"Sure enough, it's a lion who opens his mouth!"

Arthur frowned, said with a sneer, and then stretched out his hand to signal his subordinates to sit down.

After the person in charge of the negotiation of the team sat down, he said helplessly: "It's all expected, but I didn't expect that their appetite is so big, and behind their confidence is that they dare to ask for this price, there is a shrewd abacus, and they have recovered their equity investment, and they can make another profit by listing on AMC."

And in fiscal year 2009, despite the raging economic crisis, AMC performed very well, achieving a net profit of $79.91 million that year. Private equity shareholders are confident that 2010 will be a better year and that IPOs should be a no-brainer.

These factors add up to give them a lot of confidence, but they also welcome our presence enough that everything can sit down and talk... In fact, they also know that if the IPO is not successful, it is not easy to find a good buyer, this buyer must not only have enough money, but also have enough business level, only in this way, the repayment will be safer.

Therefore, in their eyes, the boss is one of the good buyers. Of course, it would be great for AMC to go public. After all, the return of the stock market is much higher than that of the bond market, and their calculation is that AMC can go up to the market, and if it can't sell, walk on two legs.

However, the key is the issue of bonds, and AMC Cinemas has been overdrawn and cashed out by this group of guys for the next few years. The negotiator took out a bag of documents from his bag, opened it, pulled out a stack of documents from it, handed it to Arthur, and shook his head helplessly.

"Bonds... Arthur muttered, took the file and looked at it, and frowned and complained, "What a bunch of bastards!"

If you are in a casino, then the estimation and control of risk is the key to ensuring that you have the capital to gamble. Similar to casinos, bonds face the same problem, which is a game that cannot be fooled and is one of the biggest problems that Arthur's side has to face in the AMC M&A deal.

Because, bond investors want higher interest rates and more absolutely safe repayments. And these bond investors are also old acquaintances with AMC's five largest private equity fund shareholders, earning every penny together.

If Arthur wants to buy AMC, he will have to confront these bond investors and find a way to convince them that he can restructure these short-term or maturing debts and extend the repayment date.

One can imagine how hard it must have been to convince these people. This involves a change of control of the bonds, which is a material default clause in the bonds. The confidence of creditors becomes key.

And officially entered the AMC. Strictly speaking, this is only a leveraged asset restructuring, after the restructuring, the debt increases, the equity structure is reshuffled, and it is a friendly and cooperative leveraged buyout, not a hostile takeover. Next, the test for Arthur's side is to directly fight the Wall Street giants as the owner of AMC.

It is impossible not to mention the Qian rule of leveraged mergers and acquisitions on Wall Street. Mergers and acquisitions are the magic weapon of Wall Street's profitability, because whether it is successful or unsuccessful, Wall Street can earn fees, leveraged buyout companies charge management fees, investment banks charge advisory fees, brokerages charge fees for high-yield bond issuance, and so on.

Investment banks, private equity funds, and brokerages, you have me, I have you, the relationship is intricate, and many of them have maintained decades-long friendships. As a result, Wall Street's M&A business can be seen as a never-ending game of chess between a group of old friends.

Of course, their group of vampires is not a harmonious group, and there are fierce quarrels and competing interests between them, and Arthur can also pull a group, fight a group, and then disintegrate from the inside, but these are all for later.

Now, what he has to face is whether he can accept and tolerate the price blackmail of the other party like a fearless lion, and grit his teeth to buy AMC Cinemas.

"Boss, AMC's private equity shareholders are also facing two crises, one is that 2012 is the exit period of the fund. Second, there are huge maturing debts that need to be refinanced. Either way, AMC's private equity shareholders face a daunting problem.

If they don't want to take out the money to fill the hole, then, either the IPO is successful, or they can fill it with the money themselves, hehe, it's okay to let them put money in their pockets, but if you want them to take money out, it's basically impossible.

Since it is impossible to take money out, the only way out is to choose a good buyer to take over and get rid of these debts. There was a term loan with an aggregate principal amount of $476.6 million maturing on 26 January 2013 and $160 million of the bonds due 2014 remaining unredeemed. ”

Hearing his subordinates' report, Arthur nodded, knowing that in leveraged buyouts, private equity funds use only a small amount of their own funds, and the vast majority of funds come from debt financing, including the bond market and banks, and a small amount of mezzanine debt.

If the capital chain is broken, it means that the game has collapsed, and the only way to go is to apply for bankruptcy protection and carry out debt restructuring.

"Although shameless, the big five private equity firms have the card of AMC listing and can calmly carry out debt restructuring. After Arthur nodded, he smiled, looked at his subordinates and continued: "When we acquired AMC, equity was not the focus, and the huge debt was a wall in front of us.

With the acquisition of AMC, its equity price and debt are a package deal. AMC's debt problem is solved, and the equity transaction price is much easier to talk about... Whether it is equity or debt, I only have two requirements, one is to pay as little cash as possible, and I also hope that AMC cash outflow will be as small as possible before the completion of the acquisition of AMC, and the other is that the shareholders of the private equity fund should repay the short-term financing of AMC as much as possible, and at the same time have sufficient ability to cover the long-term financing. ”

"Well, it does. ”

Arthur pondered for a while, his frowning brows relaxed, and said with a smile to his negotiator, "When, officially start negotiations?"

"Tomorrow at 10 o'clock in the morning. ”

"I'm here with you. Arthur decided.

"Okay, boss, however, during the negotiation process, I hope that the boss will not make any easy decisions on the spot... ”

"Hehe, don't worry, I'm just letting them understand my attitude and won't interfere in the negotiations that affect you. Arthur didn't care about some worried reminders from his subordinates, he still had this point.

On the morning of the next day, Arthur, who looked very tall and capable in a high-fashioned black suit, led a group of his subordinates to meet the heads of Apollo Investment Fund, MG Chase Investment Fund, Bain Capital, Carlyle, and Spectrum Investment Fund in the conference room of the canopy holding company, which controlled the five major holding private equity funds of AMC Cinema Line.

The two sides first shook hands and made an introduction, and then they were arranged on both sides of the conference table, and they sat down clearly, Arthur sat in the position of the deputy, and the person in charge of the negotiation sat in the main seat.

It's just that when Arthur saw the appointed heads of the five major funds sitting in the middle lined up opposite, his eyes lit up, and sure enough, none of these five funds were vegetarians, and no one was worried about their own interests, and no one believed anyone.

Everyone knows that one monk carries water to eat, and five monks have no water to eat.

The five responsible persons, everyone can speak, express their positions and attitudes, and make demands, but whoever speaks doesn't count, tsk, this is the most deadly.

"First of all, I would like to state that in this acquisition, I want to take 100% of the equity of AMC, and if this condition is not met, the entire acquisition transaction will be automatically stopped. To be honest, there aren't many big buyers like me who can look at a cinema chain that is already in the decline, and I believe that if my acquisition is cancelled, the news will not only scare off other buyers, but also dash your hopes of getting a huge amount of cash in the short term. Seeing the clues, Arthur, who originally wanted to stay deep and look at the atmosphere of the negotiation, decided to directly throw a bomb first to give a stimulus to the five people on the opposite side!