Hollywood Hunter

Brisbane on the east coast of Australia.

The time is July 27th. The summer season in Hollywood continues, and MGM CEO Shirley Lansing has to fly here.

Because Christopher Scars, chairman of MGM's Australian parent company Qintex Group, suddenly fled.

Things still need to start with the Japanese stock market bubble.

As we all know, Australia is a highly dependent economy. Throughout the 1980s, the Australian economy grew rapidly due to Japan’s demand for minerals and farm tablets.As the Japanese stock market bubble burst at the end of last year, Australia was also dragged down, and the economy began to slump after entering 1990.

The Qintex Group relied heavily on debt to expand rapidly during the booming Australian economy in the 1980s.

If the Australian economy continues to grow strongly, it may still be able to barely support it. When the economic situation turns sharp, bank credit tightens, and investors begin to become conservative, Qintex Group quickly becomes unsustainable.

After completing the acquisition of 70% of MGM’s equity last year, Qintex Group’s overall debt still reached US$1.7 billion after this period of asset reorganization. This does not count MGM’s own liabilities that have exceeded US$800 million compared to last year. .

Perhaps it is difficult to maintain the Qintex Group for too long. Since the end of last year, Christopher Scars has continuously drawn blood from this company through various channels and then transferred funds to overseas accounts.

In a recent financial review, the Qintex Group Board of Directors discovered that an abnormal $13.5 million in "management fee" expenditure was illegally transferred to an overseas company. After careful investigation, it was discovered that this was a shell company registered by Christopher Scars. .

After urgent consultation with the shareholders and creditors, the Qintex Group Board of Directors finally chose to call the police.

Christopher Scars was arrested and put in jail one night, and after bail was released from prison the next day, he fled to Spain without any mess.

With the absconding of Christopher Scars, the Qintex Group immediately turned into a mess on the verge of collapse.Shareholders and creditors do not even have the energy to pursue Christopher Scars. How to maintain the collapse of the Qintex Group Department is the most important.

In its heyday, Qintex Group involved many industries such as media, movies, resorts and jewelry retailing.However, tossing up to now, the two most valuable assets of this company at this time are only the seventh Australian television network and the MGM company in the United States. Other industries have basically been sold.

The seventh television network has performed fairly well in recent years. However, although it is a nationwide television network, the Australian television network is naturally impossible to compare with North America, and the valuation at this time is only 800 million US dollars.The price of 70% of MGM's equity was $1 billion at the time of the acquisition last year. If you choose to sell at this time, $1 billion should not be a problem.

Coupled with some other piecemeal assets, the overall valuation of assets under the name of Qintex Group is actually able to pay off debts.

However, if bankruptcy liquidation is carried out, these assets will definitely depreciate.

Moreover, involving billions of dollars in assets, including these various complex bond relationships, if you want to directly liquidate, it will definitely be impossible to complete in the short term. Qintex Group can only maintain it as much as possible, step by step Asset reorganization so that the losses of shareholders and creditors can be minimized.

Qintex Group headquarters in Brisbane.

When she saw Simon, Shirley Lansing was still at a loss in her thoughts.

Originally hearing the news, Shirley Lansing also felt that the position of the MGM CEO who had just sat down for a long time would soon be lost.

Now, since this young man is willing to intervene, he was also the one who introduced him to MGM, so unless MGM changes ownership, she should not be swept away in the short term.Except for her,

It's just, I don't know if Westero is going to take over MGM.

Thinking of some recent rumors in Hollywood, Shirley Lansing looked a little vaguely.

Amy Pascal's annual salary this year may exceed 100 million US dollars, which is something most Hollywood executives dare not even dream about.

As a woman who can climb to the top of the Hollywood pyramid step by step, Shelly Lansing naturally has her own ambitions and revenge.She also believes that if Westeros can take over MGM, the company can immediately get rid of the mud.

The meeting about Qintex Group’s asset contribution and management adjustment after Christopher Scars left lasted for a whole day, and Shirley Lansing was also a senior member of the Qintex system, so she participated all the way. She also knew that Simon was attending this meeting The purpose is not related to MGM, but for the seventh television network held by Qintex Group.

To be precise, the Johnston family hopes to be able to buy the seventh television network.

After operating in the capital market for the past two years, the Johnston family also held a large amount of cash.

According to Raymond Johnston, it must be the first to use the funds to expand the family’s mining and transportation business.Simon also knows that there will be large-scale integration of Australian mining resources in the following nineties, and eventually world-class oligarchs such as BHP Billiton will emerge.

In such a large-scale industrial integration, the overall market value of the Johnston family control is only about 5 billion US dollars, and it is difficult to affect the overall situation.Unless they can quickly be born into a behemoth, otherwise, in the face of the billion-dollar industry oligarchs such as BHP, small and medium-sized mining companies are either merged or crushed, and it is very difficult to be independent.

The current BHP and BHP Billiton are still two companies, and the market value is not as terrible as later. If some means are used and the funds are sufficient, the Johnston family is not impossible to swallow the elephant, but Simon does not understand this aspect. The opinion he can give for the time being is to accumulate his own strength through diversified development.

Moreover, the media has always been a shortcoming of the Johnston family. At this time, it is a waste to have Simon's resources throughout Hollywood, and not to develop business in this area.

Australia, like North America, has many restrictions on overseas capital investment in its domestic media industry, but again, these restrictions will gradually be relaxed in the 1990s.

Simon's long-term plan is that after the Australian media industry is open to overseas investors, the Johnston family has also achieved good results in this regard.

Then, in North America, the Internet industry and the media industry can also provide Simon with a large amount of cash. At that time, Simon can buy out the peripheral business of the Johnston family at one time, and provide sufficient funds for the Johnston family. Acquire an industrial giant such as BHP or Must Expand and continue to expand.

Relatively speaking, the Johnston family directly invested the funds in the mining field. Because the entire 1990s Japanese economic recession triggered a decrease in the demand for mining resources, it was impossible to obtain too high a return on this money.

In order to help the Johnston family to accumulate more capital, it is not just the media. During this period, Simon is still discussing with the old man to get involved in Australia's telecommunications and network industry.

Australia's telecommunications industry has been a national monopoly before, and has recently been discussing opening up.Moreover, in terms of mobile communications and the Internet, the Westero system can provide sufficient technical support for this side. If these industries can be listed in North America in the next few years, capitalizing on the east wind of the new technology wave, the large sum of money is still It's a breeze.

It can be said that Simon is not just buying land in Tasmania. Simon is indeed planning to operate Australia as his own overseas base.

If the most important plan in Simon’s concept is realized, Johnston Holdings will eventually be able to develop into a behemoth such as BHP Billiton, plus the layout of other industries, then, by then, the Australian economy will basically be in the Simon and Johnston family. Under control.

Of course, these things cannot happen overnight.

In the next ten years, it will be very rare to be able to complete the preliminary layout.

However, what Simon lacks most is time.

If it is possible to control a country for ten or twenty years and realize the economic status of the Samsung Group to South Korea, it is totally worthwhile.

After a day of discussion, Qintex Group shareholders and creditors finally reached an agreement with the Johnston family to sell the seventh television network $700 million in cash to Johnston Holdings Group.At the same time, as a potential exchange, in Hollywood, Daenerys Entertainment will come up with two of the original 10 movie plans to collaborate with MGM to help MGM restore vitality.

Until night fell, the various conference discussions that lasted for a whole day finally ended.

Shirley Lansing finally stepped forward to stop Simon when everyone left the meeting room and said, "Simon, do you have a meal together at night?"

Simon nodded, thought about it, and said to Veronica Johnston who was with him in the negotiation today: "Go together."

Veronica froze for a moment and nodded gently, huh.

Introduced during the day, Shirley Lansing knew that the cold-looking woman was Janet Johnston’s young aunt, but Shirley Lansing clearly felt that, due to the woman’s innate instinct, There was clearly something different between Westeros and this woman.

However, this thought flashed occasionally in her mind, and Shirley Lansing stopped thinking deeply.

After all, this is someone else's business.

Too much thought, to anger the young man, is totally outweighing her.

Feel free to choose a good restaurant near the headquarters of the Qintex Group. The three of them sat down and ordered a meal. Simon first asked, "How is the copyright issue of 007 handled?"

"Still talking, I plan to buy the ghost party copyright from Kevin McCrory to completely resolve the dispute. McCrory's asking price of $5 million is really a bit high. In terms of script, according to your original reminder , The company has completed the first draft of "Golden Eye", I happened to bring it over, Simon, do you want to see it?"

"I will return directly to Melbourne in a moment. After you go back, people will send the script to Malibu," Simon nodded and said, "In addition, the actor also needs to be changed. Timothy Dalton is really not suitable for the role of 007. You can contact Pierce Brosnan to see if he is interested."

Shirley Lansing remembered Pierce Brosnan, who entered Hollywood in the first half of the year with "Wind Moon Beauty", and thought about it: "Brucenan should not easily play this role."

If Brosnan is only a second- and third-line actor, of course he will be interested in 007.

However, since they are already in the front line, few stars will be willing to lock themselves in the shackles of 007. Although 007 will bring a lot of fame, once the actors participate, it is often difficult for the actors to transform.For many generations of 007 for so many years, only Sean Connery’s career has developed quite well, which is entirely due to the full support of CAA.

Simon also quickly wanted to understand this truth, saying: "You can contact him and you can't change other people. The most important thing is to sign a few more film appointments."

Shirley Lansing nodded and said, after thinking about it, still couldn't hold back and asked: "Simon, why don't you just buy MGM?"

Simon seemed to anticipate Shirley Lansing's doubts, but didn't answer, but just turned the subject to the cooperation of the two films.

If there is no planned MCA acquisition plan, Simon will definitely buy MGM without hesitation, or, even if he takes over a part of the shares from the Qintex Group, he believes that Qintex will also be extremely happy.

However, MGM is broken again, after all, it is also one of the seven major.

In the early 1990s, the anti-monopoly regulation of the media industry in the United States was still very strict.

Daenerys Entertainment is now strong enough. If you take control of MGM again, the MCA acquisition will definitely encounter an antitrust investigation, and Simon does not want to lose a lot because of small.

After dinner, Shirley Lansing was sent to the hotel. Simon and Veronica rushed to the airport together. It only took more than an hour to fly from Brisbane to Melbourne. There was no foothold here, Simon planned to return overnight .

Veronica will still be here tomorrow, but Simon returns to Melbourne and she silently follows Simon back to Melbourne.

The Boeing 767 landed at Melbourne Airport and the two rushed to the mansion together. It was only nine o'clock here.

Anthony Johnston is also here tonight. Simon has just arrived at home, and Anthony stepped forward and handed him the information he had just received.

In recent days, the situation in the Middle East has been looming, but many people still firmly believe that Iraq will eventually not use force against Kuwait.

However, after reading the information in his hand, the last trace of worry in Simon's mind disappeared.

According to the information in the information in hand, this afternoon, Saddam met with the US ambassador to Baghdad local time this afternoon. The content of the discussion between the two was not made public, but the information obtained by Simon clearly showed the meeting. Content.

The US ambassador to Baghdad promised Saddam that Washington would not interfere in Iraq’s military operations in the Middle East.

According to the later events in Simon’s memory, he was very clear that such a promise was simply farting, and the purpose of the Bush administration was simply to drag Iraq into the war again.

However, Saddam clearly believed.

Now that the big picture is set, Simon flew back to North America quietly the next day.

The last few days of July passed away quietly.

So until August 2, explosive news quickly spread throughout the world.

In the early hours of August 2 local time, the Iraqi Republican Guard suddenly crossed the border of Iko, crushing and decaying to Kuwait City.

This war, where countless people conspired to plot their interests, finally broke out.