Chapter 1497: The Will of the Top

'Peter, have you calculated how much capital we need at the very least?'

'Or rather, how much capital we need to reduce the risk, given our family's current shareholdings in the various companies?'

André Wallenberg thought for a moment before asking the key question on everyone's mind.

'That's a difficult question to answer!'

Peter Wallenberg frowned.

But he also realised that a more intuitive figure for the capital requirement was needed, otherwise it would affect the strategic decision-making.

After pondering for a long time, he suddenly had an idea.

'Wait a minute,'

he said, and suddenly got up to find something.

He returned shortly afterwards, holding a notebook in his hands.

Then he took out a piece of paper and started writing.

André Wallenberg, sitting next to him, watched quietly.

ABB, current shareholding 31.34%, share price SEK 47.856 per share...

AstraZeneca, current shareholding 29.71%, share price SEK 134.658 per share...

Ericsson, current shareholding 32.69%, share price...

Atlas Copco, current shareholding 24.39%...

Electrolux, current shareholding 28.28%...

Volvo Group, current shareholding 26.97%...

Saab Defence, current shareholding 35.19%...

Stora Enso, current shareholding 34.21%...

...

Ten minutes passed

and the sheets of paper were covered in dense data and information.

After writing all this down,

Peter Wallenberg once again estimated the capital requirements based on the shareholdings.

At this point,

having only estimated the capital requirements of a dozen listed companies, his face was a terrible sight, and he stopped writing without further calculation.

'Everyone take a look!'

He said, passing the information around.

Everyone looked at each other in silence after reading it.

Even if they hadn't finished calculating everything, they could estimate the general situation based on the shareholdings, the latest stock prices, and the expected future stock price positions.

If they wanted to keep all of these fifty-odd companies,

No!

Even if they wanted to keep the core companies and the medium-sized and large companies, and even if they only wanted to increase their shareholding to 50%, the capital requirement would be conservatively in the hundreds of billions of Swedish kronor.

This amount of capital was too large.

Without asset financing, the Wallenberg family had no choice but to borrow from others.

But in the current situation in Europe, it was impossible to borrow money, let alone a huge amount of money, even if there was collateral, and it could not be borrowed in a short period of time.

Of the current 20 billion Swedish kronor in liquid cash, more than 8 billion has already been spent, leaving just over 15 billion.

Even if an additional 29 billion Swedish kronor is raised within half a month,

the total will only be just over 40 billion Swedish kronor.

That's less than half of the amount needed!

"Obviously, there's no need to hesitate. Let's give up on the acquisition of National Westminster Bank and withdraw as much capital as possible.'

'We have three options.'

'One is to fight to the death with the Bright Consortium, and sell our holdings to the Rothschild family or other hostile forces of the Bright Consortium, and let them continue to fight.'

'Two is to use this as a bargaining chip to ask the Bright Consortium for peace, and ask its ally Kirin Capital to withdraw from Sweden.'

'Three is to sell the shares to other forces, whoever offers the highest price, and then we will repel Kirin Capital.'

These three options are in front of us, but it is difficult to decide...

In fact.

The time left for the Warburg family to choose was not much.

Because within the UK, after three days, the acquisition of the National Westminster Bank had become a matter of national concern.

It had to be said.

The media empire that Xia Yu had spent so much effort and capital building was absolutely unrivalled.

The Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mirror, the Daily Record, and other major national newspapers were all advocating that the merger of the Royal Bank of Scotland and the National Westminster Bank was a good thing.

The British print media controlled by Xia Yu alone accounted for 52% of the circulation of national newspapers and 31% of the circulation of local newspapers in the UK.

His own strength alone exceeded half, and when combined with other media outlets, some of which were either controlled by allies or took a supportive stance, his influence was even greater.

As for television and radio stations, after several years of accumulation, the Bright Consortium was also in a dominant position.

When the two were combined,

public opinion simply could not turn the tide!

The trend of public opinion was completely moving in a direction that the Rothschild family did not want to see.

Therefore, the key is still how the British government makes its decision.

Therefore,

in the situation where Xia Yu was not in a position to step forward and George Berkeley was also not in a position to step forward,

Xia Yu asked his father-in-law, Carter Howard, who was also an ally of the Bright Foundation on the surface, to step forward.

On Friday night,

after Margaret Thatcher returned home from work in Downing Street, two Rolls-Royce cars pulled into her driveway.

Then the bodyguards opened the car doors and the Duke of Cater Howard got out.

'Good evening, Lady Margaret!'

'Duke of Norfolk, welcome. Come inside.'

'...'

The two elderly men shook hands and exchanged pleasantries, then they walked together into the house, followed by the bodyguards carrying some gifts.

Once inside, they met Margaret Thatcher's husband and children, exchanged greetings, and presented small gifts.

Then, to facilitate their discussions, the two of them went straight upstairs to the study.

'Lady Margaret, the general election for the House of Commons will be held in June, and there are now less than four months to go. Is the Conservative Party ready?'

Duke Carter-Howard asked with a smile, after Margaret Thatcher's husband had served them both coffee.

Margaret Thatcher spread her hands a little helplessly: 'I want to say that we are ready, but our opponents are closing in on us. No one knows for sure until the end.'

'You know, the Labour Party under Neil Kinnock has adjusted its direction and is slowly moving towards a more centrist policy platform, but the direction is still the main progressive route of the centre-left, with many supporters.'

'And the Social Democrats' David Irving and the Liberal Party's David Steel are both iron-fisted leaders. Although their strength is relatively weak, they are both tacitly intending to form a coalition and run for the cabinet together.'

'We Conservatives face so many challenges!'

Carter Howard nodded and replied, 'Indeed, the Conservative Party has been in power for almost two terms, and the public's sense of freshness has passed. There is indeed more uncertainty.'

'However, I think that you, Lady Margaret, have many friends. As long as everyone continues to support the Conservative Party, I think the probability of the Conservative Party winning the third general election will not be low.'

'Furthermore, the Conservative Party's campaign focuses on lowering taxes, a strong economy and defence policy. This year's unemployment rate has dropped below 30,000 for the first time since 1981, while the inflation rate is around 4%, the lowest level in nearly 20 years.'

'As long as the public can see the feasibility of your policies and the support you have received from various important industries, I think they will know how to cast their votes.'

Margaret Thatcher's eyes twinkled as she smiled, 'Duke Carter, which industries' support do you think is more important, and how should they support?'

Carter Howard replied with a smile, 'If the economy is to develop, it must rely on the high turnover and flow of capital, so the financial industry is of paramount importance.'

'And within the financial industry, the banking industry is the core and most fundamental part.'

'I can intervene to get HSBC, Standard Chartered, Barclays, Lloyds, RBS, the Chinese Mercantile Bank and NatWest to announce a reduction in lending rates to support the government's economic construction plan.'

The first six of the seven major British national banks mentioned by Carter Howard either belong to the Bright Consortium or are in the same camp as the Bright Consortium.

The only one that is not is NatWest!

Carter Howard has no say in this matter at all, but he said it here anyway, and the meaning is self-evident.

As long as the National Westminster Bank is taken over, then all seven banks can provide strong support for the Conservative Party!

Margaret Thatcher took a sip of coffee and looked at Carter Howard with a slight wry smile, saying, 'Sir Carter, you've given me a difficult problem.'

Carter Howard immediately laughed, 'This is not a difficult problem. The British banking industry also needs strong government support to go global and absorb nutrients from all over the world to build Britain.'

Margaret Thatcher pondered for a long time and nodded: 'Britain does need stronger banks to compete with banking giants from various countries...'

Carter Howard's face suddenly lit up with a smile.