The Saudi Public Investment Fund's interest in O2 Telecom is not surprising.
Baron had heard of this fund in his previous life. Initially, they were more interested in investing in facilities such as airports and ports. However, telecommunication companies were also on their investment list, especially those in developed countries like the UK.
Later, after Mohammed bin Salman came to power, the investments of the Saudi public funds under his control became much bolder, including the most well-known one, which was its later purchase of the Premier League team Newcastle United. The head of PIF also became the chairman of Newcastle United.
In addition to the discussions with the Saudi mutual fund, Prince Walid is interested in Baron's DS Capital investment company.
Initially, he was interested in the Mars Fund because its profitability was impressive.
However, the Mars Fund has closed its investment window at this time and it will not open again until April or May next year.
After Barron introduced him to another fund, the fixed income product of Athena Fund, Prince Walid also expressed his intention to invest in this fund.
Speaking of which, this meeting with several Saudi guests was quite fruitful. In addition to having more contact with the future Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - now he is just 19 years old and still a student, Barron is not in a hurry to establish a close relationship with him, everything needs to be done slowly - both the Saudi Public Investment Fund and Prince Walid have achieved results.
A few days later, the Saudi Public Investment Fund sent a team to negotiate with O2 Telecom. In the end, they will invest 1 billion pounds to purchase O2 Telecom's convertible corporate bonds with an annual interest rate of 3.5%.
According to the contract, the Saudi Public Investment Fund has the right to convert these corporate bonds into O2 Telecom's common shares at the issue price of its shares when O2 Telecom goes public.
The £1 billion in funds will continue to repay the debt that Barron incurred when purchasing O2 Telecom.
So far, he has repaid £2 billion and still has £1.5 billion of high-interest debts at Barclays and Goldman Sachs, while O2 Telecom has also assumed £2 billion of corporate bonds with an annual interest rate of 3.5%.
As the UK and the EU continue to cut interest rates, their bank loan interest rates have now dropped from 5% to around 3%.
Therefore, now Barron will begin to use various methods, such as lower-interest loans or financing methods, to repay the high-interest debts incurred when he used leveraged buyouts to acquire O2 Telecom. You know, the interest on these debts was as high as 12% at the time, and the interest was a considerable burden.
Taking advantage of the global interest rate cuts, Barron's can also use new low-interest financing to cover previous high-interest debts, thereby reducing interest costs.
In addition, Prince Alwaleed was also very generous. He directly purchased $500 million of the Athena Fund, a fund product with a closed period of one year and a fixed annual return of 8%. Barron had already begun to reduce the fixed income of the Athena Fund. As he told the Duke of Westminster, the 10% annual return of 100 million pounds given to his Grosvenor Real Estate Company employee pension fund was already an exception for him.
After Prince Waleed's investment, the scale of funds controlled by Athena Fund successfully exceeded US$1 billion and reached more than US$1.25 billion.
…
By this time, it was November 10, and the exchange rate of the euro against the US dollar had exceeded 1.2. As of now, DS Capital's profit from shorting the US dollar exchange rate with 1 billion pounds as margin and 20 times leverage has exceeded 6 billion US dollars.
But Barron knew that this was just the beginning, because not only by the end of this year, the exchange rate of the euro against the dollar would reach a high of 1.25, but by April 2008, this exchange rate would reach a high of nearly 1.6...
From then on, the exchange rate of the euro against the US dollar will continue to fall, even to the level of 1:1.
But this process is not a one-sided rise or fall, there will always be fluctuations.
Therefore, Barron plans to close his investment until the end of the year, and then wait for the right opportunity next year to start the operation again.
"Why are you going to America again?"
When Bonnie came back in the evening, she knew that Barron was going to America in two days, so she couldn't help but ask.
"I have some investments there before, so I need to go take a look. Also, I ordered a business jet before, and Gulfstream has informed me that it is ready for handover. I plan to drive it back directly when the time comes."
These are all reasons to go to America, but another more important reason is that Rebecca has Barron's child, and she can't always be left alone in California to give birth. She has to go and see him from time to time.
Of course, he would never tell this reason. He hugged Bonnie and asked,
"Do you want to go with me?"
"You know, there's been a lot going on at Giant Studio lately, and I'm afraid I can't leave."
In fact, Bonnie was also very depressed. After all, the last time Barron went to America, it was during the period when the two of them had a conflict. After he went to New York, she saw a report about him and a "New York socialite" in the newspaper.
Although Bonnie didn't show anything in front of her cousin at the time, she still felt uncomfortable.
This time she really wanted to go to America with Barron, but unfortunately, she had just taken over Giant Studio and was too busy recently, so she really couldn't leave.
After all, it was she who came up with the idea of starting a business, so she couldn't just be a hands-off boss.
"How's Giant Studio doing lately?"
"It's the dance competition variety show I mentioned last time. Our tentative name is 'Dancing Miracle'. We have been preparing for it. We need to negotiate with the appropriate judges and guest contestants and agree on their schedules. We are ready to start recording in April or May next year."
"There's still nearly half a year left, so there's no need to rush."
Hearing what Barron said, Bonnie sighed and said,
"It's not that simple. After all, many of the contestants invited this time include some well-known stars, and they all need to book time in advance. And since it's a dance show, they can't really say that they have no preparation at all. They always need to practice in advance. We have to ask about all these."
Since this is the case, there is no other way. Barron suddenly thought of something:
"Have you met your cousin recently? I remember that her child, uh, I mean the Ukrainian girl's baby, is about to be born if I remember correctly."
Speaking of this, Bonnie's expression is very interesting.
Although she has now accepted the fact that her cousin is pregnant with her boyfriend's child, she is not very happy when she thinks about it.
"Yes, the due date is next month. God bless my cousin, she will have to take care of two children together..."
"Well..."
Barron already regretted bringing this up. Thinking about the fact that he would have two children next spring, he felt...
I am still looking forward to it with some trepidation.
"I think, baby, we should also try harder..."
How should you coax a woman? In addition to talking, you still need to take some practical actions.