For commercial banks, the most important asset is deposits. For an investment bank, the most important asset is people! The ability and connections of partners determine the rise and fall of an investment bank!

For example, Pete Peterson, the former chairman and chief executive of Lehman Brothers, was on the verge of bankruptcy when he became head of the company in 1973 when Lehman Brothers was on the verge of bankruptcy due to huge losses due to failed interest rates. As a result, under his leadership, Lehman Brothers achieved record profits for the next five consecutive years, regaining its position as the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States after Salomon Brothers, Goldman Sachs and First Boston.

However, Lehman Company, which was in full swing at the end of the 70s, fell into a trough again due to internal factional struggles in the 80s, and was finally acquired by Yuntong in 84. As a loser in the struggle, Peterson resigned from Lehman and turned around and founded Blackstone.

The name Blackstone, even for many laymen who are not engaged in finance, is also like thunder. At the time of Li Xuan's rebirth, it was already one of the world's largest asset management companies, with total assets under management exceeding US$600 billion, which is higher than the GDP of most countries in the world.

In contrast, Hilson-Lehman, although not small, is too big but not strong, and even recorded a loss of $110 million in the last fiscal year, dragging down the overall performance of its parent company, Amex. This is also the fundamental reason why the new CEO of Amex immediately wanted to sell off the investment banking department after taking office.

At the beginning, Amex spent $930 million on Hilson's acquisition in '81, Lehman for $360 million in '84, IDS for $720 million, EF Hutton for another $1 billion in '8-9, and other small and scattered mergers and acquisitions during this period cost almost $500 million. In other words, the total investment in mergers and acquisitions in the past ten years has been at least 3.5 billion US dollars.

And Li Xuan's previous offer for the overall acquisition of the investment banking division of Yuntong was also 3.5 billion US dollars, at first glance Yuntong seems to have no loss, but if inflation and time costs are included, Yuntong's diversified expansion in the past ten years is undoubtedly a very bad deal.

A thriving business is not necessarily due to how good the management is, but when the company is in trouble, it must be something wrong with the management. For Amex, much of the blame for the failure of diversification over the past decade lies with the success of former CEO James Robinson. The performance of its investment banking division, Hilson Lehman, has not improved because of the lack of ability of the person in charge, Peter Cohen.

When Amex acquired Hillson, the second-largest securities brokerage company in the United States, Hilson's CEO, Will, was a very strong figure. So Robinson used a hand to promote him to vice president of Amex, and selected Peter Cohen, who was only 36, as the new head of Hilson.

Peter Cohen's biggest strength for Robinson may be obedience. So although Amex later acquired companies such as IDS, Lehman, and EF Hutton, Peter Cohen's position has not wavered. As a result, the newly formed Hilson-Lehman company has been very poorly integrated internally. In addition, the external environment has not been good in recent years, and it is normal for the new company to suffer huge losses in performance under internal and external troubles.

After Li Xuan acquired Hilson-Lehman, he also had to face the problem of how to run this huge investment bank.

Li Xuan has always followed the principle of handing over professional affairs to professional people in charge of managing the Oriental Group! He is undoubtedly a layman on Wall Street, and he needs to find an internal elite to help him sort out the internal contradictions of Hilson Lehman and integrate all the financial industries under his name and those of the Oriental Group.

"Mr. Peterson, Mr. Schwartzman, LH Fund was originally a private investment fund used by Mr. Li Xuan for personal wealth management. At that time, the electronics industry in Hong Kong and the surrounding areas was not as developed as it is now, so in order to promote the development of the upstream and downstream supporting industrial chain of the Oriental Group, LH Fund specially allocated a part of the asset allocation to carry out early venture capital in the electronics industry!

With the large-scale shift of the production of consumer electronics such as home appliances, computers, and electronic game consoles to Asia, LH Fund has achieved a very good return on capital in the field of Asian electronics in recent years. This also makes the brand of 'LH' fund have a certain popularity among the global venture capital peers!

In addition to venture capital, LH Fund currently includes two specialized private equity investment funds, a mutual fund with Hong Kong stocks as the main investment object, and a hedge fund! The total assets under management of LH Fund have exceeded 70 billion Hong Kong dollars, and our funds mainly come from Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Gulf and Hong Kong local capital!" Zhuang Yuhai, CEO of LH Fund, said eloquently to the two blonde and blue-eyed white men around him.

In fact, Zhuang Yuhai is also from Wall Street, and before returning to Hong Kong to join LH Fund, he was a senior partner at Salomon Brothers, a well-known American investment bank. However, he is still a level below Peterson, who was already the chairman and CEO of Lehman 15 years ago.

Of course, if we only talk about the current asset size of LH Fund, Zhuang Yuhai is enough to be on an equal footing with Peterson's Blackstone.

That's right, Li Xuan's favorite candidate for the new head of Hilson-Lehman is Pete Peterson, the former CEO of Lehman Brothers. The performance of the Blackstone Company in another time and space is enough to prove that Peterson is a truly capable figure.

It's just that Peterson's own Blackstone company is doing well, and he may not be willing to take over the mess of Hilson-Lehman. Therefore, Li Xuan's plan was to simply acquire his Blackstone company to show his sincerity in seeking talents.

Of course, Li Xuan can't tell the other party that I want to buy your company as soon as he comes up, this is not a sincere but a naked slap in the face. Therefore, in the name of LH Fund, Li Xuan sent an invitation to the management of Blackstone to come to Hong Kong to discuss matters related to in-depth cooperation.

In fact, after the development of LH Fund in recent years, it has not only made a name for itself in the field of venture capital, but has grown into one of the most well-known asset management companies in Asia. In terms of ability alone, Zhuang Yuhai's level of performance does not necessarily mean that he cannot serve as the leader of Hilson-Lehman.

However, after all, he has been away from Wall Street for many years, and it is difficult to immediately control the situation when he returns to the airborne, but it may cause even greater turmoil within Hilson-Lehman! In contrast, Pete Peterson is not only one of the most senior and top management talents on Wall Street, but he has also worked in Lehman Brothers for many years, has a certain network base, and can quickly stabilize the situation. 2k reading web