Chapter 468 O2 Telecom goes public

Just when Claire announced her upcoming resignation, there was another important thing for Barron, that is, O2 Telecom was listed on the London Stock Exchange.

This year, many of the companies that Barron has acquired before will go public one after another. One is that these companies have been acquired by him for more than three years, and it is time for them to go public for a wave of capital operations.

In addition, it is already 2006, less than two years since the subprime mortgage crisis broke out. We need to take advantage of the crisis to go public as soon as possible, because now is the time before the crisis when the economic cycle is approaching its peak, and capital is hot. Going public now can get better returns. Stock price performance.

After O2 Telecom is listed, Argos Retail Group will also be listed on the London Stock Exchange - they have submitted a listing application at the end of February and it has been approved.

As the largest IPO in the UK since the Internet bubble crisis in 2001, O2 Telecom's listing can be said to have attracted much attention.

This time O2 Telecom's listing will involve a public sale of 1 billion ordinary shares, of which 500 million shares are newly issued shares and 500 million shares are sold by DS Holdings (Cavendish Trust Fund).

In addition, during the IPO issuance process, the Saudi Public Investment Fund and Caesar Fund have converted their O2 Telecom convertible bonds into ordinary shares at the issuance price of O2 Telecom's shares, 5 pounds per share.

In this way, the Saudi Public Investment Fund will hold 200 million ordinary shares of O2 Telecom, and the Caesar Fund will hold 400 million ordinary shares of O2 Telecom.

According to O2 Telecom's issue price of 5 pounds per share, after the IPO, its total share capital will be 6.1 billion shares, and its market value will be as high as 30.5 billion pounds!

Judging from the subscription situation of O2 Telecom's IPO, investors are still very enthusiastic. Many institutions have participated in the subscription of new shares. Among them, the Saudi Public Investment Fund once again subscribed for 10,000 shares of O2 Telecom - not that they don't want to buy more. , but during the road show, O2 Telecom's shares have been over-subscribed, and the most they can get is these subscription shares.

This is because there are also sovereign funds of Middle East tycoon countries such as Qatar Investment Authority and Kuwait Investment Authority participating in the subscription, and investment institutions from the United States, Europe and East Asia are also actively subscribing, including financial giants such as Vanguard Group and Blackstone Fund. .

Amid much anticipation, on Monday, May 15, O2 Telecom CEO Berry Trelles rang the bell of the London Stock Exchange, and its shares began trading on the main board of the London Stock Exchange.

At 8 o'clock in the morning, the collective bidding was completed. O2 Telecom opened at 5.45 pounds, 9% higher than the issue price, and the highest intraday price reached 5.89 pounds...

It finally closed at 5.74 pounds, an increase of 14.8% from the issue price.

Calculated at this price, O2 Telecom's market value exceeds 35 billion pounds and will surpass France Telecom to become Europe's third largest telecommunications company after Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone.

At this time, DS Holdings (Cavendish Trust Fund) holds 4.5 billion shares of O2 Telecom, accounting for 73.77%; Caesars Fund holds 400 million shares of O2 Telecom, accounting for 6.56%; the Saudi Public Investment Fund holds 300 million shares of O2 Telecom, accounting for 4.92%.

It is also worth mentioning that during this IPO listing process, DS Holdings sold 500 million shares of O2 Telecom shares they held and obtained 2.5 billion pounds in funds.

Originally, Barron's planned to return the funds to Northron Rock Bank - they had previously pledged part of their shares in O2 Telecom and loaned 4 billion pounds from this bank.

But after comprehensive consideration, Barron gave up this idea...

You should know that the 4.5 billion O2 Telecom shares currently held by DS Holdings are worth 25.83 billion pounds based on the closing price on the first day of listing.

Even based on the 55% of the O2 Telecom shares they held at the time that were pledged to Northroc Bank for the original loan, which was 2.75 billion O2 Telecom shares, its value was as high as 15.785 billion pounds.

Therefore, O2 Telecom's stock price at this time would have to fall by more than 75% before it fell to the level of the 4 billion pound loan obtained by pledging these shares.

Take Vodafone Group, the largest telecommunications company in the UK, as an example. During the last Internet bubble crisis, when its stock price was at its lowest, it fell by more than 80% compared to the high value before the bubble crisis.

But in the original time and space, during the subsequent subprime mortgage crisis, the lowest value of Vodafone Group's stock price "only" fell by less than 50% compared to the high value before the crisis...

It can be said that in the last Internet bubble crisis, telecommunications companies were also collectively hit hard, and it was even called a "telecom crisis"...

But in the subprime mortgage crisis, compared with other industries, especially the real estate and financial industries, the losses in the telecommunications industry as a technology industry were not too exaggerated.

The only thing that makes them uncomfortable is that due to the subprime mortgage crisis, loans and financing in the telecommunications industry have become much more difficult. Therefore, after that, many telecommunications operators have greatly reduced their willingness to upgrade and build new networks, and have adjusted their existing investment plans and cut back investment expenses and hold large amounts of cash and cash equivalents to protect against risks.

Therefore, in the case of O2 Telecom, at least during the subprime mortgage crisis, it is unlikely that the stock price will fall by more than 50%, and the loans held by the Cavendish Trust Fund will not be jeopardized because of the Northrock Bank loan. O2 Telecom Shares.

Moreover, even if such an extreme situation occurs, Barron's will not have enough funds to deal with it.

Therefore, he finally chose to invest the 2.5 billion pounds in futures that were bullish on international gold prices.

After inquiries, Barron learned that the current gold price is around US$660 per ounce, and by mid-March 2008, the international gold price will exceed US$1,000 per ounce.

This is a very good investment opportunity.

The investment scale of the entire gold market reaches trillions of dollars, which can fully accommodate their current capital scale and will not be greatly affected by this.

They began to open positions in gold futures markets around the world such as the London Gold Exchange and the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The international gold price also dropped below US$550 per ounce from around US$660 per ounce in mid-June. By the end of June, they finally completed the opening of gold futures positions...

The holding cost of DS Investment Company this time is around US$600 per ounce. After nearly two years, there will be another huge profit.

This is why they still have the confidence to take on those high-value loans, including Northen Rock Bank. After all, in an emergency, they can liquidate part of their gold futures positions first to deal with it.

…

"Your Highness the Duke, we have already been in contact with Ford. Although they have stated that they have no intention of selling at the moment, they have not refused too firmly..."

When Barron finally took time to accompany Tamaran Ecclestone on vacation in Italy, he received a call from Pat Friedman, CEO of Caesars Fund, who was traveling to the United States.