Chapter 1098: French nationalisation kicks off

The issuance of this Nationalisation Decree has attracted worldwide attention. Not only have major French media and television stations provided a comprehensive and detailed interpretation of this policy, but the media in other European countries are also trying to analyse what impact this decree will have on France and Europe...

The Nationalisation Decree clearly states the list of nationalised companies. There are a total of 39 banks, including the three existing nationalised major banks, and 36 private banks.

Among the nationalised banks, three banks, namely, Banque Nationale de Paris, Crédit Lyonnais and Société Générale, have 10% or less of their shares in the hands of private investors or executives. This time, they will all be nationalised, and the government will once again achieve 100% ownership.

Of the 36 private banks, there are major national banks such as BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Société Générale, Crédit Lyonnais and Edmond de Rothschild, which have assets of nearly 350 billion francs, as well as local banks such as Crédit Industriel et Commercial, Banque de l'Ouest and Banque Populaire.

In addition to this list of 39 banks, the decree also makes special provision for three large banks with more than 10 billion francs in registered deposits before 2 January 1981.

The Banque centrale mutualiste, the Banque mutualiste unifiée and the Banque cooperative de France were excluded at the last minute from the nationalisation process, as the government considered that they were subsidiaries of mutual credit institutions with their own business practices and social responsibilities, and were therefore the subject of future encouragement and development.

What the general public did not know, of course, was that the survival of these three banks was also the result of a compromise between François Mitterrand and the three families.

However, despite this, after this nationalisation, the total deposits and loans of nationalised banks (including those indirectly controlled by the state) accounted for 87.6% and 77.6% of the total registered bank deposits and loans respectively. French private banks only accounted for 4.4% and 8.4%, while foreign banks accounted for 8.4% and 14%.

The French government had absolute dominance in the banking industry!

In addition to the large-scale nationalisation of the banking industry, the government also fully nationalised five giant industrial groups, including Rhône-Poulenc and Thomson, strengthening the government's dominant position in the heavy industry sector and facilitating its role as a leader in the upcoming economic reforms.

Once the Nationalisation Decree was issued, the whole of France celebrated, with almost all citizens expecting the government to reverse the economic downturn and make life better for everyone again.

On the day after the decree was issued, on 13 February, the management board of the Banque de France issued an official document stating that the state-owned bank, Edmond de Rothschild Bank, would be renamed BNP Paribas.

The ownership and use rights of the name 'Edmond de Rothschild Bank' were transferred to Société Française des Orléanais (SFO) without compensation, and SFO was granted a full banking licence.

When he saw this document, Xia Yu was completely relieved. His cooperation agreement with the Rothschild family had come into full effect, and there was finally no possibility of the Rothschild family taking back the shares of the Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered Bank.

Because Compagnie des Orléanais, was a company wholly owned by the Rothschild family in France.

On February 16th, Compagnie des Orléanais completed its change, and Edmond de Rothschild Bank was once again established in Paris, except this time the Rothschild family kept a very low profile.

Although there was no media publicity and no opening ceremony, as long as it was a big family in Paris, everyone knew that the Rothschild family had reopened the Edmond Rothschild Bank. Many families were dissatisfied because although the Rothschild family had lost a lot of power, they had not been eliminated and there would be huge problems in the future.

Moreover, the Edmond de Rothschild Bank is a golden brand. Although the French government has seized the bank assets cultivated by the Rothschild family over the past twenty years or so, as long as this brand with an invisible value of at least tens of billions of francs remains, the Rothschild family will be able to restore its strength five times faster than if it were to register a new bank!

But this is also what Xia Yu is happy to see.

He is well aware that the Rothschilds, Rockefellers and Morgans are the number one enemy of the major French families and consortia, and leaving the Rothschilds in France will be able to attract a large part of the firepower.

And the environment for his rise will be more relaxed.

This time, he has made a huge profit by betraying the Rothschilds in France.

The Rothschilds will definitely be annoyed, but if the major families and consortia in France not only suppress the Rothschilds, but also him, Xia Yushi, the two sides may be able to unite to resist the local forces in France.

For rulers, interests are eternal in this world!

What's more, just because the Rothschilds have been betrayed in France doesn't mean Xia Yushi can't get back at them elsewhere.

For the sake of the internal harmony of the Rothschild family, it is necessary to make the strength of each branch as close as possible. How can the Rothschild family be dominated by the British branch alone!

Thinking about this, Xia Yu suddenly felt that he must be a good person who thinks of others.

Haha...

Having perfectly achieved the set goal, Xia Yu felt comfortable, and his smile grew even wider. The company's employees were influenced by him, and their enthusiasm for work also increased.

That afternoon, Xia Yu was in his office reading the interim acquisition report submitted by Leo Martin for the Bussac Group.

After being given the task on 21 January, Leo Martin had spent ten days preparing the company team for the operation.

Then on 1 February, the operation had officially begun.

First, the newspapers owned by the Mirror Group had begun analysing the crisis of the Bussac Group, while at the same time someone had secretly pushed the Bussac Group Employees' Union to carry out a larger-scale strike.

This series of actions caused the capital market to once again downgrade the rating of the Bussac Group, and the Bright Fund had already shorted the stock in advance, so the stock price of the Bussac Group fell all the way within two weeks.

By the close of trading on Friday, February 12, the market value of the Bussac Group had fallen from more than 620 million francs before the action to 380 million francs, a loss of more than 240 million francs.

And the bad news about the Bussac Group continued to come in.

Therefore, on the weekend of 13th and 14th February, Bright Fund and various institutions that had shorted the bet proposed to end the bet early.

Faced with the relatively generous price offered by Bright Fund, and the fact that these institutions did not want their funds trapped in the Bussac Group, they all agreed to cut their losses and admit defeat.

Statistics show that Bright Fund made a profit of 46.59 million francs in this short selling operation.

The second step of the plan will begin next Monday, tomorrow. While continuing to suppress the price of the Bussac Group's shares, it will begin to secretly acquire shares from the market and off-market using shell companies.

In order to carry out this second step of the plan, Bright Fund left 5% of its shares unsold when it entered into a bet with major institutions. The shareholding information has been disclosed once, so according to financial transaction regulations, the off-market acquisition of shares can be disclosed voluntarily.

That evening, as he was leaving work, Léo Martin had some more good news for Xia Yu.

The Domaine de la Romanée-Conti had been successfully acquired, and both families had capitulated in the face of the franc attack.

However, the entire acquisition had cost a total of 355 million francs.

Before the acquisition, the value of the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti as assessed by the Guangming Fund was 160 million francs.

So the premium on this acquisition was a whopping 222%!

In 1869, Jacques-Marie Divois Brochet paid a high premium of 260,000 francs for the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. Now the winery has been sold for 355 million francs, an increase of 1,365 times in 113 years!

Although the purchasing power of the franc has been declining over the past century, the total GDP of France has actually increased by 268 times, which is much lower than 1365 times!

Although GDP cannot be linked to the purchasing power of a currency, it is clear that top-class wine estates are indeed extremely high-quality assets!