Chapter 385 Exchange
When Barron returned to London, it was already late March.
At this time, O2 Telecom had completed its tender offer for Czech Telecom.
In the previous tender offer vote, the proportion of those who agreed that O2 Telecom would complete the acquisition of Czech Telecom at a total price of US$6.95 billion exceeded 85%. Therefore, in accordance with relevant regulations, O2 Telecom can complete the acquisition of the remaining 49% of Czech Telecom shares with US$3.41 billion.
Prior to this, O2 Telecom had obtained a loan of 2 billion pounds from the Royal Bank of Scotland, using Czech Telecom's shares as collateral for this acquisition.
The current exchange rate of the pound to the US dollar is around 1.92, so the 2 billion pounds of funds is equivalent to 3.84 billion US dollars.
After completing the acquisition of the remaining shares of Czech Telecom, there will be more than US$400 million in funds to update Czech Telecom's equipment in the Czech Republic.
Of course, it can no longer be called Czech Telecom. After being acquired by O2 Telecom, Czech Telecom will be renamed O2 Telecom Czech Branch.
O2 Telecom has signed an agreement with Huawei. After completing the deployment of mobile communications and broadband networks in the current markets including Ireland, Britain, France and Germany, Huawei will be responsible for upgrading the Czech network.
The reason why the order was given to Huawei so readily was that at that time, Huawei had obtained permission from the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and completed the acquisition of Marconi.
This time, Huawei completed the acquisition of Marconi by issuing additional shares. After the completion of this acquisition, Rich23 Capital, which originally owned Marconi, will obtain 12% of Huawei's shares.
By acquiring Marconi, Huawei also gained access to the British and American markets - although Marconi's market share in these two markets is not high, it is better than Huawei starting from scratch, and with Marconi's brand, it will also be easier for them to develop in these markets.
Not to mention, after acquiring Marconi, Huawei obtained a series of technical patent licenses for communication equipment and technology.
Therefore, this acquisition can be said to be a win-win for both parties.
Moreover, through this acquisition, Huawei has also strengthened its cooperative relationship with O2 Telecom. If it is included in the priority supplier list of British Telecom's "21st Century Network Plan" and can obtain a large number of orders from it, Huawei's development in the UK can be said to be smooth, and it will also be able to use this opportunity to enter the market of continental Europe.
…
"So I don't have to worry about these stocks for now?"
"Yes, you can keep them for another two or three years. When I tell you to sell them, you can sell them."
The woman in front of Barron was Catherine... She was no longer Catherine Hall, but Catherine Neville again.
What they were talking about was Nvidia stock.
After Barron told her last time that she could use all the 50 million pounds she had to buy Nvidia shares, she entrusted Daisy to help her buy about 15 million shares of Nvidia stock, and now all of them have been purchased.
At this time, Catherine's belly was already bulging. Barron gently stroked her belly and said to her:
"Didn't I tell you before? Now your figure is becoming more and more obvious, and it will gradually become inconvenient for you to move around. You should go live in France after a while."
Catherine's beautiful eyebrows slightly frowned, and she looked at Barron with her beautiful eyes and said:
"It was too boring over there before, but next month, my father and Aunt Vanina will come here and accompany me to France..."
Since Catherine said so, Barron didn't mention it again.
Of course, at this moment, he naturally cannot easily use corporal punishment. He came here today because he learned that Catherine had returned to London from her estate in southern France before he returned to London, so he came here specially to see her.
Next, Barron will have to complete the finishing work on another offshore oil field in Kolo...
He went to meet a vice president of Vanguard Group who came to London and signed an agreement with him.
A fund under Vanguard Group will purchase Caesars Fund's 10% stake in British Oil and Gas Investment Company for US$600 million.
According to this acquisition price, the market value of British Oil and Gas Investment Company was set at 6 billion US dollars...
Considering that Caesars Fund bought the company for only 10 million pounds at the time, it can be said that Caesars Fund made a huge profit.
But you have to know that the current British Oil and Gas Investment Company owns 30% of the shares of Kolo Petroleum!
Just based on the No. 1 block of the Kolo offshore oil field that they are currently developing, the proven crude oil reserves are over 500 million tons...
Assuming that all of this oil is mined, it would be equivalent to about 3.5 billion barrels. Based on the current crude oil price of $50 per barrel, even with the relatively high cost of offshore oil extraction, the cost per barrel would be around $25...
With a simple calculation, the oil reserves in Block 1 are also worth $87.5 billion!
The 30% equity owned by British Oil and Gas Investment Company is also worth more than $20 billion after deducting Colo's 20% energy extraction tax...
Of course, it is often impossible to fully exploit the reserves of an oil field, and it often requires multiple rounds of exploitation, and in the end there will be many difficult-to-exploit parts left...
Simply put, in an oil field that has never been mined, the first round of mining is to directly extract the oil after drilling into the oil layer, relying on the internal forces of the stratum. For example, in some oil fields in the Middle East with relatively shallow oil layers, they may be able to directly spray out oil after drilling down a hundred meters...
When the power inside the stratum is exhausted, a second round is needed, usually by injecting gas or water into it to push the crude oil out...
In the third round of mining, more technological methods are needed, such as polymers, chemicals, or heat, microorganisms, etc. to extract crude oil from the oil layer...
Currently, the tertiary oil recovery method is often used, but in this process, some crude oil will definitely be lost.
In this case, the $6 billion valuation that Vanguard Group gave to British Oil and Gas Investment Company seems to be acceptable...
But you have to know that in addition to Block 1, there are more blocks that will be mined in the future. From this perspective, this investment is purely a "profit-sharing" for the Leading Group...
Of course, the Leading Group is very clear about this point. After all, in addition to this superficial "investment", through this kind of cooperation, American capital can also participate in the development of the Kolo offshore oil field, which adds another layer of protection for their offshore oil fields outside of Britain.
And in fact, it is possible that Barron, or Caesar Fund, is not really at a loss.
Because this time, Caesars Fund did not make the investment in the form of cash, but in exchange for the $600 million worth of stocks they held - it can also be understood that they used $600 million to purchase Caesars Fund's 10% stake in British Oil and Gas Investment Company, and Caesars Fund used the $600 million to purchase the stocks they held.
What stocks?
Vanguard Group itself is a major shareholder of Nvidia. They hold more than 20% of Nvidia's shares. This time they took out 12% of Nvidia's shares in exchange with Caesars Fund.
So now, Baron has controlled more than 24% of Nvidia's shares, of which Rich23 Capital and Caesar Fund each hold 12%...
If we consider the future growth of Nvidia's market value, it seems that Vanguard Group got a great deal in this transaction now, but this may not be the case in the future.