Chapter 273 Complete the Acquisition

When DS Capital initially issued a tender offer for Standard Chartered Bank, they faced the most likely competitors, that is, during their tender offer period, they were likely to issue competing offers, mainly including Barclays Bank, Citibank and JP Morgan. Chase.

However, during this period, both Huaqi Bank and JP Morgan Chase had just made acquisitions. For example, JP Morgan Chase needed time to digest the First Bank of America they had just acquired. Therefore, in fact, Barclays Bank is the most likely competition. By.

Barron has had many cooperations with Barclays Bank before, and the relationship between the two parties is considered close. Therefore, after holding 30% of the shares of Standard Chartered Bank, he had already contacted Barclays Bank to inquire about their information. intention.

It is impossible to say that Barclays Bank is not interested in Standard Chartered Bank. After all, Barclays Bank's business involves Europe, America and Africa at this time, but it does not have much network in the Pan-Asian region. Merging Standard Chartered Bank, Contribute to their layout in this area.

However, when DS Capital already held more than 30% of Standard Chartered Bank's shares, after analysis, they also believed that it was not a good time to intervene in the competition to acquire Standard Chartered Bank.

This is not mainly due to concerns about the "friendship" with Barron. After all, friendship has a price in the eyes of bankers. If the benefits are sufficient, they will not hesitate to abandon it.

The most important thing is that Standard Chartered Bank's shares are too dispersed. Even Standard Chartered Group, the former parent company of Standard Chartered Bank, only held about 10% of its shares. And compared with Barron's, Standard Chartered Bank's management at this time , will be even more resistant to Barclays' intervention.

The reason is easy to understand. Barron's DS Group currently does not have banking business. After acquiring Standard Chartered Bank, according to his commitment, it will still be operated by the current management.

But Barclays Bank is different. Compared with Standard Chartered Bank, they are larger in scale. So after merging with Standard Chartered Bank, adjusting the management is definitely a necessary step.

In the end, in the shareholder vote for this tender offer, more than 65% of shareholders approved the DS Group's tender offer for Standard Chartered Bank.

This also means that DS Capital’s takeover bid for Standard Chartered Bank at a total price of US$7 per share is effective this time.

After statistics, more than 35% of shareholders were willing to sell their shares of Standard Chartered Bank to DS Group. After paying nearly US$2.77 billion, DS Group's share of Standard Chartered Bank reached 65%. !

The original 10% stake in Standard Chartered Bank held by Standard Chartered Group was sold to Rich23 Capital for US$790 million, bringing Rich23 Capital's stake in Standard Chartered Bank to 15%.

In this way, DS Group, together with its concerted person Rich23 Capital, hold a total of 80% of the shares of Standard Chartered Bank!

This means that Standard Chartered Bank has officially become one of the subsidiaries of DS Group.

It’s not that Barron’s doesn’t want to directly complete the privatization of Standard Chartered Bank, but at this time Standard Chartered Bank has the right to issue banknotes in Hong Kong, South Africa and Malaysia. If it is privatized instead of a listed company, it may have an impact. The right to issue banknotes in these areas continued, so after consideration, Barron's ultimately maintained the status of Standard Chartered Bank listed in London and HK.

In the process of acquiring Standard Chartered Bank this time, DS Group cooperated with Goldman Sachs Group. After they currently hold 65% of Standard Chartered Bank shares, they have provided a total of approximately US$3 billion in financing to Goldman Sachs Group.

It is also because of this acquisition that DS Group used relatively low leverage, so the interest rate for the US$3 billion in financing was relatively lower. In addition, the benchmark loan interest rate in the United States at this time has been maintained at around 1%, so the interest rate of these financings is relatively low. The interest rate is less than 5%, which is completely acceptable to Barron.

After completing the acquisition of Standard Chartered Bank, they held a board meeting. Barron served as the chairman of the board of directors of Standard Chartered Bank, and Chen Fuyang, CEO of Rich23 Investment, served as a director of Standard Chartered Bank.

Originally, Davis, the CEO of Standard Chartered Bank, assumed the position of president and CEO. He would be responsible for running Standard Chartered Bank and be responsible to Chairman Barron.

In addition, a new appointment was made in the Asia region of Standard Chartered Bank. Zeng Jingxuan, who was born in China HK, was appointed as the chief executive of Standard Chartered Bank Greater China. Her first task after taking office was to assist Penguin Company in its IPO in Hong Kong. ——Under the instruction of Penguin's major shareholder DS Group, Standard Chartered Bank will serve as the sponsor for its listing in Hong Kong.

Prior to this, Zeng Jingxuan served as the Human Resources Director of Standard Chartered Bank Asia Pacific.

After joining Standard Chartered Bank in 1992, she laid a good foundation for Standard Chartered Bank's famous employee training program and made it one of the reasons for attracting talents in the industry.

It is also worth mentioning that Zeng Jingxuan’s eldest brother is currently the Chief Secretary for Administration of China HK and will become the Chief Executive in one year.

…

"Your Highness the Duke, there is news from Louis Lafayette..."

When Barron was eating breakfast, Alya whispered next to him:

"The personnel responsible for monitoring their actions discovered that the people lurking around Subrata had evacuated, and at the same time issued a notice for their arrest in India..."

After Alia told the story about her adoptive father Louis Lafayette, although Barron had no interest in the temple treasures in India or defrauding Subrata, the founder of the Sahara Company, there was still something about Louis Lafayette. There are reasons why Fayet's organization deserves his attention.

So the intelligence center dispatched a team of personnel to begin collecting and monitoring information about the other party.

Now, Alya is responsible for contacting the intelligence center and following up on these matters.

It seems that due to Alya's disappearance and the elimination of the Raphael organization by Barron, Louis Lafayette's original plan was not only greatly delayed, but also failed in the end.

According to the information obtained, the people who were lurking around Subrata under Louis Lafayette fled there and took away some funds.

According to the wanted order released by India, it is Mr. Subrata of Sahara Company who had property worth US$100 million stolen...

As for what exactly happened, it still needs to be further determined.

It has to be said that although Sahara Company was later targeted by the Indian government, Subrata still has great influence in India.

"They didn't take action on the treasures in that temple?"

Barron was curious, why did these people know the location of the treasure in advance, but in the previous life, the Indian government eventually excavated it?

"Not yet. Louis Lafayette is very cautious. At this time, I am afraid that the whole of India is searching for their people, so even if Louis himself is not exposed, he will definitely not go to the temple in a short time. There’s a treasure there.”

That's it?

Barron, who originally wanted to watch a big show, couldn't help but feel bored:

"Then continue to pay attention to their follow-up news."