Chapter 316 Athens

In August, the world’s attention focused on Athens, Greece.

This year is the year of the Olympics, and the 28th Olympic Games will be held in Athens from August 13th.

For this Olympics, Barron's most profound impression in his previous life was that Chinese flying star Liu Xiang would break the Olympic record of 110-meter hurdles and win the gold medal in this Olympics with a time of 12.91 seconds.

This is not only a glorious moment for China, but also a record-breaking moment for the entire Asia and the yellow race.

Athens is not too far from London. It takes three hours to arrive by plane. Barron, Bonnie and the Viscountess also flew to Athens during this period to watch some of the games.

In fact, England's performance in the Olympics has not been good in the past ten years.

At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, the British were slapped in the face...

Had Radcliffe and Matthew Peterson not partnered to win the rowing coxless event, they would have achieved a zero-breakthrough for Olympic gold medals - a breakthrough to zero rather than a breakthrough to zero.

What was even more embarrassing for all British people was that a Times reporter witnessed two British divers, Morgan and Ally, selling their Olympic team uniforms on the streets of Atlanta to raise funds...

In 1997, Britain made an important decision: to spend money on Olympic medals!

The first step for the British to "throw money" was to establish the British Sports Council-UK Sport.

It was a wealthy institution and the then-Major government decided to "fill" the UK Sport Council's accounts with government grants and National Lottery funds.

The National Sports Council's mission is to invest in athletes' sports careers.

With investment, the British delegation's results began to improve——

In Sydney in 2000, England won 11 gold medals. In the original time and space, at this year's Athens Olympics, England won 9 gold medals...

It can only be said that there is "improvement", because with this result, England is only ranked 10th in the medal list, which does not match the status of Great Britain.

Before this Olympics, the Devonshire Charitable Foundation donated 5 million pounds to UK Sport to improve the training and medical treatment of the British Olympic team during the Athens Olympics. After this matter was reported by the media, it also won Barron a win. received universal praise.

It is also worth mentioning that the credit card department of the Bank of Communications, which is a collaboration between Standard Chartered Bank and the Bank of Communications in China and issues cards in the name of the two banks, signed an endorsement contract with Liu Xiang before the Olympic Games. Price, invited Liu Feiren to be the spokesperson of their credit card brand for 5 years.

You know, the endorsement contract he signed with Coca-Cola last year was only 350,000 yuan...

Therefore, the 10 million five-year endorsement contract at this time is already a very high price for Liu Feiren.

Even after winning the gold medal in the Olympics, Liu Feiren's advertising revenue this year was only 23 million yuan. His highest value will still have to wait until before the 2008 Yanjing Olympics.

After arriving in Athens, Barron also met Prince Walid, who also came to watch the Olympics. He also came with his wife Amina.

When meeting with Waleed, Barron talked to him about Global Real Estate Investment Fund's cooperation with him on the Four Seasons Hotel.

By this time, GII Fund CEO Finn Hudson had already met with Walid in Riyadh to discuss the matter.

There have always been two areas that Prince Walid is very fond of investing in: one is the banking and financial industry, and the other is the hotel industry.

Since taking a stake in Fairmont Hotel Group in 1994, Waleed has never stopped entering the hotel industry.

In April 1994, Waleed received accurate information that Isadore Sharp, the president of the Four Seasons Hotel, was seeking some investors to help the hotel with cash financing. At that time, the investors actively sought out were those with power in politics and shopping malls. A powerful person.

Although Walid became famous due to his participation in Citigroup, many people still doubt the true source of his funds, believing that he represents a group in the Middle East, and some even believe that Walid is an arms dealer.

However, these did not affect Walid's investment plan. He took the initiative to find Sharp and proposed the idea of ​​investing in the Four Seasons Hotel.

However, Isadore Sharp, who was skeptical about Walid's source of funds at the time, did not give him an accurate answer until Walid agreed to buy the shares of the Four Seasons Hotel at a price that was 50% higher than the market price. Sado Sharp began to feel moved.

In fact, Walid's offer of such a high price was not without conditions. He hoped that he could become a substantial shareholder and participate in the management of the hotel.

In the end, Waleed bought 22% of the shares of Four Seasons Hotel for US$120 million. These shares he held were diluted to 16.5% after the Four Seasons Hotel went public in 1997. This is Waleed’s current share. At that time, he held a share of shares in Four Seasons Hotel - for so many years, he has never sold his shares in Four Seasons Hotel.

The GII Fund is preparing to join forces with Prince Walid to privatize and delist the Four Seasons Hotel, thus making the hotel their "private property."

Of course, if you want to do this, you first need to obtain the consent of Isadore Sharp, the founder of Four Seasons Hotels.

Isadore Sharp currently holds approximately 25% of the shares of the Four Seasons Hotel Group through Triples Holdings Limited, and Prince Walid holds approximately 16.5% of the shares. Over this period of time, through purchases in the secondary market, GII The fund's shareholding in Four Seasons Hotel has reached about 20%...

Thanks to the GII Fund's purchases, Four Seasons Hotel's share price has risen by about 10% during this period, and its market value has reached US$2.2 billion.

After the GII Fund promised that it would only serve as a financial investment and would not affect Isadore Sharp's operation of the Four Seasons Hotel on the premise that the interests were not harmed, through the persuasion of Prince Walid, Isadore Sharp In principle, it has also been agreed to the plan to privatize the Four Seasons Hotel jointly by Walid's Kingdom Investment and GII Fund.

In this plan, GII Fund and Prince Walid will privatize the Four Seasons Hotel Group at a valuation of US$2.86 billion - this valuation is a full 30% increase from the current market value of Four Seasons Hotel Group of US$2.2 billion. % premium!

After the privatization, Waleed's Kingdom Investments and GII Fund will each hold 47.5% of the Four Seasons Hotel Group's shares, while the Isadore Sharp family retains 5% of the Four Seasons Hotel Group's shares.

This share ratio is also the reason why Isadore Sharp agreed to the plan of Kingdom Investment and GII Fund to privatize the Four Seasons Hotel Group.

Because although the proportion of shares held by Kingdom Investment and GII Fund is much higher than that of Isadore Sharp, but because their shareholding ratio is the same, there will be differences in some major decisions, especially decisions that will cause differences between Kingdom Investment and GII. Above, Isadore Sharp's 5% shareholding is of decisive significance.

What if the two parties always have the same opinion?

The Isadore Sharp family's shareholding itself is far lower than the sum of Kingdom Investment and GII Fund - Isadore Sharp has always focused on the Four Seasons Hotel, has no industry in other fields, and has no ability to expand its shareholdings , then if Kingdom Investment and GII Fund have the same opinions, Isadore Sharp himself has nothing to do about it...

Following the completion of the privatization of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Isadore Sharp, 73, will continue to serve as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, continuing to lead all aspects of the company's day-to-day operations and strategic direction. It will still be located in Toronto, Canada.

Four Seasons Hotels was founded by the Sharp family in 1960 and currently has more than 60 hotels around the world, located in the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan and other places. They entered the Chinese market in 2002. The Four Seasons Hotel in Shanghai is the first hotel opened by the group in China. However, the development of Four Seasons Hotels in China has not been fast. Next year, there will be a new Four Seasons Hotel in China HK. Open for business.

At present, the privatization plan proposed by King Investment and GII Fund has been submitted to the Board of Directors of Four Seasons Hotel Group. At the same time, the Board of Directors of Four Seasons Hotel has established a special committee composed of independent directors, which will consider this and provide recommendations to the Board of Directors on a proposed transaction and oversee the preparations for a formal estimate of the transaction.

After the news was announced, the share price of Four Seasons Hotel Group immediately rose by more than 30%!

Isadore Sharp said in an interview that the change of ownership was inevitable "because my children will sell it one day."