Chapter 323 Target: London Stock Exchange

In September, the Mars Fund began to withdraw capital income sharing. After that, the investment window will be opened again.

Starting next year, the Mars Fund will only open its investment window once a year in early September.

At present, the total size of the Mars Fund has exceeded US$3 billion. The funds invested in September last year have so far achieved a rate of return of close to 150%, which is terrifying!

According to the sharing rules of the Mars Fund, DS Investment can get nearly US$600 million in share from these funds this time!

This is also based on the horrific rate of return of the Mars fund.

From Barron's last trip to Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, before the establishment of the Global Industrial Investment Fund, many Middle Eastern tycoons had the intention to invest in the Mars Fund. However, the Mars Fund at that time had not yet ushered in the opening of the investment window. .

After the Mars Fund opened its investment window this time, funds from them and other enthusiastic investors not only filled the gap after the Mars Fund was divided, but the total fund size increased again, exceeding US$3.5 billion.

After all, the next time the investment window for this fund opens will be a year from now.

In fact, if the Mars fund did not set a minimum investment threshold of more than 10 million pounds, the total amount of money pouring into this fund would be even more terrifying.

After all, after more than two years of operation, this fund, which can achieve stable and high-fold growth, has accumulated a certain reputation.

This is why these Middle Eastern tycoons are so confident to invest their huge sums of money into this fund.

The most important thing is the demonstration effect of Barron himself. He relied on repeated investments to directly enter the forefront of Forbes' global rich list this year, and surpassed the Duke of Westminster to become the new richest man in England.

His investment vision and achievements are naturally more convincing than those of other so-called "star fund managers".

…

After completing the privatization of the Four Seasons Hotel Group, Finn Hudson, CEO of Global Industrial Investment Fund, returned to London.

GII Fund currently holds 65% of the shares of Fast Retailing Group and 47.5% of the shares of Four Seasons Hotel Group. In addition, there is still approximately US$2.8 billion in funds.

This time in London, Barron has found the next target for the GII Fund.

"In the recent period, the share price of the London Stock Exchange plc (LSE) has been between 3.9 and 4 pounds per share. We have begun to absorb its shares and now hold approximately 11.46 million LSE shares, approximately Accounting for about 4.5% of their total share capital..."

Finn Hudson introduced Barron:

“The circulation ratio of London Stock Exchange shares is relatively high, but in addition to absorbing their shares in the secondary market, we are also trying to contact investment companies including Threadneedle Investments and Scottish Widows that hold shares of the London Stock Exchange. Acquire their shares."

Yes, this time the GII Fund’s target is the London Stock Exchange.

The London Stock Exchange is one of the four major stock exchanges in the world and the largest stock exchange in Europe, handling more than two-thirds of international stock underwriting business.

The history of the "grande dame" London Stock Exchange can be traced back to the London Coffee Trading House in the 17th century.

In 1760, 150 stock brokers in London spontaneously formed a stock buying and selling club, which was renamed the Stock Exchange in 1773.

In 1973, after the merger of 11 British and Irish stock exchanges, the London Stock Exchange in the modern sense was truly formed.

The total market value of companies listed on it has now reached US$2.56 trillion, which has also firmly established the London Stock Exchange as the third largest stock exchange in the world.

It is the "ladylike" temperament of the London Stock Exchange that has attracted the "olive branch" of almost all stock exchanges around the world.

In fact, as early as 1998, the London Stock Exchange had become the target of mergers and acquisitions.

Among them, the earliest and most persistent one is the Deutsche Börse and Derivatives Exchange. In 1998, Werner Seifert, CEO of Deutsche Börse, proposed an alliance to the London Stock Exchange for the first time, but failed;

Barron's knows that at the end of this year and at the beginning of next year, Deutsche Börse will also launch two takeover bids for the London Stock Exchange, which will eventually be rejected by the British side.

In addition, in October 2000, the Swedish OMX Exchange also intended to invest 1.06 billion pounds to acquire the London Stock Exchange, which was also rejected at the time.

It can be said that these intentions to merge and acquire the London Stock Exchange are not only subject to review by the British regulators, but also that the London Stock Exchange is not satisfied with their bid and believes that it does not reflect the value of the London Stock Exchange...

At this time, the stock price of the London Stock Exchange was between 3.9 and 4 pounds, and its market value was around 1 billion pounds.

But it is definitely impossible to acquire the London Stock Exchange at a price of 1 billion pounds.

You know, four years ago in 2000, the Swedish OMX exchange quoted 1.06 billion pounds to the London Stock Exchange. This price was about 21% higher than the market value of the London Stock Exchange at the time, and it was also rejected by them.

According to Finn Anderson's prediction, in order to impress the London Stock Exchange, the premium may need to exceed 30%, or even reach 50%.

Therefore, I am afraid that if the acquisition of the London Stock Exchange is completed, the funds used will be between 1.3 billion pounds and 1.5 billion pounds.

Barron quite agrees with this estimated price, because he remembers that at the end of this year, Deutsche Börse's asking price for the London Stock Exchange was as high as 1.35 billion pounds, which was more than 20% higher than the stock price of the London Stock Exchange at that time. The premium was still rejected...

The two investment companies currently contacted by the GII Fund both sold their London Stock Exchange shares to the Nasdaq Group after Barron's original time and space.

Among them, Threadneedle Investments, which can be translated as Tianli Investment, they are currently the largest single shareholder of the London Stock Exchange, holding approximately 14.5% of the shares of the London Stock Exchange; the other Scottish Widows, er, translated as Scottish Widow Fund Company, they hold It has about 5.8% of the shares on the London Stock Exchange.

At present, GII Fund Company has proposed to them an offer of 4.6 pounds per share, which is about a 15% premium over the current market price, to acquire the shares of the London Stock Exchange held by the two companies. Their current response is just that they need to pay attention to this. The offer was discussed and no clear answer was given.

Therefore, in addition to continuing to absorb the shares of the London Stock Exchange in the secondary market, the GII Fund will also continue to contact other institutions holding shares of the London Stock Exchange to make acquisition offers.

"Next, you need to be quick to buy stocks on the exchange. Even if it causes a slight fluctuation in the stock price, you can tolerate it. After all, as we contact more shareholders of the London Stock Exchange, we will also be interested in any acquisition intentions of the London Stock Exchange. If people know it faster, then in addition to the reaction of the London Stock Exchange management, their stock price will definitely rise accordingly..."

Barron’s concerns were recognized by GII Fund CEO Finn Anderson. He nodded and said:

"We will speed up the absorption of London Stock Exchange stocks, but their management is always something we need to face and communicate with. We just hope that we can get as much chips as possible before that."

Barron is also looking forward to this. After all, being able to acquire the London Stock Exchange is not only very important for his future financial layout, but it will also be a very cost-effective investment.

The current market value of the London Stock Exchange is only 1 billion pounds. Even at a 50% premium, acquiring the world's third-ranked exchange will only require 1.5 billion pounds.

What he still remembers is that in 2019, when the Hong Kong Stock Exchange was preparing to acquire the London Stock Exchange, the offer it put forward was close to 30 billion pounds, which was a full 20 times difference.