Before the crisis in the U.S. mortgage market broke out, investment banks such as Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns joked that the Rose Fund was a fool from Hua Guolai, and signed a series of short-selling contracts with the Rose Fund with a smile.

When the subprime mortgage crisis broke out and the fool's contract of the rose fund became a sweet spot, this group of investment banks changed their faces, openly demanded a discount buyback, and secretly forbade Gong Qiuqiu and other management to leave the country, and prohibited the income from the rose fund from leaving the country.

If a gambler wins a large sum of money, he will take this money home with a high probability of encountering a black hand from the casino.

Hedge funds are a group of gamblers, Wall Street is a big casino, unless there is a force to curb the black hands from the casino, the Rose Fund does not want to simply get back the money won from the bet.

No. 215: Let's buy Lehman Brothers

The U.S. side is forbidden to realize short-selling profits, and the Chinese side cooperates with moderate house arrest, and the Rose Fund is a bit embattled at the moment.

If you have a negative attitude in the face of pressure, you may accept your fate, comfort yourself and feel that this is the kind protection of the elders, and passively wait for the arrangement of the goddess of luck.

Perhaps many people will choose this way, believing in the wisdom and service of the country and the people, believing that the elders agree that shorting the United States is a patriotic heart, and believe that the Rose Foundation will be treated as a meritorious person. However, Wei Dongsheng is an exception, Wei Dongsheng does not have such a pure mentality.

Wei Dongsheng will not hand over his fate to others, and he will not pin all his hopes on the ruling of the elders.

Of course, a positive attitude cannot change the reality of a dangerous future, and the pressure faced by the Rose Fund comes from the two countries that rank first and second in the overall strength of the earth. Unless Wei Dongsheng has the strength to rule the earth, he can only find an opportunity to break the situation within the rules.

During the period of staying in Yanjing, Wei Dongsheng vaguely had an idea.

Wei Dongsheng ignored Gong Qiuqiu's goodwill and whispered his opinion: "Let's buy Lehman Brothers!" ”

Gong Qiuqiu was stunned by Wei Dongsheng's jumping thinking: "What did you say? ”

Wei Dongsheng repeated: "I said, let's buy Lehman Brothers." ”

Gong Qiuqiu's eyes widened.

After more than ten seconds of confusion, Gong Qiuqiu asked Wei Dongsheng for the second time in disbelief: "You mean, Rose Fund acquired Lehman Brothers?" ”

Wei Dongsheng nodded in confirmation: "Yes." ”

Gong Qiuqiu's expression changed violently, from an attitude of disbelief to laughter: "How is this possible!" ”

Wei Dongsheng asked in a calm tone: "Why is it impossible?" ”

Gong Qiuqiu: "Lehman Brothers is the famous 'king of securities' on Wall Street and the strongest opponent of Goldman Sachs. ”

Wei Dongsheng: "So what? ”

Gong Qiuqiu couldn't answer.

The glory of the past cannot solve the crisis of the present.

In terms of fund operations, the Rose Fund is now in an invincible position, while Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers are in a liquidity crisis. Lehman Brothers, in particular, is not only rumored to be going to Bear Stearns, but also has news that Lehman Brothers headquarters will have a major personnel reshuffle, and the head of the European and Asian business, the chief operating officer of Europe and the Middle East, and the head of the fixed income department will all step down. At this moment, an upstart like the Rose Fund is fully qualified to ridicule Lehman Brothers' landed phoenix as a chicken.

Of course, no matter how downtrodden Lehman Brothers is, not everyone can buy them.

Gong Qiuqiu calmed down for a moment, and after removing the emotional influence, he rationally questioned Wei Dongsheng's proposal: "The American system gives priority to capital, Wall Street is at the top of the capital food chain, and Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, etc. are among the leaders. No matter how much Rose Fund absorbs funds from high-end American clients, it will not be able to erase our Chinese background, and American capital will not allow Lehman Brothers to be Chinese, Wall Street will not allow Lehman Brothers to become Americanized, and Lehman Brothers' management is not willing to become employees of Huaguo Capital. ”

Wei Dongsheng nodded in understanding.

The world has never been fair.

The so-called freedom is also the freedom exclusive to certain people and certain capital.

Before the crisis in the U.S. mortgage market broke out, investment banks such as Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns joked that the Rose Fund was a fool from Hua Guolai, and signed a series of short-selling contracts with the Rose Fund with a smile. When the subprime mortgage crisis broke out and the fool's contract of the rose fund became a sweet spot, this group of investment banks changed their faces, openly demanded a discount buyback, and secretly forbade Gong Qiuqiu and other management to leave the country, and prohibited the income from the rose fund from leaving the country. If a gambler wins a large sum of money, he will take this money home with a high probability of encountering a black hand from the casino. Hedge funds are a group of gamblers, Wall Street is a big casino, unless there is a force to curb the black hands from the casino, the Rose Fund does not want to simply get back the money won from the bet.

If you want to get back the money you win, you will encounter all kinds of setbacks, let alone the acquisition of Lehman Brothers?

However, Wei Dongsheng is not ready to buy Lehman Brothers completely.

The snake swallowing the elephant is not Wei Dongsheng's character, nor is it in Wei Dongsheng's interests.

How much ability to do as many things as possible is Wei Dongsheng's principle.

Wei Dongsheng added: "We do not pursue the power of Lehman Brothers, nor do we seek to fully control Lehman Brothers, and we can set the goal of acquiring 20% to 40% of Lehman Brothers' shares. This is a financial investment, the Rose Fund helped Lehman Brothers through the liquidity crisis, and Lehman Brothers helped the Rose Fund to maintain its short profits. ”

Gong Qiuqiu nodded.

If the target is narrowed to such a point, the idea of acquiring Lehman Brothers will still be executable.

The question is whether it's worth it.

Gong Qiuqiu recalled Lehman Brothers' information: "The media reported that Korea Development Bank is ready to pay $6 billion to acquire a 25% stake in Lehman Brothers. Lehman Brothers is mired in a liquidity crisis and is very short of cash, and if the negotiations go well, it will be eager to get a financing deal in 24 hours. However, negotiations stalled from August to September, and the acquisition talks between Korea Development Bank and Lehman Brothers never came with positive news. Based on the available information, it must be that Fulder, who is at the helm of Lehman Brothers, firmly believes that Lehman Brothers' assets are very good, and refuses to buy them at a low price with a tough attitude. ”

Fuld is also negotiating with Korea Development Bank, Barlake Bank and Bank of America in the hope of inflating Lehman Brothers' valuation. If we want to buy Lehman Brothers, we will have to ignore the depressed share price of Lehman Brothers and make an offer that is much higher than that of Korea Development Bank. ”

Gong Qiuqiu reluctantly spread his hands and concluded: "The value of the Rose Fund lies in a bunch of short contracts, and there is not so much cash. ”

Wei Dongsheng also knew the flaws of the Rose Fund, and turned his brain to find allies: "Didn't CIC want to buy Lehman Brothers before?" You can contact them to make a joint purchase of Lehman Brothers' shares? ”

CIC is China's sovereign wealth fund established in September 2007 with a registered capital of US$200 billion. CIC invests in various forms of assets such as equity and fixed income on a global scale, and CIC had previously tried to acquire a certain stake in Lehman Brothers, but Fuld stubbornly refused to cut the meat, resulting in a bitter breakup between the two parties.

Wall Street is currently coveting the huge amount of money from CIC, and CIC is certainly willing to invest in Morgan Stanley, which is a good talker, and Merrill Lynch, which has a close relationship with Blackstone. At this moment, Morgan Stanley is also in a liquidity crisis, and CIC is hooking up with Morgan Stanley, so how can he be in the mood to pay attention to the stubborn Fuld.

Gong Qiuqiu didn't bother to pay attention to Fulder, who was at the helm of Lehman Brothers.

However, Gong Qiuqiu preferred to believe in Wei Dongsheng.

Sensing that Wei Dongsheng was not talking casually, Gong Qiuqiu immediately changed his attitude: "I'll try." ”

On September 8, 2008, after ad-hoc negotiations last night, Gong Qiuqiu expressed his intention to acquire the equity of Lehman Brothers in the name of joint investment by CIC, CITIC and Rose Fund. Lehman Brothers is now increasingly hungry for cash, and it wants to use the names of CIC and CITIC to pressure buyers such as Korea Development Bank and British Barlake Bank, so it has been very aggressive in quickly initiating acquisition negotiations with Rose Fund.

However, Gong Qiuqiu was stunned.

In the early morning of September 9, 2008, Gong Qiuqiu called urgently: "Let's not get involved in the Lehman Brothers affair." ”

Wei Dongsheng: "The problem is serious? ”

Gong Qiuqiu: "Very serious. ”

Wei Dongsheng, of course, knew that Lehman Brothers' problems were very serious. Thirty years of memory told Wei Dongsheng that in this financial turmoil, Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch were acquired, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley lost their investment banking uniqueness, and only the Lehman Brothers family was so miserable that it went bankrupt. However, the reason why Wei Dongsheng targeted Lehman Brothers was precisely because it was about to go bankrupt.

The reason is very simple, if Lehman Brothers' finances are better, it will definitely not be Wei Dongsheng's turn to do things; Lehman Brothers is so bad that no one else wants it, so it can become a sword in Wei Dongsheng's hands.

Wei Dongsheng pretended not to know the future trajectory, and patiently communicated with Gong Qiuqiu: "How serious is it? ”

Gong Qiuqiu spoke very quickly: "Financial data shows that Lehman Brothers lost $3.9 billion in the second quarter; Net loss for the third quarter is estimated at $5.4 billion; Fourth-quarter net loss is estimated to exceed $10 billion. In other words, there is a high probability that Lehman Brothers' net loss for the whole of 2008 will exceed $20 billion, and Lehman Brothers will need at least $16 billion in cash to hope to survive 2008. If there are no signs of improvement in 2009, perhaps another $20 billion pit, Lehman Brothers will need at least $30 billion in financing to hope to survive this round of financial crisis. We simply don't have the ability to fill such a deep hole. ”

"Lehman Brothers has no money now!"

"Savings have run out, quality clients have withdrawn a lot, and Lehman Brothers has lost all its cash. Moreover, J.P. Morgan had requested $5 billion in additional collateral from Lehman Brothers a few days ago to protect the Lehman Brothers loan positions held by J.P. Morgan clients. Lehman Brothers simply can't come up with $5 billion in additional collateral, and JPMorgan Chase has pushed Lehman Brothers over the brink. ”

Lehman Brothers is terrible, everyone can see it.

Wei Dongsheng also has no intention of defending.

At the same time, Wei Dongsheng was not sure that he would be able to revive Lehman Brothers' death.

Therefore, Wei Dongsheng calmed Gong Qiuqiu lightly: "Let's drag it out first, we don't necessarily have to buy Lehman Brothers." ”

What Gong Qiuqiu can see, other industry elites can definitely see.

On September 9, 2008, Korea Development Bank withdrew from the negotiations, and Lehman Brothers' only three heavyweight buyers remained: British Barlake Bank, Bank of America, and Rose Fund. When the news of the financing failure broke, Lehman Brothers' stock price plummeted, quickly breaking through the $10 per share floor.