Chapter 2779 Outrageous

Although his personal wealth is still not comparable to Feng Yiping, as a person who has long been on the Forbes rich list, such a scene of being pointed at in public and asked "Do you have money? If you have money, pay it back, if you don't have money, stop talking nonsense" is already a very unfamiliar experience for Su Shiming.

For a moment, because he has accumulated a huge amount of personal wealth, Su Shiming, who has already regarded money as a number, actually has a long-lost sense of intimacy.

He narrowed his eyes, looked past the person opposite, through the opposite wall, and looked at the time long ago when he was short of money. It was great!

Because at that time, he was still so young.

Lord looked at Su Shiming's appearance, a little confused, or a little unbelievable, looking at his deputy. Is he thinking about something else?

Gary Cohen was also very surprised. If I remember correctly, the old man opposite was born in 1947 and is already sixty-one this year. Damn, he is not being scolded by us!

If this is true, it will be lively.

Is it possible? It's possible.

Although he always looks like a smiling good guy like his boss, Lord, the founder and helmsman of Blackstone is not a person with a calm temper.

Everyone in the industry knows that this short Wall Street tycoon likes big things, big deals, big parties, big houses... and big-breasted wives.

At the same time, he is also a shark-like character, always eager for war, and his life creed has only one word, that is, "win".

Such a madman, being so fiercely attacked and unable to refute, is really not without a sudden surge in blood pressure or a sudden blockage in the brain.

"Stephen," Cohen couldn't help shouting.

"Well," Su Shiming replied leisurely, which made Cohen feel relieved immediately, oh, it's okay, that's good.

I still have a lot of similar words in my hands.

Su Shiming was sharp again at this time, "Hilton is a..."

But Xu Bin happened to speak before him, "I heard that when JPMorgan acquired Bear Stearns in March, the bid was $2 per share, and in February, Bear Stearns' stock price was as high as $90,"

Lourde and Cohen looked at Xu Bin approvingly. This is a good point, and this is what they were going to say.

And what Su Shiming wanted to say was blocked again.

Xu Bin's meaning was very clear. You said that the current valuation of Hilton is only 17% of that a year ago, which is very unreasonable. Then look at Bear Stearns. It's only been a month, and its valuation is less than 3% of that a month ago.

Cummins smiled and added, "Xu, after many negotiations, JPMorgan finally acquired Bear Stearns at a price of $10 per share,"

"That is, the valuation is still less than 11% of last month," Xu Bin said immediately.

"You are right," Lourde and others looked at Su Shiming again. Why, do you still think our valuation is low?

"Stephen," Cummins said, "From now on, when Blackstone acquired Hilton last year, it was exactly at the peak of the real estate bubble."

"I just wanted to talk about this issue," Su Shiming said, "After we took over, Hilton has increased its efforts in franchising."

"Our goal is to increase the scale of Hilton Hotel franchise to at least 70%. According to our plan, Hilton will no longer be affected by real estate in the future as it is now."

"At the same time, it can also expand its scale faster,"

Cummins nodded, and Su Shiming avoided answering his words, which actually meant that he admitted that the timing of Blackstone's acquisition of Hilton was indeed very unfortunate, just when the local real estate was at its highest price.

"At the same time, at the time of the acquisition, the acquisition price of $26 billion was a 40% premium to Hilton's stock price at the time, right?"

He flipped out a few pieces of paper from the documents in front of him, including the newspaper that published the news and the report submitted by Blackstone to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Su Shiming had nothing to say about these.

He actually knew that the premium given to Hilton was a bit high at that time, which was related to the ability of the person who presided over the negotiations at the time and the timing at that time.

When entering into substantive acquisition negotiations with Hilton, Blackstone was preparing for an IPO. Obviously, Blackstone during that period could not let the market see their failure in such a project.

And Hilton also grasped this point very accurately.

But Su Shiming always found reasons to defend himself, "You are now aware of Blackstone's layout in the hotel industry. From our overall planning, Hilton is undoubtedly a very suitable target, and if we look at the relevant acquisition cases, we can easily draw a conclusion,"

"That is, in similar acquisitions, a premium of 40% is actually a very normal move,"

"Of course, we did not say that it was a very unreasonable clause," Cummings said, "but considering that the acquisition price of US$26 billion was originally a premium of more than 40%, and from then to now, Hilton's valuation has shrunk by 43%. Don't you think this is a very reasonable assessment?"

Gary Cohn picked up the evaluation report again at this time, "You can look at Hilton's current and last year's relevant data in the report. Based on the data comparison, it has shrunk by 43%. It can be said to be a very pertinent opinion."

"Investors' attitude towards Hilton has also been clearly demonstrated through other data,"

He turned to a page in the report, "The price of a credit default swap product on the market that provides insurance against a default event within 5 years for a $10 million Hilton bond has risen by nearly 300%."

This increase of nearly 3 times naturally shows that investors are extremely unfavorable about Hilton bonds.

"We also know that Blackstone has also made an asset appraisal report," Cohen said, holding out another document. "The purpose of this document is to negotiate debt relief with creditors like us."

"In this document, your own conclusion is that Hilton has lost nearly 70% of its investment on paper,"

"So Stephen, say it calmly, you still don't agree with the fairness of our evaluation report?"

Su Shiming cursed in his heart, damn Goldman Sachs, you even got such a document.

But don’t you know that the purpose of our assessment was to negotiate debt relief with you?

Naturally, the bigger the loss, the better.

If this is the case, I can only think about it in my heart. Could it be said that our report exaggerated the losses because we wanted you to forgive more debts?

"We have to look at this issue this way," Su Shiming said as he thought.

After Cummins began to present facts and reason, the atmosphere of this meeting finally became much calmer, but Su Shiming did not feel relaxed at this time because he knew that he was following the opponent's rhythm.

This won't work, we must launch a counterattack.

"Let's not discuss these data for now. As you just agreed with Cummins, in some acquisitions, a 40% premium is a very normal move,"

"So, how much premium are you prepared to pay for the current Hilton in the future?"

"I won't say 40%, but a 30% premium is a very reasonable request, right?"

"The issue is……"

"Mr. Stephen..."

Lauder and Xu Bin spoke at the same time.

Lauder smiled and made an invitation gesture to Xu Bin.

Xu Bin nodded to him, "But, Mr. Stephen, this is not an acquisition, is it? We are using Hilton to offset the loan Blackstone owes us,"

"That's right," Lauder looked at Schwarzman. "This is to pay off debts, and according to general rules, the assets used to pay off debts must be discounted from the original basis."

"Stephen, I think a 20% discount based on the valuation is a very reasonable request,"

"Haha," Su Shiming laughed, "How about giving the black stone to you for free?"

On the basis of the remaining 17% of the valuation, and another 20% discount, there will be less than 14% left. What are you dreaming about!

Lauder acted as if he didn't hear the sarcasm and sarcasm, "Thank you. On behalf of all creditors, I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to Blackstone for its generosity."

Compared to 100%, 14% is of course a very inconspicuous number, but when the value of 100% is US$26 billion, let alone 14%, it is 14‰, which is not a small number.

Su Shiming started to pack his things, "Sorry, I don't think you are coming to the talks with sincerity to solve the problem, so I think both of us don't need to waste any more time,"

He looked at Cummins, "Perhaps you have other suggestions?"