Chapter 213 Sudden Attack

Barron asked Daisy to collect relevant information about the Selfridges Group, not just to vent his anger. Unless that Galen G. Weston was really ignorant, there was no need for him to go there just because of such a trivial matter. Use hundreds of millions of dollars to do things that have no profit.

The main reason is that the Selfridges Group is indeed a good acquisition target. In the retail industry, Barron's owns high-end brands such as Duke's Select Supermarket and affordable department stores such as Argos. Adding a high-end department store like Selfridges is not a big deal. unexpected.

Moreover, Barron still remembers that in the original time and space of 2022, after the death of W. Galen Weston, the father of the Weston family, the speaker of the Weston family, the Weston family paid 4 billion pounds. The Selfridges Group was sold at a price of , and the purchase was confirmed at that time to be the retail group Central Group founded by the Zheng family, a Chinese family from Thailand.

At that time, Selfridges was already known as the most profitable shopping mall in London.

Of course, the Selfridges retail group purchased by Central Group for 4 billion pounds does not only include the stores of the Selfridges group that the Weston family is preparing to purchase at this time.

At that time, the Weston family combined some of the other retail brands they owned with the Selfridges department store to form the Selfridges retail group, including five department stores: Holt Renfrew in Canada, de Bijenkorf in the Netherlands, and Brown Thomas and Arnotts in Ireland.

What Central Group purchased includes four stores of Selfridges department store group (two of which are self-owned properties) plus two self-owned properties of Brown Thomas and Arnotts stores in Dublin, Ireland.

However, no matter what, there is no doubt about the profitability of Selfridges Department Store Group. From now until 2019, its revenue has maintained a relatively high growth rate, and it is no wonder that it has become the most profitable department store in London and even the entire UK. one.

As someone said at the time: "Once a unique asset like Selfridges is sold, it will be a once-in-a-lifetime transaction opportunity."

But here in Burren, if it is a high-end department store, besides Selfridges, there are other options, such as Harrods.

This is also one of the most prestigious department stores in the world, located in Knightsbridge, London.

Before being surpassed by China Yanjing's SKP in 2020, Harrods Department Store had always been the shopping mall with the highest sales in the world. In 2010, this "king of department stores" was acquired by the Qatar Investment Authority for 1.5 billion pounds. acquisition.

Of course, the Weston family is now preparing to acquire the Selfridges department store group. If you participate in it, you will not only be able to beat Galen G. Weston, but you will also be able to make a profit even if you are unable to snatch the Selfridges department store from them in the end. few.

Just like before, although Barron snatched the Manchester United club from the Glazer family, the Glazer family also obtained a lot of benefits.

Moreover, department stores such as Harrods and Selfridges cannot be bought at any time. They also need to wait for the opportunity when their owners are willing to sell. Since the Weston family in the original time and space can buy the Selfridges department store group this year, This shows that the opportunity to buy Selfridges is better, so Barron will also regard Selfridges as his main target.

In addition to matters related to Selfridges, Barron also took a look at the Athena Fund.

As for the Athena Fund, within the current month, the main task is to use supercomputers to improve their mathematical model of quantitative trading. First, through the operation of virtual disks, after testing and making the model "usable", The process of automatic buying and selling arbitrage begins.

Of course, these processes must be carried out step by step with caution. Barron does not want to cause major losses to himself due to procedural errors, or even have a huge impact like the stock market flash crash in 2010 in the original time and space.

This is why he is not in a hurry to expand the size of the Athena Fund. With the current fund size of US$400 million, he can fully afford even a loss. The key is to take advantage of the early stage to improve their funds. Mathematical models allow their "core competitiveness" to perform arbitrage stably and efficiently.

"Baby, where are you?"

"Oh, I'm with Mrs. Beckham now. She asked me to go shopping together today."

After more than two months of work, Bonnie now also has a relatively wealthy holiday.

On the phone, she told Barron that she would be with Victoria Beckham today - Beckham has now gone to Madrid, Spain, to join the Real Madrid club, and Victoria will be taking the two with her most of the time. Stay in London, kid.

In 1999 and 2002, Victoria gave birth to two sons for Beckham respectively. Because the children were still young, they naturally needed to stay at home in London for care.

It has to be said that Victoria is really very considerate. Because Beckham left Manchester United and joined Real Madrid, they would also be worried about offending the owner of Manchester United at this time - Barron Cavan, Duke of Devonshire. Dish.

After meeting Barron and Bonnie last time at the birthday party of Holly, the eldest daughter of the Virgin Group, Victoria has maintained contact with Bonnie. It seems that she hopes to take the "lady route" and use Bonnie to ease the situation. Relationship with Barron.

It seems that no matter what status, shopping is always a major hobby for women, especially for "workaholics" like Bonnie. Shopping is a way to relieve stress.

Now that she can have someone to go shopping with her, Barron is naturally happy to be at ease.

However, this call also reminded Barron that last month, Manchester United signed Ronaldo from Sporting Lisbon in the Portuguese League for 10 million pounds.

At that time, Barron had already gone to the United States, and until now, he has not yet met this future football superstar.

In his previous life, one thing that Barron admired very much about Cristiano Ronaldo was his self-discipline. It was indeed not that easy to maintain his competitive status until he was nearly forty years old.

Many people know that in the next nearly two decades, world football will be a competition between the twin stars of Ronaldo and Messi.

Relatively speaking, Ronaldo looks more handsome. If some subsequent negative news can be avoided, then his commercial value will also have greater potential.

Next, for the commercial operation of Manchester United, Ronaldo will also be a crucial part of Barron's plan.

In addition to the need for Ferguson to train this young man with great potential in terms of competitiveness, in terms of personal business value, Barron will also ask Manchester United Brand Management Company to conduct training for this future football superstar. Tailor-made packaging.

However, in order to prevent Beckham from being poached by Real Madrid from happening again, Barron is also preparing to get closer to Cristiano Ronaldo, who is still a young rookie.

Just when he was about to go to Old Trafford to take a look, Barron received a call on his personal mobile phone and saw the caller ID on it...it was Amanda Hurst!

So his plans changed and the Rolls-Royce Phantom went straight to the Devonshire Hotel in Chelsea.

The reason was that the Hearst sisters had made a surprise attack on him. They had already taken a flight to London and checked into the Devonshire Hotel.