Chapter 874: Choice and Influence

Deliberately slowing down the pace of his reading, Xia Yu gradually calmed down and formed a rough guess in his heart.

The Coca-Cola Company was actually not the core controlling company of the Chicago Consortium, and could only be considered on the periphery in the battle between the Morgan and Rockefeller consortia.

According to the memories of later generations, Xia Yu knew very well that the Rockefeller and Morgan consortia wanted the Chicago consortium's companies in the financial, heavy manufacturing, oil and mining sectors, and also the companies in the retail sector at the next level, such as Sears, Roebuck and Co., the Associated Department Stores, Marshall Field & Co. and Tiffany & Co.

The Coca-Cola Company, despite a market value of over ten billion US dollars, is still in the outer ring. After all, strictly speaking, the Coca-Cola Company has only been owned by the Chicago Consortium for more than 20 years.

Xia Yu guessed that one reason why the Rockefeller Consortium competed with the Morgan Consortium in the Coca-Cola Company was to cause trouble for the Morgan Consortium and tie up part of its strength; the other reason was simply that they did not want the Morgan Consortium to get the Coca-Cola Company.

As the first and second most powerful consortia in the United States, the tentacles of the Morgan and Rockefeller consortia have reached into every field. It is obviously unrealistic to try to deal a heavy blow to an opponent in just one field. The safest approach is to divide into small battlefields, constantly erode the other side's strength, and gradually widen the gap in strength.

In the food sector, the Morgan consortium is the strongest, with General Mills as its flagship company. The Morgan consortium also has a significant stake in PepsiCo, Mondelēz International, Mars, and Tyson Foods.

Although PepsiCo is currently in the hands of the First Citicorp consortium, the Morgan consortium also has a significant stake.

Given the Morgan consortium's infiltration and influence over the First Citicorp consortium, it would not be difficult for them to take over PepsiCo if they really wanted to.

If even Coca-Cola is taken over by the Morgan consortium, the Morgan consortium's position in the beverage industry will be unassailable, and other small and medium-sized beverage companies simply won't have the strength to resist.

Unless the Rockefeller consortium's think tank is stupid, they will never sit idly by and watch the Morgan consortium complete a de facto monopoly in the beverage industry.

Any business that is monopolised will be able to reap huge profits.

Once the Morgan consortium has achieved a substantial monopoly, the beverage sector will become a cash cow for the Morgan consortium, and the money will come in easily. This will be detrimental to the Rockefeller consortium!

However, as long as Coca-Cola is not acquired by the Morgan consortium, but by someone else, it will not have a significant impact on the Rockefeller consortium.

...

'Haha, Jacob Rothschild gave me the stake in Coca-Cola, probably wanting to get out of the way and let me step in and fight between the Rockefeller and Morgan consortia, and be his pawn.'

'Now David Rockefeller is using the stake in Coca-Cola to tempt me. If I dare take it, then I will face the pressure of the Morgan consortium head-on and be easily seen as someone in the Rockefeller camp. Then the stake in Philip Brothers will be exposed, and the connection will be confirmed.'

'It's even possible... that a wrong signal will be sent, leading the Morgan consortium to mistakenly believe that the Rockefeller consortium has joined forces with the Rothschild family, which will involve the energy of the Morgan consortium.'

Thinking about this, Xia Yu could not help but feel David Rockefeller's crafty tactics, killing several birds with one stone.

If he couldn't see it, it was a conspiracy.

If he could see it, it was an open conspiracy.

Regardless of whether it is a conspiracy or a conspiracy, unless he can refuse the Coca-Cola Company's stake, he will have to jump into the pit.

Obviously, Xia Yu, who was extremely confident in himself, immediately chose to jump into the pit and seize the opportunity to take the Coca-Cola Company's stake!

After making the decision, Xia Yu closed the file, smiled at David Rockefeller, and said, 'Mr. Rockefeller, although I don't know where you got the news, I have to say that I am indeed interested in the Coca-Cola Company's stake.'

'I agree with your way of cooperation.'

'However, the price of these shares, as well as the reclassification of the shares of Philip Brothers, needs to be negotiated after we acquire Philip Brothers. What do you think?'

David Rockefeller smiled and nodded: 'No problem, I will have the senior management of Chemical Bank in New York take charge of this matter.'

'Okay, I will assign someone to deal with it,' Xia Yu smiled.

After the matter was settled, Xia Yu clearly felt that David Rockefeller's attitude towards him had become much more cordial. He took the bait and accepted David Rockefeller's goodwill.

Next, David Rockefeller changed the subject and talked to Xia Yu about the political environment and general election in the United States. Xia Yu also expressed some opinions from his own standpoint. His opinions were not shocking, but they were full of substance and generally consistent with the position of the Rockefeller Group.

Ronald Reagan was destined to succeed, and the Republican Party would rule the United States. In terms of the greater good, Xia Yu was in agreement with the Rockefeller consortium.

At around 4:30 pm, Xia Yu found the opportunity to propose his leave.

David Rockefeller, in order to show his importance, also saw Xia Yu out the door and watched Xia Yu's car leave.

After returning, Xia Yu went to Jiuding Securities and Galaxy Fund one after the other to make the latest deployment.

Early the next morning, Toby Moulton led a team to New York Chemical Bank for negotiations in person.

Since both sides had received orders to conclude the deal quickly, and neither Xia Yu nor David Rockefeller was short of money and would not haggle over trivial gains,

The negotiations were therefore completed in the morning.

New York Chemical Bank transferred 22.9% of the Rockefeller consortium's equity to Jiuding Securities Company at a price of 407 million US dollars, based on the opening price of Coca-Cola that day.

Jiuding Securities Company, on the other hand, needed to calculate 407 million US dollars in futures into New York Chemical Bank's head during the asset restructuring of Philip Brothers Company, based on the opening price of today's high-grade copper futures and aluminium futures, for use in calculating the weight during the equity division.

In addition, New York Chemical Bank and Jiuding Securities will form a consortium to acquire Philip Brothers and speed up the acquisition.

The first step in the consortium acquisition was to approach the New York Stock Exchange together, submit an acquisition application, and then approach the New York Stock Exchange to submit an application for permanent delisting and stock repurchase.

Considering the strength and background of New York Chemical Bank, the people at the New York Stock Exchange agreed without saying a word, and the asset liquidation team continued to liquidate assets.

The only thing that changed was the composition of the liquidation team, with the company directors replaced by people from New York Chemical Bank and Jiuding Securities.

And after taking over, in order to avoid accidents, Galaxy Fund transferred all the senior copper futures and aluminium futures contracts to Jiuding Securities as soon as possible, and then Jiuding Securities traded with Phillip Brothers again, offsetting the long and short positions to zero, and removing most of the heavy burden of Phillip Brothers.

As for the margin owed to the New York Mercantile Exchange, it was also repaid after a sum was lent by the New York Chemical Bank, and Philip Brothers' futures trading seat was unfrozen.

Philip Brothers, a large short seller, completely withdrew from the market, which had a huge impact on the market. Top institutions knew that it was almost over.

But before they withdrew, they became even more frantic in their speculation, trying to attract enough takers to facilitate their exit.

As a result, Solomon Brothers, which had not yet completed liquidation, was in a difficult position, but it could only bear it, constantly replenishing its margin, hoping that the price bubbles of high-grade copper futures and aluminium futures would be burst and the price would fall, when it could then get out of its position.

Xia Yu also seized the opportunity and instructed his subordinates to sell the futures contracts and spot contracts they still held as soon as possible.