"...The UK is currently facing severe challenges in power supply safety, which will pose a substantial threat to its future economic development and social stability. On the one hand, a large number of power stations will be offline one after another, and the power supply capacity is seriously insufficient.

The total installed capacity of coal-fired power stations is 28 million kilowatts, accounting for 30% of the total power generation. According to the EU's "Law on Large Combustion Power Stations", 8 million kilowatts of coal-fired power stations will be closed by the end of 2015.

Nine of the 10 active nuclear power plants will reach their designed service life and will be retired by the end of 2020. The 4 million kilowatts of power generation capacity will be removed. It is expected that 21% of power generation facilities will be closed within the next 10 years, and the UK's power generation capacity will be reduced by about 19.1 million kilowatts.

In addition, many active gas power plants will be retired by 2030, and 21 million kilowatts of power generation will be rolled off the line. At the same time, the eight new nuclear power plants planned to be built by 2025 are currently progressing slowly, and the prospects are worrying, and it may be difficult to take on the heavy responsibility of power generation in the short term.

On the other hand, with the steady growth of the total population and the gradual recovery and development of various sectors of the national economy after the financial crisis, electricity demand continues to expand, and it is expected to increase by 15% by 2020. At that time, if electricity consumption peaks or emergency situations occur, extremely limited power generation and power supply capacity will not be able to ensure national electricity safety.

How to ensure the safety of power supply has become an important issue that the British government urgently needs to solve."

Angela emphasized the difficulties faced by British Electric Power to increase the future prospects and profitability of the acquisition target. In fact, to put it bluntly. If banks cannot see enough benefits, they will never join Arthur's acquisition plan.

When this data was shown, Arthur clearly saw the unexpected expression on Bao Bo Diamond's face, and at the same time he also showed an interesting reaction for the first time, looking down at the acquisition plan in his hand again.

Arthur, who was smiling from beginning to end, looked at Angela who had taken a sip of black tea and nodded slightly. Angela's lips raised, and a confident smile on her face, put down the black tea cup and continued to talk.

"In power generation other than coal-fired power, nuclear power is running at full capacity, but the power generation is limited by installed capacity. The supply of water and electricity is greatly affected by changes in seasonal floods, and power generation is unbalanced in seasonal floods.

Renewable energy power such as wind power and solar power generation are characterized by randomness and intermittent unstableness, making it difficult to bear base-load power generation. As for fuel power generation, the cost of power generation is relatively higher. With the comparison of multiple power generation methods, natural gas power generation has become an important alternative to coal-fired power generation.

Although from the perspective of the power grid, electricity is an undifferentiated commodity, and the gas-fired power price is higher than the coal-fired power grid price. In order to pursue economic benefits, the power grid prefers low-cost power such as coal-fired power, but the high pollution of coal-fired power is the biggest problem that cannot be overcome.

The biggest advantage of gas power generation over coal-fired power is clean and environmentally friendly. The importance of establishing gas power plants in most areas of my country is to reduce environmental pollution, improve the atmospheric environment, and restrict the development of coal-fired power have become an important means for the government to protect environmental quality.

Natural gas power generation has been developing in the UK for 20 years, with mature technology and many advantages. Such as stable power generation level, strong peak shaving ability, simple power transmission and transformation connection, low cost and short construction cycle.

Under the current and future urgent situation of power supply safety, the British government has regarded gas power generation as a firefighter and vigorously developed it, hoping to effectively increase the backup capacity of power generation across the UK and ensure emergency power supply when power consumption is peak or renewable energy generation capacity is insufficient.

Moreover, as weather conditions across the UK are deteriorating, spot electricity prices are soaring day by day, and demand-led prices are irresistible for British gas power plant operators.”

"So you have thought that if gas production capacity is oversupply and natural gas prices continue to rise, which will put huge downward pressure on the 'clean ignition price difference', and the operating costs of power plants are too high and the returns are too low? You should know that once this happens, the power plants will have only one way to shut down!"

Bao Bo Diamond had a faint smile on his face and a wise light flashed in his eyes. He asked back as Angela, who had been talking and leaving a very strong impression of his eloquence.

Surprisingly, it was not Angela who answered this question, but Arthur who kept quiet. "Of course, we have considered these possible risks. After all, investment is for profit, and no one will hope to lose money.

The most unignorable thing to get involved in the energy industry and the most uncontrollable thing is the boom of energy prices. In order to reduce risks, we have also prepared a series of follow-up plans to lay out the upstream, thus forming a complete and safe industrial chain."

"Well, that's it..." Bao Bo Diamond did not continue to ask, because since the other party didn't say much, he continued to ask, if it was a commercial secret, it would undoubtedly be a tough problem.

"The plan is very detailed and beautiful, then, what you mean is..."

"I want to raise funds from your bank and then acquire half of the equity of this power plant, so as to control this power plant, which requires about 200 million pounds of funds." Arthur smiled and said his thoughts straight to the point.

"Are you 200 million pounds...what financing channel are you going to choose?" Bao Bo Diamond pondered for a while and continued to ask.

"I mortgaged 50% of the equity of the power plant to your bank to raise bonds and debts. I believe that once the power plant is acquired successfully, the operating profits obtained will be enough to repay the principal and interest on time." A brilliant flashed in Arthur's eyes, and his eyes were staring at the other party.

Leveraged acquisition!

Snake swallows elephant!

Leveraged acquisition, also known as debt-based operation acquisition, simply put, means that Arthur only paid a small part of the money, and most of the funds came from bank mortgage loans. Arthur first used the assets and future cash flows and income of the Bristol coastal (natural gas) power station, which had nothing to do with him as a guaranteed loan, and used it to repay principal and interest.

Although this method is shameless, the bank is not a good person. The handling fee for financing loans is as high as one percent of the total amount. That is to say, Arthur would have to pay a handling fee of 2 million pounds for financing 200 million from Barclays. If the acquisition is successful and the expected benefits are achieved, Arthur could not share the benefits brought about by the appreciation of the company's assets, and must be used to repay the principal and interest.

"..." Bao Bo Diamond frowned slightly, pondered for a moment, and said to Arthur: "I will take the plan back and let my subordinates study the feasibility. If the asset evaluation of the Bristol coastal (natural gas) power station in the plan is correct, I think, we, Barclays, are very willing to help you complete this project."

"Thank you, so I wish us a happy cooperation!" Arthur smiled and reached out and shook hands with the other party.

"I wish us a happy cooperation." Bao Bo also smiled and shook hands with Arthur.

Back in the city's car, Arthur smiled and said to Angela beside her: "You can start forming a negotiation team and get in touch with the board of directors of the coastal (natural gas) power station in Bristol to formally launch an acquisition invitation to them."

"Okay boss, I will start implementing the plan immediately after I go back." Angela nodded and said with an extremely bright light flashing in her beautiful eyes.

"Haha, this is our first step, we must take it well. This is related to our overall plan next. Whether we can realize the empire territory you have planned for me will be the most critical step." Arthur looked at Angela and smiled.

"Please rest assured, your boss, you won't disappoint you." Angela said with a serious expression, and then she seemed to think of something and said with a smile: "Boss, to be honest, I didn't expect things to go so well, and Baobo Diamond would agree to our plan so easily."

"Haha, it's not difficult to understand. He is from Wall Street's investment bank. The move we want to play is undoubtedly a typical American-style debt acquisition financial game. This is not novel to him, and it is even commonplace. If you make an impossible or even reluctant project, the returns are more considerable. People from Wall Street are useless to pursue profits from capital!"

Arthur smiled disconcertedly and said, "Capitals are profit-seeking, so no one owe anyone his cooperation with Barclays."

The nearly 100-year history of Wall Street investment banks shows that investment banks, whether they are separate or mixed operations, as pioneering and innovative, will never disappear. They just need to find organizational forms and business models that are more suitable for the market environment in constant setbacks. Barclays, which has just transformed into an investment bank, needs to expand their business.
Chapter completed!