Among the three candidate companies, Vacheron Constantin, which specializes in top-level watchmaking, has the longest history, having been founded for more than 200 years.
In 1987, Jacques Cutler, the head of Vacheron Constantin's controlling family at the time, passed away. His children chose to sell the brand and it was bought by Ahmed Yamani, the former Saudi oil minister who had just immigrated to Switzerland.
As a rare non-royal high-level government official in Saudi Arabia, Ahmed Yamani relied on his outstanding personal ability to achieve the position of Saudi Arabia’s most core oil minister. He single-handedly planned the Middle East oil crisis in the 1970s and fought for OPEC. Lots of benefits.
It's a pity that personal ability cannot withstand the palace struggle after all.
In the mid-1980s, Yamani's biggest backer, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, was assassinated. The oil minister was dismissed by the new Saudi king the next year and moved to Switzerland to avoid further purges.
At that time, Vacheron Constantin happened to be looking for a buyer, and Yamani took advantage of the situation.
Media reports said that the former Saudi oil minister loved collecting watches and clocks, so he bought Vacheron Constantin. However, in Simon's view, this incident is more like the memory of many wealthy emerging countries going to the West to acquire basketball or football teams, a typical way of protecting themselves one by one.
Vacheron Constantin, like Rolex and Patek Philippe, is Switzerland's top watch brand. Buying such a company can greatly enhance the owner's international reputation.
Many times, fame is indeed an invisible talisman.
From the mid-1980s to the present, so many years have passed, and the political situation in Saudi Arabia has long been stable. No one cares about a former oil minister who has been out of power for a long time. Only then did Yamani begin to seek to sell this watch brand that occupied a large amount of his assets.
Different from ordinary mass-produced watch companies, Vacheron Constantin's annual output has just exceeded 11,000 pieces so far. However, because the average price exceeds US$10,000, there are many luxury-level limited editions every year. In 1993, the turnover reached US$143 million, with a net profit of US$21 million.
In preliminary contact, Yamani made an offer of US$300 million.
Top watch brands are not like luxury clothing and luggage companies that can expand rapidly by significantly increasing production and strengthening marketing. Therefore, although their profits are stable, their growth potential is very weak. Calculated based on the profit scale in 1993, with a quoted price of US$300 million, the price-to-earnings ratio of 14 times is still high.
According to the evaluation in the information just mentioned, if a real acquisition is launched, the company should be acquired for a price of no more than US$250 million.
Sofia put a glass of juice into Simon's hand, but still refused to get off his lap. After hearing the man's comment that "everything is good but also has problems," she said, "That's why I want you to make the decision."
Simon took a sip of the cold fresh apple juice, casually wrapped his other hand around the waist of the woman in his arms, and said: "Of the three companies, you probably want to get Bulgari the most, right?"
Sofia nodded, moved her body slightly to make it easier for the man to hold her, and said: "I have investigated many comprehensive jewelry and watch brands, such as Cartier, Bulgari, Piaget, etc., as well as our own Van Cleef & Arpels, and found that These companies have one common characteristic: jewelry sales account for the majority, and sales generally account for more than 70% of the brand's total revenue, while watches often only account for about 20%."
Simon smiled and said: "So, it is better to make money from women."
Sophia rolled her eyes at him lightly and continued: "Unlike luggage and clothing companies such as Gucci and CK, top jewelry and watch companies cannot over-expand if they want to maintain their brand value. The turnover of a single brand must be maintained within 1 billion US dollars." Best. Therefore, if we want to expand this part of the business, we can only expand in disguise by acquiring multiple brands."
Simon directly pointed out the problem facing Sophia: "The Bulgari family is not willing to sell too many shares. How do you plan to solve it?"
Sophia said: "I have considered that if we are willing to give up part of Melisandre's shares, the Bulgari family should be interested."
Melisandre Company's previous acquisitions have all used cash. Therefore, apart from Simon and Sophia, the company currently has no other shareholders.
Over the years, through several consecutive incentive equity transfers, Simon gave Sophia a total of up to 20% of Melisandre's shares.
Because it has not been listed, the outside world's valuation of Melisandre Company has always varied greatly, generally ranging from 5 billion to 10 billion US dollars. Even based on the lowest valuation of US$5 billion, Sophia is now a top female billionaire with a net worth of US$1 billion.
However, Sophia has been very low-key on this matter, and the ownership structure of Melisandre's company has also been kept secret. Many media still think that Melisandre is fully owned by Simon, so the woman has never appeared in any On the wealth list.
As long as the Bulgari family is not stupid, they should understand the gold content of using the stock of Melisandre, one of the four women in the Westeros system, for stock exchange.
Simon had no objection to Sophia's suggestion, but said: "You have to think carefully, Sophie, if you use Melisandre's shares this time and acquire other brands in the future, the other party is likely to make the same request."
Sofia said: "I know, but it will definitely be okay for us to maintain controlling interest for a long time in the future. For example, this time, I think it is enough to transfer 3% of the shares to the Bulgari family, and the rest will still be used cash payment."
Simon asked again: "What about the valuation?"
If you want to exchange shares, Melisandre's valuation is also a very troublesome issue.
The huge discrepancy in the valuation of Melisandre's company is not unreasonable, because this company is indeed not easy to value. In the past few years, due to different shareholding amounts and different types of subsidiaries, Melisandre's financial reports were calculated separately for each subsidiary.
Take 1993 as an example.
Gucci is still the core of Melisandre, with a shareholding ratio of 75%. In 1993, its revenue was US$1.89 billion, a growth rate of 32%, and a net profit of US$310 million.
Subsequently.
Van Cleef & Arpels: 60% stake, revenue in 1993 of US$350 million, growth rate of 35%, net profit of US$59 million
CK: Holding 55% of the shares, revenue in 1993 was US$170 million, growth rate of 33%, net loss of US$8 million
Chateau Latour: Holding 100% of the shares, the annual revenue in 1993 was US$36 million, a growth rate of 7%, and a net profit of US$6 million.
Christie's auction house: holds 31% of the shares. In 1993, the auction turnover was US$2.36 billion, a growth rate of 41%, and a net profit of US$73 million.
Based on shareholding ratios and profit figures, in 1993, the profits attributed to the parent company of all Melisandre's brands were approximately US$290 million.
However, for the development of these companies, Sophia did not implement full dividends, but only recovered about half of the profits.
Not to mention this.
Calculated based on the net profit of US$290 million attributable to the parent company, and because except for Chateau Latour owned by Simon, all other brands owned by Melisandre Company have maintained a high growth rate of more than 30%. Therefore, if an IPO is carried out, Operation, it is easy to obtain an IPO valuation of 20 times the price-to-earnings ratio, which is a market value of close to US$6 billion.
If it does go public, it won't be a problem if the price-to-earnings ratio rises to more than 30 times after listing, and it will have a market capitalization of tens of billions of dollars.
Therefore, if neither party is listed now and wants to adopt a share-swap acquisition model, valuation issues will inevitably trigger a tug-of-war between the two parties.
The best solution is of course to go public.
Sofia can probably guess what Simon is thinking. Although she has kept a low profile these years, she does not object to Melisandre Company going public at the right time. She said: "If it is an IPO, it will definitely be too late this year."
Simon thought for a while and said: "Let's talk about it then, and try not to suffer too much. Moreover, we can let the Bulgari family know about the listing in advance, which should also gain us a lot of initiative."
Sophia nodded.
The market value miracle created by Daenerys Entertainment's IPO is well known even as far away as Italy.
Melisandre is also a 'woman' owned by the Westeros Company, and probably no one will doubt her prospects for going public. The Bulgari family should also know that if they obtain Melisandre's equity during privatization, once Melisandre conducts an IPO, the value of the other party's shareholding is likely to double within one or two years.
This rate of return is definitely very attractive.
After talking about Sofia’s favorite Bulgari, Simon asked again: “What’s going on with Versace?”
Sophia said: "I met Gianni Versace in Cannes during the Cannes Film Festival in May. After chatting for a few words, he invited me to a party of the Versace brand, and then we had several contacts. In the middle of last month, Versace took the initiative Test whether I am interested in investing in his company."
Simon smiled and asked: "What do you think?"
Sofia took the cup that had unknowingly bottomed out from Simon's hand, drank the last bit of juice with a sip, put the glass next to it, and said: "Versace obviously wants to use our influence to get rid of the Mafia, so, this It’s not about what I think, it’s about what you think. You are a man, so of course you have to decide this kind of thing.”
Why was Gianni Versace shot
Because Versace wants to IPO.
After a company's IPO, it must publicly disclose its operating and financial status. If some people don't want to be caught, they will no longer be able to use the Versace shell to launder money.
Ultimately, Gianni Versace just wanted to get rid of the Italian Mafia.
It's a pity that it didn't work out in the end.
Simon has no fear of the Mafia.
The Italian Mafia considers itself a group of desperadoes, and Simon, who dares to launch a war in Africa, is not a higher-level desperado.
What's more, the Mafia should not have forgotten Mussolini's iron-blooded methods.
Because the deterioration of social security in the past few years has caused public dissatisfaction, the Italian government has continued to increase its efforts to crack down on organized crime in recent years. With the continuous deployment of the Westeros system in Italian political and business circles in recent years, if the mafia dares to provoke him, Simon will not Mind instigating the Italian government to launch a larger-scale anti-gang operation.
Sofia, who was waiting for Simon to make a decision, suddenly felt a certain coldness and depth emanating from the man in front of her, and quickly realized that she had made a mistake.
Very serious mistake.
The little man who is so powerful that he makes many people despair is certainly not afraid of those bug-like underground forces, which is why she put Versace's information in front of him.
However, it was not what she wanted to release the devilish side of him over such a trivial matter.
Sofia would rather her little man bully her to death in bed than let him be wrapped up in negative emotions that should never appear on him. He should always be decent.
Thinking of this, Sophia leaned over Simon, kissed him gently, and said: "I have decided, the next target is Bulgari."
Simon put his hands around the woman's waist, looked at her for a moment, and suddenly smiled: "Are you worried that one day I will suddenly have a mental relapse..."
Before she could finish her words, Sophia kissed her again.
After a while, their lips parted. Sofia rubbed the man's lightly stubbled cheek with her face, and her tone became a little firmer: "It's Bulgari."
Simon nodded slightly: "Okay, I'll listen to you. However, it would also be good to buy Vacheron Constantin by the way."
The merger war between the world's major luxury goods giants began in the late 1990s when the European economy was recovering. Now, since there is no shortage of funds and sufficient strength, of course, the sooner they plan to acquire more luxury brands, the better.
Sophia hummed slightly.
Both men subsequently stopped mentioning Versace.
However, Simon occasionally had the thought that since it could not be acquired, it would be best to completely destroy such a company. Both Italian brands, Versace's style has many similarities with Gucci, and they are the most direct competitors. Since Gianni Versace has some thoughts and cannot rely on the Westeros system, he may be able to promote the IPO of Versace Company in advance.
After quietly making up his mind, Simon continued to discuss some details of the acquisition of Bulgari and Vacheron Constantin with Sophia in a calm manner. The two left Martha's Vineyard together at around ten o'clock in the morning.
It was almost noon when we returned to Greenwich from the island. We simply had lunch at Sofia's house before Simon rushed to the airport and set off back to the west coast.
Boeing 767 front cabin.
After the plane took off smoothly, Girl A sent a thick stack of documents that Simon needed to read to the study room in the front cabin. After getting on the plane, Neil Bennett also handed Simon a password-protected suitcase with Weiss in it. Regular operational reports and intelligence summaries from the Tello family intelligence team.
Simon was not in a hurry to open the lockbox, but first looked at the North American theater box office data for the past week.
Today is already Saturday, July 16th.
In the last box office week from July 8 to July 14, two new films in North American theaters, "True Lies" relied on James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who created the "Terminator" series. The two main creative partners successfully withstood the crushing impact of the phenomenal "Forrest Gump" and earned US$40.83 million in seven days in the first week.
This is actually the reason why "True Lies" and "Forrest Gump" have very different subject matter audiences.
"True Lies" is an action blockbuster with full popcorn properties. In addition, "Batman: The Dark Knight Rises" released in early June consumed the audience's desire to watch movies, which revived a month later. During this period, there were no other blockbuster movies of the same type. Show up so you can be successful.
However, "True Lies" still only ranked second on the box office list in its first week.
In its second week of release, "Forrest Gump" had an increase in the number of screens from 2,137 in the first week to 2,836. The box office dropped only 11% in the second week, and it collected another US$47.53 million, easily retaining the single-week box office championship. .
Within two weeks of its release, "Forrest Gump" entered the 100 million yuan box office club, with a cumulative box office of US$100.98 million.
Because the two blockbusters were too strong, another new film last week, the love movie "I Love Trouble" starring Julia Roberts, only had a box office of US$12.28 million in its first week, ranking third.
Daenerys Entertainment initially signed a 5-film contract with Julia Roberts. However, as many things changed, the actress continued to work in blockbuster movies such as "Pretty Woman" and "Grannet". He is still popular, but Simon doesn't value him too much.
With no suitable projects in hand, Simon generously let Roberts go work with other studios.
"I Love Trouble" invested by Warner Bros., with Roberts' participation, cost as much as 45 million U.S. dollars to produce, and the box office in the first week was 12.28 million U.S. dollars, which is less than half of Warner Bros.'s expected results. The total North American box office is expected to be 30 million U.S. dollars. , which means that Warner will continue to lose money on this project.
The summer hit "The Dark Knight" has already stumbled. Now, another expensive romance film has stumbled. Warner has to rely on the profits created by "The Dark Knight Rises" to continue to make up for the shortfall.
According to Lady A's notes after the box office report, after yesterday's weekly box office data was released, Time Warner's stock price fell 2.9% on the last trading day of this week, with its market value falling from US$16.1 billion to US$15.6 billion in one day. The daily market value evaporated by US$500 million.
Impacted by the box office success of "True Lies", "The Conjuring", which was in its fourth week of release, saw a box office decline of 31% this week, collecting another $12.15 million, narrowly behind "I Love Trouble".
However, the cumulative box office of this first film in the Conjuring movie universe has reached 96.31 million U.S. dollars, and it is about to exceed 100 million US dollars.
Jack Nicholson's new film "Werewolf" was released during the Independence Day holiday box office week on July 1. The box office dropped by 54% the next week, with only 11.45 million U.S. dollars, ranking fifth on this week's list. The film has been in two weeks The cumulative box office is 36.36 million U.S. dollars, and the total North American box office is expected to be about 50 million U.S. dollars.
Considering that the production cost of the film alone was as high as 50 million US dollars, the down-on-his-luck Jack Nicholson had no hope of turning around.
In addition to the top five, "Phantom", which ranked sixth, saw a 49% box office drop in the next week. The single-week box office shrank to less than 10 million U.S. dollars, with a box office of only 7.51 million U.S. dollars, and the cumulative box office was only 22.18 million U.S. dollars.
Other films that major Hollywood studios originally had high hopes for, such as "Zero Point 2", "Hillbilly 2" and "Beverly Cop 3", have become more popular with the release of "True Lies" and "Forrest Gump". "The phenomenal explosion of "The Movie" has completely withdrawn from the summer competition.