Private placement program
EXPLANATION: PRIVATE PLACEMENT PROGRAMS
Research Compilation
Through a very carefully controlled, discreet program developed after World War II, and improved by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Managed Buy/Sell programs have raised hundreds of billions of dollars for projects around the world. Project funding is the reason for the existence of this system, and it is for those who are fortunate enough to be in a financial capacity to participate on a very large level.
INTRODUCTION
This document explains some of the obscure or unclear aspects of Private Placement Programs (PPP’s). PPP’s are also known under other names, such as Private Placement Programs (PPP’s) or Private Placement Investment Programs (PPIPs). This study is the result of several years of expert personal experience and testimony, and is explained from the viewpoints of both a client and a broker.
TOPICS
Before tackling the topic of Private Placement Opportunity Programs, it is important to discuss the basic reasons for the existence of this business. This discussion includes the basic concept of what money is and how it is created, controlling the demand for money and credit, and the process of issuing a debt note, discounting the note, and selling and reselling the note in arbitrage transactions.
THE BASIC REASONS FOR PPP’S
MONEY CREATION
First and foremost, PPP’s exist to “create” money. Money is created by creating debt.
For example: You as an individual can agree to loan $100 to a friend, with the understanding that the interest for the loan will be 10%, resulting in a total to be repaid of $110. What you have done is to actually create $10, even though you don’t see that money initially.
Don’t consider the legal aspects of such an agreement, just the numbers. Banks are doing this sort of lending every day, but with much more money. Essentially, banks have the power to create money from nothing. Since PPP’s involve trading with discounted bank-issued debt instruments, money is created due to the fact that such instruments are deferred payment obligations, or debts. Money is created from that debt.
Theoretically, any person, company, or organization can issue debt notes (again, ignore the legalities of the process). Debt notes are deferred payment liabilities.
Example: A person (individual, company, or organization) is in need of $100. He generates a debt note for $120 that matures after 1 year, and sells this debt for $100. This process is known as “discounting”. Theoretically, the issuer is able to issue as many such debt notes at whatever face value he desires – as long as borrowers believe that he’s financially strong enough to honor them upon maturity.
Debts notes such as Medium Terms Notes (MTN), Bank Guarantees (BG), and Stand-By Letters of Credit (SBLC) are issued at discounted prices by major world banks in the amount of billions of USD every day.
Essentially, they “create” such debt notes out of thin air, merely by creating a document.
The core problem: To issue such a debt note is very simple, but the issuer would have problems finding buyers unless the buyer “believes” that the issuer is financially strong enough to honor that debt note upon maturity. Any bank can issue such a debt note, sell it at discount, and promise to pay back the full face value at the time the debt note matures. But would that issuing bank be able to find any buyer for such a debt note without being financially strong?
If one of the largest banks in Western Europe sold debt notes with a face value of €1M EURO at a discounted price of €800,000, most individuals would consider purchasing one, given the financial means and opportunity to verify it beforehand. Conversely, if a stranger approached an individual on the street with an identical bank note, issued by an unknown bank, and offered it for the same sale price; most people would never consider that offer. It is a matter of trust and credibility. This also illustrates why there’s so much fraud and so many bogus instruments in this business.
LARGE DEBTS’ INSTRUMENTS’ MARKET
As a consequence of the previous statements, there is an enormous daily market of discounted bank instruments (e.g., MTN, BG, SBLC, Bonds, PN) involving issuing banks and groups of exit-buyers (Pension Funds, large financial institutions, etc.) in an exclusive Private Placement arena.
All such activities by the bank are done as “Off-Balance Sheet Activities”. As such, the bank benefits in many ways. Off-Balance Sheet Activities are contingent assets and liabilities, where the value depends upon the outcome of which the claim is based, similar to that of an option. Off-Balance Sheet Activities appear on the balance sheet ONLY as memoranda items. When they generate a cash flow they appear as a credit or debit in the balance sheet. The bank does not have to consider binding capital constraints, as there is no deposit liability.
NORMAL TRADING VS. PRIVATE PLACEMENT
All trading programs in the Private Placement arena involve trade with such discounted debt notes in some fashion. Further, in order to bypass the legal restrictions, this trading can only be done on a private level. This is the main difference between this type of trading and “normal” trading, which is highly regulated. This is a Private Placement level business transaction that is free from the usual restrictions present in the securities market.
Usually, trading is performed under the “open market” (also known as the “spot market”) where discounted instruments are bought and sold with auction-type bids. To participate in such trading, the traders must be in full control of the funds, otherwise they lack the means buy the instruments and resell them. Also, there are fewer arbitrage transactions in this market, since all participants have knowledge of the instruments and their prices.
However, in addition to the open market there is a closed, private market wherein lies a restricted number of “master commitment holders”. These holders are Trusts with huge amounts of money that enter contractual agreements with banks to buy a limited number of fresh-cut instruments at a specific price during an allotted period of time. Their job is to resell these instruments, so they contract sub-commitment holders, who in turn contract exit- buyers.
These programs are all based on arbitrage transactions with pre- defined prices. As such, the traders never need to be in control of the client’s funds. However, no program can start unless there is a sufficient quantity of money backing each transaction. It is at this point the clients are needed, because the involved banks and commitment holders are not allowed to trade with their own money unless they have reserved enough funds on the market, comprising unused money that belongs to clients, never at risk.
The trading banks can loan money to the traders. Typically, this money is loaned at a ratio of 1:10, but during certain conditions this ratio can be as high as 20:1. In other words, if the trader can “reserve” $100M, then the bank can loan $1B. In all actuality, the bank is giving the trader a line of credit based on how much money the trader/commitment holder has, since the banks won’t loan that much money without collateral, no matter how much money the clients have.
Because bankers and financial experts are well aware of the open market, and equally aware of the so-called “MTN programs”, but are closed out of the private market, they find it hard to believe that the private market exists.
ARBITRAGE AND LEVERAGE
Private Placement trading safety is based on the fact that the transactions are performed as arbitrage transactions. This means that the instruments will be bought and resold immediately with pre-defined prices. A number of buyers and sellers are contracted, including exit-buyers comprising mostly of large financial institutions, insurance companies, or extremely wealthy individuals.
The issued instruments are never sold directly to the exit-buyer, but to a chain of clients. For obvious reasons the involved banks cannot directly participate in these transactions, but are still profiting from it indirectly by loaning money with interest to the trader or client as a line of credit. This is their leverage. Furthermore, the banks profit from the commissions involved in each transaction.
The client’s principal does not have to be used for the transactions, as it is only reserved as a compensating balance (“mirrored”) against this credit line. This credit line is then used to back up the arbitrage transactions. Since the trading is done as arbitrage, the money (“credit line”) doesn’t have to be used, but it must still be available to back up each and every transactions.
Such programs never fail because they don’t begin before all actors have been contracted, and each actor knows exactly what role to play and how they will profit from the transactions. A trader who is able to secure this leverage is able to control a line of credit typically 10 to 20 times that of the principal. Even though the trader is in control of that money, the money still cannot be spent. The trader need only show that the money is under his control, and is not being used elsewhere at the time of the transaction. This concept can be illustrated in the following example. Assume you are offered the chance to buy a car for $30,000 and that you also find another buyer that is willing to buy it from you for $35,000. If the transactions are completed at the same time, then you will not be required to “spend” the $30,000 and then wait to receive the $35,000. Performing the transactions at the same time nets you an immediate profit of $5,000. However, you must still have that $30,000 and prove it is under your control.
Arbitrage transactions with discounted bank instruments are done in a similar way. The involved traders never actually spend the money, but they must be in control of it. The client’s principal is reserved directly for this, or indirectly in order for the trader to leverage a line of credit. Confusion is common because most seem to believe that the money must be spent in order to complete the transaction. Even though this is the traditional way of trading – buy low and sell high – and also the common way to trade on the open market for securities and bank instruments, it is possible to set up arbitrage transactions if there is a chain of contracted buyers. This is why client’s funds in Private Placement Programs are always safe without any trading risk.
HIGH YIELD
Compared to the yield from traditional investments, these programs usually get a very high yield. A yield of 50%-100% per week is possible.
For example: Assume a leverage effect of 10:1, meaning the trader is able to back each buy-sell transaction with ten times the amount of money that the client has in his bank account. In other words, the client has $10M, and the trader is able to work with $100M. Assume also the trader is able to complete three buy-sell transactions per week for 40 banking weeks (one year), with a 5% profit from each buy-sell transaction:
(5% profit/transaction)(3 transactions/week) = 15% profit/week
Assume 10x leverage effect = 150% profit…PER WEEK!
Even with a split of profit between the client and trading group, this still results in a double-digit weekly yield. This example can still be seen as conservative, since first tier trading groups can achieve a much higher single spread for each transaction, as well as a markedly higher number of weekly trades.
CLIENTS
The involved clients (program clients) are not the end-buyers in the chain. The actual real end-buyers are financially strong companies who are looking for a long term, safe investment, like pension funds, trusts, and insurance companies. Because they are needed as end-buyers, they are not permitted to participate “in- between” as clients. The client who participates in a PPP is just an actor in the picture along with many other actors (issuing banks, exitbuyers, brokers, etc.) who benefit from this trading. Usually, the client does not interact with others involved in the process.
PROGRAM STRUCTURE
Normally, a trading program is nothing more than a pre-arranged buy/sell arbitrage transaction of discounted banking instruments. Theoretically, an client with a large amount of funds (on the level of $100-500M USD) could arrange his own program by implementing the buy/sell transaction for himself; however, in this case he needs to control the entire process, initiating contact with the banks and the exit buyers at the same time. This is not a simple task, considering the restrictions in place.
For a client it is much simpler (and usually more profitable) to enter a program where the trader and his trading group have everything in place (the issuing banks, the exit buyers, the contracts ready for the arbitrage transaction, the line of credit with the trading banks, all of the necessary guarantees/safety for the client, etc.). The client needs only to agree with the contract proposed by the trader, disregarding any other underlying issues.
It is further advantageous for the client to enter a program with a substantially lower amount of money and benefit from the line of credit offered by the trading group.
NON-SOLICITATION AND NON-DISCLOSURE
As a direct consequence of the PPP’s environment where this business has to take place, a non-solicitation agreement has to be strictly followed by all parties involved. This agreement strongly influences the way the participants can interact with each other. Sometimes non-solicitation agreements foster scam attempts, due to the fact that at an early stage it is often difficult for the clients to recognize reliable sources to be in contact with.
There is another reason why so few experienced people talk about these transactions: virtually every contract involving the use of these high-yield instruments contains very explicit non- circumvention and non-disclosure clauses forbidding the contracting parties from discussing any aspect of the transaction for a specified number of years. Hence, it is very difficult to locate experienced contacts who are both knowledgeable and willing to talk openly about this type of instrument and the profitability of the transactions in which they figure. This is a highly private business, not advertised anywhere nor covered in the press, and is closed to anyone but the best-connected, most wealthy entities that can come forward with substantial cash funds.
HOW BANKS AND BROKERS CAN PROFIT
Banks are not allowed to act as clients in such programs. However, they are able to profit indirectly in different ways. This fact permits some private brokers, trading groups, and clients to take part in this process that otherwise would be a banking matter only. The assets coming from private clients are necessary to start the process. These private, large funds are the mandatory requirement for the buy/sell transactions of banking debt instruments. Brokers are necessary to introduce the clients to the trading groups. Thus, each of the involved parties takes their part in the sharing of the benefits, commissions for banks and brokers and proceeds for trading groups and clients).
PROJECTS
The purpose of this type of trading is to finance projects, not generate tremendous profits for the client. These may be for- profit or non-profit and can be funded as a result of this trading. Since this type of trading generates such large amounts of money on the market, measures must be taken to keep the inflation low. One way to do this is to adjust the interest rates, but this usually has little or no effect. A better way to minimize inflation is to let some of the profit be used for different projects that need funding, such as rebuilding infrastructure in regions of the world that have experienced catastrophes or war.
PROCESS SYNTHESIS
The complete process involving the issuing of debt-notes, the arbitrage transactions, the programs, and the projects is a result of combined market forces. Banks have a method of increasing their revenues and profits, clients are able to finance different ventures, and borrowers are able to access loan funds. There is a supply and demand for such instruments, and as long as the supply and demand exists then also this kind of trading will exist.
PROCESS SUMMARY
The following is a summary of the process involved for entering a PPP: A client with a minimum of €200M applies for a Private Placement Opportunity Program. *This is subject to change from time to time as market conditions require.
This business is entirely private. To get access to these investment programs, the client needs to send his preliminary documentation to a broker whom the client trusts to be in direct contact with the trading group. That means a Client Information Sheet, a copy of their passport, and a bank statement showing the balance of funds being committed for trade. It is generally required that the bank statement be signed by two authorized bank officers to make it full bank responsibility. There is no other way for the client to get contact with the trading group.
After the client has sent his own paperwork (their Passport, Client Information Sheet, and recent bank statement showing cash), the trading group will investigate the applicant. If the response is positive, the program manager in the trading group will contact or meet with the client. If the investigation is not favorable, the program manager will contact the broker and tell him that the client did not qualify.
During the contact with the client, the trader will explain the program terms/conditions to the client, and outline the guarantees and requirements to start the program. The client will get instructions to open a new sole signatory bank account at the trading bank for transferring the funds there.
The client will receive a contract which states the total gross yield, the percentage of the gross profit reserved for projects, the percentage for the trading group and the percentage for profit participation fees to be deducted for brokers/intermediaries. The net return to the client will be wired to another account that can be located in any bank worldwide. If the client accepts the contract, the contract is signed and the program is ready to start.
The trader is now able to leverage the client’s reserved money 10 times, and is now able to back up the arbitrage transactions with that money, a credit line that remains in the bank account that is screened before each arbitrage transaction. Trading now continues, and the profit is paid out per the contract terms to the client.
The programs work with cash only or gold bullion. This fact means that the client will only be accepted with liquid funds. Recent rulings by the G20 prohibit the use of an asset other than cash or gold bullion in a bank vault. A line of credit must be established and drawn down into an account at a bank, where it is lodged and blocked.