July 5th, Saturday, is also the day when the second season of "The Traitors" premieres on SDTV.
Thanks to the rapid development of the Freeview platform, although the number of viewers for the first episode of the second season of "The Traitors" was far from last year's 6 million, it still achieved a viewership rate of over 95% on the Freeview platform, which has a total of more than 3 million users.
Although the total sponsorship amount for this season of "The Traitors" is lower than last year, compared with the development of the Freeview platform, which has helped Digital UK's market value surge, it is still very cost-effective for Barron's profits.
Moreover, under the copyright operation of Halo Company, referring to the revenue from the British version of the first season of "The traitors" sold to overseas countries last year, as well as the remakes of this variety show by other countries, "The traitors" can still bring considerable income to Summit Studio.
"It's a great honor to meet you, Your Highness, and Ms. Bonnie. I often watch your shows. You are even more beautiful in person..."
When he arrived at Abu's residence, Barron discovered that he was specially invited to the banquet and there were no other guests.
At this time, Abramovich still lived in a penthouse on the Thames worth tens of millions of pounds. He had not yet spent 150 million pounds to buy several apartments and build a huge palace-style mansion.
Abu was the only one who greeted the couple Barron and Bonnie.
At that time, he had not yet divorced and was still together with Zhukova, the daughter of a Russian arms dealer, whom he met in London. His current wife, his second wife, Irina, who was a flight attendant, gave birth to several children for him and did not come to London at that time.
"In fact, Your Highness, the idea of buying a team was ignited at Old Trafford. Two months ago, I watched the Champions League match between Real Madrid and Manchester United there. That wonderful game made me decide at that time that I wanted to own a team!"
Barron knew that the game Abramovich was talking about was the Champions League quarter-final at Manchester United's home ground on April 25. In that game, Real Madrid's "alien" Ronaldo scored a hat trick, and Beckham, who came on as a substitute (at that time, he had already had the "flying shoe incident" with Ferguson in the locker room) scored two goals.
It can be said that it was that game that made Beckham's performance make Real Madrid more optimistic about bringing him to the Bernabeu.
According to Abramovich, after he had the idea of buying the team, Bruce Buck, a senior lawyer at UBS and American Sidley Austin LLP in London, was invited to help realize this goal.
Kriezmann and others in his circle prepared a number of potential teams for Abramovich to choose from, but in the end Abramovich whittled the list down to include Manchester United and Tottenham.
They flew from Moscow to England in late June and arranged a series of meetings - the first of which was with Chelsea.
"My first choice was Manchester United, which is a great club that everyone dreams of owning, but unfortunately, Your Highness, you made your move earlier, so after evaluation, we gave up this option."
"You are very welcome to join the Premier League, Mr. Abramovich. I believe that with your capital injection, Chelsea will soon become an eye-catching team in the Premier League."
"I will, Your Highness, whether anyone believes it or not, but I really want to make this club as great as Manchester United."
If Abu said this at this time, anyone who heard it would probably sneer.
But this does not include Barron. After all, he knows that fifteen years later, Abramovich almost did it - if it were not for the outbreak of the war, which caused his identity to be targeted in England, by then, he would have become the most successful chairman in Chelsea's history, and Chelsea Club would have become a top-notch team in Europe.
During these 15 years, his total investment in Chelsea was close to 1.7 billion pounds. When he had to sell Chelsea in the end, he no longer bothered about the 1.5 billion pounds of debt he owned in the Chelsea club, and donated all the 2.5 billion pounds from the sale of Chelsea without taking a penny.
At least in this matter, Abu has nothing to say.
"I heard that you have a private equity fund called Mars Fund, is that right, Your Highness?"
When Abu brought up this topic, Barron knew that the main point of the drama was about to begin.
Why did Barron finally decide to meet Abramovich and not reject his invitation?
It's not because he has any sympathy for what happened to Abramovich later, or that he has any good feelings about the billionaire's investment in Chelsea.
The most important thing is that Barron was attracted by the large amount of cash in his hands.
After leaving Russia, Abramovich sold many of his properties, so he now had a large amount of cash in his hands, and as for Baron, the more the better when it came to investment.
It seems that Abu is indeed a smart man. His success today is not due to luck, but also to his resourcefulness.
"Yes, Mr. Abu, the returns of this fund are pretty good."
"According to my understanding, I'm afraid it's not just good. The Mars Fund has very impressive returns. So when it was opened for investment in the first half of the year, it received 300 million pounds of investment. Am I right, Your Highness?"
"Ha ha..."
Hearing Abramovich's words, Barron laughed:
"You know very well that the assets owned by the Mars Fund now exceed 500 million pounds."
"That's a very good result, but what I want to know is..."
Abu looked at Barron and asked seriously:
"Is your Mars Fund still accepting investments?"
"Mr. Abu, are you also interested in investing in our fund?"
Barron's expression remained unchanged. He said to Abu calmly,
"The Mars Fund just opened for investment in April. Now..."
"If possible, I would like to invest 200 million pounds in the Mars Fund first..."
Uh... wow, you are really rich...
Barron smiled and said:
"You think so highly of our fund, Mr. Abu, but if you really want to invest, I suggest you join next month, because by then the one-year period of the first phase of investment will be up, and we will calculate and share the profits of those funds."
Barron didn't expect Abramovich to throw out 200 million pounds at once. He is really rich...
If he really invests the 200 million pounds, he will become the largest single investor in the Mars Fund.
"No problem, Your Highness, just remember to notify me when the time comes."
Abramovich is willing to invest in the Mars Fund, on the one hand, because he hopes to establish a good relationship with this young Duke who is quite powerful in England. The fact that he accepted the invitation and appeared here today shows that at least he does not have a big barrier towards him.
Of course, after investigation, the performance of the Mars Fund is impressive enough, which is also one of the main reasons why he is willing to invest. After all, building closer relations is one aspect, and he would not just waste 200 million pounds.
On the other hand, Abramovich also needs to find investment directions for the large amount of funds he brought from Russia. As he plans to live in England permanently, he values investment here, and private equity funds are also a good choice.
Therefore, as Baron said, the Mars Fund will be open for investment again next month, and he can invest his money then, so he doesn't mind that short period of time at night.