Chapter 277 IPO Listing

"Why are you up so early today, honey?"

Although he has become a Duke, Barron's schedule has always been very healthy and he still insists on doing morning exercises in the morning.

But after he came out of the gym today, he saw that Bonnie, who was usually still sleeping, was already dressed, packed and ready for breakfast, so he couldn't help but ask.

"There have been a lot of things going on at the company recently, so I still have to find time to help Summit Studio prepare for the new season of the variety show."

Although they already have their own business, Giant Studio also has a shareholding in SEM Group and works in the SEM Building. Their new variety show "Strictly Come Dancing" will also rent SEM Group's venues and equipment for recording, so Bang Niya is still serving as a consultant for Summit Studio, helping them with the transition.

After all, "The Traitors" and "Love Island" were previously led by Bonnie. Now that she has left Summit Studio, these two popular variety shows also need her to help the newcomers adapt after the replacement of people in these two popular variety shows.

"The Brave Henry is about to lead Arsenal to the championship!" 》

While eating breakfast, Barron picked up the newspaper and shook his head when he saw the title on the sports page.

Indeed, Arsenal this season is indeed unstoppable. Under Wenger's guidance, the Gunners will become the only team in the history of the Premier League to win the championship with an undefeated record this season.

As for Manchester United, although its performance is pretty good, after all, Ronaldo, who is the core, has just joined. It will take time for him to adapt to the rhythm of the Premier League and grow up.

…

"Your Highness the Duke, this is the summary of the various companies today."

At eight o'clock, Wang Wanting came to Barron and reported to him the situation of each company after sorting it out.

Barron looked through the information and asked casually:

"How is the progress of the Marconi stock acquisition?"

“Approximately US$150 million worth of stocks have been purchased so far, through several offshore companies, and they need to be kept confidential, so the speed is not very fast.”

Although Marconi rejected Barron's previous offer for it, he has not given up on acquiring the company and is currently absorbing their shares in the secondary market through offshore companies.

Since 2001, the operating conditions of Marconi Company have gradually deteriorated, and from time to time there are reports that they are "struggling" in difficulties.

For example, in 2002, their loan negotiations with banks broke down, causing their stock price to fall sharply. After that, Marconi also carried out layoffs and other measures to reduce expenditures.

The current market value of Marconi is around 650 million pounds. After the last acquisition of Standard Chartered Bank shares held by Standard Chartered Group, Rich23 Investment still has more than 300 million US dollars in funds on its books.

In order not to alert the enemy, it is absorbing the shares of Marconi Company through offshore companies under Rich23 Capital.

According to Wang Wanting, they have currently purchased US$150 million worth of Marconi shares, accounting for approximately 13% of its total share capital...

Because multiple offshore companies are used to absorb stocks, each company will not exceed the 5% quota, so it has not attracted the attention of the Marconi Company so far.

However, there is always a limit to acquiring their stocks through the secondary market. Currently, Marconi's circulating shares in the secondary market only account for about 40% of the total share capital. It is estimated that when the shares absorbed exceed 20% - After the 25% ratio, as the market circulation decreases, if you continue to absorb stocks, it will easily cause large fluctuations in the stock price.

Next, they will also try to contact some small shareholders and shareholding institutions of Marconi Company. After all, the performance of this company at this time has disappointed many people, and I am afraid that there are also many shareholders and institutions who are willing to sell their stocks. .

If they want to completely buy out Marconi, I'm afraid they will have to wait until they fail in BT's "21st Century Network Plan", lose the local market they rely on for a living, and face a desperate situation. Face the reality and be prepared to "sell yourself to survive."

The reason why Barron acquired a certain proportion of Marconi Company's shares in advance at this time was also to gain an advantage in the competition to acquire Marconi Company at that time in the future.

He does not want to be like Huawei in his previous life, who was intercepted and snatched away by Ericsson after making a bid.

Finally, the London Stock Exchange accepted Summit Media’s IPO application and will allow the company to be listed on the AIM market.

Yes, Summit Media, a subsidiary of SEM Group, is preparing to go public.

Summit Media owns two major businesses, SDTV and Summit Studio. SDTV is currently the fourth largest TV station in the UK, with the number of users second only to Sky TV, BBC and ITV.

You know, the other three TV stations either have huge backgrounds - such as Sky TV; or they have a long history, such as the BBC and ITV...

The predecessor of Sky TV, BSB TV, was established in 1989, and satellite radio and TV was even earlier...

But SDTV has only been established for one year!

As for Summit Studio, they are also eye-catching. They hold three major IPs: "Downton Abbey", "The Traitors" and "Love Island", all of which are the most popular TV series and variety shows in the UK.

As for this IPO, the purpose of this IPO is that Summit Media hopes to raise funds to launch its own paid channel-SD Sports.

The AIM market of the London Stock Exchange was established in 1995 specifically for the financing of high-growth small and medium-sized enterprises. It is equivalent to the GEM market of Hong Kong, but with a different name.

The reason why Summit Media chose to list on the AIM market instead of the main board of the London Stock Exchange is mainly because it currently cannot meet the conditions for listing on the main board.

The main thing is that they require listed companies to have at least three years of profit records to support them. Although they can lower the requirements for some companies as appropriate, Summit Media has only been established for a year and a half, so the difference is still too big.

In fact, even Summit Media does not meet the two-year profit record required by the AIM market. However, they can also allow companies that are less than two years old to be listed, but the condition is that directors and employees holding 10% of the shares must agree. It is prohibited from selling any interest it holds in the company's securities for at least one year from the date of listing on the AIM market.

The current shareholders of Summit Media include DS Holdings and Sinclair Group - because Sinclair Group holds 10% of the shares of SEM Group, it will accordingly hold an equal proportion of shares when its wholly-owned subsidiary Summit Media is listed. .

Both of them meet the minimum standard of holding 10% of the shares, so according to regulations, they cannot sell shares within a year after Summit Media is listed.

Therefore, from now on, Summit Media has entered the IPO listing process. The sponsor they chose is Barclays Bank, and they will carry out the listing action with the help of the other party.

Summit Media currently has a total share capital of 100 million shares, of which DS Holdings holds 90 million shares and Sinclair Group holds 10 million shares.

They plan to issue 25 million new shares for listing, accounting for 20% of the total share capital after the issuance.

After evaluation, Barclays Bank has currently set a stock guidance issuance price of 12 pounds for Summit Media's first road show. According to this price, Summit Media's market value will reach 1.5 billion pounds after listing.

The 90 million Summit Media shares held by DS Holdings will be worth 1.08 billion pounds; the shares held by Sinclair Group will also be worth 120 million pounds.

You know, when they first invested in SEM Group, they only spent 20 million pounds to get 10% of SEM Group's shares. Now, just relying on the listing of Summit Media, their investment has increased six times.

Of course, this must be based on the premise that Summit Media can successfully IPO at this price, and within one year, neither DS Holdings nor Sinclair Group can sell their shares.