Chapter 657: Buying the Bottom
In February 2009, the entire U.S. stock market had just passed the lowest point after the outbreak of the subprime mortgage crisis-the Dow Jones Index was close to 6,000 points, the S&P 500 Index was close to 650 points, and The Nasdaq also fell 1,200 points.
Taking this opportunity, Barron has successively reduced his holdings in companies, including O2 Telecom, SEM Group, Argos Retail Group and other companies. When the stock prices were relatively low, the funds he controlled, Completed the bargain hunting.
The main way is that when they carry out mergers and acquisitions, the convertible bonds purchased are converted into debt-for-equity at such an opportunity, thus increasing the shareholding ratio of these companies.
For example, when SEM Group acquired Reuters Group, the Cavendish Trust spent 950 million pounds to purchase SEM Group’s convertible bonds.
At that time, the share price of SEM Group was around 38.75 pounds. Now, affected by the overall market environment, when the Cavendish Trust Fund conducted a debt-for-equity swap, the average share price of SEM Group within 30 trading days had fallen to around 25 pounds. .
By converting the bonds into ordinary shares, the Cavendish Trust acquired approximately 38 million SEM Group shares.
In this way, the total share capital of SEM Group increased to 297 million shares, and the Cavendish Trust Fund (DS Holdings)'s shareholding in SEM Group also increased from approximately 40.73% after the previous reduction. is 48.32%.
If you add in some of the shares acquired by the Mars fund on bargain hunting, and the shares of SEM Group held by Bonnie (obtained through the sale of Stuart Media to SEM Group), then the SEM that Barron can control The group's shares still exceed 50%, firmly controlling SEM Group.
In addition to SEM Group, the same is true for O2 Telecom and Argos Retail Group.
When O2 Telecom acquired T-MobileUSA, Caesars Fund also provided part of the funds for O2 Telecom in the form of purchasing US$20 billion in convertible bonds; Argos Retail Group acquired Costco in the same way. In this way, major acquisition funds were obtained.
Now they have completed the debt-for-equity swap at this moment.
Of course, except for Barron, no one else is too sure at the moment. Although the U.S. stock market has rebounded slightly since the end of January, the U.S. stock market has reached its lowest point after the subprime mortgage crisis broke out. Already through...
It is not uncommon to find judgments and predictions that the stock market may still fall again - even more so than optimistic views.
After all, it is still very difficult to accurately judge the key nodes of a large cycle without looking back from the other end of time.
It is already very rare for a small number of investors to be able to judge the general trend over a period of time.
Therefore, it was chosen to complete the debt-for-equity swap operation during this period. The funds under the DS Group were not criticized by other investors. Instead, they chose to convert corporate bonds into ordinary shares. It can be said that now During this period, the debt burden of those companies was reduced - after all, corporate bonds need to pay interest, and the conversion to common stocks, although the total equity capital was expanded, also meant a reduction in debt and an increase in total market value.
It is also for this reason that the debt-for-equity swap operation, coupled with the absorption of certain secondary market stocks at this stage, has caused the stock prices of these companies, including SEM Group and O2 Telecom, to drop. There was a clear recovery.
It can be said that everyone is happy.
……
"Hiccup..."
"What's wrong, baby?"
Ivanta had just returned to New York from Silicon Valley. After meeting her and seeing her reaction, Barron asked .
"It's nothing. Maybe I should go to the hospital for a checkup. I've been hiccupping since yesterday. I didn't pay attention to it at first. After all, I've had this kind of time before..."
Ivanta frowned slightly. Wrinkled, said:
"But it seems different this time. I thought it would be fine after a sleep, but it turned out to be the same today... I called my personal doctor before, and he suggested that I go for a gastroscopy." "Hiccups?" < br>
Barron smiled and said:
“Maybe I have a method you can try...”
“I have tried many methods. For example, taking a sip of water and swallowing it slowly doesn’t work.”
"Just listen to me..."
Barron asked Ivanta to sit upright on a chair, and then found the middle part of her eyebrows near her nose, the depression between the inner side and the eye socket, which seemed to be The place called Zanzhu point, let her gently press it with two thumbs...
"Now take a deep breath and try to inhale as much air as possible. At this time, you start to press this place hard. parts ..."
Barron explained the process to her carefully:
"Then hold your breath, try your best to hold it in for a longer time, and keep pressing the two positions hard during the process. Until you can no longer hold your breath, slowly exhale the air in your lungs, and at the same time slowly reduce the pressure, until the exhalation is completed, you can breathe normally..."
Ivanta did what Barron said...
"How do you feel, baby?"
Seeing Ivanta do this once, he opened his eyes Barron opened his eyes and asked with a look of disbelief.
“Wait a minute... I really don’t hiccup anymore! It’s really amazing, dear, how did you do it?”
“You should know that Chinese traditional medicine has There is a concept called 'acupoints'. What I ask you to press are two acupoints. This was taught to me by a Chinese medicine practitioner when I went to China. Is it very useful?"
"Wow! The miraculous Chinese medicine is so crazy!"
In fact, in Barron's previous life, he had hiccups for two days. After trying various methods, he almost couldn't. I also wanted to go to the hospital for a check-up, but I searched on the short video APP at that time. After I found this method and tried it, it actually worked... and that’s how I remembered it.
“But since you suddenly have hiccups for so long, there may be some minor gastrointestinal problems. It’s better to check it out if you have time, honey.”
“It’s a pity that the person you know Traditional Chinese medicine is in China. It would be better if we don’t let him take a look. I heard The Chinese doctors seem to be able to make a diagnosis just by feeling the pulse. Is it really that magical? I wonder if the Chinese doctors in Chinatown are also so good..."
Barron did not expect that he A simple silky trick made Ivanta interested in Chinese medicine.
"If you are interested, honey, next time we go to China together, we can experience traditional Chinese medicine."
Of course, Barron knows that traditional Chinese medicine does have its magic, but it is different from Western medicine. Yes, Chinese medicine is not a "unified process" for different patients, but a "symptomatic treatment" according to each person's physical condition. Therefore, really powerful Chinese medicine doctors are still very rare and require long-term accumulation. Ordinary people do not Easy to touch.
But this is not a problem for Barron.
(End of this chapter)