Chapter 647 will be anxious
“They hope to obtain at least 8 billion pounds of funds to deal with non-performing assets and make their capital situation meet the government’s requirements, so that they can obtain further credit support...”< br>
Davis said to Barron:
“They hope to obtain part of the funds by issuing new shares, but you know, the share price of Barclays Bank has dropped relatively. It fell too much in 2018, so they hope to complete the additional issuance at a reasonable price. In addition to boosting the stock price, they can also gain support from other shareholders. "
"If this is the case, why not second? What about buying in the secondary market? Of course, I know that I won’t get a large share of the shares just by absorbing them from the stock market, but if they want to issue additional shares at the ideal price, I’m afraid not many people will respond.”
Hearing Barron's complaint, Davis smiled and said:
"That's true. Many people are not very interested in their plans now. After all, everyone is very cautious at this time. But time is running out. I believe they will recognize the reality..."
Just like the Royal Bank of Scotland, which once ranked second among the listed banks in the UK, but in the current crisis, the government injected 20 billion Sterling took 60% of their shares because their stock prices had dropped too much, and the government's capital injection would naturally not provide too high a premium, otherwise it would cause public dissatisfaction.
But similarly, if it is Barron's or other private companies that invest in it, it is completely impossible to obtain such conditions.
Because the management of Royal Bank of Scotland and its shareholders understand that the British government is not very interested in holding their shares for a long time, and the capital injection through holding shares is purely to rescue the banking industry, Therefore, they will be able to get these shares back in the future on relatively loose terms by returning the capital injection from the government.
If it were other private companies, this would not be the case at all.
The same is true for Barclays Bank. Of course, accepting capital injection from the government is also an option, but the accompanying harsh conditions for bank management will definitely be difficult for them to accept.
This requires them to find a capital injection plan that is acceptable to shareholders and other investors. Otherwise, in the end, they will have to accept the result of government capital injection.
Barron is quite interested in investing in Barclays Bank. After all, just in terms of income, if he takes advantage of the current opportunity to invest in it, he will be able to obtain good income in the future.
What's more, Barclays Bank is one of the oldest banks in the UK and also has a considerable position in the entire British financial industry. Obtaining a certain proportion of its shares will also be beneficial to Barron's influence on the British financial industry. expansion of influence.
The question now is the conditions for investing in this bank...
But as Davis said, there is not much time left for Barclays, and they will be anxious...< br>
……
In addition to causing great damage to the financial industry and related industries, the subprime mortgage crisis also had a huge impact on ordinary people.
On the one hand, the unemployment rate continues to rise - in a crisis, even those companies that will not go bankrupt will first reduce expenditures, lay off large-scale employees or directly eliminate entire departments. It is very normal. This will cause those who have lost their jobs to lose their source of income and find it very difficult to find another job. After all, the number of jobs has been significantly reduced.
In addition, there is inflation.
This is something that the British government has been worried about before, especially in the context of the soaring crude oil prices this year. The rise in oil prices has caused the prices of consumer goods to also rise. However, in comparison, income has not risen. , but will be reduced by the impact of the crisis, which will increase the pressure on people's lives.
But from the perspective of Argos Retail Group, this is also an opportunity for their development. Although Amazon has begun to enter some Western European countries, at present, Argos.com's market share in the e-commerce industry is still far ahead of Amazon.
After all, Argos.com has a first-mover advantage and is considered a "local operation."
Moreover, its model is different from that of Amazon. Amazon has now allowed third parties to enter the European market. It can be said that a large proportion of products on its European site are more inclined to C2C.
And there is no cross-border e-commerce at this time. Most of Amazon’s products in the European market come from local suppliers.
Argos Retail Group is different. From earlier, they have begun to establish an increasingly complete supply system in China. Most of the suppliers in this system are in Argos. With the help of capital and technology, we can ensure that the price-performance ratio of the products is better than that of local European products.
Although Argos.com also has some third-party suppliers, more than 70% of its products currently come from Argos’ own supply system.
Because the products in the European market use Argos Retail Group’s own brands, even if some products have a generous profit margin, it is difficult for consumers to compare prices with products on other sales platforms.
Under the influence of the subprime mortgage crisis, cheap goods from all over the world have become very popular, and Argos Retail Group has very strong competitiveness in this regard.
It can be said that in terms of cost performance, even Amazon, which has begun to attract users through various discount activities, is completely unable to shake Argos.com's leading position.
Of course, the growth data of Amazon users is not bad. The biggest impact is on physical retail in Europe. In terms of cost, these physical retails are at a disadvantage, especially in some daily necessities, small household appliances, etc. Products that do not require on-site trial use have begun to lose a large number of users.
In addition, some local e-commerce companies in various countries have also been squeezed by Argos.com and Amazon for their living space. Under the background that it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to raise funds and the cash-burning model cannot be carried out, they recently announced that There are especially many small European e-commerce companies that have gone bankrupt.
“Costco will complete its shareholder vote before Christmas, and by then our acquisition of this company will be able to begin...”
Argos Retail Group CEO Nathan Ellington is full of confidence in Costco's acquisition. Of course, with the financial support of Caesars Fund, it can be said that Argos Retail Group, which already owns more than 50% of Costco's shares, has basically completed the acquisition of Costco. The company has no control over the company, but they hope to integrate Costco into the Argos retail group system, so that it can occupy a certain scale in the North American retail market.
“Costco’s management will be retained and we will not interfere too much in its operations. The only point is to strengthen Costco’s e-commerce business. This has been proven through the success of Amazon. In the United States, especially in big cities, e-commerce still has advantages.”
The situation in Europe and the United States is similar, that is, e-commerce will develop more successfully in large cities with relatively dense populations. As for other sparsely populated cities. region, just the distribution of goods is a problem.
People there have also developed the habit of driving to nearby large supermarkets for large-scale shopping and then stocking up.
Why is e-commerce so successful in China? The population of one big city there alone is higher than the population of a single state in the United States. The population density is also conducive to the development of e-commerce.
Now that Amazon has come to Europe to compete with Argos.com, Argos Retail Group is naturally happy to acquire Costco and directly enter the North American market to seize Amazon's share.
(End of this chapter)