Chapter 111 Opening Negotiations
Barron is indeed a little impatient with the progress of England and MI6.
The "London Star" case has been going on for five months, but since the last time Sir Dearlove, the director of MI6, met with him, it can be said that there has been no update on the progress of this case.
Ask, it is still under investigation.
Barron also knows that, as Nigel Inkster said, MI6's main energy is now focused on targeting al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Although Al Qaeda has suffered a major blow, Brother Bin Laden has still not been captured.
And Iraq is the next target of British-American cooperation. It can be said that since the Prime Minister went to the farm of the American family in May this year and had that secret conversation, most of his All their energy was focused on proving that Iraq possesses "weapons of mass destruction" that needed to be destroyed imminently, and hoped that this would persuade Parliament to agree to the British sending troops to Iraq.
Under such circumstances, the main work of MI6 will naturally revolve around this aspect. Relatively speaking, the effort invested in the "London Star" case is somewhat insignificant.
So after the meeting with Nigel Inkster and Barron, it was determined that he would take the lead and hire the most professional experts in intelligence analysis with high salaries to join in to form the " "Intelligence Center", first of all, is to collect and analyze relevant information about the "London Star" fraud gang and find the gang, thereby maintaining the dignity of the Devonshire family.
To this end, Barron met again with the director of MI6, Sir Dearlove. At his request, the other party agreed not to be involved in other "London Star" cases that required high confidentiality. Leave the information to Barron.
"At least within Britain, I don't want you to cross the line. Even abroad, I hope you won't cause trouble, because it is very likely that these people will be involved in some 'illegal violent organizations.' Your Highness, this is by no means alarmist."
After agreeing to Barron's request, Sir Dearlove said this to Barron with a serious face.
In fact, nothing can be accomplished overnight. Just like the intelligence team that Barron has formed now, what they can do currently is only analyze the relevant intelligence handed over to them by MI6. Later, Then look for relevant information from some publicly available materials - at best, you can buy valuable information for yourself from the international intelligence black market, and you don't have the ability to directly go to areas outside the UK to collect intelligence.
But in the beginning, it was enough to be able to do this. It was better than waiting for news from others.
Later on, Barron will gradually strengthen the capabilities of this intelligence team.
...
Two days later, news came from Johannesburg. Amber told Barron that he had contacted the South African newspaper industry, although he had not yet met the CEO of the South African newspaper industry, Cus Baker. However, I met Tony Locks, the head of Internet industry and investment in the South African newspaper industry - his Chinese department's investment in Penguin was finalized with his approval. It has to be said that as the Duke of England, Barron still has a certain reputation. After all, the South African newspaper industry is a listed company with a market value of tens of billions of dollars at this time. Not to mention the CEO of the group, even those who control the specific Not all business executives can be seen just by wanting to see them.
Comparedly speaking, DS Capital can be said to be little-known at this time. That is to say, the boss of this company is the Duke of Devonshire in England. Interested at first sight - the Duke of England is as rare as the billionaires in the world...
The good thing is that the South African newspaper industry is interested in the DSIIC (DS Industrial Investment Company) proposed by Amber Sheehan. ) hopes to acquire the 46.5% stake in Penguin held by the South African MIH Group, a subsidiary of the South African newspaper industry, at a premium of 50%, or 32 million pounds. Although they have verbally stated that they are very optimistic about the future development of Penguin, They are extremely optimistic about the future of the Internet industry in developing countries, especially China, but their rejection is not so straightforward, so there is still the possibility of continuing to talk.
Before leaving London, Barron told Amber that he would accept a premium of up to twice as much for the Penguin shares held by South African newspapers.
But Amber naturally couldn't show his trump card at the first contact, so he was very strategic and started with a 50% premium - speaking of it, like this In fact, in Amber's opinion, the premium is already high enough.
You must know that the South African MIH Group only started to buy Penguin shares last year, and only increased its holdings to 46.5% in June this year. After only three or four months in the past, it was able to give 50 % premium is considered a great success for this investment.
What's more, it's still a time when related industries have shown no signs of recovery after the Internet bubble crisis. If they can make this offer at this time, I'm afraid no one else will do so except them.
Amber was not wrong in doing so, but Barron still reminded him. What needs to be noted is that since the other party is willing to take over Penguin and expand its shares after the Internet bubble burst, then He must be very optimistic about this company - at least the vice president of the China branch pushed hard to invest in Penguin, and finally convinced the key figure in the South African newspaper industry - Tony Locks, who is responsible for Internet affairs.
So if they start from its Chinese branch, there is a high probability that there will be no results. They can only impress the other party with enough profits through direct dialogue with the South African newspaper headquarters.
Amber can also see this. The South African newspaper industry is a listed company. As the CEO of the company, it is necessary to stabilize or even increase its stock price - in many cases, this is even related to their own income.
According to the data seen by Amber, the large-scale investment in Penguin at this time did have a certain negative impact on the stock price of the South African newspaper industry at a time when the Internet technology industry was relatively sluggish. So, then The problem now is that if they can get good returns from this investment soon, or even relatively high returns, it will definitely have an effect on improving its stock price.
In the negotiation with the other party, Amber needs to judge the psychological price at which they can accept the sale of Penguin Company, so that in their minds, the idea of improving the company's stock price and performance will outweigh the idea of Penguin. How promising is the company's future?
This price, if Amber estimates it too low, the other party will not agree; if it is too high, then he will be "taken advantage of" - Amber himself thinks that the 200% premium Barron said , is really a bit overestimated.
After all, no matter how capable Amber is, he will not be able to "see the future" like Barron. Therefore, according to the prediction of the situation at this time, Penguin's shares are not worth more than 60 million pounds anyway...
While waiting for the outcome of Amber's continued negotiations, Barron reminded him that the ultimate goal was to obtain Penguin's shares. Although a lower price would be better, it was not the primary consideration.
(End of this chapter)