertainment, cersei capital and melisandro.

So, what should we do with the huge amount of cash in the whole westrow system every year?

Of course, we need to invest!

Otherwise, these funds will only continue to depreciate in the dollar inflation.

In my memory, many people think that it is not wise for bafi to buy tens of billions of dollars of apple stock. The key is that these people ignore one point. Berkshire Hathaway, whose cash reserves reach 100 billion and has a large amount of cash every year, can only invest in a giant enterprise with a trillion dollar market value like apple.

At the beginning of the 1990s, the gold content of the US dollar is still very high, and most enterprise giants generally have only US $120 billion. As a result, the westrow system, which earns billions of dollars a year, is now facing the problems of Berkshire Hathaway 20 years later.

Complete the layout of relatively familiar industries such as entertainment, science and technology, fashion and so on. If westrow system wants to continue to expand, Simon can only expand to other unfamiliar fields.

Moreover, if you want to seek the right to speak in the process of investment, there are not many areas you can invest in.

For example, Simon really wants to buy Boeing company with a market value of only about 20 billion US dollars, but westero and cersei capital's funds, which continue to absorb Boeing shares, have not yet reached 10% of the shares of the aviation and giant, and have received an inquiry letter from the Federal Department of Justice, asking westero and cersei capital to explain their purchase of Boeing shares The intention of the government.

After several negotiations between the two sides, although westero system was not prohibited from buying Boeing shares, the Ministry of justice restricted westero system to obtain at most one seat on the board of directors of Boeing. It can be imagined that if Simon wants to buy Boeing as a whole, he will only get a 100% veto.




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