America's Road to Wealth

Chapter 203 Buying an NBA Team in Two Hours
The reason why Abel asked Pacific Commercial Bank to choose American Express.

There is a reason.

American Express's commercial banking business is not the best among banks.

At best it's middle class.

Can Express Company's commercial banking business.

Among banks at this level, because of their platforms and systems, they have a very high global coverage.

This is clearly due to its very successful travel services for premium clients.

In terms of global coverage, American Express, a medium-sized commercial bank, is estimated to rank among the top five in the US banking industry.

If the Pacific Commercial Bank can merge with the Express Company or annex the Express Company.

At present, there is almost no overseas business in the Pacific Commercial Bank, and the situation can be opened up at once.

At the same time, the scale of American Express Bank is just in the range that Pacific Bank hopes to annex.

If it is any bigger, the Pacific Commercial Bank and Abel will not be able to swallow it with their current strength.

More importantly, it started in September last year.

American Express's performance has been poor.

the bank's share price,

From the highest point in 1996, one share was as high as about 160 US dollars.

It fell to September last year, and the highest price was only 27.35 US dollars per share.

By the end of January 2001, only $1 per share was left.

Its total share capital is around 13.6 billion shares.

Use the current share price to calculate.

The market value of American Express is only 13.59 billion X13.65.

That is to say, the current market value of American Express is only about 185.5 billion US dollars.

It is currently the cheapest company among the Dow Jones constituents.

Such a company has total self-owned assets of more than 200 billion US dollars, custody assets of more than 1600 billion US dollars, and a market value of 185.5 billion US dollars.

This kind of company is definitely a very high-quality company in the eyes of a "stock market sniper" like Da Liu on Hong Kong Island.

However, the share price of Renjia Express once exceeded US$160 a share at its peak, and its total market value even exceeded US$2000 billion.

It has reached its peak, and now it has fallen, and it looks like it will continue to fall.

But its company has always been very stable internally, because it is almost an institutional stock.

What are institutional stocks?
It is the stock holders, most of which are institutions, that is, investment companies, banks and financial companies, and financial companies.

As a company with a history of more than 150 years, the brand value is deeply rooted in the hearts of the European and American world.

It can even be selected as a Dow Jones service industry company.

More than 80% of its shares are held by various large and small institutions, and more than 900 institutions hold its shares.

At present, its largest shareholder, named Berkshire, is Buffett's company.

Buffett's company holds 1.5161 million shares, accounting for 11.4% of AmEx's total share capital.

Buffett's love for American Express is very famous in later generations.

The second largest shareholder is Pioneer Pilot Group, which holds more than 9% of the shares.

The top twenty shareholders hold more than 50% of the shares of American Express.

In fact, because of its attributes as a Dow Jones constituent stock, it has never lacked investors.

Abe and the American Pacific Bank of Commerce, trying to swallow the words of American Express.

It can be said that the difficulty is very high.

But the good thing is that in the last USD/JPY battle.

In addition to the cash profits, Smith Capital also gave Abel a lot of benefits.

Among these benefits, there are many shares of American Express.

During that time, Abe has accrued about 6.9% of American Express stock.

In addition, the Pacific Bank of the United States has been buying and sweeping goods at low prices in the market during this period of time.

Now Smith Capital, plus Pacific Commercial Bank.

The shares of American Express held by the two companies already account for about 8%.

This ratio can already be ranked as the third largest shareholder.

The problem now is that the shares of American Express in the secondary market are only about 18%.

About 3% has been swept by Abel, and now there are at most about 15% left.

Everything else is in the hands of the agency.

This makes the Pacific Commercial Bank want to acquire the shares of American Express.

Even if all the 15% of the shares were swept away, the shareholding ratio did not exceed 25%.

The remaining shares can only be listed on the primary market.

That is to buy in the hands of those institutions.

But once Abel made a gesture of sweeping goods, or wanting to acquire and annex.

The stock price of American Express is bound to skyrocket.

It is estimated that just scanning 15% of the odd stocks may cost tens of billions of dollars.

The key is that it may not be scanned yet.

Because in that process.

The bloody smell of capital is bound to attract the attention of global US stock investors.

American Express itself is a high-quality company.

By then, the entire acquisition cost may exceed US$500 billion.

This made Abel unacceptable.

Fortunately, "Talent" told Abel that American Express will continue to fall this year.

13.65 is not the end of it.

In September of this year, there will be a very good opportunity to buy bottoms across the United States.

Not as good as the one in 2008.

But in [-], this will be the best opportunity.

Abel's goal is.

Before that day comes, raise a minimum of more than $600 billion in funding and start hunting for the bottom line.

As for the matter of American Express, you can put it aside for a while.

2001, April 2.

morning.

Los Angeles.

MGM, the chairman's office on the top floor.

Abel lay bored on the sofa in the office lounge area, playing with Snake on his mobile phone.

He was waiting for a call from Allen, who was negotiating with Sony Columbia right now in the foothills of Beverly Hills.

If they can get back by noon, they can have lunch together.

At that time, Abel can also learn about the latest developments.

Some time ago on the island of Hawaii, Howard Stringer visited him in person.

Abel gave the conditions.

Howard Stringer went back and gave feedback to Sony's head office.

Up to now, negotiations on this matter have already taken shape.

Allen is the core of the think tank team.

Just take some people from the think tank to conduct final negotiations with the other party.

The next ownership of Spider-Man Parker depends on the result of this negotiation.

Snake played game after game, and Abel felt a little boring in the end.

For some reason, after experiencing the "delicacy of mountains and seas" and the happiness that I couldn't experience in my previous life.

Now, he actually misses the games of pesticides and eating chicken that he used to play.

It's a pity that his talent is limited to financial perception.

It has no effect on the development of technology.

And there are many things that cannot be produced by spending money on research and development.

This also means that even if he is very rich.

Smart games that ordinary people can play in 2022, he can't play now.

Thinking of this, Abel became a little bored with the greedy snake in his hand.

He dropped his phone on the sofa, stood up and took a few steps, and when he reached the edge of the desk.

He saw the top corner of the "American Sun" on his desk.

Abel pulled it out directly and opened the newspaper.

The American Sun was originally just a small newspaper in the New York area.

Back then it was called The New York Sun.

After being purchased by Abel, it happened to catch Abel's "Smith Storm" at that time.

In addition to many exclusive revelations, there are also very distinctive newspaper bonuses.

At the most exaggerated time last year, it once achieved sales of over one million in a single day.

The single-day sales ranked among the top five in the United States.

Later, as the Smith storm gradually subsided, its sales gradually decreased.

After falling this year, it finally stabilized at a daily sales volume of around 50 copies.

Note, the "American Sun" with a daily sales volume of 50.

In the current American daily newspapers, it can only be ranked No.15.

The highest daily sales volume is the "Wall Street Journal", with an average daily sales volume of about 240 copies last year.

However, this data is after 2022.

Even the Wall Street Journal, which has the largest daily sales volume, has less than 70 copies left.

The No.2 New York Times has only three 10,000+ copies left.

The No. 20 second-ranked "Daily News" only has more than 5 copies left.

It is conceivable how sluggish the sales of these American newspapers have been over the past 20 years.

Of course, this is related to the rise of the mobile Internet.

Before the rise of the mobile Internet, even if there was an Internet impact.

Before 2012, these newspapers were still able to hold good sales.

And when the mobile Internet era comes, as long as you can get on the mobile Internet ship in time.

The influence of these newspapers will not be reduced much.

They just moved the daily paper news to the mobile phone.

2001 now.

The "American Sun" can achieve a daily sales volume of 50 copies, which is already a big newspaper at this time.

It's positioned as mass entertainment, akin to Murdoch's New York Post.

Of course, most of the above content is popular with the public.

At the same time, this newspaper has Abel's authorization.

It likes to report all kinds of news about the owner Abel Smith.

Many other newspapers do not have Abel's material, and it has a royal charter to report.

This is one of the reasons why it was able to maintain a sales volume of 50.

Even if the "Smith Storm" has already passed.

There are still many gossip people who like to read all kinds of news about young and handsome super rich people.

Just like the news about A Cong, even in 2022.

Many people have seen it on their mobile phones, and they will still take a few more glances.

Abel spread out today's New York Sun.

The headline on the front page above is a matter that everyone in the United States is concerned about recently.

That was the Texan who had just moved into the White House.

After he lived in, the first policy implemented.

tax cuts.

A Texan, announced that he would cut taxes for all Americans by $1.3 trillion during his term.

This policy looks good.

Because in America, there are only two things that cannot be avoided.

One is death and the other is taxation.

But it really only looks good.

You must know that in the United States, the tax payments of the poor and the rich are different.

If it is a targeted tax cut, such as a special tax cut for the poor, then this kind of tax cut is still better.

But if it is not a targeted tax cut, but everyone cuts it.

In fact, it is the poor who suffer more.

Because the overall tax payment of the poor is relatively low, if the overall tax payment is reduced, there is no way to reduce it much.

Originally, I had to pay a tax of 105 yuan, but now I only need to pay 100 yuan.

That five bucks is better than nothing.

Rich people pay high taxes, and if the overall tax payment is reduced, the tax savings that can be saved will be a lot.

The tax payment of 105 million becomes only 100 million, which is a savings of [-] US dollars.

The total amount is only 1.3 trillion, and it is estimated that at most 2000 billion will be reduced to the poor.

More than 1 trillion yuan has been reduced to the rich and enterprises.

And the one in the white house is a Xiangdang.
His base cannot be on the side of the poor.

This means that his tax cut policy cannot be targeted tax cuts.

That is, everyone has a share, and the poor and the rich will lose together.

This is actually making the poor suffer, but the poor can't see it.

Or if you see it, there is no way to stop it.

This is a bit like the tax cut plan before Britain's Ali stepped down in 2022.

Ali just announced the plan, and it hasn't started yet. He just announced it a little bit, and it directly caused the debt, foreign exchange, and stocks of the United Kingdom of Great Britain to collapse in the sunset period.
Of course, the United States will not be so miserable. The United States in 2001 had a strong foundation.

Tax cuts at this time will still have a certain role in promoting society.

It can also enhance the favorability of enterprises and wealthy people for small shrubs.

Draw a piece of cake first, if you want to eat it, just remember to choose me next time.

No wonder he talked about it as soon as he came to power.

After looking at the headline for a while, Abel shook his head.

Under the rendering of the White House and relevant departments.

This topic is now the top concern of all Americans.

This made even the "American Sun", which usually doesn't publish much news on current affairs.

Also on the entire first page, there are similar reports, as well as expert interpretations.

Abel was not interested in these, so he turned directly to the second page.

Things got better after that, when Hollywood and other entertainment news started to appear.

Abel turned to the third page, which had turned into sports news.

Commercial sports in the United States are very developed, and the four major leagues have attracted countless money.

In the newspaper, Abel saw the news that the Wizards vs. Warriors lost 99:102.

This reminded him of when he wanted to buy a basketball team on a whim last year.

Later, because it was too difficult to buy the Lakers and Knicks, it was not bought in the end.

He is bored playing mobile games right now.

I thought I might be able to play the game of the NBA.

Holding the newspaper, he pressed the number one button on the landline next to him.

Soon, David Jones walked in with Edward.

"I'm looking for David, it's none of your business, Edward."

Edward nodded and exited, while David came to the boss.

"I'm going to buy a basketball team. I'm serious this time," Abel said directly to David.

David's answer was also very concise: "Which team do you want to buy?"

"Rockets." Abel sighed, he actually liked the Knicks.

Not because he liked it, but because he liked New York.

But the Knicks are really not that easy to buy.

Then buy the Rockets.

A Texas team, and Abel is a Texan.

He felt that he deserved his name by buying the Rockets.

"Okay. Then I'll ask the advisory team to contact Leslie Alexander of the Houston Rockets."

Abel nodded.

Two hours later, before Alan Baker and others came back.

Another core of the advisory group, York West.

The former deputy general manager of Gephardt, a registered senior lobbyist in Washington, came to Abe with David Jones.

At that time, Abel was bored and started playing with his snake.

"BOSS," said David Jones.

"Huh?" Abel put down his phone and looked up.

"Let York Xi speak, they have completed the task you assigned."

"Okay." Abel looked at York West.

York West is a desert-American, and it is amazing that a desert-American can be a lobbyist in Washington.

Either York West is capable enough, or York West has a special family background.

"BOSS." York West took a step forward and handed over a document:
"This is the result of our conference call with Leslie Alexander just now."

"Oh?" Abel asked David to take it, opened the file, and said:

"Has Leslie Alexander said yes?"

"The other party is willing to sell the Houston Rockets." York West said calmly:

"The offer was $2.55 million. After we negotiated, the price was finally settled at $2.4 million."

"In 1993, when Leslie Alexander bought 80% of the team's shares from the previous owner of the Houston Rockets."

"He only spent $8500 million."

"For eight years, Leslie Alexander had almost zero investment in this team."

"And on the team, over $2000 million in profit."

"Leslie Alexander agreed to the offer when we firmly set the price at $2.4 million."

"However, Leslie Alexander only holds 80% of the shares of the Houston Rockets. The remaining shares are scattered in the hands of some small shareholders."

"If you want to make a wholly-owned acquisition, you need at least 6000 million U.S. dollars, which means the total acquisition amount is about [-] million U.S. dollars."

Abel was quite satisfied with the answer that York Xi handed over.

That's right, in 2001.

The Rockets are only worth so much.

The Rockets at this time are one of the least valuable teams in the NBA.

It is really worth money because it has won the No. [-] pick next year.

After getting Dayao, with the support of Tianchao fans, the value has doubled several times.

In parallel time and space.

Even Leslie Alexander said it herself.

"Dayao brought me a fortune of 12 billion."

He said this in 2012, when Dayao had already retired.

At that time, the market value of the Rockets was about 15 billion US dollars.

Dayao has just been with the Rockets for two years.

In those two years, the Rockets' net profit exceeded the sum of the previous 20 years.

Otherwise, think to yourself, before 2002, did you know that there were 5000 million rabbits in the NBA?
Heard of Team Rocket bunnies, a million people?

Probably not.

But after 2002, these two figures are at least several hundred million or more.

"8 million dollars? No need [-] million. My grandfather Alex and my father Alexander, the two of them probably own about [-]% of the Rockets."

Abel said: "But I think this price is more reasonable. Go sign the contract, York West, and change the name of the owner of this NBA team to Abel Smith."

(End of this chapter)