Brisbane on the east coast of Australia.

It was July 27, and the summer season in Hollywood continued. MGM CEO Shirley Lansing had to fly here in turmoil.

Because Christopher Skas, chairman of MGM's Australian parent company Qintex Group, suddenly absconded.

The matter starts 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 films. As the Japanese stock market bubble burst at the end of last year, Australia was also dragged down, and the economy began to fall into a downturn after 1990.

Qintex Group expanded rapidly in the 1980s when Australia's economy was booming.

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

After completing the acquisition of 70% of MGM's equity last year, Qintex Group's overall liabilities still reached US$1.7 billion after this period of asset restructuring, which does not count as MGM's own liabilities exceed US$800 million compared to last year.

Perhaps it was because I felt that it would be difficult for Qintex Group to last too long. Since the end of last year, Christopher Skas has continuously drawn blood from the company through various channels and then transferred the funds to overseas accounts.

During a recent financial review, the board of directors of Qintex Group found that an abnormal "management fee" expenditure of US$13.5 million was illegally transferred to an overseas company. After exploring it, it was discovered that this was an empty shell company registered by Christopher Skas.

After urgent consultations with shareholders and creditors, the board of directors of Qintex Group finally chose to call the police.

Christopher Skas was arrested and imprisoned for one night. After being released from prison the next day, he fled to Spain without any hesitation.

With Christopher Skas' absconding, the Qintex Group immediately became a mess on the verge of collapse. Shareholders and creditors now do not even have the energy to pursue Christopher Skas. The most important thing is to maintain the collapse of the Qintex Group's division.

At its peak, Qintex Group involved multiple industries such as media, movies, resorts and jewelry retail. However, until now, the two most valuable assets of the company are Australia's local Seventh TV Network and the United States' MGM Company, and other industries have basically been sold.

The business conditions of Seventh TV Network have been pretty good in recent years. However, although it is a national TV network, it is naturally impossible for Australia's TV network to compare with North America. Its valuation is only US$800 million at this time. The 70% equity of MGM was acquired last year at US$1 billion. If you choose to sell it at this time, there should not be too much problem with US$1 billion.

Coupled with some other fragmented assets, the overall valuation of assets under the name of Qintex Group can actually repay debts.

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

Moreover, there are hundreds of billions of dollars of assets, including various complex bond relationships. If you want to liquidate directly, it will definitely not be completed in the short term. Qintex Group can only maintain as much as possible and reorganize assets step by step, so as to minimize the losses of shareholders and creditors.

Qintex Group Headquarters in Brisbane.

When she saw Simon, Shirley Lansing's originally helpless thoughts finally relaxed a lot.

Originally, when she heard the news, Shirley Lansing felt that she had just settled down and was about to lose her position as CEO of MGM, which she had just settled in for a while.

Now, since this young man is willing to intervene, he also introduced him to join MGM, then unless MGM changes ownership, she should not be kicked out in the short term. Apart from her, Australians will not be able to find a second suitable company manager in Hollywood for a while.

But I don’t know if Westeros wants to take over MGM.

Thinking of some recent rumors in Hollywood, Shirley Lansing is a little looking forward to it.

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

As a woman, she could climb to the top of the Hollywood pyramid step by step, Shirley Lansing naturally had her own ambitions and revenge. She also believed that if Westeros could take over MGM, the company would immediately escape from the quagmire.

The meeting on asset investment and management adjustments of Qintex Group after Christopher Skars left lasted a whole day. Shirley Lansing was also a senior executive of the Qintex system, so she participated in the whole process. Therefore, she knew that Simon's purpose of attending the meeting had nothing to do with MGM, but for the Seventh TV Network held by Qintex Group.

To be precise, it is the Johnston family who hope to buy the Seventh TV Network.

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

According to Raymond Johnston's thoughts, he must be the first to use this fund to expand the family's mining and transportation business. Simon also knew that Australia's mining resources would undergo large-scale integration in the next 1990s, and eventually world-class oligarchs like BHP Billiton appeared.

In such large-scale industrial integration, the Johnston Holdings Group, whose overall market value is only about $5 billion controlled by the Johnston family, will be difficult to affect the overall situation. Unless it can quickly become a behemoth, in the face of industry oligarchs such as BHP Billiton with a 100 billion dollar level, small and medium-sized mining companies will either be merged or squeezed out, and it will be very difficult to survive alone.

BH and Billiton are still two companies, and their market value is not as terrifying as it was later. If some means and sufficient funds are used, it is not impossible for the Johnston family to swallow an elephant, but Simon does not understand this aspect. The opinions he can give for the time being are to develop diversifiedly and accumulate their own strength.

Moreover, the media has always been the shortcoming of the Johnston family. It would be a waste to have Simon's resources in the entire Hollywood at this time.

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

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

Then, in North America, the Internet industry and media industry can also provide Simon with a large amount of cash. At that time, Simon can buy out the Johnston family's surrounding businesses at one time, provide enough funds for the Johnston family, and use small profits to acquire an industrial giant like BHP or Billiton, and continue to expand.

Relatively speaking, the Johnston family directly invested their funds in the mining industry, because the demand for mining resources was reduced throughout the 1990s, and the money could not be rewarded too high.

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

The Australian telecom industry has been a state monopoly before, and has been discussing opening up recently. Moreover, in terms of mobile communications and the Internet, the Westeros system can just provide enough technical support here. If these industries can be listed in North America in the next few years, it will be easy to cash out large amounts of funds in the face of the new technology wave.

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

If the most important plan in Simon's conception is realized, Johnston Holdings can eventually develop into a behemoth like BHP, and coupled with the layout of other industries, then, then the Australian economy will basically be under the control of the Simon and Johnston families.

Of course, these things cannot be accomplished overnight.

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

However, what Simon lacks the most is just time.

It would be worth it if it could control a country in ten or twenty years and achieve the economic status of Samsung Group in South Korea.

After a day of discussion, the shareholders and creditors of Qintex Group finally reached an agreement with the Johnston family to sell the Seventh TV Network's $700 million cash price to Johnston Holdings Group. At the same time, as a potential exchange, in Hollywood, Daenerys Entertainment will take out two of the original 10 films to cooperate with MGM to help MGM recover.

Until nightfall, various meetings and discussions that lasted all day finally ended.

Shirley Lansing finally stepped forward to stop Simon as everyone left the conference room and said, "Simon, will you have a meal together tonight?"

Simon nodded, thought for a while, and said to Veronica Johnston, who was with him to participate in the negotiations today: "Go together."

Veronica was stunned for a moment, nodded slightly, and said no.

It has been introduced during the day. Shirley Lansing knew that this cold-looking woman was Janet Johnston's little aunt. However, out of a woman's natural intuition, Shirley Lansing clearly felt that there was something obvious between Westeros and this woman.

However, this thought occasionally flashed through my mind, and Shirley Lansing stopped thinking deeper.

This is someone else's business after all.

If she thought too much, it would be completely unworthy for her to get angry with this young man.

I casually chose a good restaurant near the headquarters of Qintex Group. The three of them sat down and ordered the meal. Simon asked first: "How is the copyright issue of 007 dealing with?"

"I'm still talking. I plan to buy the copyright of the Ghost Party in Kevin McCrory's hands and completely resolve the dispute. McCrory offers $5 million, which is really a bit high. In terms of the script, according to your original reminder, the company has completed the first draft of the first edition of "Golden Eye". I happened to bring it here. Simon, do you want to see it?"

"I will go back to Melbourne later. If you go back, please send the script to Malibu," Simon nodded and said, "In addition, the male protagonist needs to be replaced. 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 the Hollywood vision with "The Pretty Beauty" in the first half of the year, and thought for a while: "Bruce Brosnan shouldn't play this role easily."

If Brosnan was just a second- and third-tier actor, of course he would be interested in 007.

However, since he has already entered the front line, few stars are willing to lock themselves in the image of 007. Although 007 will bring great fame, once he participates in the acting, it is often difficult for actors to transform. For many generations of 007, only Sean Connery's career has developed quite well, which is entirely due to the full support of CAA.

Simon quickly figured out this truth and said, "If you contact him, you can change others if you don't have to. The most important thing is to sign a few more film contracts."

Shirley Lansing nodded and wrote down. After thinking about it, she couldn't help but ask, "Simon, why don't you just buy MGM?"

Simon seemed to have anticipated Shirley Lansing's doubts, but did not answer, and just turned the topic to the collaboration between the two films at will.

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 Qintex Group, he believes Qintex will be extremely happy.

However, MGM is one of the seven majors after all.

The United States still had very strict antitrust supervision of the media industry in the early 1990s.

Daenerys Entertainment is now strong enough. If you control MGM again, the MCA acquisition case will definitely be subject to antitrust investigation, and Simon does not want to lose the big picture due to a small amount.

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

Veronica is still coming 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, which was just nine o'clock here.

Anthony Johnston was also here tonight. As soon as Simon and the others arrived home, Anthony walked forward and handed him a copy of the information he had just received.

In recent days, the situation in the Middle East has been on the verge of breaking out, but many people still firmly believe that Iraq will not use force against Kuwait in the end.

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

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

The U.S. ambassador to Baghdad promised Saddam that Washington would not interfere with Iraq's military operations in the Middle East.

According to what happened later in Simon's memory, he knew very well that such a promise was simply fart, and the Bush administration's purpose was to drag Iraq into the quagmire of war again.

However, Saddam obviously believed it.

Since the overall situation has been decided, Simon quietly flew back to North America the next day.

The last few days of July passed quietly.

This was until August 2 that explosive news quickly spread around the world.

In the early morning of August 2 local time, the Iraqi Republic Guard suddenly crossed the Iko border and crushed towards Kuwait City.

This war that gathered countless people to conspire to plot against profits finally broke out.
Chapter completed!