Industry

You know, people mistake their needs being satisfied

for freedom,

but when it drinks this well, who are we to argue?

How did you know I was a Lagavulin man?

I just wish you'd sent a revolver instead.

Oh, well, you're going to get that next week.

You can quote SternTao's view,

"The shares are trading above fair value

and stand to correct."

I have more valuable sources

than a barely nascent fund to quote,

especially as you're yet to give me anything

more material on Tender other than what I already have.

Look, I think they're processing porn

and gambling payments in jurisdictions

where it's illegal and using third-party acquisitions

to wash them, even though Halberstram has mooted

that he may wind up those income sources.

Well, shit.

I will give you a quote.

"SternTao are actively pursuing Tender

as a potential short, among other positions."

Yeah, my article isn't a cotillion

for your new venture.

Are you calling Tender fraudulent or not?

I mean, I don't think I'll get the F-word past my editor.

Is there a not insignificant chance

that your piece gets gutted or squashed by legal?

No. The worst-case scenario is

the more alarmist language is sanded down.

I view it as the first in a potential series.

I'm trying to get financial sign-off from my editor

for underground reconnaissance further afield.

Can I be blunt?

Are you short Tender in a personal account?

Excuse me?

Do you stand to gain financially

by speaking negatively about them?

I saw your piece about getting fleeced in FTX.

I'd understand if you were

looking for shortcuts to rebuild your life.

You know what? I am rebuilding my life.

Through my honest work. All right?

Certainly not by being naive enough to go back

to the thing that burned me.

I don't even have an active trading account anymore.

Doesn't sound like you're on your way

to our new investor breakfast.

Eric, I would have been excited

to have come and listened to you and...

Harper. - (GASPS MOCKINGLY)

Ah, unforgettably forgettable memories

from the Pierpoint killing floor.

Well, we're calling ourselves "SternTao."

Between you and me,

the short only fund is a little high-risk for us

at the Railway Pension Scheme.

Well, if there's any more protein

on the illegal payments laundering thesis,

- I want it. Yeah, you know,

this isn't how this relationship works.

Yeah, stop calling it "click-bait"

and call it "curiosity gathering."

Hello?

I hope your son gets your money's worth at Yale,

and don't worry,

he'll come back to you eventually.

Do you really believe that?

For a loan, yeah.

Just trying to find common ground with the guy.

What is this, the Deadbeat Dads Club?

I think this might be too intimate a space

to be working together.

Who were you on the phone to?

The Railway Pension scheme was long odds anyway.

They don't have that kind of appetite for risk.

The composition of our audience who've confirmed for breakfast...

Family offices, high-net worth individuals.

Dumb money?

You lead us off.

I'll fill in the gaps.

Okay.

When you fuck my mouth with your tongue like that,

I know I've got you back.

- (SOFT KNOCKING) Sorry.

I just wanted to tell you that Jennifer Bevan's here.

Your 9:00 a.m.

Great.

- Thanks, Hayley. Yeah.

You can't talk like that in here.

I can.

And I will.

Now, you need to focus

on the societal benefit angle of the app,

financial well-being.

But I also think that we should really use this time with Bevan

to highlight the Muck Renaissance, you know?

Just as much as you feel comfortable with.

Men shouldn't feel a stigma when talking

about their mental health, that kind of thing.

Yeah, won't she... Won't she see through me, I don't know

weaponizing my trauma?

But, Henry, narrative is important.

People are gonna narrativize this for you,

so you might as well control it.

She saw you at your worst.

She's gonna be feeding back to government.

We just need to build her trust in you.

Yeah, Whitney and the Tender board trust me,

that's what matters.

I mean, they made me CEO for fuck's sake,

but th... this isn't about me.

This is about the details of the company,

and... and in the immediacy,

it's about getting the IBN Bauer merger

over the line with the regulator.

No, no, look, if I make it too personal, I'll...

I'll just put my fucking foot in my mouth.

- (EXHALES SHAKILY) - Darling...

you are the company.

You're the head and the heart.

It's all about you.

I'd be dead without you, you know that?

- Ready? - Yeah.

Yeah.

Tender's ambitions predate me.

I never made any attempt to, um...

To cover up my failure at Lumi,

nor have I oversold my successful,

if, uh, short-lived, political career.

These are the vicissitudes of life

in the arena as I see it.

And Jennifer, you and Henry are on the same page.

I mean, you surely know

what it's like to live in the firing line

simply because you care enough to be engaged.

Yeah, you know what? Um...

If you want to talk about me, let's, uh

let's talk about me.

I could talk about my profound struggles

with mental health, uh, my family's barbaric history.

I could talk about the fact

I most likely wouldn't be sat here if my wife

hadn't have pulled me out of a pretty dark hole

after the election.

But your party consistently voted to underfund access

to mental health on the NHS.

Yeah, and if you check my record,

you'll see that I defied a three-line whip

to oppose that legislation.

Jenni, you saw the worst of it.

Yeah, look, um...

I had to be told

how appalling I was to you, and I have never felt

- such shame... - Henry.

Your letter said it all.

I know the cycles.

My brother also had issues with alcohol.

It's day by day.

Yeah.

Anyway, uh... I want to make

your voters' lives a little easier,

and a banking license will allow Tender to do just that.

First, you need to let us buy this bank.

The business secretary is going to reason

that Tender's merger with a European bank

like IBN Bauer is anti-competitive.

Consolidation of the banking and fintech sectors

across Europe.

Yeah, well, we don't sell it to Lisa like that.

We sell it to her and the regulator

as the consumer being given a fresh choice,

away from fossilized institutions,

and maybe even an opportunity for a post-Brexit relationship

with the European banking sector.

We don't talk about Brexit.

Yeah, look, nobody believes

we can be the next Silicon Valley.

Nobody believes that we can attract

that kind of direct foreign investment

because of your government's over-regulation.

Every day for the past month, I've walked these floors,

and working with our team, I have never felt more strongly

that this is our chance

to be a genuine leader in a new frontier.

You guys can own it.

Let Tender help you help the government.

Push through the merger.

We're 100 percent net short.

Fads, secular losers, five to ten core shorts

with smaller satellite positions and sector overlay.

Running that concentrated,

you could get taken out by one position.

The market's way too volatile

to be taking a large short-directional bet. Bonkers.

Short-only, you've essentially given up

before you've even started.

You want differentiation.

You see a market that only goes up.

We see a target-rich environment.