Read Online The Bancroft Strategy by Robert Ludlum - Free Book Online

turned toward his two senior colleagues and silently canvassed their opinions. Then he gave the junior officer a styptic look. “We’re going to do the hardest thing of all,” the director of operations said. “Absolutely nothing.”

Chapter Two
    Andrea Bancroft took a hurried sip of bottled water. She felt self-conscious, as if everyone were staring at her. As a glance around the room confirmed, everyone was staring at her. She was in the middle of her presentation on the proposed deal with MagnoCom, widely seen as an up-and-coming player in the cable and telecom industry. The report was the biggest responsibility the twenty-nine-year-old securities analyst had been given so far, and she had put a great deal of time into the research. This wasn’t just another backgrounder, after all; it was a deal in motion, with a tight deadline. She had dressed for the presentation, too, in her best Ann Taylor suit, with a blue-and-black plaid pattern that was bold without being forward.
    So far, so good. Pete Brook, the chairman of Coventry Equity Group and her boss, was sending her approving nods from his seat in the back. People were interested in whether she had done good work, not in whether she was having a good-hair day. It was a thorough report she was delivering. A very thorough report, she had to admit. Her first few slides summarized the cash-flow situation, the various revenue streams and cost centers, the write-offs and capital expenditures, the fixed and variable expenses that the firm had incurred over the past five years.
    Andrea Bancroft had been a junior analyst at Coventry Equity for two and a half years, a fugitive from grad school; to judge from Pete Brook’s expression, she was in for a promotion. The qualifier “junior” would be replaced with “senior,” and her salary could very well hit six figures before the year was over. That was a lot more than her fellow grad students were going to see in academe any time soon.
    â€œIt’s clear at a glance,” Andrea said, “that you’re looking an impressive ramp-up in revenue and in customer base.” A slide with the upward-sloped curve was projected onto a screen behind her.
    Coventry Equity Group was, as Brook liked to put it, a matchmaker. Its investors had money; the markets had people who could put that money to good use. Undervalued opportunities were what they looked for, with a particular interest in PIPE opportunities—private investment in public equity, or situations where a hedge fund like theirs could acquire a bunch of common stock or equity-linked securities at a discount. Those typically involved distressed firms with a serious need for a fast cash infusion. MagnoCom had approached Coventry, and Coventry’s investment-relations manager was excited by the prospect. It seemed in surprisingly good shape: MagnoCom, as its CEO explained, needed the cash not to weather a bad patch but to take advantage of an acquisition opportunity.
    â€œUp, up, up,” Andrea said. “You see that at a glance.”
    Herbert Bradley, the plump-faced manager for new business, nodded with a look of pleasure. “Like I said, this ain’t no mail-order bride,” he said, looking around at his colleagues. “It’s a marriage made in heaven.”
    Andrea clicked to the next side. “Except what you can see at a glance isn’t all there is to see. Start with this write-off list of so-called onetime expenses.” These were numbers that had been buried in a dozen different filings—but, when gathered together, the pattern was unmistakable and alarming. “Once you drill down, you find that this firm has a history of disguising equity-for-debt swaps.”
    A voice from the rear of the conference room. “But why? Why would they need to?” asked Pete Brook, rubbing his nape with his left hand, as he did when he was agitated.
    â€œThat’s the