Chapter 659: The Sharpening Stone

George Berkeley frowned and thought for a while before preparing his speech. He then said, 'Boss, the company no longer has any shares in its hands, including those we acquired in advance and those we obtained through the VAM. The vast majority of them were sold before the market plummeted.'

'Originally, there was a small amount left for emergencies, but I saw the current public opinion situation and believed that Sotheby's and Eskenazi Limited would not be able to turn things around, so I sold the emergency stocks as well.'

'Right now, the stock market is full of sell orders for the stocks of these two companies, and there are basically no buyers. The downward trend in the stock prices of the two companies is still quite obvious, so I haven't started repurchasing stocks.'

After George Berkeley said all this, Xia Yu summed up in his mind that Bright Fund now did not have any stocks of the two companies in its hands!

Xia Yu didn't say anything. After all, given the current situation, George Berkeley's choice was understandable. After all, everything was done to make money for him.

But Xia Yu's ultimate goal was not to make a small profit from short selling!

Now that the stock prices of the two companies have passed the initial period of sharp decline, and the impact of the negative news he manipulated has played out for the most part, even if the stock prices of the two companies will continue to fall in the future, they will not fall very far.

According to Xia Yu's estimate, as long as the two companies don't have any more bad luck in the middle, the stock price will only fall within 20% of the current level at most, or even within 15%.

With the amount of shares Bright Fund holds, the most they can earn is just a little over 10 million pounds, which is too little!

Moreover, the stock price will no longer plummet, but will gradually fall over a long period of time until the negative impact wears off, and then it will start to rebound again.

The decline is bound to take some time, and he doesn't have the luxury of waiting around.

No one dares to buy stocks at this point, and sell orders are everywhere. On the contrary, this is the best time for him to implement his plan.

Thinking about this, Xia Yu's face became serious, and he commanded George Berkeley, 'George, forget about the profits from short selling. Stop short selling immediately and immediately buy the stocks of the two companies.'

'In addition, while the stock prices of the two companies are still falling, find those institutions that have entered into a bet with you and use the end of the bet as leverage to acquire their holdings.'

'As for other institutions that have not entered into a bet with you, also send them an offer to buy. I believe that at this time, these institutions will definitely be willing to sell.'

'At the same time, send some people to contact individual major shareholders other than the controlling shareholders to acquire their holdings.'

'These steps should be carried out simultaneously and quickly to prevent the controlling shareholders from fighting back!'

Xia Yu's previous move dealt a heavy blow to Sotheby's and Eskenazi Ltd. Judging from the current situation, the two companies have been swept along by public opinion, and major newspapers have also set their sights on them. In the short term, the stock prices of these two companies will not be able to climb back up.

The stock prices of the two companies will continue to fall. Now Xia Yu is asking George Berkeley to take the initiative to terminate the bet with the institutions involved in the bet. In fact, he is pardoning them. After all, as long as the stock price continues to fall, the greater the losses of those institutions involved in the bet.

Now that they have sold their shares to Guangming Fund, they can stop the losses in time.

As for whether anyone firmly believes that these two companies will rise again?

Don't be ridiculous. Even if some institutions had confidence in these two companies before, after this blow, their confidence will be seriously damaged.

So instead of continuing to lose money and being stuck with the funds, it is better to withdraw in time and use the next few months to find new investment projects with the money, which may even earn back the losses from the bet or even more.

It is precisely for this reason that Xia Yu also asked George Berkeley to buy the shares from those institutions that were previously unwilling to participate in the bet.

After all, these institutions' unwillingness to enter into a VAM is itself a sign of their lack of confidence in the two companies and their fear that the share prices of the two companies will fall.

And now that it has actually happened, the longer they hold the shares, the more money they lose.

Perhaps some institutions have already put up sell orders.

As for the private major shareholders, seeing the current situation, I'm sure some of them will definitely want to get out.

George Berkeley immediately understood after Xia Yu had made it so clear, and he nodded in response, 'Yes, boss, I'll get right on it!'

'Go, make a plan, make sure to buy more shares, I'll be waiting for your good news!'

Xia Yu looked at George Berkeley with anticipation and said encouragingly.

The latter didn't say much, his eyes full of determination, and then immediately exited the office to begin implementing the plan.

After sitting on the sofa for a while, Xia Yu closed his eyes and pondered, finding that there was nothing left out. He then got up and left with Li Xi.

As for the acquisition of the two companies' shares?

He believed he had made himself clear enough, and with George Berkeley's abilities, he would not let him down!

After leaving the headquarters of Guangming Fund, Xia Yu went to Jiuding Bank to personally guide the construction of the investment department.

Yesterday was 15 August, which happened to be the day of the Huajin meeting.

In July, Xia Yu was not present and had asked George Berkeley to attend on his behalf, but this month he was here, so naturally he attended in person. After all, he was at least the second highest-ranking deputy manager, and it would not have been good for him to be in London and not attend the meeting.

Yesterday's meeting lasted from morning until 5 o'clock in the afternoon.

The main focus of the meeting was to announce the overall situation and problems of the Chinese Business Consortium, and then everyone brainstormed solutions and reached mutual cooperation.

It can be said that although the Chinese Business Consortium has only been established for two months, the benefits of the consortium have already begun to appear. The major companies that make up the consortium have developed very rapidly with the support of the consortium.

And the one that has developed the fastest is the Chinese Business Bank. After all, in the past two months, all major companies have transferred their capital flows to the Chinese Business Bank.

This has suddenly caused the liquidity of the Chinese Merchant Bank to skyrocket by more than a few times.

However, with so much capital, a problem has also arisen, and that is how to use this money to generate more money.

Although the existing investment department of the Chinese Merchant Bank is quite capable, it is relatively mediocre compared to those well-known major investment banks and banks.

In particular, this liquid capital can only be used for short-term operations, and short-term operations are the most testing of the overall analytical and operational capabilities of the investment department. Obviously, the investment department of the Chinese Merchant Bank is currently not very adaptable.

Therefore, although Huashang Bank has developed rapidly, it has also revealed some problems. If these problems are not solved, they will cause Huashang Bank to develop abnormally, and it may eventually be impossible to turn things around.

Wu Hongyi is also very anxious to find solutions to these problems. He has also tried many methods, but none have worked well.

Fortunately, Xia Yu has come along at just the right time. Wu Hongyi is like a man grasping at straws, and he has directly and half-forcefully pushed the problem onto Xia Yu, hoping that Xia Yu, the stock god, can find a solution.

At that time, Xia Yu was at a loss for words when he saw Wu Hongyi acting like a scoundrel.

However, these difficult problems that caused headaches for Wu Hongyi and the others were completely trivial to Xia Yu.

After all, he himself owned 22% of the shares of Huashang Bank and was the second largest shareholder, and he also had an obligation to contribute to the development of the bank.

Therefore, Xia Yu took over directly, selected employees he considered capable to restructure the investment department, then issued a recruitment announcement, and then began to speculate in foreign exchange.

Speculating in foreign exchange can really test one's willpower and abilities. After all, it involves high leverage, and a small fluctuation can cause the capital to fluctuate greatly, and if one is not careful, one may lose all one's capital.

However, although the risk is extremely high, as Xia Yu is personally in control, there is no major problem.

He could not stay in London for long, so he had to train the investment team in the shortest possible time, and speculating in foreign exchange was just the best way to hone their skills!