National Tide 1980

Monday, October 19, 1987.

At ten o'clock in the morning, the largest conference room at LVMH headquarters was packed, and Bernard Arnault held a press conference here as the helm of LVMH.

On this day, he specifically made a series of clarification announcements to several French mainstream media in response to the recent rumors that have been prevalent in the outside world, as well as the turmoil caused by Henri Lacamie's deliberate slander of the company's products at the autumn conference.

For example, LVMH's internal operations are all normal. Except for Henri Lacamier, who is dissatisfied with the company's recruitment of new blood, jealous of talents, and obstructs the company's management, the other board members remain harmonious and united.

Then he pulled all the board members together and announced the "banning order" on Henri Lacamie by a collective vote of the board of directors without Henri Lacamie present.

In addition, Bernard Arnault also predicted in advance that the company's operating performance in the third quarter of this year will be greatly improved, and investors will not be disappointed.

The entire meeting went smoothly and successfully, with too many reporters holding microphones competing to ask questions.

However, Bernard Arnault did not give reporters much time. He only spent about ten minutes answering five or six questions, and then put his hands behind his back and announced the end of today's press conference.

Accompanied by several staff members, he walked leisurely outside the conference room door while maintaining a gentlemanly smile.

He was the first to leave the venue, and then went straight to his office.

Along the way, he nodded to almost all the subordinates he met, responded politely to greetings from others, and dutifully played the role of a confident leader of the company. .

It wasn't until he returned all the way to his office and closed the door that he was the only one left, that the smile on his face disappeared.

At this time, he let go of all restraint, but seemed to be a completely different person. He made a call to Lazard Investment Bank in an impatient manner.

If he was seen like this by any of the reporters just now, it would undoubtedly make all his speeches at the meeting no longer credible.

And the reason why he was so gloomy was because in just a few days, the market value of LVMH and Dior clothing has been falling.

In other words, his net worth continues to shrink.

Although it was just a temporary loss, it didn't take long for this incident to start to make him feel heartbroken.

"How is it!? How is it? Frank, this is Bernard. How is the market situation now?"

As soon as he heard Frank Meyer's voice coming from the microphone, Bernard Arnault asked impatiently.

Unfortunately, Frank Meyer on the microphone did not provide any good news to Bernard Arnault, "It's still not good, my friend. After the market opened today, both LVMH and Dior clothing continued to fall. Last week, this was already the third consecutive day, and today's selling intensity has slightly increased. Fortunately, the decline is not too drastic. LVMH's stock price has only fallen by less than 2%, and Dior Clothing has. It fell three percent today..."

The bad news immediately sent Bernard Arnault into a rage.

"Isn't that enough? Do you mean that everything I have done these days is useless? I am acting according to the plan we recently discussed. It was you who gave me the idea. For To reverse the bad influence and save the public's confidence in LVMH, I even spent millions of francs to entertain the editors-in-chief of three French newspapers, the head of a radio station, and the producer of a TV news program, and boarded a yacht to participate in modeling. Party. But now that I have spent the money, the news has been published. But you tell me that it still can't stop the stock price from falling, and even Dior clothing has fallen. Can you tell me what happened? What's going on? Besides informing me that my net worth is shrinking rapidly, what else can you, an investment expert, do for me?"

"Don't worry, don't worry, I understand your feelings very well, my friend. But what can you do if you vent your anger on me? The problem now is that you have unknowingly fallen into the trap of your opponent. You have now become someone else's Prey, do you understand?”

Frank Meyer patiently comforted the other party, and his words were definitely not to shirk responsibility or to be alarmist.

"I am now very sure that someone is deliberately shorting your company. And I have found out that the short-seller should be your old rival. Through special channels, I tracked the sales department and account information of the sales of these stocks, and the sales order They are all from the Sales Department of the Fifth District of CLSA. Except for Henri Lacamier's account, the other one is named Pierre Cardon, and the other one seems to be an Asian. I can't name them this time. He is aggressive and wealthy. He seems to have raised a lot of funds and bought a lot of bonds to sell short. "

However, his explanation was almost ineffective. After hearing these remarks, Bernard Arnault became even more excited, and he almost shouted into the microphone.

"So what? Even if these people target me together, so what? They are just my defeated subordinates, and they are completely overestimating their own capabilities. They don't think about it. They haven't defeated me in the past year. How can I win today?" Maybe win over me? Otherwise, I won’t be the one to make the decision now for LVMH. Well, originally I wanted to let this old lunatic, Henri Lacamier, live a prosperous second half of his life, but since he still wants to ruin my business, he doesn’t want to give up. , then I will no longer be kind. And that old man who makes mass-produced clothing and only sells private label goods dares to look down on me. Compared with me, he is a person without style. , I am really angry, you have to help me, let these people who dare to oppose me lose their money. "

"Of course I'm on your side, but I have to advise you to restrain your anger and act rationally. The current situation is a bit complicated."

Frank Meyer considered himself a relatively objective bystander. He didn't care at all whether Bernard's pride could bear it or not, and insisted on speaking out his most worrying issues.

"The issue of public opinion is very difficult to deal with. Yes, you followed my instructions and launched crisis public relations in a timely manner, but how can you have more friends in the fashion industry than Henri Lacamier? He has been in the industry for many years , is much more famous than you, and most people think that he is an expert, so they will inevitably take his side and criticize you for kicking him out of the board of directors. This is also something that can't be helped, just like the president of Yves Saint Laurent. The manager, Pierre Bergé, he was mocking you on every occasion last weekend for being an outsider in the fashion industry. You know, he was always jealous that your Dior clothes could be released in advance of Saint Laurent, so he is seeing people now. Let’s just say that LV’s glory is all because of Henri Lacamier. If you exclude this expert, both LVMH and Dior clothing will be finished sooner or later.”

"This Pierre Bergé is also crazy! I remember him! Frank, I swear, I will prevent Yves Saint Laurent from being launched on the market!"

Bernard Arnault didn't care at all how many enemies he had now. He added another name to his catalog of revenge.

Frank was noncommittal about this,

"That's for the future. As for now, we still have to focus on the most pressing issue at the moment. Listen, friend, I don't care how angry you are, but you must take it seriously. They are prepared. Maybe they With Henry inside LVMH, they should have noticed that LVMH's current management conflicts and equity competition have caused the company's value to be seriously deviated from its fundamentals. That's why they deliberately created a negative impact at this time and used the media to repeatedly criticize and start. Short selling. Although your M\u0026A strategy is successful, as long as the equity is firmly in your hands, it is unlikely that they will regain control of the company from you even if they suddenly attack. But now it seems that as long as they no longer miss it. One point, if you are determined to sell the chips in your hand, they should make some money as compensation. Maybe it is their plan to disgust you. "

"And I'm not trying to scare you. I feel like they have become smarter now and seem to have discovered another weakness of yours - Dior clothing. They are different from the past. Now they are attacking two companies you control at the same time. This will not only divide us. Not knowing their reality will also make us spend a lot of unnecessary funds and not be able to take care of ourselves. I am not sure yet whether they have understood that controlling Dior is equivalent to getting 6% of LVMH shares. So we. You must be careful, otherwise it is very likely that they will find an opportunity to take advantage of you. If you really let them turn around and take LVMH away from you, we will become a well-known joke in the investment community.”

Bernard Arnault finally listened to these words.

Because his core interest lies in the control of LVMH, he is like a dragon guarding a treasure, full of the highest level of vigilance regarding equity. He did not express his anger this time, but remained silent for a while and spoke solemnly in a lowered voice.

"They have the best idea. I won't let them get what they want. Let's discuss it now. How should we deal with the next step? Now it's obvious that 200 million US dollars is no longer enough. To defeat them, I still need More money. Can you raise it for me as soon as possible?"

However, when it comes to this, Frank Meyer prevaricates for the first time.

"No, no, no, it's not that simple. I've said it a long time ago. Lazard has invested too much money in you. If you count the two hundred million dollars, we have already invested no less than one billion dollars in you. Putting all your eggs in one basket is a taboo in investing. I can't give you more. If that happens, I won't be able to explain it to the headquarters, and the U.S. side will have trouble with me. I suspect that the Asian is probably Japanese. Considering the Japanese behavior of having too much money to spend, I am very worried that they may have four to five billion US dollars, or more, so no matter what? We all need reinforcements financially."

"What reinforcements? What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that in order to be 100% sure, I can contact other investment banks to be our allies. For example, JPMorgan Chase, Lehman Brothers. Take the shares of LVMH and Dior Clothing and our Lazard Bank With credit ratings as the backing, enough money can be raised from these investment banks, no matter how rich the outsiders are, it doesn't matter whether they ask for another billion dollars or two billion dollars. They are just laymen and don't understand the secrets of the financial industry. Few people know that our investment banks borrow funds from each other, which is almost unlimited, as long as you are willing to pay more interest. I'll take care of it for you. I'll help you use your funds to get rid of them. As an opponent, if we want to defeat them, we will have to redeem them at a high position and lose all our money."

They are both foxes for thousands of years, so they naturally understand everything in Liaozhai.

Although Frank had a good idea, Bernard Arnault, who understood the subtext, immediately cursed, "You Jew, do you want to take advantage of this moment to blackmail me again? I really doubt you understand friendship. What does it mean? You have to tell me the conditions every time. Do you want to get some benefits from the broker? I really regret the watches, clubs and fine wine I gave you on weekdays. Now it seems like a complete waste. "

Frank responded shamelessly, "Don't say that, you are tarnishing our friendship. In fact, you know best in your heart that I am the friend who can really help you. Didn't I use my professional expertise to help you? I have dealt with a lot of troubles that are not worth your precious energy to think about. The services I provide you are not something ordinary VIP customers can enjoy. Who doesn’t think about themselves in this world?”

Money can make the world go round, and the emperor has no shortage of hungry soldiers. Foreigners also understand this truth. Bernard Arnault is also a well-organized person. After thinking about it, he still has to grasp the big and let go of the small.

"Well, Frank, I have to say that you are still my teacher when it comes to profit-making. But I like your idea and the last sentence. Forget it, as long as I win, I don't care how much money I spend. I promise. It’s an extra benefit for you, right?”

Sure enough, money works wonders. Knowing that he had extra money to make money, Frank Meyer felt better at that time.

"Ah, that's great, Bernard. I knew you would understand. Generous people are destined to achieve great things."

Of course, because of this, he naturally treats the current situation more responsibly.

"Ah, by the way, before we get reinforcements, the $200 million we promised you can be paid first. Although it is a bit difficult to protect two stocks with this money, there is no problem with one stock. I want to ask you, you Which stock is the most urgent to keep? You'd better choose one. Let's take care of the other things first. I will seize the time to solve it and try to help you get funds by the end of today..."

"I choose Dior, please help me keep Dior first. Your reminder is necessary. Maybe they really want to control LVMH shares by raiding my Dior. I have to guard against this move. We don't take this risk "

"Okay, I'll do it right away. Just wait for my call." After saying that, Frank Meyer hung up the phone.

It was only then that Bernard Arnault had some time to relax mentally and emotionally.

He pressed the phone on his desk and asked the secretary outside the door for a cup of coffee with double whiskey.

He had to admit that after this conference call, he felt much more at ease.

Although Frank is greedy, he has never let him down in the financial field and handling finances. He is convinced that this guy can do what he says and his money will not be wasted.

By the time I had lunch, the situation had improved a lot.

Because Frank called his office and said that he had spent 100 million on Dior clothing to protect the market, the decline had stopped and instead rose by 2%.

In terms of credit financing, preliminary communication has been made with JPMorgan Chase. After 3 o'clock this afternoon, US$200 million will be obtained first, and another US$300 million will be obtained in the next three days.

After hearing these good news, Bernard Arnault has basically begun to dream about how he will use financial weapons to teach his opponents a lesson again and knock out their teeth.

Humph, these idiots who only know how to make clothes, and are laymen when it comes to finance, actually want to fight him with their bodies?

I don’t even know what’s going on.

Therefore, even in the afternoon, when someone from Guinness called and asked about the recent rapid decline in LVMH's stock price and the damage to LVMH's reputation, Bernard Arnault responded quite forcefully.

He assured Guinness that everything was fine, that the stock price would soon return to where it should be, and that all instability in the board of directors and management would be swept away like garbage.

However, he was still too optimistic.

Because of the time difference between the United States and Europe, when the afternoon time came to 2:30, the stock exchange on Wall Street in the United States also opened.

And that stock market crash, which was destined to attract worldwide attention and shocked the world, came at exactly the right time.

It didn't take long for the three major U.S. stock indexes to suddenly collapse.

The traders were stunned, holding their heads and looking at the straight downward curve, dumbfounded. (End of chapter)