Chapter 227 Muddy Waters Company
Alexander Lebedev was a financial spy carefully placed by the KGB in the United Kingdom. He was extremely intelligent. At the age of 22, he was already studying for a doctorate at the International Institute of Economics of the Socialist System in Moscow, while Sergei was still in Lening Le University is struggling for its undergraduate degree. As an elite among young Soviet scholars, a KGB order sent him to London, the heartland of capitalism, to serve the country. When Lebedev was in the research institute, the subject was Western national debt and economic globalization. After he entered the City of London as a Russian Jew, he soon became famous in the British investment circle. In just a few years Former Lebedev made a fortune by buying and selling high-risk bonds in Africa and South America, and successfully won the favor of Rothschild Bank, an old European investment bank, and was recruited to become Rothschild's investment in the European government bond market expert.
Alexander Lebedev was both a spy and one of the few Soviet experts who understood Western financial markets. Such a talent would not be easily used by the KGB when there was no particularly important and urgent task. Once activated, the hard work that the KGB had spent on Lebedev for so many years would be in vain.
At this moment, Seryozha naturally can't care so much. He must find enough investment for the Leningrad Special Economic Zone. Therefore, a person who has extraordinary experience in the British financial circle and can stand alone must stand up. Following Sergey's instructions and serving as the front puppet of Sergey's plan, Lebedev is the most suitable in every respect.
When Lebedev received the Muddy Waters order from his superiors, he resigned from the Rothschild Bank as directed by his superiors and set off for Switzerland. And a company called Muddy Water Finance Office was registered there. Immediately afterwards, he had a new superior liaison, and the first task assigned to him by the superior liaison was to investigate the debt situation of Seibu Group, Japan's largest commercial real estate company.
Lebedev was very surprised to hear this order. He thought that he would be sent to Switzerland to break into an international organization to act as the eyes and ears of the Soviet Union, but he never thought that his superiors would let him go to Switzerland to study Japanese commercial real estate companies. What exactly is going on? Although Lebedev didn't quite understand the intentions of his superiors, he still chose to implement them honestly. Although Jeff has just arrived in Switzerland, he is still very familiar with how to set up a financial research company. After all, this work is different from the fact that he studied the economic conditions of various countries in front of a bunch of data at the International Institute of Economics of the Socialist System in Moscow. Much easier, and corporate bonds are much simpler than Treasuries. Because there are too many uncontrollable factors in national debt, and many countries are secretive about their own economic data, it is actually very difficult to analyze the safety of national debt in some emerging markets, and corporate bonds are due to financial supervision. It is much easier, because there is a lot of public material to read.
Seibu Group, as a landmark commercial real estate company in Japan, its public information cannot be more detailed. After all, it is a listed company, and it needs to provide real and strictly audited financial reports to its investors every quarter . According to Seibu Group's financial report, this commercial real estate company with operations in Japan, Europe and the United States is building luxury hotels, golf courses, ski resorts and other luxury projects all over the world, and most of its funds come from Japanese bank loans.
Its total liabilities have long far exceeded its existing assets, which is very dangerous under normal circumstances, but Japan's strong real estate market and stock market have allowed the freak Seibu Group to survive.
According to Seibu Group's financial report, their newly opened ski resort in Switzerland has already started to make profits in the first year. Lebedev drove alone to the resort that appeared in the Seibu Group's financial report, but found that the actual situation here was not consistent with the Seibu Group's description. There were almost no tourists in the ski resort in front of him, and there was even nothing here Holiday villas, except for a few cabins on the top of the mountain, there are no buildings at all, and there are not even ski lifts here. It is clear that Seibu lied to its shareholders about the Swiss ski resort project.
Although the authenticity of this kind of thing can be distinguished at a glance, but the investors of Seibu Group are mainly in Japan, how many people will fly to Switzerland to see if Seibu's ski resort is consistent with the description in the financial report? Lebedev quickly reported the matter to his superiors, and within a day, he was instructed to find a way to expose the matter to the British financial media in the name of Muddy Waters Research, and then continue to dig into Seibu Group. See if it has similar fraudulent behavior.
Lebedev didn't understand why the KGB wanted to hold on to Seibu Group's financial situation, but he still carried out the orders of his superiors seriously. Lebedev soon published his first report on Seibu in a medium-sized London newspaper through British acquaintances, and sent a similar report to the Japanese press. Lebedev felt that his report might not even make a splash. The total assets of the Seibu Group are so huge, and this small ski resort project in Switzerland can hardly compare to a drop in the bucket. So after sending out this report, Lebedev took his staff to continue reviewing other projects of Seibu Group.
This financial analysis report was quickly published in the UK, just as Lebedev estimated, he did not cause any waves, and no one seemed to care about this matter at all. In Japan, this report was regarded as a fake news attacking the Seibu Group by the Yomiuri Shimbun, and was directly put into the waste paper pile by the editor of the newspaper. Hardly any Japanese would believe that the current Japanese business leader, the most successful businessman in Japan for thousands of years, would cheat financially.
Seibu Group's stock reached a new high on the Tokyo Stock Exchange before the market closed on Friday. It seems that everything can prove that this report is just a false accusation, and the Swiss company called Muddy Waters Research Company is not There is no value.
However, when the Tokyo Stock Exchange closed on Monday afternoon, Lebedev's research report, which had been thrown into the waste paper pile, was pulled out of the waste paper pile by the editor of "Yomiuri Shimbun" and published on the first page. On the front page of the second day, it was frantically reproduced by major Japanese media. Suddenly, almost all stock investors in Japan knew Muddy Water's name. ()