Chapter 572 Waiting for the opportunity
In fact, Barron's is not without the idea of investing in the U.S. banking industry, but it is not the right time yet.
Judging from the selection of Goldman Sachs Group, the current development of the subprime mortgage crisis has only dealt a devastating blow to the real estate industry and related loan-issuing financial companies, but it has not yet expanded to the banking industry.
Although there are reports of losses from big banks from time to time, the common practice of banks is still to try their best to cover up their true losses in their accounts, just like Goldman Sachs Group, in order to survive the crisis. Turn danger into safety.
The real large-scale thunderstorm in the banking industry will have to wait until the collapse of Lehman Brothers next year before it appears to the public.
At that time, the banking industry began to be in turmoil, and stock prices plummeted. In order to survive, they either sought government bailout or looked for capital injections.
It can be said that the bank's market value at that time was able to squeeze out all the water and start a fire sale.
The aftermath of the entire subprime mortgage crisis will last until 2009 or even later, so Barron's funds also need to be patient.
Just like the newly established British Fortune Era (BFT) Fund, the 25 billion pounds of funds they received have only begun to convert the 25 billion pounds of funds into U.S. dollar assets after the exchange rate of the pound to the U.S. dollar exceeded 2.11. .
It is expected that this 25 billion pounds will be converted into approximately 52.5 billion US dollars.
Barron's will naturally not use these government-regulated funds to conduct short-selling operations - and in fact, there are certain risks involved in entering the market for short-selling with such a huge amount of funds.
And if he uses his own funds to short-sell, it can be said to be understandable, but using funds from the British government to short-sell...
No matter how I say it, I can’t explain it to the government...
These funds will be used to purchase "discounted" assets in the future, but that will have to wait until next year.
Before that, some of the funds will enter the gold market to purchase gold, an excellent safe-haven asset.
The current international gold price is at US$770 per ounce. By March next year, the gold price will rise to over US$1,000 per ounce.
In addition to the BFT Foundation slowly absorbing gold futures in the futures market, they will also use part of their funds to purchase gold spot.
In the West African financial center of Bulita, the capital of Kolo, where the headquarters of the United Bank of West Africa is located, there is a vault under the building that can be said to have the most complete security facilities in West Africa.
The BFT fund will purchase spot gold from Africa, melt it into standard gold bars, and store it in that vault.
In addition to the gold mines owned by the West African Mining and Energy Group, this also includes gold mines mined by other mining companies.
You know, according to statistics, it is estimated that Africa's total gold production this year will exceed 500 tons, accounting for 25% of global gold production, second only to Asia, and is the second largest continent in global gold production.
South Africa's gold production ranks first in Africa, followed by Ghana, Mali and Tanzania.
Among them, Ghana itself is a neighboring country of Kolo. Mali and Kolo are only separated by Burkina Faso.
Even in South Africa and Tanzania, which are slightly farther away from Kolo, it is very convenient to transport gold by air.
What's more, West Africa Mining and Energy Group's Kianka gold mine in Burkina Faso has estimated reserves of nearly 200 tons. After official mining, the daily output of the gold mine is also gradually increasing.
And they established a gold screening and smelting plant near Kianca, and the standard gold nuggets refined into them can be easily transported to Colo.
Calculated at US$770 per ounce, one ton of gold costs approximately US$27 million, or US$5 billion, which can only buy 185 tons of gold, which is slightly higher than the load capacity of a Boeing 747.
…
The first movie of "The Twilight Saga", which was released in early April today, has been released. The movie was released for nearly 150 days and finally earned an outstanding box office of US$195 million in North America, US$200 million overseas, and US$395 million worldwide. score.
After all, the cost of the movie "Twilight" was only US$40 million. It can be said that the box office revenue alone, not counting subsequent DVD and peripheral revenue, has already made Marvel-MGM a huge profit. Got it!
This also represents the success of the first movie of "The Twilight Saga" and brought a new series of movie IP to Marvel-MGM Group.
Encouraged by this success, the second part of "Twilight" has begun filming and is expected to be released next year.
"Currently filming is the latest film in the "007" series, "007: Quantum of Solace," while Marvel Studios' "Iron Man" is still in post-production and will not be released until next year. ”
Annika Dawson, CEO of Blue Valley Capital, also serves as executive director of Marvel-MGM Group.
Prior to this, Blue Valley Capital successively acquired three companies, Summit Entertainment, Marvel Entertainment and MGM Pictures. After these three companies were merged into Marvel-MGM Group, this was Blue Valley Capital’s main investment business. , so now that Blue Valley Capital has not started other investments, Annika Dawson’s main job is to assist the Marvel-MGM Group in the integration after the merger.
It is worth mentioning that as early as 2005, Marvel Studios, a subsidiary of Marvel Entertainment, had already launched the "Iron Man" project. It can be said that the progress of this project was not smooth. Even the actor who played Iron Man Starring Downey Jr., in order to get this role, only received a salary of 500,000 US dollars, and has been following this project...
After Marvel Entertainment was acquired by Blue Valley Capital, with the blessing of capital and the support of Barron, the "Iron Man" project was finally accelerated.
But because this is Marvel Studios' first movie, and the film's post-production is very complicated, it still has to wait until next year before the movie can be released.
In addition, Barron also vetoed the filming of the "Hulk" movie - after all, he knew that in his previous life, the investment in the "Hulk" movie was much higher than that of "Iron Man", but It was a failure both at the box office and in terms of critical acclaim.
What the audience wants to see more is the image of the Hulk in "The Avengers", and in the Hulk's independent movie, it is not easy to depict the two images of the Hulk before and after the transformation.
Therefore, under such considerations, he made the decision to abandon the "Hulk" movie project and directly start the "Captain America" series of movies.
Whether it is "Iron Man" or "Captain America", they all pave the way for the subsequent "Avengers". Before launching "Avengers", Barron also hopes to try to recover more money during the subprime mortgage crisis. Multiple Marvel IPs can enrich the content of the future "Avengers".
But realistically speaking, it is not that easy whether it is getting back the copyright of Spider-Man from Sony or the copyright of X-Men, Fantastic Four and so on from 20th Century Fox.
Especially if they wait until "Iron Man" becomes a big success, even if they are willing to let go of these copyrights, I'm afraid the price will not be cheap.
