legendary trader

Chapter 804 Chapter 805 Dilemma
"Jeffrey, what's your opinion?"

Kenneth finally asked the question. After all, this person is more familiar with the situation of the company than he, the big boss. Maybe only he can find a solution.

Jeffrey sighed, "Actually, I'm not surprised that the Knicks Fund made a move on us. Don't look at them claiming to be the world's largest short-short fund company. In fact, that's the case. As long as our company has enough funds, even if they sell to the market Selling tens of billions of stocks, I am confident that next time, I will force them to death.

But now the company's funds are very tight, and it is already facing the risk of breaking the capital chain. I am considering whether to liquidate some companies to reduce our financial pressure. In fact, our business is still profitable, although not as much as announced to the public , just because the financing cost is too high, the financial pressure is very high now. "

"Once we start to clean up, it will inevitably be exposed, which is not advisable."

As soon as Kosai heard Jeffrey's words, he immediately became anxious. Doing so would easily expose everything. Kosai now represents not only Enron, but also a large number of people involved with him, his friends, Andersen, etc. the interests of those in it.

Of course Kesai knew about Enron’s problems. In fact, no matter whether it was a company registered in the United States or those offshore companies, he managed them all by himself. The economic connection between these companies and Enron was an important part of his fictitious income and profits. Huan, it is also because of the existence of these companies that he can manipulate the company's stock price so that their investment can make a steady profit.

"No, at least not now, we must repel the Knicks fund and talk about it later."

Kenneth also decisively rejected Jeffrey's words, jokingly, his stocks have not been fully cashed out yet.

As the chairman of the board, he certainly knows how much the company is hiding. Although the company's main business is still profitable, after getting involved in those derivative transactions, the profits are indeed very rich at first, but as more resources are invested, gradually He found that profits began to decline, and in order to maintain the company's stock price, he chose to continue to let them do it.

At this point, even if he already knew that there was a huge risk, he had to continue to force them to proceed, at least until he sold all the company's stocks.

Inflating income and profits, he knew from the beginning, but he just pretended that he didn't know anything.

"Jeffrey, the meeting with the Department of Energy next month, can we ask for their help?"

At this moment, Kenneth suddenly asked.

Enron has always been willing to participate in Peanutton's political game. In the recent US presidential election, Enron provided Bush with 200 million yuan in campaign funds, and many people in the new government hold Enron's stock , I believe they do not want Enron to have financial problems.

Through the meeting with the Ministry of Energy, he not only has to strive for loose policy and tax incentives, but now he very much hopes to get a sum of money from the government. Now the only way to reverse the market's skepticism towards Enron is to continue to pay dividends to shareholders.

What is more convincing than real money, no matter how the Knicks Fund advertises to the outside world, as long as the dividends are in place, everything will be self-defeating.

"Let me try."

The new government wants to revise some of the previous energy policies, so it has been decided a long time ago that the new energy minister will meet with major energy giants, which is actually a reference for the new energy policy.

Jeffrey Skilling is also not sure whether he can get industry support funds from the government. Although he has a good relationship with Bush, he not only actively supported the platform and provided political donations in the previous presidential campaign, he even joined the campaign team Help develop campaign strategy.

"Ke Sai, you have to pay attention to it. It needs to be more rigorous, and there must be no mistakes. Some things should be destroyed, and they should be destroyed. Don't keep them."

Kenneth said to Kosai that he is the chief financial officer, or the chief financial officer (CFO), and he is in control of the company's most shady things.

Kosai nodded, showing that he knew what to do.

"I went back and accepted some interviews. According to the current development trend, my stock should have risen to more than 130 yuan. To encourage investors, they should do it if they want to be short. By the way, ask the securities trading department to work with the legal department. Keep an eye on their operations, and report to the regulatory authorities immediately if there is any violation.”

Kenneth said to Jeffrey.

After Jeffrey and Kosai left the office, Kenneth took out a cigar from the drawer, cut off the end of the cigarette with small professional scissors, lit the special lighter, lightly toasted the cigar to heat it up, and finally put the cigar together I lit the middle part of the cigar on the flame and gradually expanded to the outside, then waved it lightly, put it in my mouth very chicly and took a deep breath, then spit it out suddenly, feeling the vanilla smell in my mouth.

After slightly closing his eyes and enjoying it for a while, Kenneth realized that he should go out for some activities. Standing in front of the office window with a cigar, he looked at the Houston city outside the window.
On March 3, reporter Bethany McLean wrote an article titled "Is Enron's Stock Price Overvalued" and appeared in the current issue of "Fortune" magazine, which almost instantly aroused the attention of major Wall Street investment banks and major international banks. nervous.

Enron is one of the world's top 500 companies. It ranked 2000th in the Fortune Global 500 in 16. It is the largest natural gas purchaser and seller in the United States and a leading energy wholesale market maker.

According to the company's disclosure of a turnover of US$2000 billion in 1010, the company has been selected as "the most innovative company in the United States" by Fortune Magazine for six consecutive years.

However, this same newspaper, facing the same company, published an article full of doubts, which completely overturned all previous honors.

"Fortune" is a magazine founded by American Henry Luce in 1930. It mainly publishes research articles on economic issues. It has a history of 70 years. With the changes of the times, "Fortune" magazine is now a subsidiary of Time Warner Group company.

Since the "Fortune" magazine launched the list of the world's top 1954 in 500, it has always been the focus of attention of the economic circle and has a huge impact.

Since its inception, although there have been reports of being slapped in the face of the magazine, overall, whether it is the various rankings they launched or the research articles on it, the reliability is still very high.

It is such a reputable magazine. Now that such a report is published, people who see it can't help but feel vigilant. Either the magazine is lying, or there is something wrong with Enron.

Everyone is a company with a good reputation. Enron has established itself in the eyes of investors by relying on its good financial reports and dividends year after year. Influential media collide with each other, who is telling the truth?

That's what everyone is focusing on right now.

At this time, Enron was dumbfounded. They really didn't expect that "Fortune" magazine would be stabbed in the back by them.

"They must have some evidence in their hands, otherwise they would not publish such an article casually." The company's CEO Jeffrey said bitterly.

Still in Kenneth's office, Enron's core team gathered together again to discuss the follow-up developments.

Just a few days ago, the chairman of the company, Kenneth Lay, swore in front of the media that Enron would continue to grow, that the company's profits would continue to increase, and that it would bring more returns to shareholders, but he was slapped in the face in the blink of an eye. .

"What I'm concerned about now is when did they notice us and just awarded us the "Most Innovative Company in America"? Is this all for this article? They deliberately numb us.

Also, what should we do next?Jeffrey, you say. "

Kenneth asked, before Enron made great strides in the Fortune Global 500 list, it really made Kenneth pretend to be a force in the upper class, but in a blink of an eye he was beaten by this magazine again. Into the abyss.

He had just come out of the urgent press conference held by the company, and was so entangled by a group of reporters that he kept asking sharp and harsh questions, and he almost couldn't handle it, which made him unable to vent his anger.

But after all, he came here after experiencing strong winds and waves. After coming out of the press conference to the office, he calmed down in just ten minutes and began to look for a solution.

These media people must be appeased, otherwise the company may really be in trouble.

Now what he thinks is not looking for reasons to sell stocks to cash out, but how to get through this hurdle safely.

"I will find my friends and communicate with them when I come down, Time Warner's subsidiary company, I think I will have a way to find out what they know."

At this moment, Jeffrey has lost his former calmness and ability, and has been frowning. In the past two weeks, all kinds of troubles have gathered.

"As long as you have money, you can do anything."

Ke Sai on the side suddenly interjected.

"Make the quarterly report more beautiful, increase dividends, and use real performance to dispel investors' concerns."

Kenneth said suddenly.

"Chairman, I think I should prepare two sets of statements now, one is the statement after obtaining financing, and in case I don't get financial support, then I plan to deal with the first quarterly report, take a bath for the finance, and strive to be in the second quarterly report come up with brilliant results.”

After thinking about it, Ke Sai said, in fact, he had already considered these things before. The quarterly report does not need to be audited by Andersen, so there is more room for manipulation.

Under the premise of ensuring that the company's normal revenue continues to grow, re-evaluate some assets and make a small loss, so that the dividends can be reduced or not distributed in the first quarter, because the company's cash is really tight to the extreme.

The company's revenue is fairly normal, but the company's expenses are too high, not only the expenses shown on the income statement, but also the cost of capital generated by a large number of hidden liabilities, which requires very complicated transactions. To digest, this is a lot of money, and it needs to be incurred every month. They have been eroding the company's meager cash.

Although Kenneth felt that it was not safe to do so, he also knew the company's current predicament. Only by solving the financial problem, everything could be easily solved.

"How are the talks with the banks?"

Kenneth asked suddenly.

"I will fight again. Under the current environment, I think it is difficult for us to obtain new financial support."

Jeffrey replied that after the presidential campaign ended in the last two months, he has been running around financing the company, hoping to seek more loans from major international banks such as Citigroup, Morgan, and even Deutsche, including Hua Guo Bank. Hehuaguo China Merchants Bank and the three major banks in the island country.

The previous negotiations went very smoothly. I thought that this crisis could be passed smoothly, and I would get out of the trauma-ridden ship of Enron as soon as possible.

But now the media reports have almost wiped out his previous efforts. Jeffrey feels that it is definitely not the time to continue talking about the loan, otherwise he will only get a frustrating answer. It is better to deal with it for a while and then contact them again. Resume previous negotiations.

But when Kenneth asked, of course he would not speak out what was in his heart, but perfunctory.

"Try your best, Ke Sai, just do as you said, prepare with both hands."

Kenneth was not an idiot, and he could roughly guess what Jeffrey was thinking from his tone and demeanor, but it was useless to say anything at this time.

"Maybe we can try it in the negotiations with the Ministry of Energy next week to see if we can get government support funds."

Kesai is of course aware of the current situation, but he still speaks out. In his opinion, the only possible financing channel for the company now is the support from the government.

"The stocks of those people have not been sold."

Kenneth asked suddenly.

Of course Jeffrey and Kosai knew who he was talking about and shook their heads.

Indeed, Enron does not belong to any large consortium in the United States. Its equity is relatively scattered, and they are all small and medium-sized investors. There are only a handful of companies with a market value of more than one billion yuan. Compared with companies with a market value of tens of billions , which is hard to imagine.

But even so, Kenneth can still firmly control the company, and I have to say that he is still very good at it.

Enron not only provided a large amount of campaign funding to candidates at all levels of elections in the United States, but in the past decade or so, at least 71 senators and 187 congressmen have received political assistance from Enron.

And many politicians who have been active in the US political arena for a long time also hold more or less shares in Enron, especially many big figures in the core of the US government in this term, and their shares in Enron are hundreds of thousands. The price ranges from one meter to tens of millions of dollars, and even some senior military generals hold a large number of stocks in the company.

In addition, there are many departing officials who hold various consultant titles in the company and receive high salaries. Now is the time to get their rewards.

"When meeting with the Ministry of Energy, the Vice President should be there, tell him the truth in private, and let them figure out a way." Kenneth suddenly said to Jeffrey at the end of the conversation.

(End of this chapter)