At 10 a.m. the next day, the anxious media finally received news. Early that morning, before the stock market opened, L Brand had submitted an application to the relevant authorities regarding recent changes in company shares. The application revealed that William Devonshire had injected $110 million into L Brand, acquiring 5% of the company's stock at a valuation of $2.2 billion, which was $200 million higher than L Brand's $2 billion valuation from three days prior.
Once this news was made public, L Brand's stock, which had been declining for three days, immediately rebounded. By midday, the company's market value had returned to around $2 billion, and by the time the market closed in the afternoon, it had risen to about $2.1 billion.
This reversal caused significant losses for many traders who had shorted L Brand's stock when the market opened. The next day, there was a public uproar, with many accusing William of manipulating the stock price and threatening to report him to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). However, when the SEC received a memo from the Swiss National Bank, the investigation was quietly dropped within a few days. The reason was that the futures contracts, whether buying or selling, had been handled by the Swiss National Bank's funds, and legally, they had no direct connection to William.
The only hint of William's involvement was when a $4 billion fund briefly surfaced at a few brokerage firms, expressing interest in acquiring L Brand. However, this was merely a verbal expression of interest, and no actual money had entered the stock market.
The Swiss National Bank had agreed to help because when its president, Jean Greiss, received a call from William, William simply said, "If you make money, it's yours. If you lose, I'll compensate the bank elsewhere."
Faced with such a risk-free deal, Jean Greiss, who had personally witnessed William making huge profits in March, was confident in William's financial acumen. As it turned out, the outcome was exactly what Greiss had hoped for. In his office, Jean excitedly reviewed the earnings report and asked William's exclusive client manager, Felix, "We made $60 million in just three days? How did you do it? Show me the transaction records."
Felix, who had already prepared the records, handed them over. After reading through them, Jean sat back in his chair, shaking his head. "Has your team become so good at predicting market movements? How is it that every trade was faster than everyone else's?"
"Sorry, sir, it's not that our team is that good. It's because Mr. William Devonshire's judgment is so precise. He always gives us orders a second or two faster than the rest of the market. While it seems risky, in reality, the risk was zero." Felix apologized, then took the records from Jean's hands, walked over to a shredder, and fed the papers through. He even ran the shredded papers through a second time to reduce them to pulp.
Turning to Jean, who was surprised by the extreme caution, Felix explained, "The server motherboard for this transaction has already been destroyed by Mr. Devonshire's team in front of me. I only managed to get these records by using my personal reputation as collateral. If this information leaks, I don't even want to imagine what would happen to me. I'm sorry, Mr. Greiss."
Jean sat there, his mouth agape, as he looked at the smiling Felix. He felt helpless because, despite being the president of the bank, he couldn't control Felix. The bank paid Felix a salary of just 240,000 Swiss francs, but since working with William, Felix had purchased a 110-acre estate in Switzerland and had even invested with his team in a luxury resort on Iron Cross Mountain.
It was said that William's bodyguards had also invested in the resort, which had a total investment exceeding 100 million Swiss francs. Even more intriguingly, the idea for this Chinese-style resort had reportedly come from William himself. Although the construction would take two or three years, Jean was itching to get involved.
In this era, whoever can make you money is the boss, so Jean wasn't the least bit angry. He waved his hand, sat back in his chair, and pointed to the chair opposite him. "It's fine. Sit down. Let's talk about this resort you're investing in."
"Of course, Mr. Greiss," Felix said with a smile, taking a seat. After all, the resort already had 22 shareholders; one more wouldn't make a difference.
While waiting for the investigation to wrap up, William received a call from his mother, Lena. The message was brief: the Earl of Oxford was not doing well, and Lena called to remind William to be prepared. She emphasized the importance of showcasing their family's strength and influence to avoid any issues with the inheritance of the title.
Lena sternly warned William that if he failed to inherit the title that rightfully belonged to their branch of the family, she would never forgive him. She even threatened that he wouldn't be welcome at the castle anymore.
This sudden development disrupted all of William's plans. Family comes first, he thought. Faced with his mother's repeated warnings, William had no choice but to put his plans to quietly acquire L Brand on hold. After reassuring Lena, William began considering how best to demonstrate their family's power and influence to the world while waiting for his lawyers to negotiate with L Brand.
Three days later, William and L Brand signed a contract with the SEC's oversight, officially granting William 5% of the company's shares and making him an independent board director.
It wasn't that William didn't want more shares; it was because L Brand's old chairman stubbornly resisted William's pressure, preferring to risk everything rather than give up more control. The chairman feared that William, with his financial power, would take over the company that he had built from the ground up.
To William, this 5% stake was just a ticket to the game. He could always buy more shares on the open market. After all, there was no clause in the contract preventing him from acquiring more stock through market purchases.
Once on the board, William could quietly buy up shares or exchange them with other company stockholders. However, his mother's insistence on the title had thrown everything into chaos. For now, he would make nice at the signing press conference, leave a good impression, and deal with the title issue before moving forward.
As the reporters prepared for the interview, they hadn't even started asking questions when William, seated at the podium, dropped a bombshell.
"As for why I invested in L Brand, it's simple: I believe in this company. If the chairman had been willing, I would have bought the whole company and let him continue running it. But that's not possible. A company where I can't call the shots doesn't interest me. Frankly, this deal doesn't excite me at all; it's not even as much as I make in two days."
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