Chapter 719: Floating profit of 1.1 billion US dollars

After arranging the food, Xia Yu began to deal with the backlog.

He first picked up the summary table of major news events that the Jiuding News Agency had specially provided for him to read.

The Jiuding News Agency collects news from all over the world, big and small, and then uses it in different newspapers or on TV depending on the choice.

It would be unrealistic for Xia Yu to read it all, and he doesn't have the time.

Therefore, it has been stipulated since the establishment of the Jiuding News Agency that major and relevant news will be listed separately and presented to him in a concise and clear format, so that he can easily keep abreast of the ever-changing international situation at any time.

From the day he went north, Xia Yu slowly browsed down.

Facts have proved that the influence of his butterfly wings is not great enough, and what was supposed to happen in Iran still happened.

Just a few days after Xia Yu left, on 4 November, more than 4,000 students in the Iranian capital Tehran, supported by Khomeini, occupied the US embassy, tore down the American flag and replaced it with a white flag with the words 'XX is great' written on it. They also detained 66 American diplomats and citizens as hostages to force the US to hand over the former Shah, Reza Pahlavi.

This caused a huge sensation around the world. International crude oil prices soared instantly.

US President Jimmy Carter then immediately exerted economic and diplomatic pressure on Iran, ending oil imports from Iran on 12 November 1979, and some Iranians were expelled from the United States.

By 14 November, some $8 billion worth of Iranian assets in the United States had been frozen.

The conflict intensified further, and in retaliation, Iran also imposed an oil embargo on the United States.

In just over ten days, the international crude oil price had risen to US$26.20 a barrel, and the rise was still quick.

Xia Yu immediately did some mental arithmetic.

Previously, the Milky Way Fund had bought US$4 billion worth of international crude oil futures at an average price of US$20.40 a barrel.

The value of this batch of crude oil futures had now risen to US$5.13 billion.

In just over ten days, the unrealised profit has exceeded 1.1 billion US dollars!

After arriving at this figure, Xia Yu's mouth curved up in a smile, and he was in a great mood.

'No rush, no rush, the price will keep rising!'

On the other hand, the international crude oil price has skyrocketed, and Iran has imposed an oil embargo on the United States, which has led to a decrease in the amount of oil transported from the Middle East to the United States, which has had a certain impact on the tanker shipping industry.

The stock prices of several major shipping companies in Hong Kong have been affected.

Although Wah Kwong Shipping is mainly engaged in container ships, it also has a considerable business in tanker transportation and has also been impacted.

Seeing Wah Kwong Shipping, Xia Yu thought that he hadn't paid attention to the progress of the acquisition of equity for so long, and he didn't know how Wang Qi was doing.

Thinking about this, Xia Yu spent more than an hour dealing with the backlog of things in his hands, and then instructed the subordinate in the chairman's office to notify each company to come and collect the approved documents, and then planned to set off for Jiuding Securities Company.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he left the office, he saw Gavin Peter walking over with a pile of documents. When he saw Xia Yu, he immediately forced a smile and quickened his pace.

'Looks like I won't be able to go to Jiuding Securities this morning,'

Xia Yu thought to himself.

Then he smiled and called in Gavin Peter, who he hadn't seen for a long time, into his office.

After taking a seat, Xia Yu asked, 'Gavin, when did you get back?'

Previously, he had arranged for Yan Wenhan and Gavin Peter to begin their respective paths of international expansion, after which Gavin Peter went to Europe.

Gavin Peter smiled and said, 'Chairman, I returned three days ago. At the time, I wanted to report to you, but I learned that you had not yet returned. So, today, knowing that you are in the office, I came over.'

'These days, I have travelled to various European countries, investigating the publishing sector in each country. Here is a report I have written. Please take a look.'

After saying this, Gavin Peter took a report out of a stack of documents and handed it to Xia Yu with both hands.

Xia Yu took it and said, 'There's coffee over there, help yourself, I'll read it first!'

'Okay!'

Gavin Peter replied, then got up and walked over to the coffee machine in the corner.

At this time, Xia Yu slowly started reading.

It was the late 1970s, and the European economy was in the doldrums. People were struggling to make ends meet, let alone spend money on books and magazines.

For this reason, the European publishing and media market had been declining year after year.

The only country that was still experiencing rapid growth was West Germany.

The report stated that if you wanted to establish a foothold in the publishing industry on the European continent, the best option was to simultaneously establish a foothold in France, West Germany and Spain, creating a triangular foundation, and then, once you had established a firm foothold, enter other national markets.

The most important of these is West Germany, followed by France and then Spain.

Although Germany is still not reunified, West Germans are the most willing to invest in spiritual culture. Last year, 62,414 titles were published, making it the third largest publishing country in the world, after the USA and the Red Polar Bear.

After analysing the publishing market in Europe, the situation in the publishing markets of West Germany, France and Spain is then listed.

In West Germany, according to statistics from the West German Publishing Association, there are more than 2,100 publishing houses in the country, of which 65 are large, more than 80 are medium-sized, and the rest are small.

The publishing houses were mainly concentrated in the three publishing centres of West Germany, namely Stuttgart, Frankfurt and Cologne. At that time, the top five publishing companies in Germany were Bertelsmann Verlag, Deutsche Buch-Kunst-Verlag, Holtzbrinck Verlag, Springer Verlag and Carl Hanser Verlag.

Behind each publishing company, Gaven Peter marked the characteristics, analysed the prospects, roughly valued and ranked the possibility of being acquired.

In addition to publishing companies, the survey report also details large nationwide book and periodical wholesalers in West Germany, the top five large bookstores in the country, and so on.

After the publishing companies in West Germany, the same ones in France and Spain are also listed.

It took Xia Yu nearly an hour to read the thick survey report of nearly 20 pages.

But after reading it, Xia Yu had a clear impression of the publishing markets in West Germany, France and Spain.

Putting down the survey report in his hands, Xia Yu praised, 'Gavin, you've done a solid job, well done!'

Gavin Peter smiled and said modestly, 'This is my job, what I should do.'

In fact, this is also the case. The better the preliminary investigation work, the more beneficial it is for subsequent international expansion. There is also competition and comparison within the consortium. Gavin Peter certainly does not want to be outdone by others and hopes to develop the company as well as possible.

Xia Yu nodded with satisfaction, took a sip of tea, and said, 'Gavin, since you have done such a thorough investigation, which companies do you plan to acquire and what are the reasons?'