Chapter 549 William Weber Capital

Chapter 549 William Weber Capital

"The bet agreement between us and NM Rothschild Bank has brought us more than 1 billion euros in profits. They already hope to withdraw this agreement..."

After Barron arrived in Paris, Ashley Weber met Barron in the Duke's Suite of the Devonshire Hotel and introduced him to investments in France.

The bet against NM Rothschild Bank in France was carried out through William Weber Capital Investment Company.

The predecessor of William Weber Capital was Weber Capital Advisers, a company known as Elite Boutique.

Generally speaking, the business of so-called boutique investment banks is more focused on narrow financial services, namely "mergers and acquisitions" and "restructuring", and less on capital market activities. For example, when Barron acquired Hermès, it was done through Weber Consulting Company...

After completing the acquisition of Hermès, Barron injected capital into Weber Capital Consulting Company through overseas trusts and multiple layers of offshore companies, renamed it William Weber Capital Investment Company, and held more than 80% of the company's shares.

The rest of the shares are in the hands of Erich Weber's family and its partners.

Speaking of which, Barron's choice of Erich's Weber family as his investment partner in France was not a casual decision.

Although the strength of the previous Weber Capital Consulting Company was not strong, Erich Weber was still very capable - this can be seen from her ability to lead the acquisition of Hermès.

You must know that in the previous life, even a strong group like LVMH Group also failed in the acquisition of Hermès.

And Eilisi Weber's connections in France are not simple. Her grandfather was once a French minister, and her father's family is also quite powerful in the French financial world.

So through William Weber Capital, it entered into a high-value bet agreement with NM Rothschild Bank under LCF Rothschild Group on subprime loan bonds.

By the way, the reason why it is named William Weber Capital is because the first person in the Cavendish family to be named Duke of Devonshire was named William Cavendish.

In fact, LCF Rothschild Group has investments in many fields, including some banks, companies and wineries in France, in which they have holdings.

NM Rothschild Bank is mainly an investment bank, which can be understood as a larger boutique bank. Its main business includes mergers and acquisitions consulting and helping customers with investment and financial management.

The main customers of NM Rothschild Bank are from Europe, and North America is their main investment market.

Therefore, it is natural that NM Rothschild Bank also deeply involved in the business of American subprime mortgage bonds. When William Weber Capital made a bet with them, NM Rothschild Bank, which had a large number of subprime mortgage bonds (to be precise, purchased for their clients), gladly accepted the bet.

In their view, this is an additional opportunity to make money.

But obviously, this is not the case. In these bets, so far, NM Rothschild Bank has lost at least more than 1 billion euros to William Weber Capital!

Barron, as a person, also has many shortcomings, one of which is that he is very vengeful.

He still remembers the collusion between Benjamin Rothschild and Colin Hall against him.

Although the Hall family has paid part of the price, Benjamin Rothschild, or the Rothschild family, still needs to settle the cause and effect...

Even if the Rothschild family is not as exaggerated as described in those street literature, such as controlling the Federal Reserve and even controlling global finance...

But at least in Europe, they are also a family that can be ranked, so Barron will certainly not act rashly, but if there is a chance, he will not be stingy to teach them a little lesson.

Well, it is indeed a "little lesson". After all, the assets managed by the entire LCF Rothschild Group exceed 80 billion euros, and the loss of more than 1 billion euros does not account for a high proportion.

"What do you think, Ashley?"

Barron asked with interest.

"Now NM Rothschild Bank would rather settle this matter privately. After all, such a loss, especially at this moment, will have an impact on their reputation..." Ashley Weber said: "And the Rothschilds are not stupid. On the contrary, they are very smart. Once they come to their senses, they will quickly realize that if this bet continues, it will only cause greater losses. It's like a deep wound. If you ignore it, it will only continue to bleed. The wisest thing to do is to bandage it and stop the bleeding immediately."

"Your Highness, after your reminder, I found that many banks in France are also involved in the subprime mortgage bond business. Their performance will definitely be affected. Therefore, I think that after obtaining the funds from NM Rothschild Bank, we can short these banks and continue to increase profits."

In fact, William Weber Capital is just a tool used by Barron in France to "bet" with NM Rothschild Bank. The funds for these bets also came from him. Therefore, although Ashley Weber was not sure at first, she had no objection to it and still carried out it.

Now that the bet is successful, she can see the opportunity to short the relevant banks later, which also reflects her own ability.

Indeed, French banks were also affected by the subprime mortgage crisis, but the disclosure of their losses was relatively late.

After the outbreak of the subprime mortgage crisis, the French government and the financial community have always claimed that the French banking industry has not been greatly affected.

However, the semi-annual financial reports released by major French banks in the second half of 2008 began to expose their actual losses to the public.

At that time, the four major French commercial banks suffered a total loss of nearly 17 billion euros due to the subprime mortgage crisis (in fact, it would be more).

Among them, the most serious loss was the total asset write-down of Credit Agricole, which was as high as 5.5 billion euros, the loss of Societe Generale was 4.9 billion euros, the loss of Natixis was 3.9 billion euros, and the loss of BNP Paribas was 2.3 billion euros.

However, the stock prices of these banks had already entered a downward channel earlier with the impact of the subprime mortgage crisis.

In the year from now, the market value of BNP Paribas will shrink by more than 37%, the market value of Societe Generale will decrease by nearly 50%, the market value of Credit Agricole will decrease by nearly 60%, and the market value of Natixis will drop by more than 60%.

During the same period, the Paris CAC40 stock index only fell by about 22%.

Therefore, it is indeed a good return to start shorting these banks now.