Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 232 Final Decision

The degree of internationalization of the Taiwan stock market is far lower than that of the United States and Japan.

Apart from players from the province, only compatriots from Hong Kong and Chinese in Southeast Asia participate.

Masato Takeshita was worried that information leaks would affect the security of his own funds.

Therefore, only a few managers are aware of the company's investment in the Taiwan stock market.

Goldman Sachs failed to win over the middle and senior management of Xinghai Investment, so naturally it lacked a lot of information about Xinghai Investment, including information about the Taiwan stock market.

Paulson also knew that he didn't know much about Xinghai Investment, so he made preparations early on and directly excluded the more secretive Xinghai Group's own funds.

"After the stock market crash in 87, Xinghai Investment's six private equity funds were completely formed for its clients."

"The company gradually fell into obscurity until the recent liquidation of Japanese stocks, when it reappeared in everyone's attention."

"Because this incident had a bad impact, only a few small newspapers and a few foreign news outlets with limited influence chose to report it."

The scale of Xinghai Investment was too large, so the subsequent liquidation operation was not concealed, which attracted discussions from many financial institutions.

However, due to Xinghai Investment's closed strategy, the financial company cannot fully confirm it.

It was not until recently when Xinghai Investment lifted the lockdown on its employees that everyone was able to truly confirm the source of this funding.

Immediately afterwards, the entire financial system was in uproar.

A few timid financial institutions, or those that had made enough money, also hastily evacuated.

But more people still don’t believe that they will be the final buyer, so they buy it generously.

As for the media, everyone unanimously forgot about this news.

Newspapers also pursue sales, so in this era of booming stock markets, no one wants to upset stockholders.

In addition, in recent years, the financial sector has invested countless advertising fees in newspapers in order to attract newcomers.

Once any major media outlet chooses to expose this news that will affect the Japanese stock market, it will easily cause a backlash in the entire financial sector.

Masato Takeshita's influence cannot be matched by a few professors.

No major media outlet dares to report the relevant news and risk offending its numerous financial backers.

"Well, then what?"

Thomas pinched his chin and motioned for Paulson to continue.

"Although there are few reports on the market, it is inferred based on the information we have."

"After Xinghai Investment completes the liquidation, the capital scale of the first three funds established is likely to be close to one trillion yuan."

"The three funds established after the stock market crash are even larger in scale and are likely to grow to 1.5 trillion yuan."

Although Paulson did not have complete information, his judgment this time was much more accurate.

The total amount of funds of the six funds is indeed only around 7.5 trillion.

As the amount of funds increases, Xinghai Investment can no longer easily make several times the profit as it did in the past.

The fact that the six hedge funds can maintain an annual growth rate of more than 50% is the result of Masato Takeshita's full efforts.

There is no way, there are only a limited number of good companies.

Even if he wants to buy the stocks of these companies, it depends on whether others give him the opportunity.

For example, many pension funds basically choose to hold high-quality shares for a long time.

People don't care about the short-term increase in stock price.

Of course, if the premium is very large, these pension funds will find it difficult to resist.

But Xinghai Investment is thinking about making money, not acquiring a company, so it naturally cannot make a large premium acquisition.

Unless the company has an extremely bright future and its market value increases exponentially in the future.

Unfortunately, there is probably no such company in Japan today.

And even if it exists, Masato Takeshita is not very clear about it.

Since the 90s, the center of the stock market has shifted back to the United States, so young people don’t know much about the situation of the Japanese stock market.

Even if he wanted to invest at a premium, he didn't know which stock to choose.

Unlike the United States, many companies remain famous in the 21st century.

For example, emerging companies like Microsoft, Intel, and Walmart...

Old giants Coca-Cola, Pepsi, McDonald's...

Even if he chooses with his eyes closed and buys at several times the premium, he can easily make it back in the future, it’s just a matter of how much.

"Is it so strong?"

John Weinberg couldn't remain calm at this time and opened his mouth in surprise.

This is a growth rate of more than 2% based on more than 50 yen. No other fund in the world can achieve this.

"Yes, I checked it dozens of times before I believed the result."

Paulson still finds it hard to believe it, but numbers don't lie, and the result is indeed true.

"What an exaggeration."

"Yes."

“The Japanese stock market is crazy.”

Duncan, Madison and others also gasped, envious of the exaggerated growth of the Japanese stock market and the boldness of Xinghai Investment.

At the same time, I was unconsciously looking forward to the cooperation with Xinghai Investment.

This is the biggest purpose of Paulson's detailed explanation of Xinghai Investment today.

Raise everyone's greed and reduce obstacles to cooperation.

"This is just Japanese stocks. Does the other party know about the situation of US stocks?"

Thomas was very calm and spoke out the most crucial content.

"Of course, this is what I want to focus on today."

"Xinghai Investment's roots are in Japan, but its investment in the United States has never been neglected."

"This time, Xinghai Investment focuses on emerging enterprises."

"Walmart, Intel, Microsoft, Cisco, Dell, Price... are all Xinghai's investment targets."

“Although the scale is relatively small, the growth of the selected companies is very good.”

Many partners at Goldman Sachs became even more excited when they saw that these companies were growing rapidly at a compound growth rate of at least 30%.

Xinghai Investment’s vision is so accurate.

"Should we invest as well?"

Following the choices of smart people is the only way to make money.

"I can do either, depending on what everyone needs."

Paulson also thought he could follow suit, but quickly changed the subject.

“However, I think the scale of investment should not be too large and the investment should be diversified.”

Thinking of the various methods used by Xinghai Investment, Thomas couldn't help but nodded.

"That makes sense, then we will invest a maximum of 4.99%."

Both U.S. and Japanese stocks have similar regulations.

That is, if the shares do not exceed 5% of the company's total share capital, they may not be disclosed in the market.

Therefore, if you want to hide yourself better, the stocks you buy can only be as close to 5% as possible, but can never reach 5%.

Goldman Sachs partners were naturally very interested in making money, and they began to discuss which companies they could buy.

Soon, Walmart stood out from these companies.

Because Walmart has already completed its layout in the retail industry, there is basically no possibility of failure; it is just a matter of how much profit it can make.

As for companies such as Microsoft, Cisco, and Intel, further observation is needed.

Although Microsoft has an advantage in the operating system field, it faces huge pressure from the IBM Group in front and companies like Apple are eyeing it from behind.

The company's business is not that stable.

You never know when we will fall into recession.

Cisco's situation is much better, but its internal management is in chaos.

Goldman Sachs will only invest after the top management has put things right.

Intel's situation is somewhat similar to Microsoft's. In terms of microprocessors, it not only has to face competition from Motorola, Texas Instruments, and AMD.

What’s even more terrible is that some Japanese companies are also ready to make a move.

Yes, in the eyes of Goldman Sachs.

Japan's semiconductor giants are far more terrifying than American companies.

Because the US DRAM industry was defeated head-on by Japanese companies.

Intel, once the king in this field, had no choice but to cut off this part of the business and had no choice but to bet on the microprocessor, that is, the CPU industry.

Once Japanese semiconductor companies decide to enter the microprocessor market, Intel may not be able to withstand this offensive.

It can only be said that no one could have imagined that the Japanese semiconductor giants that were in their heyday in the 80s would actually decline in the 90s.

South Korea suffered a disastrous defeat in the memory chip industry and later completely withdrew from this field.

The flash memory chip industry is slightly better thanks to the identity of its inventor, and there is still a little spark left.

But now, this part of the business has become part of Xinghai Investment.

Even if Toshiba's flash memory chip industry continues to rise, it will be difficult to reach the heights of its previous life.

After determining the investment target, the Goldman Sachs team brought the topic back on track.

Soon, the establishment of a joint venture fund was voted through.

However, there was another dispute over the investment amount.

The aggressive ones want to maximize the credit limit, while the conservative ones want to increase it depending on the situation.

This was $80 billion in the late 10s, and it was also a very large sum for Goldman Sachs.

"Just $5 million."

CEO John supported a $10 billion investment, but ultimately chose a conservative number considering the balance of the company.

The money is indeed a little less, but the key is safety.

Goldman Sachs has been holding intensive meetings for a week, and Masato Takeshita has been busy too.

He needs to supervise several managers of the company and dispose of the Taiwanese stocks.

This involves his own and the company's employees' hard-earned money, which must be taken seriously.

"How is it, is it easy to handle?"

Kamoto Takashi, who was operating the computer, responded without turning his head, "It's relatively simple. The daily trading volume there is hundreds of billions of yen, and our funds can be easily concealed."

"That's good, evacuate early, and then I'll give you all a long vacation."

On the other side, Kikuno Shinji, who was also busy, turned his head and interrupted, "Oh, really?"

"Of course, but you two can only take turns."

"Everyone has half a month's vacation, and they can decide who comes first and who comes later."

Masato Takeshita has a lot of things to do and cannot always supervise Xinghai Investment.

So the company must keep someone as the top manager responsible for stock trading.

"I'll go behind you. Kikuno-san has been working harder than me during this period."

"Well, thanks."

Shinji Kikuno knew Takamasa Yomoto and knew that he was very persistent on these matters, so he did not refuse.

The exit from the Taiwan stock market was also smooth.

In just 5 days, more than billion US dollars worth of stocks were sold out.

"President, can I take a week off first, and then another week when Kikuno-san comes back?"

Masato Takeshita raised his eyebrows and said, "Why open them? Don't you want to have consecutive holidays?"

"No need. I don't like traveling abroad."

Kamoto Takashi is a conservative person and just wants to spend more time with his family.

As for traveling, let’s wait until the summer vacation.

At that time, the children didn’t have to go to school and the family could go out and play.

"OK, no problem."

This is actually beneficial to Xinghai Investment.

After disposing of the Taiwan stocks, the company is temporarily fine.

It would be better to leave Takamasa Yoshimoto alone to just work on the financial statements and take a vacation with him.

Xinghai Investment can take a holiday, but Masato Takeshita will not be able to rest in the short term.

He needs to find more information to find suitable targets for the company's next investment.

"IBM, this is not possible. This company will go into decline next."

"AT&T is not good either. The government is watching it too closely."

If you had to pick two unlucky companies in the 1980s and 1990s, they would be ATT and IBM.

Both companies have been targeted by US antitrust regulators.

ATT was brutally split up, and the company's strength is less than one-fifth of its peak period.

But even so, the company still has many limitations.

In later generations, it was even so tragic that it was acquired by the company it spun off from.

IBM is slightly better, but not much.

If Apple is the beginning of personal computers, then IBM-compatible computers are the glorious beginning of personal computers.

As a result, neither company gained much from the personal computer industry.

IBM, in particular, was on the verge of bankruptcy in the early 90s due to various government restrictions.

Naturally, these two unlucky guys cannot invest.

“GE, this is a good one.”

"Welch is an operational genius, and GE is growing very fast."

Under Welch's management, General Electric's profits hit new highs and later grew into the world's largest company by market value.

Well worth the investment.

At the same time, this company was also the mastermind behind the Alstom case in later years.

But by then Welch had already retired and GE was gradually declining.

"Motorola and Texas Instruments cannot be spared either."

"They are very much like the Japanese semiconductor giants of the 80s. Their growth may not be as fast as that of companies like Microsoft and Intel, but they should not be underestimated."

After identifying all the targets, the amount of funds to be invested by Xinghai was also planned in detail.

But even so, there is still more than $150 billion in funds that have nowhere to go.

"Well, Hong Kong Island should be able to accommodate US$50 billion."

"The Korean stock market is a little smaller, so $20 billion should be about the same."

"For the rest, let's look at Europe first. If Europe doesn't work, just buy all the U.S. stock indexes."

Soon, Masato Takeshita selected his first target in Europe.

It was Nokia, the king of the 2G mobile phone field, which was later eliminated by the times.

However, Nokia at that time was far from being as glorious as it would be in the future.

It is even far shorter than the period of time when China completely withdrew from the mobile phone field and transformed into the communications business market in the mobile Internet era.

“It’s really tragic.”

When Masato Takeshita looked at the information he bought, he had no idea that Nokia had such a tragic history.

How miserable is it?
The company's CEO actually chose to end his own life by hanging himself.

Nokia now seems beyond redemption.

There are both internal and external factors involved.

The internal reason is that Nokia's expansion was too fast and the amount of funds could not keep up.

The external factors were the dramatic changes in Eastern Europe and various problems in the Soviet Union.

(End of this chapter)