Chapter 240 Always Leading

Mohammed bin Salman is the youngest of the three Saudi princes who came to the Duke of Westminster's party. He is only 19 years old and came with his two brothers.

The reason why Barron paid special attention to him was because the young man in front of him would later become the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, and unlike other crown princes, he also controlled the power of Saudi Arabia and was called the "Arab Tyrant". This source Because of his radical policies after taking control of Saudi Arabia.

In Barron's previous life, Mohammed bin Salman became the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, which also caused an uproar at the time.

why?

As mentioned earlier, the founding monarch of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah Aziz ibn Saud, had 58 sons. However, before Mohammed bin Salman became the crown prince, the succession of the Saudi throne followed the "brother" The final brother and ".

The current King of Saudi Arabia is Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. He is the sixth son of the founding monarch Abdullah and the fifth Saudi monarch. The four before him All kings, except for the founding monarch Abdullah, are all Fahd's brothers, namely Abdullah's second son, fourth son and fifth son respectively.

It can be seen from the name of Mohammed bin Salman that his father’s name is Salman. Yes, Salman is the 25th son of Abdullah, the founding monarch of Saudi Arabia. In the original time and space, he was In 2015, he succeeded his brother Abdullah (who has the same name as the founding monarch, which is very common in Arab countries), the 10th son of the founding monarch, Abdullah, and became the king of Saudi Arabia. The 7th King.

Like Saudi Arabia, where the throne is passed from elder brother to younger brother, this situation is not unique. This kind of throne inheritance is very common among nomadic peoples - Saudi Arabia was originally composed of various tribes, and it was originally nomadic. Nationalities, such as the ancient Xiongnu, Mongolian and other tribes, often have this inheritance.

The reason is that farming feudal dynasties often have a stable ruling structure, so they pay more attention to the inheritance of bloodline. From father to son, even if the new king is young, there are often ministers to assist him.

The nomads are different. Their personnel move more frequently, and they tend to respect the strong. The leader needs to have rich experience in governing. If a young king appears, he will be easily overthrown, so it is often the case between brothers.

However, in modern society, Saudi Arabia is no longer composed of nomadic people and has become a country of local tycoons. In the past, it followed the principle of "brothers shall succeed to brothers", but at some point, there will definitely be a king who wants to pass the throne to his son - especially More than 90 years after the establishment of the kingdom, the sons of the founding monarch are already very old. If a king thinks it is more appropriate to pass the throne to his son, it will be a matter of time before this rule is changed.

"I didn't expect you to speak Arabic, Your Highness the Duke of Cavendish."

During the conversation with these Saudi princes, Barron also showed off his Arabic, which surprised the three princes. After all, although Barron could only conduct simple conversations in Arabic, his pronunciation was still the same. Very authentic.

"Because my assistant is an Arab, I prefer learning languages, so I learned some Arabic from her."

While still in New York, Barron was already preparing to expand the size of the team around him, which could reduce some workload for Wang Wanting. One of them was his life assistant, but he never found a suitable candidate - after all As a person who is relatively close to him, he still needs greater reliability.

Now, Barron's job for Aliya Bendi Hussein is that of his life assistant. Although Aliya is still a little lacking in trust, his control over her is still enough.

Before giving her this job, Barron had already stated that once she chose this job, it would be impossible for her to leave his control in a short time.

But this is also what Aliya wants. She originally wants to be protected, so where can she be safer than with Barron?

Barron also learned Arabic from Alia during this time - knowing that there would be an opportunity to obtain funds from Saudi tycoons, Barron also made special preparations for this.

Although the Saudi princes who came to London are all able to communicate in fluent English - many of them have the experience of studying abroad, communication is one aspect. Being able to communicate directly in their native language is definitely It can also bring the relationship between the two parties closer faster.

Sure enough, after Barron communicated with them in Arabic, it was obvious that the other party's attitude towards him had become much closer.

At this gathering, Barron only briefly introduced the properties under his name, and did not talk about investments with the Saudi princes, including Walid. After all, they also needed time to digest these and have a clear understanding of Barron. We need to conduct some investigations into these industries in London, and it is impossible to directly talk about cooperation.

But later, Barron also invited these people to a banquet at his home, and the time was set in two days, so as to give them enough time to get to know each other.

…

During this time, Barron once again met Phillips and Mark, the two founders of Asmodee, who came to London.

Last year, in order to promote "Werewolf", Barron invested in this French board game company - also because Barron knew that in his previous life, Asmodee would grow into a board game giant twenty years later. Valuation exceeds 3 billion euros.

So Barron invested 4 million pounds at that time and obtained 40% of the shares of the company.

This time when they came to London, Phillips and Mark, the founders of Asmodee, came for company financing.

This year, Asmodee obtained the distribution rights for the French version of the Pokémon Trading Card TCG. In addition to the global distribution authorization they previously obtained for the "Werewolf" table game, Asmodee has developed rapidly in one year. .

At this time, Asmodee's team is preparing to increase the variety of board games owned by Asmodee and expand Asmodee's scale by acquiring some other board game teams.

But now, the 4 million pounds received last year has been spent. For the two games "Werewolf" and "Pokémon", they have carried out large-scale pre-marketing, and the current income will offset these expenses.

Therefore, Asmodee is also preparing to raise funds again, and because Asmodee already has a high reputation in the field of table games, French private equity fund Naxicap also found them, hoping to make equity investment in Asmodee.

However, when the investment agreement was initially signed with DS Capital, there were relevant clauses in it. DS Capital had the right of priority in Asmodee’s subsequent financing under the same conditions. Therefore, this time the two founders of the company came to London to confirm that DS Capital Are you willing to continue participating in their company’s financing?

French private equity fund Naxicap is willing to invest 7.2 million euros in exchange for 18% of Asmodee's shares.

This means that their post-money valuation of Asmodee is 40 million euros, and the pre-money valuation is 32.8 million euros, equivalent to 22.4 million pounds.

This price has increased by more than 120% compared to Barron’s valuation when it invested last year.

If Barron's is willing to participate in financing at this valuation, then DS Capital has priority, so Naxicap Fund will be out, otherwise Asmodee will choose the other party for financing.

"How much funding do you need?"

"At least 7 million euros are needed so that we can complete the acquisition of two tabletop game development teams and maintain the company's operations."

Mark heard Barron's question and replied:

"However, if there are more funds, then we can acquire all the teams we are currently optimistic about, and there will be no need to continue financing for a relatively long time."

At this time, Asmodee's team has already seen that the future board game market will be more of a capital game, expanding the company's scale through continuous mergers and acquisitions to stay ahead.

After all, no team can guarantee that they will have continuous creativity and be welcomed by the market.

Therefore, they would rather be the leader than the one who is eliminated. Even if they need to sell most of the company's shares, as long as they stay ahead, the value of their remaining shares will continue to rise, although their proportion will decrease.

Besides, in the field of board games, as long as they can succeed, investors will still maintain trust in them and will not interfere with the company's operations and management.