Chapter 1510: Shareholders: A mixed blessing?
This is crazy!
Francisco Salen was already busy dealing with the bank issues.
Suddenly, all the listed companies under the family's control were being targeted, which drove him crazy!
This brings us to the Francisco family's asset control model.
Although Franco ruled Spain for decades, the Francisco family's asset expansion period actually took place during the last ten years or so.
In the first twenty years or so, although Franco was extremely powerful, he did not act in an unbecoming manner. On the contrary, he put a lot of thought and energy into building and prospering Spain.
Compared to the leftists who shouted slogans and liked to fight among themselves, he was more of a doer.
And because he also only had an only daughter, although he helped the family a lot, he more or less turned a blind eye to the family's actions in his name.
It was only towards the end of his dictatorship.
Franco's health was deteriorating, his energy was not what it used to be, and the hostile parties and forces kept fighting back.
Other members of the Franco family saw the situation as dire and changed their strategy for the long-term future of the entire family, greatly expanding the family's assets.
The aim was to have a strong capital base in case the Francisco family lost political power, so that they could continue to dominate the country, like the Agnelli family in Italy.
After all, state assets could not be transferred to private ownership openly, but as long as they were in power, they could still manipulate things.
Under these circumstances, the Francisco family found ways to increase their stake in the Banco Bilbao Vizcaya, and in one fell swoop increased their stake to a high of 58.64%!
Because of the listed status of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya, such a high shareholding ratio can be said to be worry-free.
After firmly controlling the bank,
the Francisco family embarked on a path of frantic expansion.
The second step was to increase their shareholding in the listed company, Mapfre, from both the family and the bank.
In particular, using the bank's funds, they directly increased their shareholding in Mapfre to 18.28%!
Together with the Francisco family's capital, the holding increased to 21.67%.
The two combined.
The publicly traded company Manufor was also acquired and became the Francisco family's small financial core.
After getting a taste of the sweetness,
the Francisco family made full use of the huge capital of the two financial cores and began to acquire stakes in pillar companies in important fields.
The process of acquisition was full of human evil.
But the results made the Francisco family very happy.
One typical example is Iberdrola.
The Francisco family used its own funds to acquire a 12.39% stake over the years.
But the Banco Vizcaya de Bilbao held a 27.15% stake in the company!
Therefore,
the Francisco family obtained the voting rights entrusted by the bank and directly controlled Iberdrola, the second largest and privately largest power company in Spain.
As for whether other shareholders will rebel?
Apart from those who have been removed, other shareholders are quite content as long as they cannot control or operate the company. Their only aim is to make money!
The Francisco family relied on the power of Franco and the funding of the Banco Vizcaya in Bilbao to give these companies an advantage as they developed.
Even if the Francisco family did some shady dealings from time to time to gain more profits, as long as they didn't go too far, the shareholders would acquiesce.
So over the years.
Even after Franco's death and the Francisco family's political power was greatly weakened, as long as BBVA was not in trouble, these companies still had the advantage of developing in a consortium-style manner.
Even if the development was not as smooth as when Franco was alive, they still had an advantage.
In the event of a smooth sailing, the shareholders of these companies will not cause trouble or rebel.
But at this time, BBVA was already struggling to survive, so naturally it was a different story!
Regarding this point,
how could Sáenz de Francisco not know?
So when the stock prices of companies such as Iberdrola, Mapfre Insurance and the Faro Group were heavily suppressed,
he panicked completely.
In the face of the situation where the funding of the Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria was drying up, he had been dealing with other investment assets or trying to find other ways to raise funds, and had never thought of selling the shares of these important companies.
Moreover, at the beginning, when the share price of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria was suppressed, he didn't care.
After all, the Francisco family controlled the bank and had not mortgaged the bank's shares, so the temporary fall in the share price was just that, and it would be fine once it was over.
But the plummeting share prices of other companies were different.
After all, the funds of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, Mapfre Insurance and the Francisco family were not endless.
In order to expand rapidly, the family used revolving loans to purchase some of the shares, and then used pledges or targeted bond issues to acquire more shares with less capital.
Now the plummeting share prices of these companies have brought huge risks.
If only they had the money.
For the Francisco family, this is still a good thing, nothing more than a bargain basement rescue.
At the same time, they will certainly be grateful that their enemy is a living Buddha, helping to suppress the stock price and reduce their acquisition costs.
But the same thing, in the current situation where the Francisco family and the Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria's capital chain is in crisis, it has become a death sentence!
He can't even prevent other shareholders from fleeing with the money, pushing the Francisco family into an even deeper pit!
So Saren Francisco immediately contacted his cousin, the only daughter of his uncle Franco – Carmen Francisco, a sixty-two-year-old woman.
She was another key figure in the family!
Within fifteen minutes.
Carmen Francisco arrived at the headquarters of the Bilbao Vizcaya Bank and met her cousin Saren.
On seeing his cousin, who had arrived unannounced, Sarun Francisco, who was urgently coordinating work, dismissed his subordinates after giving a few brief instructions.
'Cousin, it's great that you've finally arrived!'
Seeing his cousin's red eyes and somewhat sallow face, Carmen felt both distressed and helpless.
'Sarun, you've worked hard these days!'
'It's my responsibility.'
'Let's not talk about that. Cousin, please sit down first and take a look at this information.'
After his cousin had sat down on the sofa, Salen handed her the stock market information that he had just had collected.
The latter took out a glasses case from her bag, put on her reading glasses and read it carefully.
After all, it was only collected in a short period of time, so the information was not long.
However, there was quite a lot of key information.
A few minutes later.
The old woman frowned, looked at Saren Francisco with a heavy expression and said, 'Now the stock prices of these companies have all fallen by more than 10%, and some have even fallen by more than 20%. If this continues, there is a risk that they will become insolvent. Many people know about this, and it will have a new impact on the family's bank!'
Saren Francisco nodded emphatically and sighed, 'This is one of the aspects I am worried about.'
'The only way to solve the problem is to spend money to save the market, but at the moment we are short of funds, so we may have to give up some companies to raise funds to save the bank and the other companies.'
'But I have a bigger worry.'
'Where do you think the enemy got the stocks they sold in large quantities?'
The old woman was taken aback, and then her face changed dramatically. She was so excited that the wrinkles on her face trembled a few times.
'Do you suspect that the enemy has already acquired a large number of shares in the family's companies?'