After the previous episode unfolded entirely in the flawed world of the British aristocracy, HBO's financial drama series, Industry, returns to the frenetic pace of London, where everyone is relentlessly competing in the world of finance. A month has passed since the events of the previous episode, and Harper Stern and Eric Tao have embarked on a new project together, while Sir Henry Muck has finally returned to the professional world, taking on the role of CEO at Tender. Episode 3 of season 4 delves into the details of investigative journalist James Dycker's report against Tender, which Harper has been heavily relying on for her own benefit.
Having discussed the possibility of working together again in episode 1 of season 4, Harper Stern and Eric Tao have launched their own project a month later, aptly named SternTao. They are targeting family offices and high-net-worth individuals to invest in their company, and are about to hold an important breakfast meeting to discuss the situation. Since their business involves short-selling and predicting the market to help investors make significant profits in a relatively short time, only those willing to take high risks and with sufficient capital available can become their clients. Eric attempts to contact a former acquaintance from Pierpoint, calling Hilary Wyndham, the former CEO of the London investment bank, but she doesn't seem interested in such high-risk investments.
Creators: Navjot Gulati, Shreyansh Pandey
Stars: Monii Shankar Vashisth, Gagan Arora, Ankita Goraya
The breakfast meeting doesn't go as well as Eric and Harper had hoped either, as the potential clients are somewhat skeptical of SternTao's strategy of only short-selling, which they consider a limited way to manage an investment fund. Harper's track record in the world of finance, especially her recent decision to restrict access to funds at Mostyn Asset Management, doesn't help either, as investors express doubts about investing their money in a company run by a seemingly capricious woman.
Questions also arise about the company's small staff, especially since they don't even have a trader at the moment. Feeling cornered, Harper resorts to the biggest bluff she can think of: she claims her company is investigating Tender, which is enough to silence her potential clients. Due to Tender's recent success and exponential growth, investors believe the company's stock will remain profitable in the long term, so they are baffled that a company specializing in short selling would even mention the payment processing startup in its presentation.
Harper only mentions that her company has valuable information about Tender that will be crucial for shorting its stock, but she doesn't go into detail. She proudly tells the potential clients that a breakfast meeting will provide them with this information, and that the most valuable data and insights will only be shared with those who invest in her business. The meeting clearly doesn't go well for the duo, and Eric is even more confused about the source of the prediction about Tender and why Harper hadn't told him about it sooner. That's when Harper reveals the situation with James Dycker, the investigative journalist who is preparing an article about Tender's unethical practices for the financial magazine FinDigest.
Although this represents a great opportunity to short Tender's stock, Eric isn't entirely convinced by his partner's information, as he immediately wonders why James Dycker involved Harper in his plan. There seems to be no reason for the journalist to have discussed the matter with Harper, unless he expects something in return. More importantly, Eric is also wary that simply having information about a company's downfall isn't enough. He cites the example of Herbalife, the American multi-level marketing corporation that was accused of being a pyramid scheme, notably by hedge fund manager Bill Ackman. Although Ackman did everything he could to use the accusations against the corporation to short its stock, Herbalife investor Carl Icahn managed to counteract the reports simply by paying for better public relations and "a louder voice" (as Eric Tao calls it), resulting in significant losses for Ackman.
Despite the rocky start to their joint venture, Eric and Harper are getting along much better than in the past, even discussing some aspects of their personal lives. For starters, Eric's teenage daughter, Lily, visits the house where the fund is currently managed, giving Harper a chance to get to know her a little, though both feel awkward and reluctant to pry into each other's affairs. Later in the episode, Eric offers Harper some rather rudimentary advice, emphasizing the need to disconnect from work occasionally and prioritize mental health and social engagements—a far cry from the Eric Tao of previous seasons. But Harper remains committed to improving SternTao's standing, even breaking up with her boyfriend, Kwabena Bannerman, who she feels never took the relationship seriously, was truly involved, or was loyal. Instead, Harper offers Kwabena a position at his firm, given his background as a trader, and the young man leaves his job at Mostyn Assets Management to join SternTao, giving the investment fund a much more comprehensive structure.
The basis of James Dycker's article on Tender and Harper Stern's bet against the company is financial malpractice, particularly regarding the fact that the company profits handsomely from pornography and gambling and lies about it. Having previously been a payment processing partner for several adult content websites, Tender had recently distanced itself from these companies to improve its image, and even the CFO, Whitney Halberstram, dismissed the CEO and his longtime friend, Jonah Atterbury, over a disagreement regarding this change. However, according to James's investigation, the company may still be operating as a payment gateway for apps and websites dedicated exclusively to adult content, directly contradicting the company's current claims and the promises it has been making to other companies and the government.
Harper has been trying to investigate the matter on his own and has tasked Sweetpea with examining Tender's financial records, as it may be easier for him to do so since he still works at Mostyn Asset Management. When Sweetpea presents his findings to Harper, it becomes clear that Tender has been growing rapidly in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) market, but its financial records do not appear to support this rapid growth. Central to this growth is the acquisition of other, smaller companies, the details of which are extremely vague, suggesting that this could be a large-scale money laundering scheme, also used to make Tender appear far more successful than it actually is. Harper tries to contact these acquired companies for more details, but is redirected to a call center in Dublin, which, coincidentally, is the address of most of the acquired companies, according to online listings.
Frustrated by this odd situation, Eric investigates on his own, reviewing the financial records of the startup Sweetpea had recently presented to SternTao, and finds a random address in Sunderland mentioned every 100 pages. Harper, naturally, wants to investigate further and takes Sweetpea to the address, where they pose as employees of the National Statistics Institute trying to find out what's going on there. A man named Jeffrey works from that residential address and explains that his job basically consists of collecting and grouping information—financial figures, to be exact. Jeffrey receives emails from African payment processing companies with lists of transactions. He then groups them into ranges based on the transaction amount and assigns a code to each range. These ranges are visually represented using pie charts and flowcharts, and that's where Jeffrey's responsibility ends.
But the implication is serious, as it means that Jeffrey and other freelancers working remotely for Tender are categorizing payments made through Tender based on the amount spent, not the source of the payments. This means that any payment made through Tender to pornographic or gambling websites is easily disguised as any other payment within the same range. The visual charts prepared by Jeffrey and the others are directly included in Tender's financial reports, meaning that they are, in fact, still supporting adult websites and making substantial revenue from them, but have simply devised a fraudulent technique to conceal the data.
James Dycker's article is finally published in episode 3 of season 4, with the approval of his editor at FinDigest, albeit with numerous changes and omissions. FinDigest is too nervous to attack Tender so directly, especially now that Sir Henry Muck, and therefore his aristocratic connections, are associated with the startup. The editor is well aware that people like Otto Mostyn file lawsuits at the slightest provocation, so the magazine is unwilling to take such a big risk. Therefore, most of the details provided in James's article are omitted before publication, and the final article has no effect, at least for now. Most people consider the article to be based on conjecture and containing unsubstantiated accusations, which means Harper is also going through a rough patch. As Eric reminds her, the findings she and Sweetpea had uncovered are now useless, since the article on which they had pinned their hopes has had no effect on the market. By the end of the episode, Harper still holds out hope of shorting Tender's stock, and the entire SternTao team meets with Kenny Killbane at his bank to discuss business.
Following Henry Muck's revelation at the end of episode 2 of season 4, he had not only regained the vigor to make love to his wife, Yasmin, and wanted to have a child with her, but he had also immediately agreed to join Tender as its new CEO. A month later, Henry has taken the reins with full determination and has also brought Yasmin onto the team. Although Henry insists on clarifying that Yasmin is a paid consultant who is there to advise the board of directors, the reality is that he can now not be separated from his beloved wife. Tender now intends to finalize a merger deal with an Austrian bank called IBN Bauer to further expand into the European market, and now faces a difficult situation when members of the Bauer family, who hold important positions on the bank's board of directors, raise an issue. Moritz-Hunter Bauer and his mother, Johanna, express their concerns about the merger agreement and request a meeting with the board members. Not wanting to offend the family or jeopardize the merger in any way, Henry and Yasmin decide to visit Vienna, along with Whitney and the non-executive director, Ferdinand. Once the two parties begin discussing business, Moritz-Hunter reveals his concerns about the misuse of IBN Bauer's customer data and demands that Tender guarantee the security of all information. However, Henry refuses to comply with this demand upon discovering that the Bauers had not only directly funded the Reich, but that Moritz-Hunter remains a supporter of the dictatorship. Even one of the paintings adorning the walls of the Bauer castle turns out to be the work of Adolf Hitler, making the family's stance clear.
For Henry and Whitney, finding a practical solution to deal with Moritz-Hunter becomes increasingly difficult, and it is then that the women prove invaluable. It is Yasmin and Johanna who find the solution to their problem, and Yasmin promises to use her influence and contacts to make everything work out. Johanna tells Yasmin that her son is passionate about his beliefs and opinions, and that he would love the opportunity to express his ideas publicly. Yasmin immediately understands the hint and contacts Alexander Norton, owner of several tabloid newspapers in London. In this way, Moritz-Hunter is given the opportunity to publish an opinion piece about his growing concerns regarding democracy, and in return, he and his mother approve the merger agreement.
Although Tender and IBN Bauer resolve their internal issues and reach a merger agreement, the payment processing startup still needs the approval of the British government to finalize a deal with a European company. Since government officials have deemed the proposed merger anti-competitive and expressed concerns about the possibility of Tender engaging in unfair business practices, Henry and Yasmin continue their efforts to convince Jennifer Bevan. Although Jennifer seems convinced, it's almost impossible to contact her superior in the Labour Party, Lisa Dearn, who has a personal aversion to Henry Muck and the aristocracy to which he belongs.
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