Chapter 241: Chapter 241 Public Investment Fund
"So 30 million pounds, is that enough?"
Hearing Barron's calm words, Phillips and Mark were both shocked. They looked at each other, and finally Mark spoke up:
"Your Highness, are you going to invest 30 million pounds in our company?"
"Yes, we will invest according to the Naxicap Fund's valuation of you, which is 22.4 million pounds."
"This is... a bit too much."
According to their team's plan, they would be able to get 10 million pounds, which is equivalent to more than 14.5 million euros, which would be enough. 30 million pounds... after this huge investment, they would not have many shares left.
"For the current board game market, the most important thing is to become a giant in the fastest time. In this way, you can spend money to buy all the teams with potential and creativity..."
Barron said calmly,
"And I also believe in your team's management capabilities. I am only making a financial investment. As long as you don't make any mistakes, Asmodee will still be managed by you. Maybe the next time Asmodee needs to raise funds, it will be through an IPO."
Mark and Phillips also admitted that Barron's words did make sense, and they valued the control of the company more... If this aspect can be guaranteed, then with so much funding, they are fully confident that Asmodee will become the world's largest board game company in the next two years. Thinking of such a prospect...
Finally, after discussions, the Asmodee team accepted Barron's proposal and they would accept DS Capital's investment of £30 million at a valuation of £22.4 million for Asmodee.
In this way, after completing this financing, DS Capital's investment of 30 million pounds will obtain 57.25% of Asmodee's shares, plus their previous 40% shares, which were diluted to 17.1% after this financing. In this way, DS Capital holds a total of 74.35% of Asmodee's shares.
Asmodee's founding team, including Mark and Phillips, reduced their stake in the company to 25.65%.
But as Baron said, he had no interest in running Asmodee, and Mark and his team had done a good job in their previous life, developing Asmodee into one of the largest tabletop game companies in the world.
Therefore, he is willing to invest in Asmodee. On the one hand, it is to promote "Werewolf" and maximize the value of this IP; on the other hand, it is really a financial investment.
When, like in his previous life, there is a company willing to acquire Asmodee for more than 3 billion euros, or when Asmodee goes public and its market value goes up, it will be time for him to cash in on his investment.
…
"Your Highness, do you have any idea of listing O2 Telecom again? After all, according to our investigation, when you acquired this telecommunications company, you took on high-interest debts of up to 5 billion pounds."
When the day came for Barron to invite these Saudi princes, the three Saudi princes, including Walid, whom he had met last time at the Duke of Westminster's house, all visited Barron's villa in Kensington.
In addition to these three princes, there was another guest - a senior executive of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF).
Barron then realized that the backgrounds of these three princes were not simple. In addition to Walid, the "stock god of the Middle East", and Mohammed bin Salman, the future Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, there is another prince named Faisal bin Raziz. His father is currently the Minister of Investment of Saudi Arabia, responsible for managing Saudi sovereign funds, including the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which was established relatively early.
The senior executive of Saudi Public Investment Fund named Falih bin Jubair who came here today has come to England to prepare for investment.
The Saudi Public Investment Fund was established in the 1970s and was initially funded mainly by Saudi Aramco. Therefore, the president of Aramco often also serves as the head of the Saudi Public Investment Fund.
To date, the total size of the Saudi Public Investment Fund has exceeded US$25 billion, and it has many investment projects overseas.
This time, when Falih bin Jubair asked the question, it was clear that they were interested in O2 Telecom.
"Mr. Falih, although the number of O2 Telecom users has increased by more than 100% compared to when I acquired the company at the beginning of the year, we are still upgrading our mobile communications and broadband network equipment, especially in the newly opened markets of France and Germany. Although the number of users is increasing rapidly, the investment is also huge. Therefore, from the performance point of view, it is not conducive to an IPO..."
Alia Bindi Hussein, Barron's personal assistant and an Arab, also attended the cocktail party held at Barron's home.
When she was first introduced to these Saudis, they were also amazed at the beauty of Barron's female assistant and praised her highly.
This was also the first time Alia saw Barron talking about his business with others. Seeing him talking so eloquently, she couldn't help but keep her eyes on him.
Barron continued:
"But you can rest assured that when O2 Telecom's equipment upgrade is completed next year and its financial situation looks better, it will be ready for listing."
"In fact, after investigating the British market, we at PIF are very optimistic about your O2 Telecom and also have investment ideas..."
Hearing what Falih bin Jubair said, Baron's heart moved and he said:
"If we invest in O2 Telecom now, I'm afraid it will be difficult for us to reach an agreement on the valuation of this company. Although O2 Telecom is not a start-up, after I bought the company, I formulated a super expansion plan for it. Although I only spent 5.5 billion pounds when I acquired the company at the beginning of this year, based on the current turnover and number of users, the company's valuation is at most 10 billion pounds..."
While Barron was saying these words, he had been observing everyone's expressions imperceptibly, especially Falih Jubeir, who was in charge of the Saudi Public Investment Fund's investment in the UK. Judging from his reaction, his valuation of O2 Telecom should be not much different from the price of 10 billion pounds.
He smiled and continued,
"But to be honest, I think O2 Telecom is now worth more than 15 billion pounds, and when it goes public, its market value will exceed 20 billion pounds!"
"I'm afraid that's a bit too high, Your Highness."
"That's why I said it's hard for us to reach an agreement at the moment, but that's not a problem. We can use another approach..."
After hearing what Barron said, Falih became interested:
"How?"
"O2 Telecom can first issue corporate bonds to you, with an annual interest rate of about 3.5%, slightly higher than the interest rate of bank loans. Then, at the end of next year or in early 2005, when O2 Telecom goes public, you can choose to convert these corporate bonds into common shares at the issue price of O2 Telecom's shares..."
After hearing Barron's proposal, although they cannot invest in O2 Telecom immediately, sovereign funds such as the Saudi Public Investment Fund do not focus too much on returns like venture capital, but prefer safer investments - after all, the scale of these funds is often hundreds of billions of dollars, and investments of this scale cannot carry too much risk.
Therefore, the approach proposed by Barron is safer. Although the annual interest rate of 3.5% is not high, it can at least be regarded as an early entry. At that time, the situation of O2 Telecom's IPO can be observed to decide whether to convert debt into equity. Otherwise, even if you want to participate in the IPO of O2 Telecom, you may not be able to get enough shares.
"I will report to the CEO and give you a reply as soon as possible, Your Highness."
"Looking forward to your response, Mr. Falih."
Barron didn't really think that this meeting could decide on such an investment, so he spoke very frankly.
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