Chapter 647: I will be anxious

"They hope to obtain at least 8 billion pounds of funds to deal with non-performing assets and bring their financial situation up to the government's requirements, so that they can obtain further credit support..."

Davis said to Barron:

"They hope to obtain part of the funds by issuing new shares, but you know, Barclays's stock price has fallen too much compared to last year, so they hope to complete the issuance at a reasonable price, in addition to boosting the stock price, they can also get support from other shareholders."

"If this is the case, why not buy in the secondary market? Of course, I know that I won't get a large proportion of shares by absorbing them in the stock market alone, but if If they still want to issue additional shares at an ideal price, I'm afraid not many people will respond. "

Hearing Barron's complaints, Davis laughed:

"That's right. Many people are not very interested in their plan now. After all, everyone is very cautious at this time. But time is running out, I believe they will face reality..."

Just like the Royal Bank of Scotland, which used to be the second largest listed bank in the UK, but in the current crisis, the government injected 20 billion pounds and got 60% of their shares. The reason is that their stock price has also fallen too much, and the government's injection of capital naturally cannot give too high a premium, otherwise it will cause public dissatisfaction.

But similarly, if it is Barron or other private companies that inject capital into it, it is impossible to get such conditions.

Because the management and shareholders of the Royal Bank of Scotland understand that the British government is not very interested in holding their shares for a long time. The injection of capital through holding shares is entirely for the purpose of rescuing the banking industry. Therefore, they can get these shares back in the future under relatively loose conditions by returning the government's injection of capital.

If it is other private companies, it will be completely different.

The same is true for Barclays Bank. Of course, accepting government capital injection is also an option, but the harsh conditions for the bank's management that follow are definitely difficult for them to accept.

This requires them to find a capital injection plan that is acceptable to shareholders and other investors, otherwise they will have to accept the result of government capital injection in the end.

Barron is still quite interested in investing in Barclays Bank. After all, just from the perspective of returns, taking advantage of the current opportunity to invest in it will also be able to obtain good returns in the future.

What's more, Barclays Bank is one of the oldest banks in the UK, and it also has a considerable position in the entire British financial industry. Obtaining a certain proportion of its shares will also help Barron expand his influence on the British financial industry.

The problem now is the conditions for investing in this bank...

But as Davis said, there is not much time left for Barclays Bank, and they will be anxious...

...

In addition to causing great damage to the financial industry and related industries, the subprime mortgage crisis also has a great impact on ordinary people.

On the one hand, the unemployment rate continues to rise. In a crisis, even companies that are not going to go bankrupt will first cut costs. Large-scale layoffs or even the direct elimination of entire departments are all very normal. This will cause those who lose their jobs to lose their source of income and find it very difficult to find a new job, after all, the number of jobs has been greatly reduced.

In addition, there is inflation.

This is also what the British government was worried about before, especially against the background of soaring crude oil prices this year. The rise in oil prices has led to rising prices of consumer goods, but in contrast, income has not only not risen, but will be affected by the crisis and reduced, which has increased the pressure on people's lives.

However, from the perspective of Argos Retail Group, this is also an opportunity for them to develop.

Although Amazon has begun to enter some Western European countries, at present, Argos.com's market share in the e-commerce industry is still far ahead of Amazon.

After all, Argos.com has a first-mover advantage and is considered a "local operation".

And it is different from Amazon's model. Amazon has now opened up the European market to third parties. It can be said that a large proportion of its products on its European site are more inclined to C2C.

At that time, there was no cross-border e-commerce. Amazon's sources of goods in the European market were mostly local suppliers.

Argos Retail Group was different. From an earlier time, they had already begun to establish an increasingly complete supply system in China. Most of the suppliers in this system, with the help of Argos's funds and technology, can ensure that the cost-effectiveness of goods is better than that of local European goods.

Although Argos.com also has some third-party suppliers, more than 70% of the goods currently still come from Argos' own supply system.

Because the goods in the European market use Argos Retail Group's own brands, even if some of the goods have a high profit margin, it is difficult for consumers to compare prices with goods on other sales platforms.

Under the influence of the subprime mortgage crisis, cheap goods from all over the country began to be very popular, and Argos Retail Group has very strong competitiveness in this regard.

It can be said that in terms of cost performance, even Amazon, which has begun to attract users through various discount activities, is completely unable to shake Argos.com's leading position.

Of course, Amazon’s user growth data is not bad. The biggest impact is on physical retail in Europe. In terms of cost, these physical retail stores are at a disadvantage, especially for some daily necessities, small household appliances, etc. that do not require on-site trial use. Products, they have begun to lose a large number of users.

In addition, some local e-commerce companies in various countries have also been squeezed by Argos.com and Amazon. As it becomes increasingly difficult for them to raise funds and their cash-burning model cannot develop, small European e-commerce companies that recently announced their bankruptcy There are especially many companies.

"Before Christmas, Costco will complete its shareholder vote, and by then our acquisition of this company will be able to begin..."

Argos Retail Group CEO Nathan Ellington is full of confidence in Costco's acquisition. Of course, with the financial support of Caesars Fund, it can be said that Argos Retail Group, which already owns more than 50% of Costco's shares, has basically completed the acquisition of Costco. However, they hope to integrate Costco into the Argos retail group's system, so that it can occupy a certain scale in the North American retail market.

"Costco's management will be retained, and we will not interfere too much with its operations. The only point is to strengthen Costco's e-commerce business. This, through the success of Amazon, has been proven in the United States, especially in big cities. Among them, e-commerce still has advantages.”

The situation in Europe and the United States is similar, that is, e-commerce will be more successful in the development of relatively densely populated large cities. As for other sparsely populated areas, the distribution of goods alone is a problem.

People there have also developed the habit of driving to nearby large supermarkets to do large-scale shopping and then stock up.

Why is e-commerce so successful in China? The population of one big city alone is higher than the population of a state in the United States. The population density is also conducive to the development of e-commerce.

Now that Amazon has come to Europe to compete with Argos.com, Argos Retail Group is naturally happy to acquire Costco and directly enter the North American market to seize Amazon's share.