Chapter 152 War breaks out

The speaker was Barron's personal assistant Wang Wanting.

As her hands pressed on Barron's shoulders, the intensity of the massage was quite beneficial to him.

Barron felt relaxed all over and couldn't help but lean his head on the back of the chair.

However, because of his height, only the lower part of the back of his head touched the top of the chair back, while the upper part of the back of his head fell into a soft state.

I don’t know if Wang Wanting was too focused on it, but she didn’t seem to notice it and continued to help Barron press his temples.

Apart from anything else, after being massaged by her like this, Barron really felt a little relaxed.

"Thank you, Laura, I think it's working great."

"This is what I should do, Your Highness the Duke. When my mother was tired in the past, I would always press it on her like this."

…

“My fellow citizens, at this very moment American and allied forces are in the early stages of the military disarmament of Iraq to liberate the Iraqi people and prevent the world from being put in danger.

Under my orders, Allied forces have begun destroying key military targets to reduce Saddam Hussein's ability to wage war. This is just the beginning, and what will follow will be a comprehensive and widespread attack.

More than 35 countries have given significant support, whether by granting use of naval and air bases, intellectual and moral assistance, or sending troops. Each nation in the Alliance has chosen to assume responsibility for this public defense and share in the common honor.

To every American man and woman at the Gulf, it's up to you to bring peace to this chaotic world and hope to oppressed people.

We trust you.

…”

After putting pressure on the UN to no avail and being destined to fail to authorize the use of force against Iraq, at 4:15 a.m. on March 20, London time, the American leader George W. Bush gave a televised speech announcing the start of the war against Iraq. .

Two days before this, on March 18, the British House of Commons voted to pass the government’s motion to use force against Iraq.

On the same day, the House of Commons voted on the Prime Minister's proposal to "use all necessary means" to disarm Iraq. The result was 412 votes to 149 votes in favor of the British policy of using force against Iraq.

Before voting on this proposal, the House of Commons also voted on an anti-war proposal put forward by anti-war members of the Labor Party. The proposal was rejected by 396 votes to 217.

So starting from March 20, coalition forces led by the United States and Britain entered Iraq, and the "Second Gulf War" began.

The joint force is composed of 120,000 US troops, 45,000 British troops, more than 2,000 Australian troops and 200 Polish troops. In addition, there are about 50,000 Iraqi troops. Rebel Army.

They officially launched military strikes against Iraq through the US military base stationed in Kuwait, and received support from a large number of air-based and sea-based aviation forces in the Gulf region.

The U.S. 3rd Infantry Division advanced from the desert northwest of Kuwait toward Baghdad. They were accompanied by several units of the U.S. 101st Air Assault Division and the 82nd Airborne Division.

In the other direction, in the southeastern direction of Iraq, the 1st U.S. Marine Expeditionary Force and the British Expeditionary Force (including the 1st Armored Division composed of the 4th and 7th Armored Brigades and several Marine Corps) launched a pincer offensive to Open shipping lanes to Iraq.

But to the surprise of most people, from mid-March until March 20, when the war in Iraq broke out, the price of international crude oil began a continuous decline.

Until March 21, international oil prices even fell below $23!

Taking advantage of this opportunity, DS Capital began to close short positions in crude oil futures, and eventually they completed the closing at an average price of US$23.3.

It can be said that this operation was the most profitable operation for DS Capital. During the entire process, it gained more than 1.35 billion pounds from just shorting crude oil futures.

Barron knew that starting from the third day of the war, international oil prices could rebound slightly, and could once rise to above US$27.5.

But in such a short period of time, he was not ready to continue the operation.

In addition to the Mars Fund, which has a total capital of more than 150 million pounds, and will continue to be long on international gold prices, the funds he has now are ready to wait until after April, almost to May, when the American army will be deployed in less than a month. The occupation of Baghdad within a short period of time gave the international community considerable confidence in Iraq's restoration of its crude oil production. After crude oil prices fell again, they entered the market to do long crude oil prices.

After all, it was easy to overthrow Saddam's regime, but the subsequent management of Iraq by the Iraqi transitional government supported by the United States could be considered a complete failure. Even after the UN later lifted sanctions on Iraq, the recovery of its crude oil production still faced many problems. difficulty.

…

"Mr. Rolf, I believe you now have more confidence in me regarding the acquisition of O2 Company."

The happy repayment of the mortgage loan and interest of 200 million pounds, coupled with the huge funds in the DS capital account, indeed made the friendship between Rolf and Barclays and the Devonshire family unbreakable at this time.

At this time, Rolf was also thankful that he made the right choice and did not reveal too much information about DS Capital to the Bute family.

"His Royal Highness, the acquisition negotiations with O2 have actually reached the last moment. I think the price of 5.5 billion pounds is acceptable to both parties."

At this time, Rolf was extremely eager to help Barron's complete the acquisition of O2.

Because if the acquisition is ultimately completed at a price of 5.5 billion pounds, Barclays Bank will provide approximately 2.5 billion pounds of financing for the acquisition!

You know, this kind of highly leveraged financing has very high interest rates!

At this time, the bank's basic loan interest rate is around 5%, and the interest rate for this financing will exceed 10%.

Naturally, Barclays Bank will not really take such a large risk. Their approach is to package this financing into an investment product - a security product with an interest rate of more than 10%, which is very popular with users. In this In the process, as long as Barclays sells these products, it can be said that it can earn the interest rate difference with almost no risk.

As for whether investors think the risk of this product is too high?

Don’t worry, O2 is there. If it doesn’t work, the agreement will stipulate that in the event of a default, this securities product will be converted into O2 shares.

In addition, Goldman Sachs Group, which will participate in this financing, basically operates in this way.

As for the interest rate on this loan being so high, if it is a 5 billion pound financing, the interest alone would be 500 million pounds a year. Can Barron's DS Capital be able to bear such a large debt?

There is no need to worry about this, because O2's market value has grown by more than this amount in the past three years alone.

What's more, after the actual acquisition is completed, DS Capital can completely transfer this debt to O2 Company - of course, this is only the last resort.

A safer way is for O2 to issue a certain amount of corporate bonds or new loans with lower interest rates, and first repay the previous high-interest loans, thereby reducing debt costs.

Anyway, in the final analysis, as long as the company's operations are improving, there are always more solutions than difficulties.