Chapter 878: The enemy of my enemy is my friend

'Knock, knock, knock...'

A series of rapid footsteps came from afar, waking up the stunned Barrington Balling.

Barrington Barrington looked in the direction of the sound and was shocked to see his son, Bradley Barrington, walking towards him with a grave expression on his face.

Combining the events of this period of time, he had a suspicion in his mind.

He stood up and, with mixed emotions, asked, 'Bradley, is there a result regarding the ownership of the bank?'

Bradley Barrington walked right up to him, nodded with a complex expression on his face, and sighed, saying, 'Yes, Father.'

Barrett Balling shook, and asked with a strong composure, 'Tell me, who is taking over? Is it Barclays Bank?'

Although Balling Bank was controlled by the Balling family, it was listed after all, and most of the bank's assets belonged to the public. The assets belonging to the Balling family were no longer enough to cover the losses.

Therefore, Balling Bank was naturally forcibly taken over by the Bank of England. Barrett Balling had long been aware of this and was mentally prepared to be taken over.

As long as it was taken over by someone else, it was fine, but he didn't want to see Barclays Bank taken over by the Rothschild family!

Thinking about what Carter Howard had told him, a surge of anger welled up in Balit Balin's heart, and a flush appeared on his wrinkled face.

Bradley Ballin did not see his father's unusual behaviour. He shook his head and said, somewhat puzzled, 'It's not Barclays Bank. The Bank of England has already held a press conference. After voting, it has been agreed that the Ballin Bank will be taken over by a consortium consisting of the Yue Ding Bank, the Bright Fund and the Black Rose Capital Company for one pound, and the consortium will assume all the debts of the bank.'

Ballit Ballin stood up abruptly, his face full of disbelief, and asked again, 'Not Barclays Bank?'

Bradley Balling decisively shook his head and said, 'No, the proposal from Barclays Bank only received four votes and was not passed. The only proposal that was passed was the one from the consortium led by the Rockefeller Foundation.'

After saying this, he angrily said, 'Father, I think this is all a conspiracy between the Howard family and the Rockefeller Foundation. They went against us in the futures market, shorted our bank's shares in the stock market, and now they have defeated Barclays Bank and taken over our Balling Bank. They are the ultimate beneficiaries, and they must have done it!'

But Barrett Balin shook his head with a bitter smile and sighed.

If Carter Howard had not visited him, and perhaps learned of this result, he would have thought the same as his son.

But after seeing the evidence that Carter Howard had produced, he already knew the truth.

Although the Howard family and Bright Fund were the beneficiaries, it could only be said that the benefits were taken from the Rothschild family. If Balin Bank had not been cheated by the Rothschild family, none of this would have happened.

Carter Howard had visited him in person and had made things clear, so he couldn't hate him even if he wanted to.

'Father, what's wrong? Isn't it them?'

Bradley Baring frowned and asked, seeing his father's strange expression.

Barrett Baring sat back down and sighed, saying, 'It's not them, it's a plot by the Rothschilds.'

Bradley Ballinger's eyes widened in disbelief: 'How could it be the Rothschilds?'

'It's them!'

After saying this, Barrett Ballinger got up, went to a locked drawer, took out a kraft paper document bag, and returned to give it to his son.

'There is strong evidence in here. Before you came back, the Duke of Carter Howard came by, and these are the things he brought with him.'

Bradley Balling quickly opened it and took out a thick stack of documents to browse through.

As he continued to browse, his face kept changing.

After a long time, Bradley Balling finally looked up. He suddenly looked up, his eyes bloodshot, and said hatefully, 'Father, Curtis Bard is a traitor, and George Monroe is an accomplice. There's also the Rothschild family. We must go to court to sue them!'

But Barrington Balling shook his head helplessly and sighed, 'It's useless. This evidence is enough to let us know the truth, but it is not enough to be evidence for prosecution. There is no paper evidence here between Curtis Bard and George Monroe and the Rothschild family.'

Bradley Balling was stunned, his fists clenched, his teeth clenched, his heart filled with indignation. He thought back carefully to the information he had just read, but he had to admit that his father was right.

The presumption of innocence and the principle of doubt are enough to make their lawsuit fail.

Although they now logically assume that the Rothschilds are behind it, the law is in favour of the defendant, who does not need to provide evidence to prove his innocence, and their subjective thoughts cannot be used as evidence to establish facts.

If they cannot win the lawsuit, then the costs will outweigh the benefits.

What is more, the Barings have already lost Barings Bank, and without Barings Bank, the Barings family is no longer in a position to challenge the Rothschilds without official help.

'Father, are we just going to let this happen?'

Bradley Baring asked, his eyes fixed on his father's.

Barrett Baring nodded slowly, 'Yes, if we cannot defeat the other side in one fell swoop, then we must temporarily bow our heads.'

After a pause, his eyes hardened. He said firmly, 'But that doesn't mean we should forget our hatred. Our priority is to make the family strong again. The Rothschilds pray that there will be no more crises, otherwise when they are down, it will be time for us to strike back!'

Bradley Ballin nodded sadly in response, 'I understand, Father.'

'What about the Howards and the Bright Foundation?'

Barrington Ballin thought for a moment and said, 'They stole Baring Bank from the Rothschilds, so the relationship between the two sides must be very bad. Since we have decided to be hostile to the Rothschilds, the Howards and the Bright Foundation cannot afford to offend them.'

'I understand. I will help them take over Baring Bank smoothly,' said Bradley Ballin with mixed feelings.

'Well, just do it...' Ballin sighed after saying that.

...

The Bahraini family's cooperation was truly a surprise to George Berkeley, but this situation was undoubtedly the best.

In just two days, the 218-year-old Bahraini Bank was acquired by a consortium led by the Locke Fund for a nominal price of one pound.

The new Bahraini Bank is owned 35% by the Locke Fund, 25% by Jiuding Bank, 20% by Guangming Fund, and 20% by Black Rose Capital.

The day after the acquisition, the Bank of Bahrain faced a major reshuffle, in which Curtis Bard and George Monroe were directly dismissed, as were their cronies. The former president of the Bank of Bahrain, Peter Nils, voluntarily submitted his resignation, which was approved by the board of directors.

The new president was Brian Pitman, a vice president poached from Lloyds Bank, and this person was also handpicked by Xia Yu.

Although Lord Carter Howard did not know why Xia Yu wanted to recruit him, he still used his influence to persuade him to come over, based on his trust in Xia Yu.

There was a reason why Brian Pitman was Xia Yu's choice.

In the original trajectory, Lloyds Bank had suffered heavy losses in the Latin American sovereign debt crisis, its asset size ranked lowest among the four major commercial banks in the UK, and its capital base had become quite weak.

However, after Brian Pitman became the president of Lloyds Bank in 1983, he quickly changed the strategy, using extremely clever business practices to integrate a series of banking businesses and develop new businesses. In just fifteen years, in 1998, he turned Lloyds Bank into the bank with the world's highest market value, with a market value of 68.7 billion pounds at its peak!

For this reason, Brian Pitman has an extremely famous title – the most ingenious wizard of banking business integration!

Now that the business of Barclays Bank really needs to be restructured and integrated, Brian Pittman's takeover is just the right time to carry out drastic reforms. With the full support of the board of directors, Barclays Bank will definitely be able to quickly rise again.

After Brian Pittman took office, Bright Fund immediately took action and, through a series of transactions, allowed Barclays Bank to get rid of the burden of futures contracts.

Then Duke Carter Howard took the stage and assured the whole society that Barclays Bank had returned to normal operations and all business cooperation was proceeding normally.

And a rumour leaked out that Black Rose Capital, one of the shareholders of Bahrain Bank, belonged to the royal family.

As a result, depositors' confidence increased greatly, and the long queues to withdraw money quickly disappeared.

And Bright Fund, which is famous in the capital market, also announced that it will fully cooperate with Bahrain Bank to rebuild private and public funds. Investors in the original Bahrain Bank have the right of first refusal, and most investors who originally planned to withdraw their capital have stopped their actions and intend to wait and see for a while.

A series of measures have directly stabilised market confidence in Bahrain Bank. Although Bahrain Bank's assets are still being lost, the rate of loss has dropped significantly and is gradually decreasing.

Seeing this, Jacob Rothschild was infuriated, but had to give up his plan against Bahrain Bank.

There was nothing he could do, after all, they had found out about the background of Black Rose Capital!

Although the Rothschild family's capital is stronger than the royal family, considering the influence of the royal family on the British public and upper class, Jacob Rothschild had to give up.

What's more, the shareholders of Bahrain Bank also include Bright Fund and Jiuding Bank, both of which are Xia Yu's companies. Now that they intend to maintain a good relationship with Xia Yu, they naturally cannot move Bahrain Bank.

Jacob Rothschild had a thousand words in his heart, but in the end, he could only sigh helplessly.