Industry

You seen Pierpoint's stock price?

You had a drink yet?

The stock's fucking halved, would you blame me?

It was like Omaha Beach on the floor today.

They're serving Prosecco.

Can't afford champagne.

It screams sell signal, no doubt.

Yeah, I need you to come to the 13th floor immediately.

Hey, hey, why the fuck did they not cancel this party?

It's too late. You've got a...

I haven't seen a day this bloody since '08.

Don't go home. - Yeah, it's worse there.

- Don't worry. - Don't go to the party.

Whatever's left on the desk's books,

however you're axed,

long, short, any product, get rid of it now.

We've got one hour of U.S. trading left

and you need to trade Asia.

People might not be trading with us come morning.

Book any profit. Take any loss.

Clean house.

Hey, uh, what's going on?

The bell's tolling.

How bad is it?

We'll be talking about Pierpoint's stock price

in cents, not dollars soon.

The debt we issued to fund the ESG pivot has matured,

and our creditors are banging down our door

for money that isn't there.

How close are we to declaring bankruptcy?

Hours. The counsel in this room are working avenues

for a capital injection to buy us a stay of execution.

That price is low...

I haven't seen price action

this aggressive since Lehman Brothers.

Excuse me.

He's about to come on. Tom! He's about to come on.

(OVER SPEAKER) You have the assistant secretary.

Graham Steele speaking.

This is Tom Wolsey in dreary London.

I'm told Wilhelmina brought you up to speed last night.

Yeah, listen, I've reviewed your situation.

It looks like you've positioned yourself

as lender, buyer, and seller, like J.P. Morgan with WeWork.

Yeah, a one-stop shop.

And you didn't think

this was inappropriately high-risk?

And incestuous. Yep. For the record, I think it was.

We... We liked the risk-reward.

In hindsight, not so much.

We're looking for an emergency cash injection

of around 15 billion dollars in short order

to plug the hole and give us a chance to restructure.

Uh, our current share price is 45 dollars.

It's now 8:00 p.m., U.K., Thursday night.

We need to resolve this before the U.S. markets open on Friday,

2:30 p.m., U.K.

Okay.

I don't have the reach

or, frankly, the influence to advise here.

- (EXECUTIVES MURMURING) - You're assistant secretary

of the Treasury for Financial Institutions, Graham.

If you don't have the authority to do your job,

I want to speak to someone who can.

(SIGHS) I'm gonna pull the treasury secretary

out of her 3:00 p.m., okay?

Can you get me at least two more packs of this?

If I run out, I'll have to light up,

then it'll all get a bit too Glengarry in here.

The head of sales should be at the 150th party.

Keep up appearances.

Trying to contain the issue to this room is...

It's a fool's errand.

You okay?

Yeah, just a little... a foggy head.

Ugh, it's a little late

for a fireside chat.

I can stay.

Our voice combined is a voice which speaks with the authority

of half a century in this firm.

This is an existential moment.

There are multiple possible outcomes.

So, let's not let them sell our soul

just because there's a gun to our temple.

Julian? Yeah, would you excuse us?

I've spoken to the rest

of the Hanani Publishing board and we have decided unanimously

that we are going to take care of the damages.

We all just wanna move on. I'm sure you can empathize.

But our PR team is working round the clock

to stage-manage this.

And what we're getting is...

the press

want a public face for this scandal.

Well, given a dead one doesn't work, right?

I mean, she's been through enough.

We'd like to brief the press

that you knew all about the embezzlement

and were its main beneficiary.

Now, they won't be able to finger you

from a legal standpoint, but it will be good...

You want her to wear the fucking scarlet letter?

Do... Do you know how this country works?

I mean, they'll hang her up as a fucking effigy.

It's a lot of money.

Many millions.

And it's the real world.

You know, there are, uh, caveats and stipulations

to that kind of money.

Yeah, but they'll flay me.

And I mean, they're gonna love it.

I... I didn't do anything. Come on. I didn't know anything.

I mean, honestly, it... it... it doesn't particularly matter.

The truth, it's... it's not important.

What's important is what's expedient for all of us.

You can't force her to do this.

We are paying back the families.

It's the decent thing to do.

You wanna publicly shame a fucking girl who has nothing?

To the point of... of...

of never being able to live a normal life again,

and you're... you're okay with that?

Those are the terms.

The alternative is the legal route.

We'll sue the Hanani family.

We'll sue you to claim back some of the money

we pay in settlement to your father's victims.

It'll be long.

By your own admission, you aren't capitalized enough

for that kind of fight.

You well know the end of the story

for young women who are hounded by the tabloids, right?

Accept the money.

Accept your family's culpability and get on with your life.

What life?

Her boob job's

- insane. - (ANRAJ CHABRA LAUGHS)

Rish, why did you pull us out of the party, man?

Yeah, man, I was chirpsing this absolute MILF from Risk.

Stop talking, listen. The 150 party is a sham.

(INDISTINCT TV CHATTER IN BACKGROUND)

Have you noticed that none of the top brass are there?

Uh, how could this day get any worse?

Insolvency?

The CEO and CFO were meant to be in London for it.

Where are they?

Guys, they're upstairs.

I... I told you.

That's why it's so fucking scrot in here.

- Look. Look at the bins. - Fucking stinks.

I haven't seen a cleaner on the floor for two days.

Yeah, maybe admin payroll's goosed.

Those at the bottom get fucked first.

But listen, I am working on an off-ramp for us.

We're going to be a pod on the buy side.

Yeah, why would you take us with you?

Well, I need a doe-eyed little flirt

for the front of house.

And Sweetpea's actually smart.

Look, we all deserve better than this.

Covered in grease while the white gloves

- laugh at us upstairs. - (SWEET PEAT BREATHES DEEPLY)

I can tell you as sure as Mother Teresa is in hell

they're not thinking about us up there. I am.

What happened to your arm by the way?

Walked into a door. Look.

Get on the phones and move every position I have.

Okay? Senior secured,

AAA, BBB, jewels, junk, the lot. Eric's mandated it.

I'll work our lifeboat. Move.

Do you believe him?

Would you work on the buy side?

Ultimately... (SIGHS)

...your prognosis is we're dead anyway, right?

Yeah.

Look, even if this place is burning down...

he's still our boss, right?

- (BLOWS RASPBERRY) - (NUMBER PAD CLACKING)

No.

- What is the point... - What?

...of making this whole desk's PNL look good

if this goes under, right?

It's like...

It's deckchairs on the Titanic.

It's... Come on, we could like...

- (CHUCKLES) - (SWEETPEA CHUCKLES)

We could, like, commemorate Pierpoint's last birthday

by getting absolutely fucking hooned.

How many people know Pierpoint's 150th is a wake?

(OVER PHONE) Listen, listen.

How do you fancy a Trequartista as elegant as me on a Bosman?

A boss-man?

We're not hiring new fund managers.

You need an execution guy.

Someone who can look at flows, levels.

Make sure you're not mistiming things