America's Road To Fame Chapter 224

Although Chen William also has the idea of forming a fund that he chooses to invest in, it is still too early. If nothing else, his own Meta investment company does not count the $3 billion that will soon buy the "New York Times". , there are more than 30 billion US dollars of funds just received waiting to be invested.

At the same time, Camilo Hagen of Goldman Sachs also responded to William Chen's plans to acquire European football clubs. If only in terms of the ease of acquisition and the influence of the team, the most suitable acquisition target is Manchester United. .

"Manchester United? Didn't they sell Ronaldo last year?"

"Yes, the current owner of the club is an American, and they have a bad reputation at Manchester United. If they are accused of selling Ronaldo, then the operation after selling Ronaldo will let everyone including the fans. They are outraged and almost all Manchester United supporters now want them to leave as soon as possible, so if you buy Manchester United, I am afraid there will be widespread support."

"At the same time, compared with other clubs, Manchester United's shares are very concentrated and have been privatized. You only need to get the owner's consent to buy 100% of Manchester United's shares. And whether it is influence or ability to make money, Manchester United are the best choice."

Through Camilo Hagen's information, William Chen also learned about Manchester United's current situation.

The Manchester United club is now owned by the Glazer family. They started to acquire Manchester United shares in 2004. On May 12, 2005, the Glazer family acquired the two major shareholders of Manchester United, John Manier and J.P. McManus, the third largest shareholder. Harry Dobson and some other fractional shares held 71.8% of the shares that night, taking a substantial step towards acquiring Manchester United.

Four days later, the Glazer family's shares exceeded the critical point of 75% and began to complete the privatization of Manchester United.

However, this is also the beginning of the Glazer family being protested by Manchester United supporters. The main reason is that their acquisition of Manchester United did not use all their own funds, but completed through leveraged buyouts.

The Glazer family paid a total of about £790 million for the acquisition of Manchester United in 2005, which was equivalent to $1.4 billion at the time. Among these acquisition funds, they borrowed more than 300 million pounds from Morgan Bank and more than 200 million pounds from the three major hedge funds. To 250 million pounds, equivalent to only 450 million US dollars.

Crucially, after the Glazers completed the takeover, they passed on their £700m debt to Manchester United.

So for so many years, although Manchester United has been one of the most profitable clubs in the world, they have not had much money to improve club conditions and buy players, and have been paying back debt.

Especially last year, Manchester United sold Ronaldo to Real Madrid for a record price of 80 million pounds, but these funds were not used by Manchester United, but were used by the Glazer family to repay the loan.

So since the Glazer family entered Manchester United, the protests have not stopped.

As early as August 2004, when Manchester United's acquisition by the Glazer family had already emerged, Manchester United's CEO David Gill warned that "debt is the road to destruction".

Afterwards, a portrait of Glazer family head Malcolm Glazer was burned outside Old Trafford; a Manchester United reserve game was stopped by a group of masked men.

The group of uninvited guests, who called themselves the "Manchester Board of Education", carried banners against the Glazer takeover.

After the Glazer family completed the acquisition and dumped 700 million pounds of debt to Manchester United, some fans who opposed the Glazer family left Manchester United, and they set up another door to form United Manchester Football Club. Promoted to the sixth tier of the English league.

Most of the remaining fans will have to endure the ever-increasing ticket prices and the practice of selling their star players in order to pay off their debts.

Especially since the beginning of this year, the Glazer family has been hit hard by the subprime mortgage crisis and has had problems with its operations. They decided to issue an additional 500 million pounds of bonds to raise funds. As a result, the "Green Gold Movement" organized by fans was triggered.

They waved the green and gold scarves of Manchester United's predecessor Newton Heath football team during the Manchester United game, expressing dissatisfaction with the Glazer family and concerns about the club's prospects.

Just a few days ago, Beckham returned to Old Trafford for AC Milan in the Champions League. After the game, he also picked up a green and gold scarf and put it on, which became the most impressive scene of the day, putting more pressure on the Glazer family.

At the same time, rich people among Manchester United fans formed an organization called "Red Knights" to try to buy Manchester United through crowdfunding. They offered the Glazer family a price of 1 billion pounds to prepare for the acquisition of Manchester United Club. , but it was rejected by the Glazer family in the end. The main reason was not the price, but the Glazer family thought that they were a blank check. Once they let go and agree to the acquisition, they will inevitably be caught by the other party and lead More people came against them.

So what is the origin of this red knight? In fact, they are also related to Goldman Sachs. Their leaders include Goldman Sachs chief economist Jim O'Neill, Fuld law firm partner Mark Laurinson, and WaceMarshall hedge fund founder Paul Marshall.

Moreover, the investment bank of Japan's Nomura Securities also participated in it, and contacted more than 40 wealthy people who were interested in the acquisition to prepare to join the acquisition.

Interestingly, two important figures under Nomura Securities, Guy Dawson and Andrew McNaught, who helped Glazer acquire Manchester United in 2005, have now turned against each other and want to help the Red Knights acquire Manchester United.

It's just that Camilo Hagen believes that the acquisition of the Red Knights is destined to be difficult to succeed, because the Glazer family can't believe that the fan organization formed by these rich people can really raise so much money to buy Manchester United, so It will never easily accept the other party's offer and negotiation requirements.

But if Chen William claims to be acquired, it is different. On the one hand, William Chen is the fourth richest person in the just announced rich list, and the whole world knows that he has enough assets to support this acquisition.

And William Chen's energy in the United States is not comparable to those Europeans and Asians who have proposed to buy Manchester United before. After all, the Glazer family is still based in the United States. Their family also has a Florida football team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and their family's main industries are food processing and supermarket industries. Affected by the subprime mortgage crisis, their main business is currently also suffered a major blow.

Therefore, if Chen William buys Manchester United now, it can be said to be a very good opportunity. As for the purchase price, Camilo Hagen believes that less than $1.5 billion will be a price that the other party can accept. After all, when the Glazer family bought Manchester United, they only paid $450 million through leveraged buyout. The exchange rate against the U.S. dollar is much higher than it is now, and the family has benefited a lot from Manchester United over the years, so the initial offer can be made at a price of $1.2 billion.

William Chen also has an advantage, that is, he has many media resources in the United States, including film companies, Twitter companies, Reddit companies, and the New York Observer ~www.mtlnovel.com~ and even have the opportunity to buy the New York Times right away.

The Glazer family can ignore the protests of the Europeans, after all, their business is mainly in the United States, but if William Chen puts pressure on them through the American media, then they can't help but ignore it.

Now is the economic crisis. Once Americans pass through the media and think that their family is an unscrupulous businessman who relies on Manchester United to **** blood, it will be fatal to their business.

Uh, I have to say that Goldman Sachs' acquisition methods are really three-dimensional and diverse, but William Chen likes it very much.

He immediately said that Camilo Hagan could start to contact the Glazer family, and according to his ideas, he would first offer $1.2 billion to test to see how the other party responded.

In his previous life, Chen William often watched football games. He was considered a fan, but he was not a fanatic.

He knows that Manchester United has countless supporters all over the world, and there are a lot of fans in China. Even in America, which is called a football desert, there are still a lot of fans, including stars and celebrities. , If the Glazer family still insists not to sell Manchester United, then these people can be put to good use.

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