Chapter 213： Goldman Sachs on the left, Citi on the right

William Chen also noticed that in the American public opinion, there have been doubts about his earning such high returns in this subprime mortgage crisis.

However, these voices are very weak at present, and they are only mixed in the tide of public opinion. William Chen didn't care too much about this, because the mainstream view in America is this, you can make money, as long as you don't violate the law, that's your ability.

Some sour chickens with ulterior motives can't do anything, not to mention that he has special preparations for this.

Goldman Sachs did not make Chen William wait too long. Maybe their own situation cannot allow them to wait any longer. Under the current situation, if the market cannot be rebuilt, any run on negative news will be a disaster. sexual.

And it happens that William Chen, as one of the richest people known to the American public, once he chooses to invest in Goldman Sachs and provide them with funds, then Goldman Sachs is more hopeful that the public will increase their trust in them.

So Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein personally called Chen William and told him that the board had agreed to Chen's investment request and that negotiations on the matter could now begin.

At the same time, Chen William's participation in Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and other investment banks to short the Eurasian stock market of 10 billion US dollars and profits were also fully credited, with a total of 26 billion US dollars.

In this way, his ten billion-dollar rate of return is not high compared to his own Meta investment company's short-selling income.

However, these investment banks will be very cautious about the leverage of self-operated business, because at this time, the primary goal is not to make a high profit, but to ensure that there will not be too much loss, otherwise for these investment banks now, it will be Worse consequences.

However, there is a profit of more than 150%, so after reading the accounts sent by the other party, William Chen did not entangle too much. As for how much these investment banks earned from their investment, that is also It's hard to check things out too clearly.

On March 14, William Chen announced that he would donate a $20 billion fund he held in Meta Investment Company to the Caitlin Foundation for charity.

According to information disclosure, the Caitlin Foundation was just established by William Chen in his mother's name, which means that this charitable foundation needs to donate at least $1 billion to charity every year.

This fund, after belonging to the Caitlin Foundation, will be renamed the Caitlin Fund, managed by Goldman Sachs, and invested by Meta Investments.

In fact, this is the original No. 1 Fund of Chen William's Meta Investment Company, which has allocated $20 billion in cash from the funds into it.

Then, the next day, March 15, news of the Caitlin Foundation's investment in Goldman Sachs was announced.

After urgent negotiations, the Caitlin Foundation will invest $10 billion to purchase the additional 87 million ordinary shares issued by Goldman Sachs, accounting for 18.5% of Goldman's total share capital, thus becoming Goldman's largest single shareholder.

Also on this day, the Federal Reserve approved Goldman Sachs Group's request to turn into a bank holding company. Since then, Goldman Sachs has been able to open commercial banks to take deposits from the public and get emergency loans directly from the Federal Reserve.

At the same time, the Caitlin Foundation also reached an agreement with Citigroup, which will inject 5 billion US dollars into Citigroup and purchase a 12.5% ​​stake in Citigroup.

Well, just four months ago, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority of the United Arab Emirates invested US$7.5 billion to buy a 4.9% stake in Citigroup. Citigroup was valued at more than US$150 billion at the time, and now the Caitlin Foundation has invested in it. At that time, Citigroup's valuation was only $35 billion.

Of course, what needs to be distinguished is the difference between Citigroup and Citibank. Citibank belongs to Citigroup. Now after the subprime mortgage crisis and the large-scale capital injection by the American government, most of the shares of Citibank have been nationalized.

Citigroup is naturally reluctant to continue this situation, because it is equivalent to Citibank's operations, which will be strictly controlled by the government and have many restrictions.

Therefore, in this financing, they also hope to take Citigroup out of the predicament and seek opportunities to buy back the shares of the government.

William Chen's Meta Investment Company, which had $8 billion in cash before, had $3 billion left after the acquisition of 20th Century Fox, plus the $26 billion transferred from Goldman Sachs, which was $29 billion.

However, after transferring USD 20 billion to Fund No. 1, which is the current Caitlin Fund, William Chen repaid Goldman Sachs' low-interest loan of USD 1 billion in accordance with the previous agreement, so now Meta Investment Company's account still has the remaining balance. $8 billion.

After the Caitlin Foundation invested in Goldman Sachs Group and Citigroup, there was still $5 billion left in the fund, which was temporarily invested in gold futures.

After all, according to the regulations, the Kettering Foundation has to spend at least one billion dollars for charity within a year, so it can't sit idle, and it needs to earn the billion dollars first.

It is now mid-March, and the international gold price has risen to $1,200 per ounce. According to forecasts, it will stand at a historically high price of $1,400 per ounce at the end of April, so there is no need to take too much risk, using 1.5 times leverage is enough to achieve this purpose.

The current financial investment operation of the Caitlin Fund, William Chen has been handed over to Martin Stephenson. He was the deputy manager of the securities investment department of Meta Investment Company that William Chen hired through the headhunting company. Multi-contract is operated by him. And John Paulson focused on Fund 3 after closing his position in Fund 2.

...

When Camilo Hagen met William Chen again, the relationship between the two parties changed again.

After the Caitlin Foundation invested in Goldman Sachs, according to the agreement, two directors could be sent to participate in the board of directors, so William Chen and Tom Hanks became the new directors of Goldman Sachs.

Therefore, it can be said that William Chen's current identity is already the boss of Camilo Hagen.

"Mr. Hagen, how is the situation now?"

When Camilo Hagen sat down in front of William Chen, Annie delivered his coffee and left, and William Chen asked with a smile.

"The New York Times is in a very bad situation. They have just released the wind and are going to sell some floors of their Manhattan headquarters building. The purpose is to alleviate the shortage of funds. Now they are eager to raise about 250 million funds, because as of now, this The company has debts as high as $1 billion, and $350 million of that is loans that are about to come due. Under the current circumstances, I am afraid that it is difficult for banks to grant their requests for deferral of repayments.”

"It looks like they're in a very dangerous situation."

"That's true, and I've heard that they're even interested in selling the 17.5 percent stake in the Boston Red Sox owned by The New York Times Group if the situation continues to deteriorate."

"So if I want to buy The New York Times Group, how feasible is it?"

Yes, Chen William currently holds a huge sum of 8 billion US dollars, and the short position of Fund 2 will be closed soon. It is conservatively estimated that at least another 20 billion US dollars will be added. Therefore, next, he will take the acquisition target. , placed in the "New York Times" of the three major American newspapers - "The New York Times", "Washington Post" and "Los Angeles Times".

In Chen William's plan his main development is divided into three directions - Internet, entertainment and media.

These are his main industries, and other industries, such as real estate and automobiles, will only be carried out through investment.

Then after he sorted out his current industry, the Internet industry, including Twitter, Siri, technology, Reddit, Zoom, and also invested in Chinese companies such as Ali, are currently in their early stages and require continuous funding. invest in development.

The entertainment industry, mainly including film and television, sports and games, is currently the main division of his industry in the film and television industry, including Marvel Entertainment, Twentieth Century Pictures, MGM Pictures and Netflix.

Of course, in the future, the Internet and entertainment can be related, especially the game industry, and Netflix, which can be said to be an entertainment company with the development of Internet thinking.

In the media industry that helps him exert influence on the society, he currently only has the New York Observer and the Observer APP, which are the shortcomings of his current troika. Therefore, he needs to take advantage of the subprime mortgage crisis to make acquisitions. Strengthen his media strength.

Now he is looking at the New York Times newspaper group headquartered in Manhattan, New York.