Chapter 1348: Attack Australia!
The planned dividend was not received, and without this dividend of more than 300 million Hong Kong dollars, Wheelock Shipping's annual financial report was destined to look bad.
At this time, Justin Kyle's mentality changed 180 degrees. He hated the idea of releasing the financial report any later, and even not releasing it at all.
He didn't want the financial report to be released, for fear that it would deal an even greater blow to Wheelock Shipping's stock price.
Unfortunately, as a listed company, Wheelock Shipping was obliged to release its financial report, and the longer it took to do so due to public opinion, the worse it would be. Who knows, the stock price might even fall even more due to the rumours.
It can be said that after Xia Yu's move, Wheelock Shipping has reached a dilemma, with no way out.
However, Xia Yu is not going to take action against Wheelock Shipping just yet. He plans to let the bullets fly for a while, and just let the media company continue to cause trouble for it.
Because in Australia, Bridgewater and Tiger Management have finally started taking action.
The first phase of action by Bridgewater and Tiger Management was actually laying the groundwork, and they took action in three areas.
One of these is to spend US$3 billion to buy Australian dollars, reducing the amount of Australian dollars in the spot foreign exchange market, pushing the Australian dollar-US dollar exchange rate from 0.9025 all the way up to 0.9175.
With a trading volume of US$3 billion, the effect is naturally not so obvious.
The key is that Bridgewater and Tiger Management set the tone, driving other funds to enter the market and boosting the Australian dollar exchange rate.
In fact, Bridgewater and Tiger Management are playing a game of 'exposing the store while secretly stocking up'.
On the surface, they are bullish on the Australian dollar.
But secretly, while the market is bullish on the Australian dollar, they are secretly buying large amounts of US dollars and selling Australian dollars through offshore shell companies in forward foreign exchange transactions, with a contract period of not one year, but three months!
The exchange rate of the forward foreign exchange contract is generally locked between 0.9047 and 0.9095.
The total amount of the forward foreign exchange contract is as high as 18 billion US dollars, all of which is based on the margin deposit model.
The Reserve Bank of Australia provided the most forward foreign exchange contracts, reaching 6 billion US dollars, followed by Westpac Banking Corporation, reaching 5.5 billion US dollars, and then other financial companies reaching a total of 6.5 billion US dollars.
Buying US dollars and selling Australian dollars in forward foreign exchange contracts is actually a long-term bearish view on the Australian dollar.
When the Australian dollar exchange rate continues to rise, the effect of forward foreign exchange contracts is more difficult to be seen, and it is also more likely to be fooled.
And because the spot AUD exchange rate continues to rise, the profit will blind people's eyes and relax their vigilance.
The third area is short selling of spot AUD.
Bridgewater and Tiger Management borrowed AUD from all over the place, borrowing a total of up to 15 billion AUD, with borrowing points ranging from 0.9037 to 0.9149.
Of this, 5.2 billion Australian dollars were borrowed from Westpac, and then 3.4 billion Australian dollars were borrowed from the Australian Insurance Company, and then other companies were also borrowed from, including Australia's fifth largest bank, St. George Bank, from which 2.1 billion Australian dollars were borrowed.
In this way, Bridgewater and Tiger Funds held a total of 18.27 billion Australian dollars in foreign exchange, as well as forward foreign exchange contracts worth 18 billion U.S. dollars.
The reason for the high foreign exchange of 18.27 billion US dollars is because it includes the 3.27 billion Australian dollars that was bought for an obvious price of 3 billion US dollars.
Bridgewater and Tiger Funds have almost finished their preparations, and Bright Funds have not stood still.
The main direction of Bright Funds is to harvest the assets of the Sydney consortium.
However, before harvesting, Bright Funds need to raise ammunition.
The way Bright Fund raised ammunition was to short the Australian stock market. In the name of its various companies, it borrowed the stocks of various listed companies and then sold them, mainly targeting the major listed companies of the Sydney consortium.
In this way, Bright Fund directly obtained 14.64 billion Australian dollars.
After everything was ready, the attack began!
On February 1, 1985, the sky was clear and the weather was fine, which seemed like a good day.
Bridgewater and Tiger Management began to take action, selling a massive amount of Australian dollars on the foreign exchange market, dumping a total of 3 billion Australian dollars in a series of transactions!
The Australian dollar had already reached 0.9182 against the US dollar and was continuing to rise.
However, the dumping of 3 billion Australian dollars immediately halted the rise in the Australian dollar exchange rate.
With more Australian dollars on the market, the Australian dollar exchange rate immediately fell.
The market immediately panicked, and major financial companies scrambled to find out what had happened.
Then, news spread that Bridgewater Associates and Tiger Management, the Wall Street twins, had issued a bearish view on the Australian dollar.
This was a clear attempt to short the Australian dollar!
Last year, the Wall Street twins were two big bears, doing whatever they wanted in the Canadian market and blowing up the Canadian dollar exchange market.
Unexpectedly, just a year later, they had set their sights on Australia and were still shorting it!
The two major funds that were previously long on the Australian dollar must have had a problem, and were a decoy!
When they thought about this, some institutions smelled a crisis and an opportunity, and the person in charge decisively gave the order to switch positions and sell the Australian dollar and buy the US dollar.
For a time, the Australian dollar on the market continued to increase, and although there were still institutions that were bullish on the Australian dollar and buying it, the buying speed was much slower than the selling speed.
In just under five minutes, the Australian dollar fell from 0.9182 to 0.9164 against the US dollar, and it was still falling.
The Reserve Bank of Australia smelled a crisis, and the people below immediately reported it up the chain of command, and the news reached the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, Jack Stavell.
'What? Bridgewater and Tiger are shorting the Australian dollar?'
When he heard the news, Jack Stavell, who was used to ups and downs, still turned pale.
Bridgewater and Tiger funds are not like other institutions. These two institutions are notorious villains who rose to power on the dead body of the Canadian dollar and naturally have a halo around them, with extraordinary appeal.
Now these two villains are shorting the Australian dollar. When he heard the news, he must have realised that a large number of institutions around the world had also received the news.
At this time, there must be a lot of international hot money already mobilising funds, ready to wander outside the Australian foreign exchange market.
'Steven, immediately gather the senior management for a meeting in ten minutes!'
After giving orders to his secretary Steven O'Reilly, Jack Stav immediately instructed Eric Alchi, the head of the central bank's exchange rate department who had come to report the news, 'Eric, show me.'
Soon, the three left the office and split into two groups.
When Jack Stav and Eric Arki arrived at the Exchange Rate Department, the Australian dollar exchange rate had already fallen to 0.9148.
The entire Exchange Rate Department was on high alert, clearly aware of the severity of the situation and the power of Bridgewater and Tiger.
However, they were not in a position to decide whether to buy Australian dollars, and only Eric Arki, the head of the Exchange Rate Department, and Jack Stav, the president, could make that decision.
Before Jack Stafford could speak, Eric Alchi took the lead and suggested, 'President, I suggest immediate intervention in the market. We must firmly counter the short sellers. Bridgewater and Tiger Management are very powerful. Once panic sets in and investors' pessimistic expectations are formed, it will easily trigger the 'herd effect'. By then, the pressure on us will be dozens of times greater than it is now!'