Chapter 371 will be indefinite

   At this time, on the top floor of a 45-story building not far from the office building where Tianyu Fund is located, negotiations on the acquisition of Peregrine's equity are in full swing.

  In a large and bright high-level conference room on the top floor, dozens of professionals in suits and leather shoes sat in two camps, chatting frequently, and from time to time someone came in from the outside and delivered certain documents.

  Because the amount involved in this transaction is as high as billions of Hong Kong dollars, both parties have hired the most top financial teams. Of course, it goes without saying that Peregrine's M&A department is top-notch in Asia. Under the leadership of Nian Botao, their elites, together with Du Kanghui, who is in charge of dealing with European and American consortiums, and their legal department, It can be said that Peregrine is fully mobilized.

The Zurich Center Group ZCI also attaches great importance to this. In addition to sending Cleo Dante, their global vice president, to bring the negotiation business of the negotiation group, they also hired Stanley Hong Kong Company as their financial consultant, and Hong Kong data A barrister from a top law firm, and Axinda Audit Firm, one of the world's top five audit firms, are also on the alert.

  The two parties have gone through several months of negotiations before and reached a preliminary agreement. The reason why it was so smooth before is that firstly, Peregrine urgently needs capital turnover, and secondly, ZCI has long been eyeing the increasingly developed Asian region and wants to get a share of it, and Peregrine is an Asian region. One of the giants in the capital market, so the two parties can be regarded as hit it off.

  In the preliminary agreement, ZCI agreed to buy a total of 24.1% of Peregrine shares at a price of 8 Hong Kong dollars per share, equivalent to about 200 million U.S. dollars. In order to ensure that the leadership of the company will not fall into the hands of others, Peregrine, in addition to setting this part of the shares as convertible and redeemable, also stipulates that they are preferred shares. The purpose of this is to ensure that in the future when there is sufficient cash, it can be bought back and turned into debt, and at the same time, ZCI, an outsider, will not interfere with the company's decision-making.

  ZCI naturally also set restrictions. The premise of this transaction is that there is no major change in Peregrine's market position and operating conditions, otherwise the transaction will be automatically cancelled.

  After the two parties reached a preliminary agreement, Peregrine continued to search for possible financial backers in the market, and soon they reached a preferred stock acquisition plan with the First Chicago Group of the United States for a total of 25 million US dollars.

   At this time, as long as the two transactions can be approved smoothly, Peregrine will no longer have the trouble of capital liquidity, and at the same time, it will be able to maintain the current high-speed growth.

   This seems to be a win-win situation, but the result of this negotiation was terminated two days ago. The reason is that the Indonesian market has deteriorated, and the Indonesian rupiah has continued to plummet against the US dollar.

   As we all know, Indonesia is an extremely corrupt country. Doing business in this country, some unspoken rules are unavoidable, even a giant like Peregrine is not immune.

In order to be able to take over the debt issuance of the Indonesian taxi company, Peregrine first borrowed 270 million US dollars from the company through public relations, and then gave the company a bond issuance guarantee of 200 million US dollars, and at the same time helped the company After doing a swap transaction of 200 million U.S. dollars, it was possible to receive the company's bond issuance rights totaling 1 billion U.S. dollars. The sales model is underwriting.

  If there is no crisis in the Indonesian rupiah, Peregrine will eventually be able to get several cash expenses such as bond sales fees of US$1 billion, loan interest, and swap transaction fees. The total amount is expected to be tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of US dollars.

   It has to be said that this is a lucrative transaction, and it is no wonder that Peregrine invested so much money in this project. It’s just that as the Indonesian rupiah plummeted, this transaction became a hot potato. First, whether the loan of 270 million US dollars can be recovered has become a thorny issue, followed by the bond issuance guarantee of 200 million US dollars, and these are still secondary , the most terrible thing is that 1 billion US dollars of bonds have almost become waste paper.

The financing is calculated in US dollars, but the repayment is calculated in Indonesian rupiah. Although the coupon rate is as high as 7.5%, but at this time, which investor is willing to buy it? In the end, the bond can only be rotten in Peregrine own hands.

Although Peregrine has a large annual turnover, its own assets are not too much. In the published report, the total assets of the latest quarter are 5.3 billion US dollars, which includes cash, real estate, investment income, etc. The sum of many assets including. And because of the Indonesian incident, Peregrine currently has little cash on its books.

"Mr. Dante, didn't we reach an agreement before? Why did we suddenly change our minds? This is not in line with the principles of doing business." Du Kanghui was the first to attack. The leader Cleo Dante is the most suitable for communication, and it is also suitable for playing the emotional card.

"Principles?" Cleo Dante snorted coldly with disdain, "Mr. Du, since we are talking about principles, we have to mention the contract. In the contract, we both agreed that we will We would not have withdrawn the investment until there were major changes. But now, we think that everything is different, and it is natural to renegotiate the terms."

"This is really regrettable." Du Kanghui shook his head, then glanced at Nian Botao who was beside him with a dignified face, and then showed his hole card, "7.5 Hong Kong dollars per share, the coupon rate has been reduced to 7.3%. It's our bottom line, what do you think?"

"No! No! No!" The disdainful look on Cleo's face became even more intense, "This price is still too high. Mr. Du, Mr. Nian, why don't we first take a look at our final due diligence on Peregrine how?"

While speaking, he opened a stack of documents in front of him and read in a leisurely manner: "Because the 270 million US dollars invested in the Indonesian market cannot be recovered, and the 1 billion US dollars of Indonesian bonds underwritten cannot be sold, the net assets of Peregrine have shrunk. Seriously. In addition, Peregrine still has a total investment of 600 million US dollars, which cannot be realized or recovered in the short term. The amount may be less than $200 million."

Regardless of Du Kanghui and Nian Botao's increasingly ugly faces, Cleo closed the document with a "snap" and continued: "Counting these, Peregrine's net worth has dropped from US$5.3 billion to US$3.2 billion The U.S. dollar, this is not counting the shrinkage of the stock market. If we do not introduce strategic investors now, I am afraid that Peregrine will be in danger of liquidation. Two, our sincerity at ZCI is very sufficient, and we are happy to help Peregrine get out of the current situation. However, we are businessmen after all, and it is impossible to do things that harm our own interests, so we will try our best to get the best price.”

   "Tell me about your conditions!" Nian Botao waved his hands weakly with a haggard face, stopping Du Kanghui from continuing to grind. Peregrine is his life's painstaking effort, so naturally he cannot close down at this time, as long as he can survive this period of time, it may not be impossible to make a comeback.

"5.5 Hong Kong dollars per share, and the coupon rate has dropped to 7.0% at the same time." Since the agreement requires to take over a part of the Asian corporate bonds held by Peregrine, the coupon rate is also within the scope of negotiation, and as the buying party , Cleo will naturally do everything possible to lower the coupon rate.

Although he was well prepared in his heart, Nian Botao was still shocked by this number, and then a surge of anger surged in his heart, which made him almost lose his demeanor, "This is impossible! Absolutely impossible! You must know that we What was sold was preferred stock, and the price of common stock today is still 5 Hong Kong dollars, and you want to buy it at this price, it is absolutely impossible!" He roared angrily.

"I'm afraid your news is too late, Mr. Nian." Cleo still smiled at Nian Botao's rage, "At today's closing price, Peregrine plummeted 14%, closing at 4.7 Hong Kong dollars Per share, this is the price of ordinary shares, and the price of preferred shares will naturally fall accordingly. You must know that we agree to acquire preferred shares and give up the right to speak, which in itself is full of hope for Peregrine. I hope you two will not let us down. "

At this moment, both Du Kanghui and Nian Botao had expressions of astonishment on their faces. They looked at each other, then at their team, and saw that most of them nodded their heads. Only then did they realize the weakness of their company in the capital market. Stock market values ​​have shrunk again.

   "7 Hong Kong dollars per share, 7.4% coupon rate." Du Kanghui gritted his teeth and announced the new price cruelly. At this moment, his heart was bleeding.

   Who would have thought that Cleo on the opposite side did not respond at all, as if he had not heard the latest price offered by Du Kanghui, and was still looking at him with a smile.

   "6.5 Hong Kong dollars, 7.35% coupon rate." Du Kanghui's mouth twitched slightly, and he lowered his offer again. What disappointed him was that there was still no response from the other party.

"6 Hong Kong dollars, it can't be lowered, 7.3% coupon rate, this is our bottom line." Seeing the other party's reaction, Du Kanghui had no choice but to lower his head and discuss quietly with Nian Botao for a long while, then bit his tongue again. Teeth reported a lower price.

This time Cleo finally responded. After discussing with his financial consultant team and lawyer team for a while, he said: "5.5 Hong Kong dollars per share, 7.15% coupon rate, this is the highest price we can give .”

  Seeing that the other party finally expressed something, Du Kanghui and Nian Botao looked at each other, and they both saw happiness in each other's eyes. Although the other party said that it was the highest offer, it was not true. Undoubtedly, his own offer was close to the other party's psychological price.

Naturally, they would not follow Cleo's offer to make a deal, and after whispering for a while, Nian Botao said, "Why don't we modify the content of the contract a little bit, as part of the transaction, we can transfer some Asian corporate bonds, of course , the price of this part of the bond is slightly lower than the market price. As part of the exchange, we hope that you can increase the price of the preferred stock."

Seeing the new situation, Cleo negotiated urgently with his team for half an hour, and when he walked into the meeting room again, he finally showed a sincere smile on his face, "5.75 Hong Kong dollars per share, a total of 200 million U.S. dollars Preferred stock, plus $175 million in bonds at 7.25 percent coupon, I accept that, and that’s all I’ll accept.”

When they were discussing, Peregrine was also having heated discussions, and finally they came to the conclusion that if the other party accepted the conditions of taking over the bonds, then Peregrine would not need to sell too many preferred shares; If it is not accepted, then the amount of preferred shares is at least unchanged, and if possible, it will be increased according to the extent of the price concession.

   "The price is as you said, but in terms of the number of preferred shares, we can't sell too much. US$100 million is our bottom line." Nian Botao's attitude completely reversed and became aggressive.

  Since the other party intends to invest in Peregrine, it is natural that they are interested in Peregrine's prospects. You must know that when it comes to dividends, preferred shares have a higher order of dividends than ordinary shares. It is naturally impossible to let the other party get more shares when the price has been reduced, and a part of the funds have been raised by selling bonds. , there is no need to sell more preferred shares.

The two sides went through a war of words over how much preferred shares would be sold, and finally reached an agreement: Peregrine sold Asian bonds with a total value of 175 million US dollars to ZCI, and this part of the bonds had a high credit rating , the payment status is good, and there is no risk of default at all. In return, ZCI will distribute dividends to Peregrine from the future proceeds of this part of the bond, and at the same time reduce the requirement for the share of preferred shares. 16.7% of preferred shares.

  The next work will be handed over to the financial consultants and lawyer teams of both parties. They will draw up the contract in the fastest time, hand it over to the other party's team for review, and then sign it with the leaders of both parties, and then announce it to the market.

  Because this transaction involved the trading of large shares, Peregrine stopped trading its own stock after this day, commonly known as "suspension", and the price was HK$4.3 per common share. No one thought that after the suspension, this stock would completely disappear from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

  Some people don’t know when they will look at it for the last time; some things, they don’t know when they will do it for the last time; and some stocks will never resume trading after they don’t know which trading suspension. What investors didn't expect was that Peregrine, the giant investment bank that controls two listed companies, has become history after it suspended trading today.

  After that there will be no period.

   Thanks to book friend Mirror Yu for voting for monthly support! There are still many wonderful things in the back of this book, I hope everyone can support it to the end, and hope that more book lovers can pay attention!

  

  

  (end of this chapter)