Chapter 904: The Calm Before The Storm
In the previous battle in Japan, Su Yang earned a total of 9 trillion yen. Even though the price of yuan wasn’t high at the time, it was still worth 9 billion USD.
After that, Su Yang passed the money to Wei Lin for him to start working on.
However, this amount of money was too large, so even though Wei Lin was a super awesome manipulator according to the system’s evaluation, he could not obtain huge profits in the secondary market like before.
Therefore, after three months, this sum of money had only increased by 4%.
With 94.5 billion USD and Su Yang’s other assets, Su Yang had raised a total of 100 billion USD in cash as his capital. He was prepared to carry out the plan to empty out Samsung.
Then, under Wei Lin’s manipulation, this huge amount of money was slowly exchanged into the currencies of many countries in the international foreign-exchange market. Then, it entered the stock markets of various countries and began to slowly eat the shares of more than twenty listed companies under Samsung.
In his research on the shares of Samsung, Su Yang discovered that the most important subsidiary of the company was Samsung Electronics. This subsidiary took up 60% of the company’s revenue and 85% of its profits. It could be said to be the core of the company.
However, it was not the key to the Lees’ control over Samsung.
The key to the Lees’s control of the company was a company called Samsung Realties. This company owned 7% of Samsung Electronics, 27% of Samsung Battery, 8.9% of Samsung Engineering, 5.1% of SDI, 25.7% of Samsung Industries…
Almost every company that lost three important people had a lot of shares.
In the face of this core asset, the Lees had the upper hand. They held 32% of the shares. Although it did not exceed 50%, they still had the right to control the shares.
This was because nearly 30% of the remaining 68% of Samsung’s shares were held by the subsidiaries.
For example, Samsung Securities holds 2.1% of Samsung Realties, Samsung Heavy Industries holds 5.3% of Samsung Realties… etc.
It was through this method that the Lees could use a small amount of funds to control Samsung, the giant empire.
This time, Su Yang’s ultimate target was Samsung Realties.
Since the Lees could control Samsung through Samsung Realties, Su Yang could also control the company through the very same subsidiary as well.
With this goal in mind, Su Yang started to let Wei Lin, who was ready to take over the position, take over the shares of the “Samsung Realties” company on a small scale.
In order to avoid garnering Samsung’s attention, Su Yang told Wei Lin to try his best not to cause any fluctuations in the stock price. With Little Deeny’s help, this mission was not too difficult.
Su Yang did not act rashly when the number of shares in his hands gradually increased. He sent Zhao Licheng to Wall Street to negotiate on his behalf.
The purpose of the negotiation was not to empty out Samsung, but to earn money.
In every financial war, the main criteria of the competition was who had the most money. If one did not have enough money, then no matter what the other party did, they would be able to stay calm and not panic. Furthermore, no matter what the other party does, they would be spending a whole lot of effort for a half-assed result.
Besides, other than simply wanting to finance, Su Yang’s bigger goal was to use this money to tie the financial giants of Wall Street to his chariot.
At certain critical moments, it could be used as a surprise.
After all, this was part of what Su Yang saw on the chains of fate…
According to Su Yang’s request, Zhao Licheng went to Wall Street and visited JP Morgan, CitiBank, and the other major banks. Then, he proposed a grand idea.
In this idea, when the Jiadian Group moved toward the global market, they would no longer lock themselves in the country and stop restricting investments in other countries’ capital. Instead, they would use their own technology to build factories in various countries and cooperate with the capitalists of each country to launch new phones and cars.
All banks and companies can hold shares, or even hold them.
Zhao Licheng named the plan “Project Hermes”.
The aim was to upgrade the global production capacity through the new technology of the Jiadian Group and bring about a new generation of industrial expansion.
These gimmicks were mostly to scare opponents. Hence, the big investors and bankers did not pay for Zhao Licheng’s words any mind since they were not fools.
What they were concerned about was the real interest under the gimmick: Jiadian Group had shared technology with companies from other countries around the world for development.
This meant that they could take a share of the profits through this method.
Therefore, under this premise, after a few rounds of complicated research and negotiations, they all decided to collaborate with the Jiadian Group to sell the Hermes Fund.
The Hermes Fund raised a total of 50 billion USD, and the source of the funds were divided into several parts. The first part was invested into by Jiadian Group’s own funds, which were roughly 50%. This was to determine the position of Jiadian Group’s major shareholder.
Another 25% was funded by banks, securities and fund companies, while the remaining 25% was covered by securities companies and directed to citizens of America.
The funds will be used to acquire and invest in several major capital markets: America, Europe, Japan, and Korea’s high-tech companies. It will then merge with the subsidiaries of the Jiadian Group and be reorganized. It will be used to sell or develop cell phones in other countries.
The moment this fund was launched, it was praised by all the major media outlets around the world. They believed that this was a great move by the Jiadian Group to move toward the world and embrace openness.
At the same time, Su Yang also returned to China. Under Jiang Yan’s lead, he started negotiating with several large securities companies, banks, and insurance companies in the country. They started a Revolving Equity Pledge.
This was the train of thought that Little Deeny had given Su Yang when he told him about Ali’s grey area tactics.
The Revolving Equity Pledge was not something despised by people, but a very normal way of financing. It was just that some people would end up overusing it, which was the reason why this tactic was considered villainous.
Meanwhile, Su Yang’s intention was to use it correctly.
During the negotiation process, Su Yang had reached an agreement with a few banks. He would invest 10 billion USD in “inferior funds”, and a few banks would invest 20 billion USD in”priority funds”. Then, they would form the fund for Jiadian Electronics.
Such a combined fund was a more complex form of capital operation.
Generally speaking, when a fund is met with a loss, it would be in proportion to the losses, and all the investors would share the risk.
Meanwhile, when it’s a combination of funds, when the fund suffers a loss, the inferior funds would be compensated first. Only when the inferior funds lost all 10 billion USD would the priority funds be compensated (Usually, the situation would be resolved before the inferior funds were completely loss, so the priority funds aren’t usually affected by the loss).
And if this fund received any benefits, it would first pay the benefits that were given to the priority funds before paying the inferior funds.
Such a combination of risk and risk of misconduct was, of course, unequal. Therefore, in terms of yield, they agreed to prioritize the settlement of funds according to the 8% annualized yield.
Once money is made, they would have to pay according to the number of days.
Behind this combination of funds, Su Yang had also made an agreement with a few big banks and brokerages. If Su Yang needed it, the stocks that he bought with the fund could be mortgaged to the bank at market price to obtain cash if he provided a guarantee.
The cash bought shares again and could still be used as collateral.
This is the Revolving Equity Pledge.
For banks and brokerage firms, such a combination of funds could be considered as a stable investment. However, for Su Yang, it was extremely risky.
Through his capital operations in China and the United States, Su Yang had used just 35 billion USD to stir up 80 billion USD. Coupled with the remaining 65 billion USD, he already had $145 billion.
Coupled with the collateral of the funds, Su Yang believed that he had sufficient ammunition to empty out Samsung!
While Su Yang was busy preparing to go up against Samsung, the five consortiums of Korea were not idle either.
After the previous five consortiums’ talks, they had worked together many times to negotiate. In the end, they reached a preliminary agreement: The five consortiums would form a loose alliance to help each other. Once one side was in trouble, the other four parties would try their best to help without affecting themselves.
Other than the cooperation between the five major consortiums, Samsung and Hyundai, the two most dangerous consortiums, had privately come up with a plan to fight against the Jiadian Group.
Lee Jaerong’s idea was more radical. He called on Hyundai to join forces with him to fight back against the Jiadian Group.
Although Jiadian Group was not listed on the market and could not be attacked directly, it had close to 100 billion USD of assets in the international capital market.
This money could not be left idle forever. It must be earning profits in various securities markets and foreign exchange markets.
Coupled with the fact that the Jiadian Organization had announced “Project Hermes” recently, it was even more proof that Su Yang was ready to start spending money!
Lee Jaerong’s plan was simple. He wanted to find out what was going on with the funds, then set a target for the money to be lost. That would affect the reputation of Jiadian Group.
In fact, he felt that he could collaborate with those companies that were targeted by Jiadian Group to turn the tables and force the latter to leave instead.
Even though every small skirmish would not cause much damage to the funds, every loss would definitely cause some damage to the company.
He also hoped that the Hyundai Group would work together with him to lock down the sailing route of the company.
For example, they could figure out the target company of the Jiadian Group’s “Project Hermes” in advance, then join the negotiations as a third party and raise the price so that the Jiadian Group could obtain these companies at a higher price. They could even prevent the Jiadian Group from obtaining these companies and slow down the development of the Jiadian Group.
After a day of discussion, the Choi brothers of Hyundai finally agreed to the plan for the funeral.
Following that, the two major tycoons each took out billions of USD and obtained close to 10 billion USD in cash through financial leverage. They then entered the international market and prepared to attack the target of the Jiadian Group’s overseas acquisition.
Other than that, Lee Jaerong had also arranged for the company to begin a comprehensive evaluation of the support of the Jiadian Group in China. It was necessary to take the upper-class route at all times to promote legislation in order to reward society and divide profits.
Therefore, when Su Yang was stirring up trouble, the five consortiums would either take the initiative or join the game passively.
The situation in the world had suddenly become chaotic.
However, both sides were doing it in secret, and no one was exposed, so they did not attract the attention of other forces for the time being.
Of course, Su Yang, who had the [Eye Of Origins], knew the plans of the five consortiums like the back of his hand.
However, Su Yang did not care much after receiving the information. He knew that the five consortiums would not be able to turn the tables no matter what they did.
As long as he chose that path for Samsung at the critical moment, then… Even if Korea personally stepped up, they would not be able to save Samsung.
Samsung, or perhaps the five consortiums, were destined to become history.
In the blink of an eye, half a month had passed. During that time, the international situation had become more and more uncertain. The two biggest funds of Jiadian Group had obtained a large amount of cash in the two markets of America and China. They had begun to officially inspect the electronics companies and technology companies of each country.
It was unclear whether someone was playing dirty or if the actions of Jiadian Group were indeed very eye-catching. As long as it was a company that was being inspected by the Jiadian Group, the stock price would rise. As for those companies that were not listed, many companies would come to discuss the acquisition.
This made the companies who were attracted to Project Hermes to become very popular. They had hoped to join Project Hermes, but now they were waiting to be sold.
As for the shares that Jiadian Group had invested in, they were always targeted to be emptied out. Even though after a few twists and turns, Jiadian Group would most likely still make profits, it took a lot of time.
Anyone with a discerning eye would know that someone was targeting the Jiadian Group. This was a major corporation destroying the Jiadian Group’s Project Hermes.
However, because they did not know who was behind this, everyone remained quiet, patiently waiting for the situation to clear up.
At that moment, at the headquarters of Jiadian Group, the management of the company was not affected by the plan.
Sitting in the CEO’s office, Su Yang picked up a cup of tea. As he drank, he asked, “Licheng, what’s the current situation?”
Zhao Licheng held a document in his hand and said to Su Yang, “Mr. Su, our plan is going very smoothly. The two funds in our hands have gradually taken over the shares of more than 20 subsidiary companies that hold Samsung Realties and Samsung Electronics’ shares. Furthermore, the shares have reached 4.8% – 4.99%.
“Just a little more to meet the requirements.
“As for our subsidiaries and independent companies, they all hold 3% – 4.99% of shares. In total, we hold about 12% of the shares of each subsidiary of Samsung.
“This increase has already caused the stock prices of the major companies to skyrocket. There’s no way to hide it anymore.
“Coupled with the fact that there are fewer stocks on the market, the possibility of us buying more stocks is very small.
“I estimate that in the next half a month, we will be able to buy another 3.5% or so. We can’t hope for any more than that.
“But if we can get support from Wall Street, buy their shares, or become a unanimous action figure, then we will soon have more than 30% of the shares, reaching the level of controlling shareholders. We can ask for a change in the board of directors and banish the Lees.”
After hearing Zhao Licheng’s report, Su Yang muttered, “Wall Street’s support eh…”
Su Yang could not help but recall the destiny line he saw at Samsung…
‘There did seem to be such a scenario on that thread.
‘So, perhaps I could actually give it a try?
‘Although that destiny line’s going to be very difficult.
‘But… Weren’t all the efforts I’ve made during this period just to get closer to that destiny line?
‘However, getting support from Wall Street out of nowhere seems impossible. It requires opportunity after all.
‘However, that destiny line seemed to provide that very opportunity…’
At that thought, Su Yang could not help but make a decision. He waved his hand forcefully and said, “Alright, that’s it then. I’ll change the fate line of Samsung. We don’t need fate to take care of us because we are fate!”