Chapter 811 Opportunity

On June 28, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that former British Prime Minister Brown was selected as the new president of the organization. His term of office will start from July 5 and will last for 5 years.

As early as the beginning of June, the topic of who will replace Strauss-Kahn, who resigned as the president of the IMF due to the "sexual assault incident", has already begun to be hotly discussed.

In addition to Brown, Agustin Carstens, the governor of the Central Bank of Mexico, who has declared that he will join the competition for the position of president of the International Monetary Fund, is also Brown's main competitor.

It is worth mentioning that Christine Lagarde, the Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry of France who took over this position in the original time and space, did not join the competition this time.

The reasons behind this are more complicated, but the most important thing is that Lagarde did not get the support of the United States as in her previous life...

Before the International Monetary Fund held its executive board meeting on the 28th, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner publicly expressed his support for Brown. The outside world therefore determined that the former British Prime Minister who was supported by the United States was destined to become the new president.

According to Reuters, this selection of the president is the most competitive since the establishment of the International Monetary Fund.

After the International Monetary Fund confirmed the new president, Brown issued a statement saying:

"I am honored by the trust of the Executive Board and I will work hard for all members of the International Monetary Fund..."

British Prime Minister Cameron also called Brown to congratulate him.

Cameron's spokesman claimed in an interview:

Brown's appointment as the president of the International Monetary Fund is a victory for Britain and Europe.

It is worth mentioning that the appointment of the first deputy director of the IMF was announced together with Brown's appointment as the president. The current first deputy director of the IMF, Lipsky, will retire on August 31. He said that he will not re-elect and will be replaced by Zhu Min, the former deputy governor of the Central Bank of China and the current special adviser to the president of the IMF.

This appointment also reflects the increase in the voice of emerging countries, including China, in the IMF.

In this regard, Brown said in an interview on June 29:

"In the future, China's share in the International Monetary Fund will continue to increase. We can see that Asia has recovered first from the previous economic crisis, which also reflects the economic vitality of Asia. It will be the most active region in the global economy in the future."

Many people believe that Brown will face many challenges in the next five years of his term as president, the most urgent of which is to launch a new version of aid measures for Greece and deal with the European debt crisis.

Just now, on June 28, the five-year austerity plan proposed by Greek Prime Minister Papandreou won a majority vote in Congress, clearing major obstacles to obtaining international financing and avoiding default.

The Greek Parliament supported the plan with a vote of 155:138.

Reducing spending and increasing taxes are the prerequisites for European countries and the IMF to provide aid to Greece.

At present, the focus has turned to the second round of voting to be held on the 29th.

This round of voting is mainly aimed at approving the implementation of the austerity plan.

With the positive results of the first round of voting, the second round of voting is also expected to pass smoothly.

While Papandreou is running forward, German finance ministry officials will meet with the country's banking and insurance industry on Wednesday to discuss Germany's role in rescuing Greece based on the new rescue plan proposed by France.

Although Greek demonstrators are protesting against austerity measures, Lagarde still calls on Greece to pass a new austerity plan.

In an exclusive interview on the 29th, Brown said:

"In exchanges with European leaders, I will insist on necessary fairness and will not back down in the face of toughness..."

In this interview, he showed a tougher attitude towards Greece:

"If difficult choices must be made, I will not be merciful at all. In order to ensure the sustainable development of public finances and to reshape the country's competitiveness, the Greek authorities must make difficult but necessary adjustments. There is no other choice."

...

As soon as Brown was elected as the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Baron congratulated him on the phone.

At this time, he had left London and came to the Borromeo Islands in Italy...

This is the traditional territory of the Borromeo family. This is not the first time Barron has come here. This time, it is also because Beatrice Borromeo has a vacation. She returned to Europe from New York and happened to come here with Barron.

When Barron arrived here, in order to show his importance, the "Beautiful Island" with the most beautiful scenery in the Borromeo Islands was temporarily closed to the public to welcome him.

Speaking of which, among the four sisters of the Borromeo family, although the other sisters have married well, Beatrice's eldest sister married an Italian count and the chairman of API Oil Group; the second sister married the chairman of Fiat Group; the third sister married a German prince...

It can be said that everyone has an extraordinary status, but I am afraid that the wealth of these people combined is not as good as Barron. Well, he is also a British duke...

Therefore, although Barron and Beatrice have not yet made their relationship public, they still received a warm reception when they came to the Borromeo family this time.

Of course, Barron had no shortage of topics to talk about with them, whether it was his aristocratic status or the oil, energy and automobile-related industries he owned, he could discuss them with other sons-in-law of the Borromeo family.

"I heard that United Energy Group is preparing to acquire shares of Enel SpA?"

Ugo Brassetti Peretti is Beatrice's brother-in-law and the chairman of API Petroleum Group. He mentioned this topic in his chat with Barron.

"Yes, they are negotiating with Rhein Energy Group, but no agreement has been reached yet, mainly in terms of price..."

Enel SpA is the largest power group in Italy, and British Power Distribution, a subsidiary of United Energy Group, intends to enter the Italian market by acquiring shares of Enel SpA.

The most important thing is that if the acquisition is completed, the shares of Enel SpA they hold will be second only to the government's shareholding...

The reason why Rhein Energy is willing to sell shares of Enel SpA is also related to their previous acquisition intention.

In 2007, Rhein Energy Group joined the competition to acquire Endesa Power, the largest power company in Spain. At that time, they had defeated the Spanish local competitor Natural Gas of Spain with a bid of more than 29 billion euros.

However, at this time, because the Spanish government did not want the country's largest power company to fall into the hands of foreign companies, it imposed certain restrictions on the conditions. Then Rhein Energy Group's competitor appeared. That is, Enelta and Acciona, a domestic infrastructure company in Spain, jointly acquired Endesa Power and pushed the acquisition price to more than 40 billion euros.

At that time, in order to prevent Enelta from participating in this bidding, Rhein Energy Group increased its holdings in Enelta and held 32% of the shares. This shareholding ratio was only 0.4% lower than that of the Italian government, the controlling shareholder of Enelta...

But in the end, their actions did not prevent Rhein Energy Group from failing to bid for Endesa Power...

Therefore, their high holdings in Enelta now do not mean so much to Rhein Energy Group. Moreover, Rhein Energy Group recently hopes to agree to compete with Ang Group in its own natural gas pipeline network, which requires capital investment, so it began to consider selling part of Enelta.

This is also an opportunity for United Energy Group to enter the Italian market, so they are preparing to take over the shares of Italian National Electricity Company held by Rhein Energy Group.