King of Hollywood

Chapter 112: Chapter 112: Acquiring ABC?

“Hmm… are you serious, Claude?” Even though Adrian had made it to the prepared umbrella and sat down in a chair to sip his coffee, he still felt dizzy, “Did we really walk away with 14 billion US Dollars from the Soviet Union?!”

“You didn’t mishear, and I didn’t misspeak.” Claude picked up his cup and lightly flicked it, “And what’s more, no taxes.”

“Damn, that’s really…” Adrian exhaled deeply after pinching the bridge of his nose. Although he knew it was an excellent opportunity to make money, he had never imagined it could go this far. Like the last time with the oil futures, Claude had stunned him again.

“The slice of the cake we got can only be considered medium-sized; it’s even smaller than my father’s. Those guys on Wall Street who had been preparing for a long time don’t even need mentioning. The wealth accumulated by the Soviet Empire over 60 years was just smoothly pocketed by them.” Claude’s voice grew more reflective towards the end.

Adrian understood his feelings. After all, just a few years ago, the Polar Bear was still a massive and fearsome entity, but now it was so weak that anyone could step forward and take a piece. However, rather than reflecting on the history of both countries and making sentimental remarks, at this moment he was more eager to know how Claude arrived at the figure of 14 billion— and the tone implied there was room for it to increase.

“Can you tell me exactly how you did it?” Adrian asked, “I’m sure it took a lot of effort.”

“Quite simple, very simple, so simple that you wouldn’t believe it.” Claude laughed heartily. He put down his cup and thought carefully before he continued, “I started arranging everything last year after our discussion. First, I paid to win over some bureaucrats; next, I opened about thirty banks of various sizes in cities all over Russia; then, I adjusted the deposit interest rate based on the situation to 20%, or even 30%—of course, the deposits had to be kept for a certain term; following that was endless promotion, urging Russian people to deposit their money in our banks; and lastly, the most important step, for every Ruble deposited, we immediately exchanged it into US Dollars.”

Adrian couldn’t help but take a deep breath. He roughly grasped Claude’s method—continuously absorbing Rubles and then exchanging them for US Dollars—before the Soviet Union collapsed, the Ruble was quite stable. Then when the Soviet Union collapsed and the economy worsened, the value of the Ruble plummeted, and billions of Rubles in savings could be paid off with just a few million or even hundreds of thousands of US Dollars!

“Wait a moment, Claude, are you saying that all of these 14 billion US Dollars came from absorbing funds from the general public?” Adrian inquired, as something occurred to him.

“Of course not, about half of it; it’s not just us who targeted the public’s funds,” Claude knew what he meant, “The other half came from the Russian government. Large-scale exchanges of US Dollars had to go through the Russian central bank, so it was imperative to establish good relations with them, and of course, it goes without saying how to do that. So, after the bank’s absorbed funds reached a certain amount, I used that capital as collateral to borrow an equivalent amount of Rubles, then exchanged the Rubles back into US Dollars. As long as the repayment period exceeded three years, the amount of interest was irrelevant.”

“I get it now.” Adrian took another deep breath; indeed, it was too simple.

Of course, currency manipulation was the most profitable business in the world, no wonder those tycoons were eager to get into the Federal Reserve. The situation in the Soviet Union could probably only be compared to Germany after World War I, but the loss of the Soviet Union far exceeded that of Germany at the time, and its astonishing wealth was so simply evaporated, or rather, flowed into someone else’s pockets.

Of course, such opportunities come only once, and fortunately, Adrian and Claude had firmly seized it.

“I never imagined, no wonder you were not interested in a 10% profit from shorting the British Pounds,” Adrian said with a sense of wonder.

“There are plenty of opportunities to make money; unless it’s absolutely necessary, there’s really no need to take risks,” Claude shrugged, “But you’re right, Ed, we do indeed have an undefeatable duo.”

“In that case, how about you treat me tonight?” Adrian half-jokingly suggested.

“Even though you’ve already lost out on two dinners before… no problem.” Claude, stroking his beard with a grin, agreed.

“You’re such a penny-pincher,” Adrian teased, shaking his head as he took a sip of his coffee.

Thinking about currency manipulation or the Soviet Union’s losses was pointless now; the former was not something he could get involved in, and the latter would have lost most of its wealth even without him. So now that he had seized this opportunity and made such a huge sum of money, all the previous schemes and ideas could be fully realized.

However, while 14 billion US Dollars sounded incredibly shocking, once he started spending it, it might not be enough, especially considering the plans Adrian had in mind.

“Alright, let’s continue; this game isn’t over yet,” Claude said, reaching for his pool cue.

“Wait, Claude, I remember you mentioned before that things over there weren’t finished yet, right?” Adrian suddenly asked, “So how much can we ultimately take?”@@novelbin@@

Claude raised his eyebrows, and the half-risen body soon sat back down, “It seems we won’t be able to play today.”

“If you want, I can find some time to spend a day golfing with you, allowing you to thoroughly mock my playing skills, how about that?” Adrian spread his hands, then dropped his smile and looked at Claude seriously, “I need an answer.”

“Alright, alright,” Claude sighed, yet didn’t show any impatience, “Based on the current circumstances, we can eventually earn 15 billion, of course, this is just an estimate, the actual situation should fluctuate around this number.”

“Then let’s count on that number for now,” Adrian thought carefully, and then asked earnestly, “Crow, what do you think are our chances of successfully acquiring ABC?”

“You mean, acquiring ABC?” Claude, who refilled his own cup of coffee, raised his eyebrows in surprise.

“Yes, exactly,” Adrian said and made a calming gesture, “Being a media company, we need a nationwide TV network, and I can’t think of a station more suitable than ABC.” Adrian spoke, “I know what you want to say, Crow, but look, the major well-known broadcasting companies, NBC is under General, CBS has been taken over by Sony, FOX is part of News Corporation, ABC will sooner or later be acquired by someone else, within these two years, I’m certain. We must get there before anyone else.”

He paused and then went on to say, “As for ABC’s long-term losses, believe me, Crow, if we can take the helm, I am confident enough to revitalize it from death!”

“Ha, that confident?” Claude tapped his own face lightly with his hand without agreement or objection.

“Of course, don’t forget what I’m doing now. It only takes a few excellent TV dramas and variety shows,” Adrian said, crossing his arms and lifting his chin, which made him look somewhat arrogant.

Claude put down his cup, clasped his hands together, and looked at Adrian for a few minutes, “Okay, let me think… Although I can’t give further analysis right now, I can tell you for sure, Ed, that 15 billion definitely isn’t enough.”

“We can raise financing,” Adrian said calmly, “Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Citibank, they would all be interested, The Godfather and my uncle can help.”

“Still not enough, I trust that father and Mr. Anderson will help, but business is business, and the funds won’t exceed 3 billion at most. If we are to acquire ABC, we’d need close to 20 billion!” Claude shook his head as he spoke.

“That much?” Adrian furrowed his brows.

“ABC might have been operating at a loss, but after all, it is a large company with a robust foundation and history; it still holds a high position in the public’s mind. To acquire it, spending a large sum of money is inevitable,” Claude explained briefly.

“So, is there another way?” Adrian’s frown deepened. The excitement of having acquired a huge fortune in the Soviet Union had completely subsided. Even with such a large sum of money in hand, it was still far from enough for certain things, which couldn’t help but be depressing, even though he was well aware of this fact.

“Don’t tell me you’ve run out of ideas, buddy,” Adrian said, looking at his best friend.

“Alright, there’s one more method,” Claude said after thinking for a few minutes, “But it’s going to be complicated to operate, and it might also affect our reputation.”

“Let’s hear it,” Adrian gestured.

“Simple, use ABC as collateral for a loan from the bank.”

“Use ABC as collateral? You mean to use something that doesn’t belong to us as collateral for a loan from the bank?”

“Yes, you heard correctly. In business terms, it’s indeed possible,” Claude nodded, “The biggest advantage of this is that if the acquisition is successful, the debt from this loan will be shouldered by all of ABC’s shareholders, not just us. However, it’s troublesome because, first, you must prepare enough detailed material for the banks to assess, those shrewd guys definitely do not want to see you declare bankruptcy after they’ve paid the money—frankly speaking, given ABC’s current operational situation, I don’t think any bank would take that risk. Secondly, if after the acquisition it continues to incur losses leading to bankruptcy or the need to sell it, ABC’s shareholders would inevitably complain about this loan, damaging our reputation.”

Adrian’s fingers drummed on the table as he looked at the distant scenery for a while before turning his gaze back, “All said and done, the crucial point lies in how to revitalize ABC after taking it over. This is actually not a difficult task. Remember what I told you before, Crow, as long as we have a decent management team, I’m very confident about bringing ABC back to life. So, I believe this method is credible, just as long as you can convince the bank that we can save ABC, getting this money shouldn’t be a problem after that.”

“You’re really confident, Ed,” Claude smiled, “I know you always achieve some unexpected successes; I also believe that since you said so, you must have a way to make ABC profitable—even though I’m the one who handles the actual work. However, I must sadly tell you, Ed, the premise of our discussion is that no one competes with us!”

(To be continued, for what happens next, please log on to www.qidian.com. There are more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)