Chapter 186： Holding Hermès Group

These promises of William Chen finally dispelled the doubts of the Hermes family, which also made the atmosphere of the reception more harmonious.

In the free communication session that followed, William Chen deliberately communicated with many family members. In addition to answering some of their questions, he also tried to obtain their approval for himself.

In particular, the conversation with several important members also cleared the way for Chen William's acquisition.

It is like a conversation between William Chen and Nicolas Pièche, who is the member of the Hermès family with the highest personal shareholding and holds 6% of the group's shares.

He still holds a relatively supportive attitude towards William Chen's acquisition, because if it is true as William Chen said, his shares are limited to 48%, then the importance of the 6% shares in the hands of Nicolas Piesch has greatly increased. When William Chen's shareholding is similar to that of the Hermès family, he has a greater say in it. No matter which side he favors, he can decide the situation.

Therefore, this reception has generally achieved William Chen's purpose. His total shareholding in the Hermès Group now reaches 39%. If he is temporarily limited to 48% according to his commitment, then there is still a 9% share that can be absorbed.

From the next day, after reaching a tacit understanding with the Hermès family, William Chen asked Goldman Sachs to continue to contact members of the family who were willing to sell shares and continue to make acquisitions.

The acquisition of Hermès Group by Meta Investment Company can be said to have attracted worldwide attention. Shortly after, Meta Investments announced that its stake in the Hermès Group had reached 39%.

At this time, Chen William was interviewed by the local government department, and he needed to explain to them the purpose of the acquisition of Hermes Group. After all, this is a luxury brand in France, and the completion of this acquisition must also be officially recognized.

However, because it has reached an agreement with the Hermès family, this step has not been subject to too many restrictions. After ensuring that the acquisition, the Hermès Group will not change the status quo and will remain independent, and it has also obtained official approval.

During this period, William Chen successively signed acquisition agreements with some members of the Hermès family. At an average price of 80 euros, at a cost of 1.085 billion US dollars, he purchased 10.044 million shares of Hermès International, increasing his stake to 48%. %.

In this way, during the entire acquisition process, Chen William spent a total of 5.05 billion US dollars, and now holds 53.544 million shares of Hermes Group, holding 48% of the shares, becoming the controlling party of the company and officially completing the acquisition of Hermes.

So Meta Investment Company and Hermès Group jointly held a press conference and announced that Meta Investment Company has completed the acquisition of Hermès Group, and currently holds 48% of the shares, becoming the controlling party of Hermès Group.

After the acquisition, the Hermès Group will continue to operate independently. Meta Investment Company will support the Hermès Group strategically, and will continue to maintain the Hermès family’s management of the Group, continue the Hermès brand’s excellence in production technology, and bring global consumers to the world. Come to more new products and higher quality.

After the dust of this acquisition landed, news came out that the stock price of Hermès International closed up 9% that day, and the stock price was close to 90 euros. Calculated at this price, the value of Chen William’s investment has risen by more than 1.45 billion US dollars. It can be said that it was a success.

During this period of time, Fan Bingbing accompanied Chen William in France to complete the acquisition of the Hermès Group. She also experienced the feeling of such a large-scale acquisition. It was an expenditure of hundreds of millions of euros, and the total cost of the final acquisition was as high as 5.05 billion US dollars, which is equivalent to spending the net worth of the richest man in China.

So exciting!

But she is not without gain. Through this period of contact with the Hermès family, Fan Bingbing has become more familiar with the French fashion circle. Especially when attending the cocktail party that night, many people were deeply impressed by Fan Bingbing's stunning appearance in a Hermes dress.

That is to say, because the Hermès brand is quite unique, it has never specifically looked for celebrities as spokespersons. Otherwise, she may become the French spokesperson of the Hermès brand.

Unlike other brands, such as Chanel, LV and so on, in a country or region, it will be divided into spokespersons, brand ambassadors, brand friends and other various levels of appellation, often looking for a bunch of celebrity endorsements all at once.

But even so, the chief fashion designer of the Hermès brand has invited Fan Bingbing to one of their fashion shows next month.

It has been 12 years since Hermès invited Chinese stars in important catwalks.

Gu Xing

Therefore, this will be a very important honor. Fan Bingbing also happily agreed. If it can go smoothly and perform well, it will also lay the foundation for future cooperation, and it will also occupy the domestic media for a long time. report.

You must know that the photos of Zhang Manyu participating in the Hermes catwalk will be taken out for evaluation every once in a while, which is really popular for many years.

After the acquisition of the Hermès Group, Chen William originally wanted to stay in France to accompany Fan Bingbing for a few days, but now it seems that he has to return to the United States first, because of the acquisition of MGM, after nearly a month of negotiations, finally As a result, he needs to go back and sign the contract.

Moreover, during this period of time, the situation in the United States has also changed a lot, and he needs to go back and deal with it.

Fan Bingbing is very open to this situation. After all, William Chen has been with her in France for a few days, and work matters are more important.

Fan Bingbing also has a good relationship with the Hermès Group now, and is discussing with the other party about the show next month, so she will stay in France for a few days, and then return directly to China. There is still a lot of work waiting for her to complete. .

When William Chen returned to the United States, it was already the end of January. The plane landed directly at Los Angeles Airport, where he would complete his eventual acquisition of MGM.

The complication of acquiring MGM is all the communication with management, shareholders and creditors.

All these things have been done by Goldman Sachs. The real acquisition price is the easiest point to negotiate. The only thing that wastes time is the way of acquisition.

One of the easiest to deal with is the management of MGM, who are most concerned about the future operation of MGM and the guarantee of filming.

The most critical is the creditors. Unless the debt of MGM of 3.5 billion US dollars can be settled at one time, the acquisition method needs to obtain their approval to ensure that they will get the final repayment.

Therefore, after the discussion, the plan for William Chen to acquire MGM was finally determined. After William Chen nodded and agreed, this plan could be used to complete the acquisition of MGM.

In the final acquisition plan, William Chen will buy MGM for $1.5 billion and assume MGM's $3.5 billion in debt.

In order to obtain the approval of the company's creditors, he will take out $1 billion in funds at the same time as the acquisition, and repay part of the debt in advance, so that MGM's debt will be reduced to $2.5 billion.

Finally, after the acquisition of the company, he will also inject $500 million into the company for the company's operations and the 23rd film of the "007" series, as well as "The Lord of the Rings: The Hobbit" series of movies.

This is because there is really no way out. After encountering the subprime mortgage crisis, MGM's current accounts really don't even have the funds to support it for a month.

In this case, William Chen will need to spend a total of $3 billion to acquire MGM and inject capital, and at the same time will assume the debt of $2.5 billion for MGM.

For these, William Chen has no opinion at all. He believes that there will be no pressure on MGM to pay off these debts after the approval.

What's more, he acquired these high-debt companies at this time. For his Meta investment company, there is another layer of benefit - that is, the debts of these companies can be used to reduce the taxes that need to be paid in the next year.

This is also what William Chen's financial advisor suggested to him. Thinking about the astronomical profits that his Meta investment company was able to make during the subprime mortgage crisis, it is conceivable how high taxes will be faced in the future. negative.

Investing these funds and purchasing those assets with high debts is also an inevitable operation for the rich to avoid taxation.