Hong Kong's new giants

"Ok"

Of course, the money must be kept for further development, especially overseas investment.

Of course, the most important thing is to maintain sufficient cash flow, and you can do more things later.

Lin Zuhui's development of ATV Group is about influence, not money.If that country has the opportunity to invest in communication companies, of course it will not miss it.

After the meeting, everyone continued to work enthusiastically, which is a great cause.

In fact, that's all the work that Lin Zuhui does. He almost delegates power to the management team headed by Selina Chow, and will not participate in specific work.Including going to Taiwan Island to negotiate, it was also Zhou Liang Shuyi's work, and the same is true for the negotiations in the mainland.

It gives people the impression that Selina Chow is in control, but in fact Lin Zuhui is the boss behind it.At least among the dozen or so high-ranking officials, Lin Zuhui is regarded as a "level of admiration", so there is no such thing as emptying him.

In fact, some people have complaints about ATV Group's participation in film and entertainment companies, and have reported to the Hong Kong government many times, believing that this violates the broadcasting law.

However, ATV Group refuted it according to the regulations of the Broadcasting Law, because the Broadcasting Law stipulates that it cannot operate non-communication businesses, and film and entertainment companies are all communication businesses.

What's more, in 1991, the Broadcasting Bureau overturned the 1988 Television Law, believing that it hindered the spirit of commercial freedom.

Coupled with Lin Zuhui's status in Xiangjiang, ATV has become a huge group.

When the time is right, Lin Zuhui will still arrange for the merger of the two companies. Of course there will be some resistance, but it depends on how Lin Zuhui operates.

For example, the Broadcasting Law stipulates a TV license, but ATV can establish a separate licensed company, similar to the operation method of Satellite TV back then.

Chapter 564 [Collapse of Barings Bank]

Thursday, November 2.

Singapore, in an office building.

Lin Zuhui and He Changhong, vice chairman and president of Octopus Bank, are standing behind futures traders.

This is the futures and options trading department of Octopus Bank in Singapore. Although Octopus Bank is mainly a commercial bank, it inherits the business of the original China Commercial Bank; The transaction department of the bank.

In this way, the source of assets can be concealed. After all, the most you can find is Octopus Bank; and the transaction department of Octopus Bank is open to the outside world.

"How much money has been invested so far?" Lin Zuhui asked with a calm expression.

The manager of the trading department in Singapore is a foreigner named Willis. He immediately replied seriously: "Octopus Bank's own funds have been short-sold 1.2 million US dollars, and the average short-sell index is 19350 points. The Kansai earthquake in Japan After that, we have achieved 1.2 times the book profit, and the current Nikkei index is 18450 points."

Willis was calm, but excited inside.It is his honor as an investment manager to be able to communicate directly with the stock god.

Moreover, the boss's mentality is very calm. Faced with an investment of 1.2 million US dollars and a high leverage of 25 times, the boss has no demeanor at all.

Lin Zuhui asked again: "It's not normal for the earthquake to drop to this point. Either someone is backing up against the market, or the sequelae have not yet come."

As if talking to himself, Lin Zuhui actually knew that there were two reasons:

Somebody backed it up, not surprisingly, it was a Singaporean trader from Barings Bank; in his previous life, this trader single-handedly caused a famous British bank of more than 200 years to close down, setting a world record—the employee who cheated the boss most; Barings Bank let him operate like this, but this trader took advantage of the loophole of Barings Bank - the wrong bank account, bought a large number of Nikkei index futures, and directly caused a loss of 15 billion US dollars; a series of problems in this , It can be called the negative textbook of the banking industry.

So, don’t think that fuel oil treasure incidents have occurred in the Mainland, and such strange cases have also occurred in financial countries like the UK.A trader used a large amount of funds to speculate on the futures index, but the British headquarters checked several times and found no problem.

Speaking of it, Lin Zuhui asked Octopus Bank to short-sell the Nikkei this time. In addition to knowing that the Japanese earthquake would cause the Nikkei to plummet, there was also the case of the collapse of Barings Bank that reminded him—to make some money and sell Barings Bank .

Moreover, there is a trader at Barings Bank who bought more than 200 billion US dollars in "long orders" (with a margin of about 10 billion US dollars), which resulted in a huge trading volume, which can be entered.

Including the New Era Group, it also short-sold the Nikkei Index futures index of more than 5 million Hong Kong dollars.

He Changhong is also a financial elite and a banking professional, so he said: "Since the boss thinks so, then we are in a stable profit situation, and we can rest assured to wait for the Nikkei index to fall."

At this time, the futures index can be closed at any time, in the case of an opponent's order.In the absence of an opponent's order, the only option is to wait for the delivery date.

He Changhong thought that Lin Zuhui was worried, so he brought himself to Singapore for inspection.

Unexpectedly, Lin Zuhui just thought for a while, and immediately issued an order: "Continue to short the Nikkei Index, and give another 6000 million US dollars."

Everyone was shocked, the boss was serious.

Willis immediately said: "Okay, I'll arrange it right away!" After speaking, he acted immediately.

Then, Lin Zuhui asked He Changhong: "How are you preparing for overseas expansion?"

He Changhonghui reported: "After several years of development, Octopus Bank has met the conditions for overseas expansion in terms of human resources and management systems... The government of Singapore has agreed for us to open branches here, Thailand, Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries , are also negotiating..."

Lin Zuhui nodded in satisfaction and said, "It is time to build a global financial network as soon as possible!"

The financial environment in many countries is open, which is also the result of the struggle and deception of European and American financial robbers.For example, in Southeast Asian countries, Thailand began to experience rapid economic growth in the 80s. It once considered itself a developed country, which was the reason for developing the capital market; of course, the harvest of European and American capital is also unambiguous.

To put it simply, why do European and American countries allow those countries to develop their financial markets? Because they are confident in their financial capabilities and are ahead of other countries, they wish everyone would open up; One has been playing for decades, and the other has just had a full meal, so how have you played it?

In the Asian financial crisis in the previous life, South Korea almost went bankrupt, and the IMF (International Monetary Fund) was equivalent to holding a gun and pointing at Koreans, either opening up South Korea's financial market, or the country went bankrupt.In this way, European and American capitals led by Wall Street have seized Korean industries one after another.

Of course, as long as you have money, everyone can enter the Korean market. After all, opening up is not for a certain country, but for a comprehensive opening.Therefore, Lin Zuhui can't eat meat, but there is no problem in eating a bone and drinking soup.

He Changhong always felt that the boss was pointing something, and wondered in his heart whether the boss had already found a target to acquire an overseas bank?

"Boss, don't worry, we will definitely forge ahead and develop and grow Octopus Bank!" He Changhong vowed.

Lin Zuhui nodded. Octopus Bank had made back all of its historical losses last year, and now its annual net profit has reached more than 10 billion Hong Kong dollars, which can be regarded as a leader in the banking industry.

In fact, he doesn't value commercial banking business, as long as it develops stably. After all, Hong Kong has 600 million people, so how much deposits can it absorb? What he fancyes is the ability to form a global investment banking business network, which is convenient for his own capital investment and deployment.

……

Barings Bank Singapore Futures and Options Trading Department.

Futures manager Nick Leeson is like a gambler at this time, buying a lot of Nikkei futures. He can get 1000 million pounds of funds from London every day.

In December last year, at a Bahrain financial achievement meeting held in New York, 12 Baring bank workers around the world regarded him as a Bahrain hero and gave him long and warm applause.

This made the ambition high, bound to make more money for Barings.

Although the Kansai earthquake caused him a lot of losses, he believes that more than ten days have passed, and the Nikkei index has not plummeted, so it will definitely bottom out and rebound.

"I'm going to make a lot of money!" Nick Leeson

A trader's voice came: "Manager, someone is short selling a lot, do you want to take the order!"

"Take it, give it to me. Next, we have 1000 million pounds a day, and the Nikkei is about to rebound. Let those fools jump off the building!"

Traders do not doubt him, but the manager is a hero in Bahrain.

Nick Leeson asked: "How many Nikkei futures, and Japanese government bond contracts do we have?"

"50000 Nikkei futures, 20000 JGB contracts," said a trader.

Nick Leeson laughed arrogantly: "Very good, the more we buy, the more we earn! After this is done, I will give you a vacation, and then go to Las Vegas to have fun for a week , one American girl per night."

"Thank you, manager!" Several traders said happily, and then started to operate like chicken blood.

Nick Leeson is not completely confident and excited at this time, but more of a kind of madness, and behind this madness is that in 1992 he set up a ' 88888' for 'Bad account'.This was originally a normal 'error account' in the operation of the financial system, recording minor errors and handling them in Singapore to avoid troublesome work in London.

It was this 'wrong account' that led to the irreversible situation today. At the beginning, because his subordinates made a mistake in the customer's transaction, he recorded this error in the 'wrong account' (concealed), and the loss was 2 pounds; A friend also made many mistakes, which he recorded in the 'error account'.

But there are at least three problems bothering him: first, how to make up for these mistakes; second, how to evade the internal audit of the London headquarters at the end of the month after recording the mistakes into the "88888" account; third, SIMEX requires them to add margin every day, and they will calculate How much does the Singapore branch lose every day?

In order to make up for the mistakes of his employees, Leeson transferred the commissions he earned into the account, but the premise is of course that these mistakes should not be too big, and the amount of loss caused is not too big, but the mistakes caused by George are indeed too big.In order to earn enough money to compensate for all losses, Leeson took more and more risks. He was engaged in a large number of straddle position transactions at that time, because the Nikkei index was stable at that time, and Leeson would earn option premiums from more transactions.If you are unlucky and the Nikkei index fluctuates sharply, this transaction will cause Bahrain to suffer great losses.

In this way, he began to fill in holes, and began to make fake checks to pay the London headquarters, and finally came to this point.

"I've made a lot of money this time, so I'll stop!" Nick Leeson thought after calming down.

……

Beginning in mid-February, the Nikkei began to continue to fall sharply.

On February 2, the Nikkei stock price index fell sharply, 23 points, to close at 276.6 points.

On the same day, Nick Leeson finally realized that he could not make up the loss, so he was forced to flee in a hurry.

At this time, the Singapore trading department of Barings Bank held more than 6 long contracts of futures index, and faced with the rise of Japanese government bonds, it also held more than 26000 short contracts. Then it surged to a staggering £8.6 million.

The bankruptcy of Barings Bank has become a foregone conclusion.

……

On the morning of February 2, Lin Zuhui learned that at 27:9 last night, the Bank of England, the central bank of England, had no choice but to announce the bankruptcy and liquidation of Barings Bank without any other rescue plan, looking for a buyer. take on debt.

At the same time, the London Clearing House stated that after consultation with relevant parties, it will treat Barings Bank as insolvent, and in accordance with the power conferred by relevant laws, it will close the open positions of Bahrain's own contracts and the open positions of its agency customers. The contract is transferred to other members for processing.

Lin Zuhui knew that the opportunity had come!

Barings Bank was founded in 1763 by Sir Francis Barings. Due to its flexibility and innovation, Barings soon achieved great success in the international financial field.Its business scope is also quite extensive. Whether it is refining copper ore in the Congo, trafficking wool from Australia, or digging the Panama Canal, Barings Bank can provide loans.

Barings Bank is different from ordinary commercial banks. It does not develop ordinary customer deposit business, so its source of funds is relatively limited. Its business expertise is corporate financing and investment management. In the 90s, it began to develop overseas and carried out extensive investment activities in emerging markets. In 1994 alone, it opened offices in China, India, Pakistan, South Africa and other places. The business network is mainly in emerging countries and regions in Asia and Latin America.

What Lin Zuhui lacks is an investment bank like Barings Bank. If he is included in the Octopus Financial Group, he will be equivalent to extending his financial tentacles to all parts of the world.

Therefore, he quickly decided to lead the team to go to the UK to buy Barings Bank.

He knew that Barings might only be worth £1, but it might need an injection of more than $10 billion.

But this time Octopus Bank earned almost US$10 billion on Nikkei.

In less than three months, it's a good deal to pick up a company that has been around for hundreds of years.

Of course, there may be competitors, but it’s okay to try!

Even if the acquisition fails, at least 10 billion US dollars can be earned!

On the same day, Lin Zuhui's private plane took off from Xiangjiang and headed towards London.

On the plane were senior executives from the Octopus Financial Group, as well as foreign financial aid such as Yuan Tianfan and Liang Botao.

Chapter 565 [Get up wherever you fall]

After Lin Zuhui and his party came to London, they did not rush to start action. After all, Barings Bank has not successfully closed its positions in futures and bonds. Who knows how much it will lose?How much money does it take to revitalize Barings Bank?

Until March 3, when the Nikkei index rebounded by more than 2 points, and with the assistance of the Central Bank of England and relevant parties, Barings finally put the global open interest futures contracts in Singapore, Tokyo, and Osaka respectively. All positions are closed.So far, Barings Bank has lost as much as 300 million pounds, or more than 9.16 billion U.S. dollars, due to the failure of investment in financial derivatives.

The news of the bankruptcy of the Barings Bank Group shocked the international financial market. Stock markets around the world were impacted to varying degrees. The exchange rate of the British pound fell sharply, and the exchange rate against the Mark fell to the lowest level in history. The hidden impact of the Barings Bank incident on the European and American financial industries is immeasurable.

Thursday, November 3.

The headquarters of Barings Bank welcomed the visit of Lin Zuhui and his party.

The Bank of England commissioner Max, who is in charge of handling the affairs of the Bank of Barings, welcomed the unexpected guests; after the major financial institutions in the UK had no intention of acquiring the Bank of Barings, everyone really pinned their hopes on foreign financial institutions, but they did not expect to attract people from all over the world. The attention of the richest man.

But it's normal to think about it. The world's richest man is like a tireless "upstart", buying and buying everywhere in the world; people don't know how much wealth he has, because he is a "stock god", and it is said that even Wall Street admires him. Endless stock god.

After some simple politeness.

"Mr. Lin, the financial information has been prepared for you!" Max said politely.

"Thank you"

Lin Zuhui signaled the audit team to start working, and he brought people, Max and others to the meeting room.

After everyone sat down, Max couldn't help asking: "Mr. Lin, as far as I know, among the big players participating in the Nikkei futures trading this time is your Octopus Bank."

Lin Zuhui said generously: "Not bad, but compared to Barings Bank, we can only be regarded as small customers. Moreover, most of our funds are traded on behalf of customers."

Max smiled wryly and said, "This time, Barings Bank was tricked by that idiot. It's really a pity that the 233-year-old bank went bankrupt like this."

Lin Zuhui said calmly: "The 233-year-old bank closed down with a loss of 9 million pounds. It can only be said that he is too vulnerable. Of course, the 233-year-old bank is worthy of respect. So, I think it just needs a new owner."

He Changhong, Yuan Tianfan, Liang Botao and others laughed, and everyone was very relaxed, because Lin Zuhui said that if it is only about money, then the acquisition is not a problem.If there are too many external factors, or London officials make things difficult, then the transaction will be cancelled, and it is not necessary to buy.

Seeing Lin Zuhui so relaxed and calm, Max and the others couldn't help sighing, this kind of demeanor is amazing.

"Mr. Lin, does Mr. Lin know that the ING Bank Group has also come to discuss the acquisition?" Max decided to sell for Barings Bank.

As for the final decision on who to trade to, it has to be approved by the Bank of England's top management and the court.

Lin Zuhui said with a smile: "I don't know, but I think it's a good thing. After all, if Barings Bank goes bankrupt, more than 4000 employees will lose their jobs, and a 233-year-old signboard will disappear."

Max's heart moved, and he immediately asked: "Assuming that Mr. Lin's acquisition is successful, will the name be changed?"

Lin Zuhui smiled and said: "No, it's just a name, and the signboard is also valuable."

Max and the others nodded!

Barings Bank was initially engaged in trading activities, and later entered the securities industry. In the early 19th century, it became the leading issuer of British government securities.For more than 100 years since then, it has made considerable progress in securities, funds, investment, commercial banking, etc., and has become a precedent group securities firm in London's financial center. It even entrusts its management of the assets of the Queen of London. Bank" name.In 1993, the bank had assets of 59 billion pounds, liabilities of 56 billion pounds, capital plus reserves of 4.5 million pounds, more than 4000 employees at home and abroad, and a profit of 1.05 million pounds. In 1994, the pre-tax profit was as high as 1.5 million pounds.The bank then managed £300 billion in fund assets, £15 billion in non-bank deposits and £10 billion in bank deposits.

The loss of more than 9 million pounds this time, but its asset value is less than 5 million pounds, which is obviously insolvent.

Therefore, after the auditor and others briefly read the financial statements, Lin Zuhui asked, "Mr. Max, what conditions do you have?"

Max and the others made eye contact, and then he said: "The acquirer needs to inject 7.8 million pounds to restore all of Bahrain's banking business and some securities and fund businesses immediately."

Lin Zuhui said: "No problem!"

Max and the others were taken aback for a moment, agreed so readily?