"The bet agreement between us and NM Rothschild Bank has brought us more than 1 billion euros in profits, and they are already hoping to withdraw this agreement..."
After Barron arrived in Paris, Ashley Weber met Barron in the Duke's Suite of the Devonshire Hotel and introduced him to investments in France.
The bet against NM Rothschild Bank in France was carried out through William Weber Capital Investment Company.
The predecessor of William Weber Capital was Weber Capital Advisors, a company known as Elite Boutique.
Generally speaking, the business of so-called boutique investment banks is more focused on narrow financial services, namely "mergers and acquisitions" and "restructuring", and less on capital market activities, such as when Barron acquired Hermès before, it was carried out through Weber Advisors...
After completing the acquisition of Hermès, Barron injected capital into Weber Capital Advisors through overseas trusts and multiple layers of offshore companies, renamed it William Weber Capital Investment Company, and held more than 80% of the company's shares.
The rest of the shares are in the hands of the family to which Erich Weber belongs and its partners.
Speaking of which, Barron's choice of the Weber family to which Erich belongs as his investment partner in France was not a casual decision.
Although the strength of the previous Weber Capital Advisory Company was not strong, Erich Weber was still very capable - this can be seen from her ability to lead the acquisition of Hermes.
You must know that in the previous life, even a strong group like LVMH Group also failed in the acquisition of Hermes.
And Erich Weber's connections in France are not simple. Her grandfather was once a minister in France, and her father's family was also quite powerful in the French financial world.
So through William Weber Capital, a high-value bet agreement was made with NM Rothschild Bank under the LCF Rothschild Group on subprime loan bonds.
By the way, the reason why it was named William Weber Capital was because the first person in the Cavendish family to be named Duke of Devonshire was called William Cavendish.
In fact, LCF Rothschild Group has investments in many fields, including some banks, companies and wineries in France, all of which have their holdings.
NM Rothschild Bank is mainly an investment bank, which can be understood as a larger boutique bank. Its main business includes mergers and acquisitions consulting and helping customers with investment and financial management.
NM Rothschild Bank's main customers are from Europe, and North America is their main investment market.
Therefore, it is natural that NM Rothschild Bank is also deeply involved in the business of American subprime mortgage bonds. When William Weber Capital made a bet with them, NM Rothschild Bank, which had a large number of subprime mortgage bonds (to be precise, purchased for their customers), gladly took the bet.
In their view, this is an additional opportunity to make money.
But obviously, this is not the case. In these betting agreements, so far, NM Rothschild Bank has lost at least more than 1 billion euros to William Weber Capital!
Barron, as a person, also has many shortcomings, one of which is that he is very vindictive.
He still remembers the collusion between Benjamin Rothschild and Colin Hall against him.
Although the Hall family has paid a part of the price, Benjamin Rothschild, or the Rothschild family, still needs to settle the cause and effect...
Even if the Rothschild family is not as exaggerated as described in those street stall literature, such as controlling the Federal Reserve and even controlling global finance... But at least in Europe, they are also a family that can be ranked high, so Barron will certainly not act rashly, but if there is a chance, he will not be stingy to teach them a little lesson.
Well, it is indeed a "little lesson". After all, the assets managed by the entire LCF Rothschild Group exceed 80 billion euros, and the loss of 1 billion euros does not account for a large proportion.
"What do you think, Ashley?"
Barron asked with interest.
"Now NM Rothschild Bank prefers to solve this matter privately. After all, such a loss, especially at the moment, will affect their reputation..."
Ashley Weber said:
"And the Rothschilds are not stupid. On the contrary, they are very smart. Once they come to their senses, they will quickly think that if this bet agreement continues, it will only cause greater losses. It is like a deep wound. If it is ignored, it will only continue to bleed. The wisest thing to do is to bandage and stop the bleeding immediately."
"Your Highness, after your reminder, I found that many banks in France are also involved in the subprime loan bond business. Their performance will definitely be affected. Therefore, I think that after getting the funds from NM Rothschild Bank, these banks can be shorted and profits can continue to increase."
In fact, William Weber Capital is just a tool used by Barron in France to "bet" with NM Rothschild Bank. The funds for these bets were all from him. Therefore, although Ashley Weber was not sure at first, she had no objection to it and still executed it.
Now that the bet is successful, she can see the opportunity to short the relevant banks later, which also reflects her own ability.
Indeed, French banks were also affected by the subprime mortgage crisis, but the disclosure of their losses was relatively late.
After the outbreak of the subprime mortgage crisis, the French government and the financial community have been claiming that the French banking industry was not greatly affected.
However, the major French banks did not begin to expose their actual losses to the public until the semi-annual financial reports released in the second half of 2008.
At that time, the four major French commercial banks suffered a total loss of nearly 17 billion euros (in fact, it would be more) due to the subprime mortgage crisis.
Among them, the total asset write-down of Credit Agricole, which suffered the most losses, was as high as 5.5 billion euros, the loss of Societe Generale was 4.9 billion euros, the loss of Natixis Bank was 3.9 billion euros, and the loss of BNP Paribas was less, reaching 2.3 billion euros.
However, the share prices of these banks had already entered a downward channel earlier due to the impact of the subprime mortgage crisis.
In the year from now, the market value of BNP Paribas will shrink by more than 37%, the market value of Societe Generale will decrease by nearly 50%, the market value of Credit Agricole will decrease by nearly 60%, and the market value of Natixis will drop by more than 60%. During
the same period, the Paris CAC40 stock index only fell by about 22%.
Therefore, it is indeed possible to make good profits by shorting these banks now.