Chapter 262: Chapter 262
Evelyn, dressed in a black ladies' suit and carrying a handbag, emerged from the headquarters of ETA with her assistant. As soon as she came out, reporters, sensing blood, swarmed around.
"Evelyn, can you tell us why Charles is mortgaging Capet Entertainment?"
"Did Charles lose a lot of money in Las Vegas?"
Evelyn twitched her mouth as bodyguards blocked the reporters. Charles Capet lost money? Her son, a gambling addict?
"Everyone, Charles may be young, but he doesn't have these bad habits," Evelyn explained to defend her son.
"But, there's no news of any major acquisitions in Hollywood, and Capet Entertainment is known for having a strong cash flow."
"Why then does Charles need such a large amount of money? We've heard from Wall Street that Capet Fund has mortgaged not just Capet Entertainment's assets!"
"Sorry, no comment!" Evelyn had an indifferent expression as she got into her car, heading straight to the airport.
In Midtown Manhattan, New York, near Sixth Avenue and Times Square, within a high-rise office building.
In a large luxurious office, Charles stood by the window, admiring the Manhattan nightscape while talking on the phone with Donna Langley.
"Charles, don't worry. Although some people within the company are a bit uneasy, you haven't touched the company's internal cash flow. 300 is also about to be released, and Capet Pictures will continue to thrive," Donna Langley, regardless of what Charles was doing in New York, assured that Capet Pictures was still on the right track.
Charles chuckled, "Just half a month and it's already created such a stir. It seems quite a few people have their eyes on Capet Entertainment, huh!"
"You've got the strength to get noticed; it just shows how powerful Capet Pictures is," Donna Langley laughed over the phone.
"Let's stick to the plan we discussed. No one can take Capet Pictures away from me," Charles felt a rush of excitement as he looked at the brightly lit Manhattan nightscape.
After hanging up the phone, Charles just sat down at his desk when suddenly, the door opened, and Dona Williams came in with Evelyn.
"Mom, what are you doing here?" Charles got up, surprised since there was no mention of this during their morning call.
"Came over to check on you," Evelyn Capet looked at her son. He wore a perfectly tailored Italian handmade suit, standing tall and handsome with impeccable hair.
Behind him was the Manhattan nightscape, with the Empire State Building, Lehman Brothers' headquarters, Chrysler Building, Madison Square Garden, Times Tower, Macy's Herald Square, and in the distance, Rockefeller Center...
Evelyn Capet took a deep breath, "Can you tell Mom what you're up to?"
Charles hesitated but didn't say anything to refuse, after all, she was his mother.
"Dona, take a break," Charles asked Dona Williams to leave the office.
Evelyn stood next to her son by the floor-to-ceiling window, hoping to understand what Charles was thinking.
"As I mentioned before, the subprime mortgage crisis in the U.S. is about to trigger a real estate bubble. I'm raising funds to get in on it."
"But I heard you mortgaged most of the Capet Fund assets. The stock market is risky; you don't have to go in so big!" Evelyn Capet was worried.
"Do you see that?" Charles pointed to the building on the left, "The headquarters of Lehman Brothers, one of Wall Street's top five investment banks, founded in 1850, over 150 years old, acquired by American Express in 1984, and became independent in 1994.
And there's Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley, all these big investment banks have heavily invested in subprime mortgage securities, not to mention other international banks and funds.
Now, the entire U.S. real estate market has peaked. The Federal Reserve's interest rate hike is making it hard for homeowners to sustain.
Almost all American cities are increasing house promotions, and house prices are set to drop."
Charles then looked out to the right, towards the direction of the Empire State Building, with the Chrysler Building and other landmarks beyond.
"In a few months, due to the Fed's interest rate hike and the drop in house prices, there will be a massive amount of mortgage defaults in the U.S. Banks will find that the value of the houses won't cover the loans, resulting in a vast number of bad debts.
But look, stockbrokers and big institutions are still promoting real estate financial products in newspapers and media, selling CDS, transferring all the risk to investors.
What I'm doing now is investing all the funds to short real estate. This is a once-in-a-century opportunity, just like the tech bubble in the 2000s, but this economic downturn might be even more severe.
How can I let go of such an opportunity? How can I not be excited?" Charles said, clenching his fists, his eyes shining with ambition.
"Charles, you're already among the top in the U.S., and in a few years, Capet Entertainment will be a new Hollywood landmark," Evelyn Capet turned to look at her son. "Wall Street is different from Hollywood. You can really lose everything here!"
"Don't worry. Even if I lose everything this time, Capet Entertainment will still be under my control," Charles had absolute confidence. Once next year's Iron Man is released, Capet Entertainment's valuation would double immediately.
"Mom doesn't know what to say. Your success over these years has been dazzling, and seeing all kinds of speculations about you in Los Angeles worries me if you really lost money in Las Vegas!"
Evelyn looked at Charles, "After all, you've won more than 400 hundred million euros from betting on sports before."
Compared to Charles' playboy-ish ways, Evelyn didn't care much about those. Anyway, Charles is young, handsome, and a bigshot in the entertainment industry. But if Charles lost a large amount of money at the casino, that would be big news.
Charles twitched his eyes, "I clearly won over ten thousand dollars in Las Vegas! Don't you know your son? I despise gambling, drugs, and such."
Evelyn laughed, patting her son's shoulder, "Yes, you are Mom's biggest pride. You haven't touched any drugs in these years!"
Evelyn could hardly believe it; as a young mogul in Hollywood, Charles genuinely stayed away from drugs.
"This won't do. You should accept some media interviews in the next few days to reassure Capet Entertainment's employees," Evelyn Capet came to New York partly to help her son with public relations.
Charles nodded. These few days, he had been reaching out to various investment institutions and had indeed overlooked it!
No matter what, Charles' reputation was crucial.
*****
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