Chapter 657 Buying at the bottom

Time came to February 2009, and the entire U.S. stock market had just passed the lowest point after the outbreak of the subprime mortgage crisis - the Dow Jones Index was close to 6,000 points, the S\u0026P 500 Index was close to 650 points, and the Nasdaq Index had also fallen by 1,200 points. .

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Barron had successively reduced his holdings in companies such as O2 Telecom, SEM Group, Argos Retail Group and other companies. When the stock prices were relatively depressed, the funds he controlled completed bargain hunting.

The main way is that when they carry out mergers and acquisitions, the convertible bonds purchased are converted into debt-for-equity operations at such an opportunity, thus increasing the shareholding ratio of these companies.

For example, when SEM Group acquired Reuters Group, the Cavendish Trust spent 950 million pounds to purchase SEM Group's convertible bonds.

At that time, the share price of SEM Group was around 38.75 pounds. Now, affected by the overall market environment, when the Cavendish Trust Fund conducted a debt-for-equity swap, the average share price of SEM Group within 30 trading days had fallen to around 25 pounds. .

By converting the bonds into ordinary shares, the Cavendish Trust received approximately 38 million SEM Group shares.

In this way, the total share capital of SEM Group increased to 297 million shares, and the Cavendish Trust Fund (DS Holdings)'s shareholding in SEM Group also increased to 48.32% from approximately 40.73% after the previous reduction.

If you add in some of the shares acquired by the Mars fund at bargain hunting, as well as the shares of SEM Group held by Bonnie (obtained through the sale of Stuart Media to SEM Group), then the shares of SEM Group that Barron can control still exceed The 50% ratio firmly controls the SEM Group.

As well as SEM Group, the same goes for O2 Telecom and Argos Retail Group.

When O2 Telecom acquired T-Mobile USA, Caesars Fund also provided part of the funds for O2 Telecom in the form of purchasing US$20 billion of convertible bonds; Argos Retail Group acquired Costco (Costco), and the same Major acquisition funding was obtained in this form.

Now they have completed the debt-for-equity swap at this moment.

Of course, except for Barron, no one else is too sure at the moment. Although the U.S. stock market has rebounded slightly since the end of January, the lowest point of the U.S. stock market after the outbreak of the subprime mortgage crisis has passed...

It’s not uncommon to hear assertions and predictions that the stock market is still likely to fall again—even more so than optimistic views.

After all, it is still very difficult to accurately judge the key nodes of a large cycle without looking back from the other end of time.

It is already very rare for a small number of investors to be able to judge the general trend over a period of time.

Therefore, they chose to complete the debt-for-equity swap operation during this period. The funds under the DS Group did not receive criticism from other investors. Instead, they chose to convert corporate bonds into ordinary shares. It can be said that during this period, those funds have alleviated those The company's debt burden - after all, corporate bonds need to pay interest, and converting them to common shares, although the total equity has expanded, also means a reduction in debt and an increase in total market value.

It is also for this reason that this debt-for-equity swap operation, coupled with the absorption of certain secondary market stocks at this stage, has led to a significant rebound in the stock prices of these companies, including SEM Group and O2 Telecom.

It can be said that everyone is happy.

…

"belch……"

"what happened, Babe?"

Ivanta had just returned to New York from Silicon Valley. After meeting her and seeing her reaction, Barron asked.

"It's nothing. Maybe I should go to the hospital for a check-up. I've been hiccupping since yesterday. I didn't notice it at first. After all, I've had such moments before..."

Ivanta frowned slightly and said:

"But it seems different this time. I thought it would be fine after a night's sleep, but it's still the same today... I called my personal doctor before, and he suggested that I go for a gastroscopy."

"Hiccups?"

Barron smiled and said:

"Maybe I have a method you can try..."

"I have tried many methods, such as taking a sip of water and swallowing it slowly, but nothing works."

"Just listen to me..."

Barron asked Ivanta to sit upright on a chair, and then found the middle part of her eyebrows close to her nose, the depression between the inner side and the eye socket, which seemed to be the place called Zanzhu point, and asked her to use two thumbs to gently Press and hold here gently...

"Now take a deep breath and try to take in as much air as possible. At this time, you start to press this part hard..."

Barron explained the process to her carefully:

"Then hold your breath and try your best to hold it for as long as possible. During this process, keep pressing the two positions hard. Until you can no longer hold your breath, slowly exhale the air in your lungs and press slowly at the same time. until the exhalation is completed, you can breathe normally..."

Ivanta did what Barron said...

"How are you feeling, baby?"

Barron asked after seeing Ivanta do this once, opening his eyes with a look of disbelief.

"Wait... I really don't hiccup anymore! It's amazing, dear, how did you do it?"

"You should know that Chinese medicine has a concept called 'acupoints'. I asked you to press two acupoints. This was taught to me by a Chinese medicine practitioner when I went to China. Does it work?"

"Wow! Magical Chinese medicine is really crazy!"

In fact, this was in Barron's previous life. He hiccuped for two days. After trying various methods, he almost had to go to the hospital for a check-up. As a result, he searched on the short video APP at the time and found this method. After trying it, it actually worked... So he remembered it.

"But since you have been burping for so long, maybe there are some minor problems with your stomach. If you have time, it's better to check it out, baby."

"It's a pity that the Chinese doctor you know is in China. Otherwise, let him take a look. I heard that Chinese doctors seem to be able to make a diagnosis just by touching the pulse. Is it really that magical? I wonder if the Chinese doctors in Chinatown are also so good..."

Barron didn't expect that his silky trick would make Ivanta interested in Chinese medicine.

"If you are interested, baby, next time we go to China together, you can experience Chinese medicine."

Of course, Barron knows that Chinese medicine is indeed magical, but unlike Western medicine, Chinese medicine is not a "unified process" for different patients, but "treating diseases according to the symptoms" according to the physical conditions of each person. Therefore, really good Chinese medicine doctors are still very rare and require a long time of accumulation. It is not easy for ordinary people to meet.

But this is not a problem for Barron.