Chapter 1108: Planning Africa's Largest Bank
On April 20th, news from the battlefield lifted the spirits of the British people.
The Argentinean task force's main battle ship, the cruiser General Belgrano, was sunk 187 nautical miles from the Falkland Islands by the British attack submarine Conqueror.
Six other ships were also sunk, and the remaining ships fled in panic back to Stanley Harbour.
This result not only excited the British people, but also shocked other countries.
Because this time, the British army set a precedent for the first time since World War II that a nuclear submarine had sunk a surface warship.
And with a full load displacement of 13,750 tons, the General Belgrano was the largest surface warship sunk after World War II. Its sinking removed the Argentine navy from the war, leaving the British navy to gain control of the maritime area around the Falkland Islands.
With air control lost, the Argentine military lost control of the sea, leaving the Argentine air force to fight alone.
The Argentine defenders on the islands were like rats in a trap, waiting to be strangled by the British army.
But the British were not yet celebrating when they received a piece of bad news from the battlefield.
The British Navy's modern, advanced main battle ship HMS Sheffield, which had been launched in 1971 at a cost of 150 million US dollars, had been sunk by the Argentine Air Force. What sent it to the bottom of the sea was a French Exocet missile worth only 200,000 US dollars!
When this news reached France, I don't know how many French people were shocked. After the shock, there was pride. The French military also attached more and more importance to this air-launched mainstay missile, which had just entered service in 1979, because they knew that in the future, this missile would receive large orders, it was like money falling from the sky!
The French were happy, but the British were furious. The huge difference between the $200,000 missile and their $150 million main battle ship was a slap in the face.
And the missile was produced by the French, whom the British hated. How could they not be infuriated?
Xia Yu was also speechless after hearing the news, and could only sigh at the wonders of fate afterwards. The British Navy would not escape this disaster after all.
The British army could have achieved a perfect victory, but now the main battleship HMS Sheffield had been sunk, and it was destined that even if they won in the end, there would be a lingering sense of loss!
The enraged British military went crazy and decided to launch a general offensive against the Argentine military, trying to end the war as soon as possible and save face for the British military.
Late on the night of 23 April, the British Special Air Service landed by helicopter at Cape Fanning on the Falkland Islands, and after a night of reconnaissance, vertical landing and beach landing, more than 1,000 British troops successfully occupied Port San Carlos 'from the sky' and wiped out the 40 Argentine defenders stationed in the port.
In the early morning of 24 April, the British army's landing operation began in full swing. Immediately after landing, the British army constructed defensive positions and set up an anti-aircraft firepower network with naval guns, various anti-aircraft missiles and anti-aircraft machine guns.
The troops then landed continuously through San Carlos Port, splitting into two groups to encircle the Argentine army gathered in Stanley Port, and the ground war began in Argentina itself.
Once again, the balance of victory tilted towards Britain!
And just then.
Xia Yu, who was returning to London from a stroll in Norfolk, received a message from the United States.
Peter Lynch, the president of Polaris Capital, wanted to consult him about something.
...
London City, Bright Fund headquarters, Xia Yu's office.
Xia Yu looked at a report in his hands and wore a satisfied smile on his face.
'Peter Lynch really didn't let me down!'
Xia Yu said with a light smile.
Although he hadn't been to the United States for more than a year,
Peter Lynch has perfectly executed every order he has given remotely, and Polaris Capital has grown rapidly under his management.
In the past year, Polaris Capital has completed several extremely important tasks in collaboration with the New York branch of Jiuding Securities.
The first was the purchase of a 14.6% stake in General Electric for 1.9 billion US dollars, making it one of the largest shareholders of General Electric.
If that were not enough, the key point is that General Electric has been on the rise since Jack Welch took over as CEO in April last year.
The market value has risen from a low of 130 billion US dollars to 254 billion US dollars, which means that the profit from this stake held by Polaris Capital has reached 1.8 billion US dollars!
The second achievement was Coca-Cola.
Thanks to Peter Lynch's efforts, he was finally able to buy 25.4% of Coca-Cola from the Chicago Consortium and 21.7% from the Morgan Consortium, although the total cost was 930 million US dollars.
However, Coca-Cola was thus freed from the struggle between the three major financial groups.
Together with the 38.2% stake held by the British Bright Fund, Xia Yu actually owned 85.3% of Coca-Cola, with the remaining shares scattered.
However, for Xia Yu, who already had absolute control, the remaining 14.7% was considered very small, as he was not planning to privatise Coca-Cola.
In addition,
Polaris Capital Taiwan Branch has also grown rapidly, investing in dozens of promising companies in Taiwan, including Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., which Xia Yu has mentioned by name, and acquiring a 45% stake in it.
...
This time, Peter Lynch's report to Xia Yu on the company's development was not the most important thing.
The core purpose was about an acquisition.
After much discussion, the management of Coca-Cola Company has formulated a new long-term strategic development plan, and the key is an acquisition.
Coca-Cola hoped to acquire Columbia Pictures Industries, one of the giants of Hollywood, which was currently in the doldrums, to open up a channel between Coca-Cola and the entertainment industry, use movies to drive Coca-Cola sales growth, increase Coca-Cola's market exposure and improve the product image.
Donald Robert, the current CEO of Coca-Cola, also gave an example, that is, all the celebrities drink Coca-Cola, and Pepsi only appears in the hands of villains...
Now Columbia Pictures is worth just over 370 million US dollars, but if it is to be fully privatised, a conservative estimate is that it will cost 600 million US dollars or more.
The Coca-Cola Company cannot afford this on its own, so it will definitely need to issue additional shares for the takeover, which will also require a large sum of money.
Because Xia Yu attached great importance to Coca-Cola and Polaris Capital already owned MGM Studios in Hollywood, Peter Lynch had a hard time making a decision and reported the situation to Xia Yu, hoping that he would make the decision.
'Dong... dong... dong...'
Looking at the information in his hands, Xia Yu smiled faintly, tapping his fingers rhythmically on the table top. Information about Coca-Cola from his previous life flashed through his mind.
In a previous life, Coca-Cola also acquired Columbia Pictures Industries, and under Coca-Cola's ownership, Columbia Pictures produced many classic films, and the company also emerged from the doldrums.
However, Coca-Cola's strategic plan to use movies to significantly boost Coke sales failed.
But Coca-Cola didn't lose out, because later Coca-Cola sold Columbia Pictures Industries to the island nation's Sony Corporation for $5 billion.
So now Coca-Cola is willing to buy Columbia Pictures, and that's fine.
More importantly, Xia Yu was not satisfied with just owning MGM. He wanted to occupy half of Hollywood and become the supreme king of Hollywood!
Letting Polaris Capital acquire another Hollywood giant was too direct, too conspicuous, and would easily cause a backlash.
Therefore, acquiring Columbia Pictures in the name of Coca-Cola was undoubtedly a good way to go, and the success rate would even be higher than Polaris Capital, which already owned a Hollywood giant.
Even if Coca-Cola doesn't need Columbia Pictures in the future, it can still be sold on.
With so many advantages, what's there to hesitate about? Of course it's approved!
However, at this time, Xia Yu saw Coca-Cola's plan in the message again, and subconsciously frowned.
After calculating the time difference, he found that it should be about 9am in San Francisco. Xia Yu picked up the phone and dialed Peter Lynch's office number.
It didn't take long before the phone was connected.
Xia Yu said very firmly, 'Peter, this is Xia Yu... The company's management is very good, I'm very satisfied, thank you for your hard work...'
'Fully support Coca-Cola's purchase of Columbia Pictures Industries and strengthen its cooperation with MGM after the purchase...'
'One more thing, Coca-Cola's decision to change the formula is wrong, I disagree. Coca-Cola's formula is the brand spirit of the company, leading consumer loyalty. Changing the formula is to change the habits of all consumers and challenge their consumer beliefs. The consequences are extremely serious. Let the company increase sales in other ways...'
'Click!'
After speaking for more than ten minutes, Xia Yu hung up the phone.
In later generations, Coca-Cola's change of formula in the 1980s was even called by the New York Times as one of the most significant mistakes in American business over the past 100 years.
Just three months after the change of formula, angry consumers resisted and changed it back to the original formula. However, the damage caused to Coca-Cola by this process was extremely far-reaching, causing Coca-Cola's sales to plummet, and it gave the market away to PepsiCo for nothing.
Now that Coca-Cola was his, how could he turn a blind eye to the fact that the management was making the wrong decisions?
Even if the management didn't understand and was dissatisfied, Xia Yu didn't care. The worst that could happen was that they would be replaced.
He was the real controller, and his orders must be carried out!
...
Over the next few days, Xia Yu, accompanied by George Berkeley, inspected the Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered Bank.
The staff of these two banks were purged, and all the people belonging to the Rothschild family or related to it, whether executives or middle management, were dismissed.
Before, the Rothschild family was still a shareholder, and Xia Yu couldn't do anything about it even if he wanted to. Now that he has finally achieved full control of these two banks, naturally he will not be soft-handed.
The purpose of this is to maintain confidentiality.
What's more, RBS and Standard Chartered have dragged on long enough, and there is one thing that if it is not done quickly, there may be heavy losses.
That is, the sovereign debt of Latin American countries must be cleared up as soon as possible!
Xia Yu had already asked George Berkeley to compile a statistics on the sovereign debt of Latin American countries held by RBS and Standard Chartered Bank when he was in control of the two banks.
RBS held a sovereign debt of Latin American countries amounting to more than 2.23 billion US dollars.
Standard Chartered Bank held a sovereign debt of Latin American countries amounting to more than 1.98 billion US dollars.
It is worth mentioning that Standard Chartered Bank also holds a 39% stake in South Africa's largest bank, Standard Bank of South Africa.
Standard Bank of South Africa also holds more than 670 million US dollars in sovereign debt of Latin American countries.
Previously, Xia Yu asked Duke Carter Howard to trick the Rothschild family, plotting to sell the sovereign debt of Lloyds Bank one after the other, and most of it was deliberately transferred to Barclays Bank at a low price.
However, Barclays Bank had always been a shareholder of the Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered Bank, so Xia Yu simply could not do anything.
Now that the Rothschild family had been eliminated, and the employees had also been purged, the time bombs held by the two banks, totalling as much as 4.2 billion US dollars, must be disposed of as soon as possible.
Otherwise, once the Latin American sovereign debt crisis broke out and the Latin American countries refused to repay their debts, Xia Yu would have to lose more than 4.2 billion US dollars!
Therefore, after Xia Yu returned from inspecting the two banks, he immediately summoned George Berkeley and the presidents of the two banks for a short meeting to clarify the work requirements.
Before June, all the sovereign debt of Latin American countries held by the Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered Bank must be liquidated, and it is necessary to transfer it to Barclays Bank as much as possible. In addition, it is to be transferred to high-quality banks that want to merge and acquire.
During the meeting, the president of Standard Chartered Bank also raised the question of whether Standard Bank of South Africa should also be asked to transfer its sovereign debt holdings.
After all, Standard Chartered Bank was the largest shareholder of Standard Bank of South Africa, and if the latter lost more than 670 million US dollars, then according to the proportion of equity, the loss would be more than 260 million US dollars for Standard Chartered Bank.
This was no small sum!
However, Xia Yu directly rejected the proposal of the president of Standard Chartered Bank.
First, asking Standard Chartered Bank to transfer sovereign debt would cause unnecessary risks.
Second, Xia Yu had a plan in mind. Letting Standard Chartered Bank, the largest commercial bank in South Africa and Africa, suffer heavy losses might not be a bad thing after all!
So after he had made his point clear, the CEO of Standard Chartered Bank was pleasantly surprised and praised Xia Yu for his wisdom.
After arranging the tasks for the two banks, Xia Yu was once again left with some free time.
He was still in the UK, and there was only one thing left to do!