"So you've already had that surgery?"
"Yes, don't mention this to me again, it's not a pleasant memory."
The Viscountess had mentioned to Barron before that because of Viscount Bute's special hobbies, the marriage between her and him was just a formality.
The reason why Ian Booth needs a "wife" like Chris is because it is a necessary prerequisite for him to obtain the right of inheritance of the family.
After all, it is impossible to say that Viscount Bute's father didn't know about his hobby.
But because the Bute family has always lacked offspring - for various reasons, the Bute family has been passed down from generation to generation. Even when there are two male offspring, one of them will die early.
According to the principles of inheritance of the British nobility, only male heirs can inherit the family title. In the case of the Bute family, it would be very difficult even if they wanted to find an heir from a side branch.
Therefore, Viscount Bute must have his own male offspring before he can obtain the right to inherit his father's title. This was the original agreement between the father and son of the Bute family.
That is why Viscount Bute married Chris.
In order to have offspring, Viscount Bute found a way with the help of modern technology even though he could not do it himself.
Britain is one of the few countries where surrogacy is legally permitted, but there are very strict prerequisites for this - of course, these are not a problem for the Butt family.
Not long ago, the Viscountess had completed this process. It can be said that the biggest suspense next is like opening a blind box, hoping for a male heir.
The British regulations on aristocratic heirs stipulate that only the descendants of their parents' legal marriage have the right to inherit the title, and illegitimate children are not included.
The Butt family could easily obtain the legal status of the child born to them by the girl from Ukraine in the UK.
Barron made no comment on this matter. If it were him, he would never choose this method unless there was no other way.
After all, although Viscount Bute paid a high price for this, this money is not easy to come by.
In addition to having extremely strict requirements on the other party's identity, whether it is health status, appearance, figure, education, or even external characteristics such as skin color and hair color, this process is also very difficult.
I won't go into details, but it is definitely more harmful to the body than natural childbirth.
This does not include the psychological pain of having to give up the child in the future - after all, although the seed came from Viscount and Viscount Bute, the girl was actually flesh and blood during the pregnancy process.
"So, I'm still recovering and can't..."
Barron, who had been quite interested, couldn't help but lose interest a little after hearing the Viscountess's words.
He lowered his head and then fixed his gaze on the Viscountess, whose face was already quite red:
"Madam, in that case, then you still..."
"Humph, you men..."
There was a flash of anger in the Viscountess's eyes, but she then said charmingly,
"There is always a way, my Lord Duke."
As she spoke, she lowered her body and knelt in front of Barron...
There was a sound of zipper, and Barron felt a little bit of coolness, and then warmth...
"hiss..."
…
"Boss, we have already started closing all long positions in international crude oil futures. The current crude oil price is relatively stable and remains above $35."
Daisy said hesitantly,
"Although OPEC's production increase plan has curbed the rise in oil prices to a certain extent, if a war really breaks out, I'm afraid oil prices will continue to rise..."
On January 12 this year, OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC for short) held a special meeting in Vienna and decided to increase daily oil production by 1.5 million barrels from February 1. That is, starting from this month, the maximum daily production limit of 10 member countries (excluding Iraq) will be increased from 23 million barrels to 24.5 million barrels to stabilize world oil prices.
In the following month, although oil prices did not continue to soar, they still remained at a high level of around US$33 to US$34 per barrel.
"Whether oil prices will continue to rise depends on whether the war progresses smoothly, so I don't think Saddam's government can cause much trouble to the other side."
It can be said that in the early stages of the war, the British and American coalition forces were very successful and overthrew the Saddam regime in a short period of time. However, the subsequent occupation was not so smooth. It was constantly consumed by various resistances, and Iraq's domestic crude oil production also recovered slowly. This is the main reason why oil prices began to rise after repeated fluctuations from the end of this year to the beginning of next year.
"In addition, Boss, we have already acquired 4.9% of Manchester United's shares in the stock market. If we continue to acquire, it will lead to a stake..."
Since the beginning of this year, Daisy received orders from Barron to start quietly purchasing Manchester United shares from the London stock market. So far, they have spent about 15 million pounds and obtained about 4.9% of Manchester United shares.
Manchester United at this time was different from other top football clubs in that it was a listed company, not privately held, and therefore its shares could be purchased directly from the stock market.
Although the PE value of Manchester United's stock is relatively high at this time and it seems that the stock price is already very high, the club's current market value of approximately 310 million pounds is much cheaper than its valuation when it was acquired later.
Barron knew that in the original time and space, in March of this year, the Glazer family from America would begin to take action against Manchester United Club.
They started with the stock market. It took them about a year to buy about 14.3% of Manchester United's shares. Then they began to publicly acquire Manchester United, and completed the acquisition of Manchester United by the end of 2004.
They spent less than 800 million pounds in the entire acquisition process - compared to this, Manchester United's market value of 310 million pounds at that time was too cheap.
Therefore, in early January, Barron asked DS Capital to start buying Manchester United shares in the secondary market before the Glazer family did.
Barron decided to acquire Manchester United Club not only because he was a Manchester United fan in his previous life; but also because the Glazer family, known as the "vampire", brought continuous bloodsucking behavior to the club after the acquisition of Manchester United, which made all fans hate it.
More importantly, buying Manchester United will not only give him considerable influence in Britain and the world, but it is also indeed a very cost-effective deal.
You know, at this time, Manchester United is actually the most successful club in the Premier League. It won the Champions League treble in 1999, is a regular in the Premier League championship race, and has a wide influence around the world.
Moreover, unlike other top clubs that are mostly privately held, Manchester United is a listed company with relatively transparent finances. In 2002, Manchester United's annual revenue was nearly 200 million pounds and its net profit was 15 million pounds.
Moreover, Manchester United's revenue and profits mainly come from ongoing operations (tickets, sponsorships, TV broadcasting rights), rather than from the buying and selling of players (buying and selling players is similar to making movies, which may have high income but is extremely unstable and volatile).
Manchester United is different from many other European clubs that are not the playthings of tycoons. Instead, it is a profitable club that maintains a high competitive level. Manchester United's three main business revenues (tickets, sponsorships, and TV rights revenues) all have considerable room for growth.
Moreover, as a well-run league with rising overall value, the Premier League's global influence continues to grow - at this time, the Premier League has become the world's largest league and its influence has expanded across the globe.
Therefore, the global commercial value of the Premier League as a whole is only in the early stages of development, and the future market space is huge.
As the most famous club in the Premier League, Manchester United has a very bright future and can take the biggest piece of the Premier League pie.