Chapter 331 The situation is improving
Although Barron himself left London and went to China.
However, Global Industrial Investment Fund’s takeover bid for the London Stock Exchange still attracts much attention in the UK.
At this time, with further acquisitions, the GII Fund's holdings of London Stock Exchange stocks have exceeded 35%, and it is still in contact and negotiation with more London Stock Exchange shareholders.
As for the London Stock Exchange, after rejecting their first offer of a 25% premium, the GII Fund once again raised its offer and prepared to acquire the London Stock Exchange at a price of 1.5 billion pounds.
And in an interview with reporters, GII Fund CEO Finn Hudson claimed that this acquisition offer for a 50% premium on the London Stock Exchange is "unique" and will also be the final result of their acquisition. Quotation.
While the GII Fund’s battle to acquire the London Stock Exchange was in full swing, the British political circles also had different reactions to the acquisition.
London Mayor Ken Livingstone said in an interview that the GII Fund’s acquisition of the London Stock Exchange was “unusual” and that the British authorities should evaluate the situation after the London Stock Exchange was completely acquired by such an investment institution. , what adverse impact will it have on companies listed in London, and whether it will damage London's status as a major overseas company listing location and an international financial center.
Ed Boles, an important staff member of the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, known as "Brown's Adjutant", hinted to the media in early October that he was not opposed to the GII Fund's acquisition of the London Stock Exchange. Place.
Boers said: "I think the prosperity of London's financial market is due to internationalization initiatives. We allow foreign capital to enter our banks, our brokerage companies and our trading markets. I don't think so. Think the London Stock Exchange is exceptional ”
In response to these statements, GII Fund CEO Finn Hudson said in a subsequent interview:
“Even if GII Fund successfully acquires the London Stock Exchange, it will not interfere with the operation of the London Stock Exchange. The exchange will still be independently supervised by the British Financial Services Authority (FSA)”
With the GII Fund’s response to the London Stock Exchange. An offer for acquisition at a premium of 50% was issued again, and the London Stock Exchange's stocks also rose in response. Compared with before the acquisition by the GII Fund, the cumulative increase has exceeded 45%...
In this regard, the London Stock Exchange has also been Taking action, their management and shareholders said they would decide whether to accept the acquisition offer from GII Fund before October 20.
At the same time, the London Stock Exchange has not given up its efforts to find more buyers to compete with the GII Fund. According to media disclosures, the London Stock Exchange once contacted the British ICAP financial market brokerage company. Both parties Mergers have also been negotiated several times.
However, because ICAP was always worried that the stock price of the London Stock Exchange was "too frothy", no agreement was reached.
Relevant people from ICAP told the media that the merger between the two parties can only be carried out "when the stock price of the London Stock Exchange is lower."
In addition to ICAP, the German Stock Exchange, which has always had thoughts on the London Stock Exchange, is also involved in the acquisition of the London Stock Exchange by the GII Fund. According to media reports, the German Stock Exchange sent personnel Regarding the acquisition of the London Stock Exchange, I came to London to meet with the management of the London Stock Exchange.
However, after this report was passed to Germany, Deutsche Börse ultimately did not deny it, but stated that at the current price, Deutsche Börse needed to convince the board of directors to accept such a high premium...
A local newspaper claimed that sources from Deutsche Börse had revealed that its board of directors was "impossible to accept the London Stock Exchange's price of 1.5 billion pounds". Some people even directly said in the board of directors that "this is robbery"...
Next, British Under-Secretary of the Treasury Bowles stated in a public speech on the 11th that the British government will maintain a neutral position in this merger and acquisition case and will not obstruct the GII Fund’s merger and acquisition of the London Stock Exchange. The premise is that The acquisition should not affect the London Stock Exchange's regulatory framework and ensure that the FSA has veto power over any changes to the rules of its home stock exchange.
At this time, GII Fund has become more and more advantageous in acquiring the London Stock Exchange...
...After shooting enough material, Bonnie took the lead. With the film crew, she returned to London on the Devonshire. She will use the fastest time to complete the post-production of the first issue of "The Shining Life".
And Barron is also very busy...
After sending Bonnie Stuart away, he was finally able to bring Tamaran Ecclestone, who was still in the Magic City, to the Yan family garden to "compensate" for the person who had been expelled before. The neglected rich young lady.
It was just that the National Day Golden Week in China was not a good time to travel, so he waited until after October 8th before taking Tamaran to Hangzhou for some fun. I went to meet Boss Ma of Alibaba Company.
In June of this year, Taobao launched "Taobao Wangwang" to link instant messaging tools with online shopping.
Taobao Wangwang is a segmented instant chat tool that integrates communication, transaction management and other functions. Its predecessor is Alibaba’s Tradelink.
It can be said that up to now, the development of Taobao is still quite satisfactory to Boss Ma.
In fact, Taobao's most difficult moment was at the end of last year.
At that time, eBay, which was backed by eBay, the big financial backer, as the top C2C e-commerce company in China, was extremely wary of the rapidly developing Taobao.
Not only in terms of business, Taobao is blocked - in advertising and some marketing activities, eBay has signed exclusive advertising contracts with major portal websites, so that Taobao cannot advertise even if it has money. situation.
What’s even more interesting is that when you search for Taobao on Google, eBay ads will appear...
In addition, in December last year, Taobao was arrested on suspicion of unfair competition. It was investigated by the Hangcheng City Industrial and Commercial Bureau, and Alibaba, the owner of Taobao, was also implicated.
The reason why this is called the "Big Prize Event" is that Taobao launched an event called "Alipay" from November 14th to December 14th. The highest prize is a POLO 1.4 car. The lottery draw will be at 9pm on December 15th.
The Hangzhou City Industrial and Commercial Bureau received a report from a "senior netizen" at that time, saying that the one-time grand prizes provided by Alibaba's two commercial websites had exceeded the limit of 5,000 yuan, and unfair practices had been adopted during the sales process. means of competition.
At that time, Taobao suspected that this "report" was planned by its competitor eBay...
However, in the last financing of DS Capital, it invested 5,000 in Taobao alone. After acquiring a large amount of funds, Taobao became more confident, and eBay could not continue to "block" Taobao in terms of advertising.
After that, with the increased publicity, the development of Taobao also entered the fast lane.
In this regard, Boss Ma is still very grateful to Barron, the "big financier". After all, in the beginning, eBay was a strong opponent in the C2C field. He himself was not sure whether Taobao could succeed in this field. Lack of confidence, which is why Taobao was started independently outside the Alibaba system at that time...
The exchange of 33.3% of the shares for DS Capital’s US$50 million in funds was equivalent to their The valuation given to Taobao is US$150 million. This valuation cannot be said to be low. It is even somewhat higher than Boss Ma's expectations.
In Boss Ma’s opinion, this amount of funds can be said to be a key factor in Taobao’s current situation.
(End of this chapter)