Rebirth of England

In the original time and space, Permira Investment Fund sold its Valentino shares to an investment fund owned by the Qatari royal family in 2012 for 700 million euros.

But what the Qatari royal family purchased at that time was the controlling interest in Valentino, which was a majority share.

This is different from the fact that the Gucci-Hermès Group directly bought all the shares of Valentino this time - in addition to the Permira investment fund, they also bought the remaining shares of Valentino from the Marzotto family.

It is also because since Valentino’s design director Valentino announced his retirement last year, although they have tried to invite some designers in the hope of continuing Valentino’s style, they have not been successful. Therefore, in terms of revenue, from last year to the first half of this year, Valentino It's dropped a lot.

Otherwise, if Valentino is still very profitable, even if the Permira Investment Fund and the Marzotto family are willing to sell, they will ask for a higher price.

However, Barron knows that the two brand creative directors Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli, whom Valentino has just hired not long ago, will perform very well in the future.

Starting next year, Valentino's revenue will begin to grow - although the subprime mortgage crisis has a greater impact on the luxury goods industry in Europe and the United States, their subsequent growth in the Asian and Middle Eastern markets is still visible to the naked eye.

According to statistics, the increase from 2009 to 2012 was as high as 60%!

This is why the investment foundation of the Qatar royal family later wanted to buy a majority stake in Valentino.

But in fact, a transaction of several hundred million euros no longer occupied much of Barron's attention. That is to say, when Beatrice asked, he casually discussed the matter with her.

"Yes, the yacht I ordered before will be completed soon. Mr. Lagardère, it should take less than a month. It's a pity that the weather will cool down by then..."

When they came to Paris, Arnaud Lagardère, who had a "very happy chat" with Barron last time, held a ball for Barron in his mansion, and Barron took Beatrice with him.

Now, what he was talking about to Arnaud Lagardère was the superyacht he ordered in Germany. That was before Barron got married. He ordered a 500-foot-long yacht from the A\u0026R shipyard in Germany. A superyacht called Devonshire Poseidon.

The initial estimated construction period was approximately two and a half years...

But three years have passed now, and Barron finally received news from the A\u0026R Shipyard. In less than a month, the "Devenhill Poseidon" will be completed and delivered.

The reason for the delay of more than half a year was not only that Barron made some improvements and upgrades to the internal structure and configuration of the "Devenhill Poseidon", but also because the A\u0026R shipyard needed to expand the dock. Taiwan scale, work was suspended for more than three months.

Fortunately, Barron himself had previously purchased another superyacht named "Caesar" from this shipyard. Although "Caesar" is smaller than "Devenhill Poseidon", it is still enough. Barron used.

Moreover, he himself does not use the yacht much. After all, he has been quite busy most of the time during this period.

The last time he came to Paris to meet Arnault, he invited Barron to a "swimsuit party" organized by him - after all, the Lagardère Group is the largest media group in France, with basically the resources of its TV stations and fashion magazines. Equivalent to resources for models and beauties...

But now, Arnaud Lagardère is married again, and his beloved wife was a model before, so this time the man is not so promiscuous - at least this dance held in his mansion is still Very "serious".

Fortunately, this time Barron came with Beatrice Borromeo, and the girl was chatting with Arnaud's wife Jade not far away.

It can be seen that she is worthy of having been a model. Arnault's wife Jade is wearing a satin dress. Her figure curve is very eye-catching, but she looks a bit mature, and in terms of appearance , slightly inferior to Beatrice.

After the meeting, Barron did not immediately talk to Arnault about Lagardère Group's sale of Huache Group, but talked about other things first - after all, this matter itself was under negotiation, even if Arnault Some are "prodigal", but when there are competitors like the Hearst Group, no matter how "prodigal" they are, they are not so stupid that they don't understand the principle of whoever pays the highest price...

Of course, in terms of bidding, SEM Group still has an advantage over Hearst Group.

But before that, the Lagardère Group preferred to sell the overseas business of the Hachette Group and retain the French operations of those magazines. This is why the Hearst Group made a bid.

Barron will also try to persuade Arnault to make up his mind to sell Huache Group entirely.

At this time, the topic of the subprime mortgage crisis is inevitable.

"Government? I have to say that they act very slowly. Sometimes they don't even know what to do. They even give money directly to those greedy bankers. This is simply using our taxes to please the hateful capital... …”

What’s interesting is that, to a certain extent, Arnault feels a bit like an “angry youth”, even though he is one of the “big investors” and is no longer young.

What he is blaming is France’s previous rescue of BNP Paribas, that is, BNP Paribas. The French government decided to inject 5.1 billion euros into BNP Paribas and obtained non-voting shares of France’s largest listed bank. .

"After all, BNP Paribas is the largest bank in France, but I also think it would be better to let the market resolve this matter at this time."

Obviously, Arnault very much agrees with Barron's words. As for why Barron said this?

Because he really thought so, so he would have the opportunity to invest in BNP Paribas. As far as he knew, the Rothschild family had a considerable stake in BNP Paribas. Although the proportion was not high, they still had an interest in this company. Banks have some influence…

If he can take a stake in BNP Paribas, of course, it requires shares with voting rights, then Barron believes that it can eliminate the influence of the Rothschild family in BNP Paribas.

And in terms of income, this investment can also earn good returns.

But there is no way. As the largest listed bank in France, the French government will definitely give priority to rescuing BNP at this time.

Of course, because they are deeply involved in American subprime bond assets, and the global stock market is falling, correspondingly, some investment parts of banks continue to cause losses, and the situation of many French banks is not so good...