How does it feel to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in investment?
First, you have to have 100 million dollars.
But not really. The book Billion Dollar Mistakes describes 1 1 cases with hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. Most of the money people lose does not belong to them. As fund managers, most of their losses are the money of other investors. Of course, some people lost their money. For example, Adolf Merkel, the fifth richest man in Germany, finally committed suicide by lying on the tracks.
Gambling tycoon, PE god, king of hedge fund, king of shale gas, master of value investment ... all these expensive lessons happen to top investors, and each one deserves careful study. After all, this billion-dollar mistake is not common, but the mistakes behind it often happen to us. ?
1, a designer in Las Vegas, an old driver in the investment field, driving a car.
Character: Kirk, the richest man in the world ranked 4 1? Kekorian
Corkerian is an American gambling tycoon and the largest shareholder of MGM. He dropped out of school in the eighth grade and became an amateur boxer and fighter pilot in World War II. He founded an airplane rental company, bought and sold MGM film company three times, and owned Westside Casino and MGM Hotel. Kekorian was called the "designer" of Las Vegas and eventually turned it into a world-class tourist destination. In 20 15, Kerkorian died with a net worth of about $4 billion.
Event:
This old driver in the investment field sometimes drives over. Note that it is a real car. Kerkorian likes cars very much, and also likes to buy car companies, and has made four important investments.
1990- 1995, he earned $2.7 billion by investing in Chrysler. In 2005, he became the largest shareholder of GM, but because the board of directors refused to change in the direction he hoped, he cleared his position and paid a little dividend. In 2007, Kerkorian tried to buy Chrysler again, but lost to a PE in the bidding. As the saying goes, "a blessing in disguise is a blessing in disguise", he escaped the bankruptcy of Chrysler and General Motors in the financial crisis.
From April to June, 2008, Kerkorian targeted the car company again. He spent $654.38 billion, accounting for 6.43% of the shares, and became the largest individual shareholder of Ford. However, due to poor performance and financial crisis, Ford's stock plunged sharply, and Kerkorian had to sell the stock because of his debt problem. From June 65438+ 10 to February 65438+2, 2008, Kerkorian cleared Ford's stock and lost 700-800 million dollars.
2.PE exists like a god, but it lost $65.438+35 billion in the most familiar company for five months.
Who: David, co-founder of TPG? Bondeman (Chinese name, Poundwin)
TPG (Detai Investment) is one of the largest private equity investment institutions in the world. At present, more than 50 billion dollars of assets are managed through a series of private equity funds, which is even called the existence of PE. Compared with its competitors Blackstone, Carlyle and KKR, TPG is slightly less well-known in China. However, this does not affect the position of TPG and Bondeman in the industry. The record of M&A transaction volume of 65,438+0,065,438+0 billion US dollars (2006) created by TPG is unparalleled so far. Investment cases such as SDB and Lenovo Group also make TPG a real winner in China.
Event:
Buying troubled enterprises has always been David Bond Mann's specialty. He is very familiar with Washington Mutual Bank. The American savings bank, which made him famous in World War I, merged and sold it to Washington Mutual Bank, where he served as a director and had been friends with the CEO for many years.
In April 2008, TPG invested $65.438+35 billion, and joined other investors to acquire shares of Washington Mutual Bank, with a total amount of $7 billion. In September, Washington Mutual Bank was taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation because of insufficient liquidity. Within five months, TPG's USD 654.38+RMB 35 million was reduced to ashes, which may be the most failed transaction in the private equity industry, and was also selected as the top ten worst transactions in 2008 by Time magazine.
3. "King of Shale Gas"? Lost his shares, was driven out of the company he founded, and finally died in the street.
People: Aubrey mcclendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy Company, owner of NBA Thunder Team.
Mcclendon was once rated as the boldest billionaire in the United States by Forbes. He started his own company from scratch with $50,000. In 2008, his personal net worth was as high as $3 billion. Chesapeake Energy Company, which he founded, became the second largest natural gas producer in the United States, second only to ExxonMobil, an industry giant, and changed the shale gas industry in the United States. He also bought the NBA team "seattle supersonics Team" in partnership with his friends, and moved the whole team to his city and renamed it Oklahoma Thunder Team.
Event:?
Mcclendon is very confident in his Chesapeake company, constantly buying stocks and using high leverage. One of his financing methods is to use stocks as collateral, and borrow 1 dollar for every 3 dollars of stocks. However, with the collapse of natural gas price and stock in September 2008, mcclendon's collateral has shrunk dramatically. Mcclendon was forced to sell almost all his shares in Chesapeake Energy Company, with a net loss of $2 billion, accounting for two-thirds of his assets.
On 20 13 1, Chesapeake's board of directors kicked out mcclendon, who was once rated as the best president of the year in the United States, and had to leave the company he founded 23 years ago in this way.
On March 20 16, mcclendon was accused of illegally buying oil and manipulating natural gas bidding. Strangely, one day later, he drove too fast and ran into the concrete wall of the expressway, and died on the spot. According to the news report, "the possibility of suicide is not ruled out", but it doesn't matter.
4. How did the most famous hedge fund manager on Wall Street catch the knife?
Person: Top activist investor, Bill? Ackerman
One of the most famous active managers of hedge funds. As the founder and CEO of Pershing Plaza Management Fund, he once topped the list of 20 14 global 100 large hedge funds. In the past few years, its hunting targets include Herbalife, Aijian Pharmaceutical, Target, McDonald's, Wendy's, the third largest hamburger chain in the United States, and Borders Group, the second largest traditional book retailer in the United States. In the past two years, the famous case is that both doing omnipotent pharmaceutical and shorting Herbalife failed miserably. At present, the assets under management are $8.2 billion, far below the peak of $20 billion in July 2005 and 2065438. He is also one of the biggest RMB bears.
Event:
2 1 century, traditional retailers were defeated by e-commerce. At this time, investing heavily not only has the role of value discovery, but also has the meaning of "tradition".
Before Amazon appeared, Barnes & Noble Bookstore and Borders Group monopolized the American book retail market. But after Amazon appeared, things were different. In 2008-2009, Pershing Plaza took over the flying knife and gradually bought the shares of Borders 1/3, with an average of $0 10 per share. Through the usual tactics of radical investors, it changed the management and strategic direction of the company and affected the investment target. But in the end, the company still can't avoid the fate of bankruptcy liquidation, and the investors are wiped out.
Ackerman lost more in his investment in another retailer. In 2007, Pershing Plaza set up a special IV fund and invested $2 billion in Target, most of which bought stock options instead of stocks. Although Ackerman's judgment on Target's value is correct, it has also successfully pushed the management of Target to release the company's value. However, when Target stock fell 10% in June 2009, the net value of the fourth phase fund of Pershing Plaza fell by 40%, and by the end of February, it fell by 90%. The reason is that he bought options, not stocks.
5. Flowers that don't fade: Earn 65.438+0.2 billion in 6 weeks, and then lose/kloc-0.0 billion in 5 months.
Person: Nicholas, the founder of the consulting company? Mahonis
Nick Mahonis is an expert in convertible bond arbitrage, and has hired experts in M&A arbitrage, long-short equity investment, credit arbitrage and statistical arbitrage. In 2000, Mahoney established the Immortal Flower Fund with US$ 600 million, which means a flower that never fades. The most brilliant record is earning $654.38+0.2 billion in six weeks.
Event:
Brian Hunt, a star trader, joined Baihua in 2004 and had a brilliant record in natural gas futures trading in 2005, so Mahonis trusted Hunter very much. In 2006, Buhua increased its investment in natural gas futures. In April, Hunter helped the company earn a profit of $654.38+0.2 billion in six weeks. But then the energy market suddenly changed, and the profits before and after the flowers were gone. At this time, more than half of the assets are bet on energy trading. Because the risk is too concentrated, huge losses come from mountains. In September, 2006, Bubanhua Company declared bankruptcy due to a huge speculative natural gas futures loss of $9.25 billion, which became the biggest speculative loss event in the history of global commodity futures market and hedge fund industry. Flowers that don't wither finally wither.
6. The "legendary investor" with the same name as Soros was cheated by the buffoon.
Who: Leon, founder of Omega Consulting? Kuperman
Leon Kuberman enjoys the reputation of "legendary investor" in the American hedge fund industry. Omega Consulting, a hedge fund he founded at 199 1, was once called one of the four largest hedge funds in the world together with Tiger Fund in Julian Robertson, Quantum Fund in george soros and Long-term Capital Management Company in meriwether. The last three closed for various reasons, and only Omega stood today.
Event: Emerging markets are very dangerous investment areas. Sometimes, half a day's hard-earned profits will be swept away by scammers. Cooper, the most honest, knowledgeable, cautious and shrewd investor, suffered a fiasco in emerging markets. With the connivance of Victor Kozeny, a Czech nicknamed "Pirate of Prague", and his investment manager, Kuberman went to buy the option of a super-large state-owned oil plant in Azerbaijan. In fact, Kuberman paid $25 per share, while Kozeni paid less than/kloc-0 per share. Eventually, Kuberman's investment manager was arrested, but Kozeni was at large in the Bahamas, which has no extradition agreement with the United States.
7. "This time is different", when the value investment master faces the value trap.
Character: Richard, founder of Puzena Investment Management Company? Puzena
Puzena (also translated as Zena), Joel Greenblatt (the author of "Stock Market Genius" and "Stock Market Stable Income") and Bruce newberg, a classmate of Wharton Business School, wrote papers on securities analysis together, and all three of them became famous value investors. Puzena is regarded by the latter two as the smartest person he has ever met, and he is also famous for his commitment to "deep value investment". He is good at learning experiences, lessons and inspirations from history, especially at studying the normal profits of cyclical enterprises and hunting the bottom of the cycle. By the end of July, 20 14, the company * * * had managed assets of $26.4 billion.
Event:
Puzena is good at analyzing historical experience and past data. However, "history can be used as a reference to interpret facts, but it cannot be used as a reference to interpret people's psychological conditions." History is not repeated constantly, and new history is being created, which has also become the risk and charm of investment. In 2007, he invested his money in highly reliable investment targets, in which financial stocks accounted for more than 40% of the positions, most of which were Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. These two companies survived the financial crisis of1980s and became the classic investment cases of many value investors (including Buffett). But this time is really different. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were nationalized, and Puzena Investment Management Company suffered heavy losses, and its asset value decreased by 46% in 2008.
8. The best hedge fund of the year went bankrupt after receiving the award 1 month, with a loss of $654,380.79 billion.
People: Jeff Grant and Ron Baylor, founders of Peloton Partners.
Peroton, co-founded by Jeff Grant and Ron Baylor in 2005, was one of the best hedge funds in 2007, with a yield of over 80%. June 5438+October 2008 10, Peroton Company won two authoritative awards at a grand European hedge fund award ceremony. However, 1 month later, the company went bankrupt.
Event:
Peloton has set up an ABS fund, the main target of which is mortgage securities in the US real estate market. The strategy is to make more high-credit securities and short low-credit securities. This strategy was after the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States, because the short-selling part earned a lot of money. However, after that, the long position of ABS was severely hit by the subprime mortgage crisis, and at the same time, because ABS funds used about 9 times the financial leverage that Pelton usually used. Since then, the transaction has been developing in the opposite direction to the original idea, and the bank requires additional margin. As a result, the company ran out of liquidity and finally became a speculator, losing $654.38+0.7 billion in a few days.
9. German economic "godfather" and billionaire committed suicide by lying on the track.
Character: Adolf Merkel, the fifth richest man in Germany.
Adolf Merkel (domineering name, translated as "Merck") is one of the richest businessmen in the world. His enterprises include pharmaceutical companies and Heidelberg Cement Company. Merckle's plain appearance, simple life and low profile reflect the shrewd and pragmatic qualities of German family entrepreneurs. He was once called the "symbol" of German industrial spirit and one of the great "godfathers" of Germany's post-war economic take-off. In 2006, Merkel's wealth was11500 million US dollars, ranking 36th in Forbes' list of the world's richest people and 3rd in Germany. In 2007, the wealth was $654.38+02.8 billion, ranking 44th in the world and 4th in Germany. In 2008, it shrank to $9.2 billion, but it still ranked 94th in the world and 5th in Germany.
Event:
Merkel, once a conservative industrialist, was dramatically implanted with highly leveraged investment. June 5438 +2008 10, because she was not optimistic about the future of the automobile industry after the financial crisis, Merkel shorted the common stock of Volkswagen. Unexpectedly, he encountered an epic Porsche-Volkswagen acquisition. 1On October 27th, Volkswagen shares were flat and short, soaring from 200 euros to 65,438 euros+0,005 euros. At the same time, because the family business has too much debt (tens of billions of euros), it can't repay the debt on time, and the bankers don't give enough credit support. June 5438 +2009 10, a 74-year-old man committed suicide by jumping off the platform in front of a speeding train, only a few hundred meters away from his mansion. (Porsche tried to acquire Volkswagen, but it was eventually acquired by Volkswagen and became a famous case in the history of finance and mergers and acquisitions. )
10, Davis dynasty: success is also insurance, and failure is also insurance.
Person: Christopher, Chairman of Davis Select Consulting Company? Davis
Chris? Davis is the third generation of "Davis Dynasty" and has always been famous for its value investment. He searched for stocks with investment potential and held them for a long time. His grandfather was the inventor of the famous "Davis Double Kill Effect". He started with $50,000 of 1947, earned 18000 times in 45 years, and earned an annualized return of 23%, especially good at investing in insurance stocks. Like father, like son, three generations of Davis family are famous investors, the company of grandson Chris, with assets under management exceeding 47 billion dollars.
Event: After the financial crisis broke out in 2008, Christopher? Davis invested in financial stocks, including American International Group (AIG), hoping that they would be reborn after difficulties, but failed to do so, and the losses were staggering. AIG is far from being an insurance company invested by my grandfather, but a huge financial empire with high leverage and high risk, like a black box. Before the end of June, 2008, Davis new york Venture Fund held more than $654.38+$600 million worth of AIG shares, but one year later, its investment shrank to $46.5438+$300 million, with a loss of more than 90%. This became Davis's "biggest mistake in the past five years."
1 1, a century scam with more than $65 billion.
People: investors of Madoff Fund, including the great director Spielberg, etc.
Bernard Madoff, a Jew, is a legend of Wall Street in the United States. He served as the chairman of the board of directors of Nasdaq Stock Market Company. Before the American financial crisis in 2008, he was one of the hottest "investment experts" on Wall Street, just like Warren Buffett. By the end of 20081October 30, 165438, Madoff Company * * * had raised $65 billion and had 4,800 investor accounts, including HSBC, Nomura Securities, the International Olympic Committee, the great director Spielberg, Nobel Prize in Literature winner wessel, hedge funds and charitable organizations.
Event:
Madoff promised his investors an annual return rate of 8- 12%, and no matter what the financial market situation is, it will be guaranteed year after year. Compared with the unreasonable high return of general fraud cases, such a "reasonable" rate of return deceives everyone. Madoff's monthly investment report to customers shows that all investments are stable blue chips, and customers can redeem their investments at any time within a few days. Due to the stable return, Madoff's fame is growing, and members are proud of owning Madoff's investment account.
In June, 2008, 5438+early February, a customer demanded to redeem an investment of $7 billion, which made Madoff unsustainable. He had to admit to his two sons that it was a huge Ponzi scheme. That night, Madoff was "reported" by his sons. The latter all worked for the Madoff Fund, but claimed that they knew nothing about their father's scam. One of them committed suicide on 20 10, and the other died of cancer.
This is the biggest fraud case in American history, with the amount exceeding 65 billion dollars. The victim only recovered less than $6,543.8+$50 million.
On June 29th, 2009, Madoff, who was 7 1 year old, was sentenced to 150 years in prison, and he is still alive. Really, good people don't last long, and disasters last for thousands of years.
What is wrong with these "billion-dollar mistakes"? Space is limited, so let's leave it for the next article. You can also leave your own opinion.