Rebirth of England

Speaking of which, Barnier also has his own uniqueness - after all, no matter who he is or what method he uses, it takes some special abilities to obtain a gift of up to US$1 billion from a super-rich person.

Barnier, on the other hand, can be called a master in the social field. He can always easily win the favor of big shots.

It is said that on his long list of friends, there are French President Mitterrand, Sagan, Dali, the author of "You Are So Sad", Beckett, the author of "Waiting for Godot", the Princess of Monaco, etc...

Johnny Depp, who starred in "Pirates of the Caribbean", is known to the media for being difficult to deal with, but he said of Barnier: "The photos he took are the most honest photos of me, without staged shots and without any defense."

Johnny Depp also asked Barnier to be his daughter's godfather, and his wife even allowed Barnier to take photos of himself breastfeeding their daughter...

In addition, Barnier is also the "accompany" of many French noble ladies.

Among them are the famous female artists who helped him rise to prominence, as well as the most famous female art patron in the 20th century.

In the prevailing salon culture in France, almost all famous salon hostesses know Barnier - Lillian Bettencourt is also one of them.

From the moment she met Barnier, Lillian generously gave him many things: the Picasso paintings hanging on the wall of her living room, a privately owned tropical island, a huge insurance policy with Barnier as the beneficiary, and properties around the world.

In the end, Lillian even said that except for the L'Oreal and Nestlé stocks that she had already promised to her only daughter, everything else could be left to Barnier.

It can also be seen that Lilian loves Barnier very much.

Although this kind of scandal is a trouble for the Bettencourt family, for Barron, it is a good opportunity for the Gucci-Hermès Group to take control of the L'Oreal Group.

You must know that in the previous agreement signed between the L'Oreal Group and the Nestlé Group, the Nestlé Group was not free to sell its shares in the L'Oreal Group before 2014 - because during this period, neither the Betancourt family nor the Nestlé Group had any rights. If one party sells its shares in the L'Oréal Group, the other party will have priority.

Therefore, if the Gucci-Hermès Group wants to acquire Nestlé Group’s L’Oreal Group shares before then, the Betancourt family has priority and can buy Nestlé Group’s L’Oreal Group shares first—unless the other party gives up this right. .

For Liliane Betancourt, although her mental state seems to be worrying, since she was able to reach such an agreement with the Nestlé Group in 2004, it also shows that she wants to buy the shares of the L'Oreal Group. It's almost impossible.

But Lillian’s daughter Francoise Bettencourt is different, because it is obvious that her main focus is not on the L’Oreal Group – in fact, since Lillian’s father passed away, the operation of the L’Oreal Group has It is mainly the responsibility of its management. The Bettencourt family only holds the largest share of the equity to ensure the family's ownership of L'Oréal.

But compared to Lillian, Francoise is more likely to be willing to compromise on this.

If taken into account, Barron remembers that in his previous life, from this time, Françoise petitioned the court for the guardianship of Lillian Bettencourt on the grounds that her mother was in poor mental health and susceptible to the bad influence of others. If the rights were obtained as desired in 2011 - this means that from that time on, Francoise would have controlled the decision-making power of the shares of L'Oréal Group held by the Bettencourt family.

So after that, given that Françoise is not very interested in business, the Gucci-Hermès Group is still very likely to gain control of the L'Oreal Group.

But it seems that that will not be until 2011 at the earliest...

"We can lock in the shares held by Nestlé Group in advance through equity swap, provided that Nestlé Group can be persuaded to agree..."

Ashley Weber, head of William Weber Capital, told Barron on the phone.

The last acquisition of the Hermès Group was carried out through Ashley, and she herself is very familiar with some methods in this regard.

The so-called equity swap translates as equity swap. In fact, in the original time and space, LVMH Group used this method to acquire Hermès.

At that time, LVMH Group and three investment banks signed equity swap contracts for the Hermès Group.

The content is that if the Hermès Group's stock price reaches a certain price when the date stipulated in the contract arrives, then the LVMH Group can buy the stocks in the hands of these investment banks; if it does not reach this price, it will not I bought it, but I have to pay a certain handling fee.

It’s just that the reason why LVMH Group used this method to acquire Hermès Group’s shares at that time was mainly to avoid alerting the snake and avoid the requirement that if it holds more than 5% of the shares of Hermès Group, it must be publicly held.

Therefore, the Hermès Group later submitted a complaint to the Paris Prosecutor's Office because of the LVMH Group's method of acquiring shares, accusing LVMH of increasing its 12% stake in Hermès through unconventional means such as "insider trading," "collusion," and "stock price manipulation." And asked LVMH to sell off the shares it had acquired.

Now Barron and the others can use the equity swap agreement to lock in the shares of L'Oréal Group held by Nestlé Group in advance - they can sign an agreement with Nestlé Group to acquire the shares at a specified price after a certain period of time. Nestlé Group’s rights to L’Oréal Group shares.

In this way, if Barron takes care of the Bettencourt family, or waits until 2014, he can exercise this right and directly purchase the shares of L'Oréal Group held by Nestlé Group.

Of course, he also has the right to regret and give up the purchase at that time, but he needs to pay a certain fee to the Nestlé Group.

To put it bluntly, this is an agreement similar to gambling.

The question now is, how can we get Nestlé Group to agree to sign such an agreement with them?

And even if the other party intends to reach this agreement, the purchase price and term in the agreement will definitely need to be determined after some negotiation.

"Okay, you can contact Nestlé Group and see what their attitude is."

The subprime mortgage crisis that is about to break out on a large scale has given Barron a good opportunity. He decided to try talking to the other party first.

"Your Highness the Duke, this is a list of people in the office who are more proficient in business. You can choose from here..."

After Barron finished the call with Ashley Weber, his personal assistant Wang Wanting handed him a folder and said to him.