Chapter 144 Cooperation reached

In the early morning, from the floor-to-ceiling window of Barron's bedroom, he could see Chatsworth Manor covered in silver after snow, which was very magnificent.

At this time, Emma Manners, Duchess of Rutland, was holding the window with her hands, lying in front of the window, looking downstairs.

But her face was blushing, she was biting her lips tightly, and she seemed to have some signs of fever.

Of course, the enthusiastic Duke of Devonshire was standing behind her. He, who had some medical skills, was injecting the Duchess of Rutland.

"Are you feeling better now? Madam."

"Well, much better, thank you, Your Highness the Duke."

Although the Duchess of Rutland's face is still rosy at this time, and there are still a lot of sweat beads on her forehead, her complexion looks much better...

After consideration and deliberation, the Duke of Rutland finally accepted Barron's suggestion and prepared to cooperate with him to develop their Belvoir Castle.

Devonhill Cultural Tourism Group will be renamed British Grace Cultural Tourism Group. This is also to take care of the face of the Duke of Rutland family, so as not to give people the illusion that their castle estate was bought by the Devonhill family.

After all, Grace means "beautiful", and in the aristocratic tradition, Grace is a specific title for a duke.

In this way, the ownership of Belvoir Castle of the Duke of Rutland family still belongs to the Duke of Rutland family, and its operating rights will be granted to Grace Cultural Tourism Group, and the Duke of Rutland family will receive a share of its operating income.

Similarly, the Cavendish Hotel Group will open a new castle hotel in Belvoir Castle, the Devonhill (Belvoir) Castle Hotel, in a joint venture with the Duke of Rutland family. The operating income will also be the same as that of Rutland. The ducal family divided.

From now on, Belvoir Castle will enjoy the unified promotion and customer resources of Grace Cultural Tourism Group, and it is expected that the Belvoir Music Festival will be held here in the summer to expand the popularity of Belvoir Castle.

After accompanying the Duchess of Rutland to visit Chatsworth Manor and learning a lot... well, about the management of the estate, Barron sent the Duchess away.

Next, he welcomed a new guest here - John Smith of the Sinclair family came to England again from New York and came to Chatsworth Manor as a guest.

"I have to say, Your Highness the Duke, after coming to Chatsworth Manor, I seemed to have entered the TV series of "Downton Abbey". This feeling is wonderful."

After meeting, John Smith took the initiative and said:

"Congratulations, Downton Abbey has been a huge success and has been reported across America."

"It is a pleasure to see you again, Mr. Smith, and the beautiful Miss Bute, and Mrs. Bute."

Also coming with John Smith were his girlfriend, the youngest daughter of the Bute family, Jenny Bute, and the Viscountess Bute.

While in New York, Barron and John Smith confirmed their cooperation. However, the two parties have been negotiating on the valuation of SEM Group since then and have not finally reached an agreement.

Until the series "Downton Abbey" was aired, although the number of users on the Freeview platform was not high at this time, the series still achieved a sensational impact.

It is no exaggeration to say that even Her Majesty the Queen complained privately that she had waited too long for this TV series and hoped to watch it all at once...

Also affected by this TV series, coupled with the explosion of production capacity in Huaxia factories, the number of users of the Freeview platform increased by a full 200,000 in just two weeks after New Year's Day in 2003, which was the largest increase in users in the previous two months. quantity.

And this speed is constantly being exceeded.

This time, John Smith came to England in person and came to Chatsworth Manor as a guest. His main purpose was to introduce the series "Downton Abbey" to TV stations owned by the Sinclair Group for broadcast. In addition, it is to speed up negotiations with SEM Group to acquire shares.

"We are willing to make concessions. Your Highness the Duke can invest in SEM Group at a valuation of 200 million pounds. We will spend 30 million US dollars to obtain 10% of SEM Group's shares. At the same time, you can obtain more from Sinclair Group." We will sell more resources to SEM Group at low prices to enrich your broadcast channels.”

In fact, whether it is the independent newspapers owned by SEM Group or Summit Media, the total capital invested by Barron is far less than 200 million pounds. But at present, the entire SEM Group is obviously in a good development stage, especially Summit Media, whose development prospects are still very worth looking forward to. Therefore, the overall valuation of 200 million pounds can only be regarded as the content resources of Sinclair Group. Under the premise, he can accept the price.

And this time Sinclair Group only wants to take 10% of the shares, which is within Barron's expectations.

"You and I don't need to bargain. John, I can agree now, but there is one more thing, that is, I need additional help from you."

Seeing John Smith looking over with questioning eyes, Barron said lightly:

"I know that you have often carried out debt acquisitions before. I also have such a plan recently and need to obtain more resources in financing."

"This is no problem, Your Highness the Duke. We maintain a good relationship with Goldman Sachs Group. Next, we can introduce their person in charge in England to you."

From Rolf, Barron received part of the support from Barclays Bank. However, in the subsequent acquisition of O2, Barclays Bank could only afford half of the funds at most. He also needed to introduce more financing partners. Now Barron Lun just set his sights on the United States.

If Sinclair Group can reach a cooperation with Goldman Sachs on this, then the remaining funds for the O2 acquisition can be made up.

"In addition, for the additional shares issued by Sinclair Group, I will fully accept your additional issuance of 8.5 million shares through DS Capital, but I plan to carry out this transaction in two months."

"There is no problem, Barron. We will eventually trade at the average price of the stock price in the previous 30 working days at the time of trading. I am very happy to see that Sinclair Group and SEM Group have formed a closer alliance. This pair of Our development in each other's markets is very important."

In this way, during their conversation, this cooperation in exchanging shares was concluded.

It's just that Barron's investment in Sinclair Group is not focused on the ultimate income from these investments - more precisely, his investment in Sinclair Group can be seen as a stepping stone that will allow him to make more money. Make good use of Sinclair Group's influence in the United States to gain more opportunities and development in the United States in the future.