hollywood melon man

Chapter 723 Big move

Young Gilbert understood Larry Fink's general meaning.

To put it bluntly, he is unwilling to be a pawn and wants to jump on the horse and become the master himself.

Since both of them have their own goals, there is a basis for cooperation. So the two sides temporarily formed an alliance and planned to cooperate sincerely in the next crisis.

The signs of the financial crisis appeared as early as 2007, and a few years earlier, it can be said that it was a chain reaction caused by the real estate market.

Because of low interest rates, real estate investment and house purchases have increased significantly in the past few years, which has led to a surge in housing prices and promoted the development of the subprime mortgage market.

However, many financial institutions ignored the high risks of the subprime mortgage market and accelerated its prosperity.

Prior to 2006-2007, the subprime mortgage market began to have problems. Due to loan defaults and a sharp decline in the real estate market, the value of subprime mortgages began to decline, causing a turmoil in the financial markets.

Many financial institutions found themselves holding large amounts of nonperforming loans and collateralized debt securities and faced huge losses.

In September, Gilbert Jr. was in charge of the business in New York. Although he didn't know much about financial business, as the boss and main planner, he had to be in charge.

On September 9, in order to save the market, Washington announced that some real estate companies would be regulated by FHFA.

But this did not restore market confidence. The Nasdaq index continued to fall and many stocks began to plummet.

People began to appear on the rooftops of Wall Street. Although there were not many yet, one could already foresee the day when it would be so crowded that people would jump off.

September 9th was the turning point of this financial crisis. Lehman Brothers, the fourth largest investment bank in North America, declared bankruptcy, triggering a violent shock in the global financial market.

According to the plan made in advance, Fruit Fund and Larry Fink's private equity fund began to act. Although Lehman Brothers Bank held a large amount of bad debts, it also had a lot of high-quality assets.

As the financial markets were wailing, the two funds quietly acquired most of Lehman Brothers' high-quality assets.

Even though things were done secretly, it doesn't mean that no one found out.

But at this time, everyone was too busy to take care of it, not to mention that it was not just one company that took advantage of these high-quality assets. Many companies took advantage of them, but they just couldn't hold on and vomited them out.

On September 9, AIG, the largest insurance company in North America, suffered huge losses and Washington announced that it would take over. After that, several companies found Black Rock and Black Rock took over AIG.

This was another opportunity for Fruit Fund and Larry Fink to take advantage of the situation. Many assets were secretly transferred and split 50-50.

On September 9, Washington announced a $19 billion financial stability fund aimed at purchasing banks' non-performing assets and providing financial support.

Similarly, these operations are also carried out through Black Rock Corporation.

This was a good opportunity, so the Fruit Fund and Larry Fink used the money given by Washington to acquire a large amount of high-quality assets from many banks.

The bank went bankrupt and all the high-quality assets were taken over by others.

During this process, Gilbert Jr. also achieved his goal and took control of a bank.

What’s even more rare is that this bank is a major shareholder of a company called Geode Investment Management, holding 22.74% of the shares.

Geode Investment Management holds a 2.25% stake in Raytheon Technologies.

Although Raytheon Technologies is not as famous as Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, it is also a world-class defense and weapons manufacturer.

Products include missile defense systems, radar systems, space and airborne systems, etc.

Its radar technology and missile technology represent the highest level in the world today, and the radars it produces are equipped with most of its military aircraft, such as the AN/APG77 radar.

The engines manufactured by its subsidiary Pratt & Whitney are world-leading, and the Patriot missiles are also very popular in the international market.

If Gilbert Jr. went directly to buy the shares of such an important defense company, it would probably cause a backlash. They were not fools, and going up to buy them in such a high-profile manner was simply an act of attracting hatred.

On the contrary, it would be a very good choice to take advantage of this opportunity to indirectly acquire investment institutions or banks that hold shares in defense companies.

Geode Investment Management also suffered heavy losses in this financial crisis, so Gilbert Jr. took control of the bank he had just acquired and directly controlled Geode Investment Management.

Then it remotely controlled Geode Investment Management to seek shares in Raytheon Technologies.

Although Raytheon Technologies is a defense company, it is also a listed company. It was also affected by the financial crisis this time, and many of the company's shareholding institutions are eager to save themselves.

So this became the most turbulent time for Raytheon Technologies and the time when stock trading was most frequent.

Before Washington could react, Geode Investment Management Company had acquired a considerable amount of shares.

If people pay close attention, they will find that Geode Investment Management Company has a lot more funds inexplicably. Obviously, Geode Investment Management Company also suffered heavy losses in this crisis.

The methods used by little Gilbert were not sophisticated, and there was not even any strict confidentiality.

As long as someone calms down and carefully analyzes and observes, they will find that Fruit Fund has been acquiring high-quality assets everywhere during this financial crisis.

He waved his money and became a shareholder of many listed companies.

But as mentioned before, this is a chaotic period and everyone is busy with their own affairs. If someone can calmly observe the movement of the Fruit Fund, it means that this person is also a person with ulterior motives.

With this acquisition, Geode Investment Management surpassed Morgan Stanley and Dodge & Cox to become the sixth largest shareholder of Raytheon Technologies, holding a 4.23% stake.

On October 10, the National Bank of Iceland, one of Iceland's three largest banks, went bankrupt.

At this time, the Fruit Fund, which had already harvested Wall Street, turned to overseas and began to take over the assets of overseas financial institutions. Scarlett's Candy Island did not need to be bought, and an island country in the central Pacific went bankrupt.

Several of these islands were controlled by the Fruit Fund and became little Gilbert's private islands.

In addition, there are some hard assets such as minerals and oil fields, many of which fell into the hands of Gilbert Jr.

In North America, a large number of farmers went bankrupt due to the financial crisis. Gilbert Jr. bought these lands at extremely low prices and became the second largest private land owner in North America.

The first is Bill Gates. Mr. Gates has an inexplicable obsession with land and has been involved in land for many years.

As banks and financial institutions around the world continued to go bankrupt, Gilbert Jr. extended his tentacles wherever they went and made a fortune.

And he is not the only one, there are many who do the same thing as him.

Crisis is crisis. The reason why it is a crisis is that while there is danger, there are also a lot of opportunities.

Little Gilbert is not afraid of overeating himself now, but he will have a very hard time in the next few years and needs to increase his blood volume.

What is certain is that many of the high-quality assets acquired today will be lost in the future.

But there is no other way. These assets must protect Gilbert Jr.'s core assets. Once they are targeted, these assets can be thrown out to attract attention.

The impact of the financial crisis is long-lasting and will obviously not end in a few weeks or months.

After leading the big move at the Fruit Fund, Gilbert Jr. handed it over to Ivanka to continue the next move.

I returned to Los Angeles and went about my business as usual, as if nothing had happened.

(End of this chapter)