Chapter 488 British Automobile Group

In early September, Barron came to Germany again.

More than three months later, the 330-foot superyacht he bought before the World Cup finally completed the interior decoration - Alexander Michel, who designed the Gucci Group's "Devon Hill Series" The improved interior decoration style made Barron very satisfied.

Barron will next take the superyacht he named "Caesar" on its maiden voyage, entering the Strait of Dover from the North Sea, first docking in Le Havre, France, and then returning to the Thames River. Up the estuary, docking in London.

However, before Barron left Germany, he still went to Wolfsburg and met with the CEO of the Volkswagen Group, Perred.

So far, Caesar Fund's acquisition of the Bentley brand has finally come to fruition. The Volkswagen Group's board of directors finally approved the agreement after the new acquisition plan was reached.

In the final agreement, Caesars Fund will pay a price of 2.5 billion pounds to acquire the Bentley brand, as well as the Crewe plant in England and a car factory in Wolfsburg, Germany.

However, of the 2.5 billion pounds that Caesars Fund needs to pay to the Volkswagen Group, 350 million pounds is used as an advance payment for the W12 engine purchased from the Volkswagen Group after acquiring the Bentley brand.

Currently, the most high-end automobile engines include V12 engines from Mercedes-Benz and BMW brands and W12 engines from the Volkswagen Group.

Prior to this, the engine used by the Bentley brand was the W12 engine provided by the Volkswagen Group. Therefore, in order to ensure the smooth production of the Bentley brand in the future, they still need to purchase W12 engines from the Volkswagen Group. This time the agreement includes purchase orders for these engines. OK.

Of course, the Volkswagen Group can also obtain stable income and get rid of the burden of a German automobile factory. These are the reasons why Perrudder was able to convince the board of directors, especially Piech.

The Dresden factory that Perred was initially planning to sell to Kaiser Fund was used to produce Phaeton models. In this relatively new factory with an investment of nearly 200 million euros by the Volkswagen Group, more than 800 employees can produce up to 150 Phaeton models every day. Car.

However, Piëch firmly opposed the sale of the Dresden factory. In order to appease the other party, Piëch replaced the sold factory with another automobile factory in Wolfsburg, which is also a vehicle assembly plant.

Although the salary expenses of employees in this German factory will be a burden, these number of auto workers are also needed to restructure the Bentley brand, so in the end they decided to "take over" for the Volkswagen Group.

This is not so hard to accept considering that these people will be able to provide technology to some of the new car production plants in China and elsewhere.

After completing the signing of the agreement, it means that the Bentley brand has officially begun the process of separating from the Volkswagen Group and belonging to the Caesars Fund.

After this news began to spread, it not only became a hotly discussed news in Britain, but also put a certain amount of pressure on Ford.

After entering September, Ford's new CEO Alan Mulally has taken office. His first priority after taking office is to plan for the future development of Ford.

What he proposed is the "One Ford" strategy, which is to restructure the company, optimize production capacity and achieve profitability, adjust product structure and accelerate the development of new models, and accelerate the concentration of resources on the core Ford brand building.

The goal proposed by Alan Mulally is to enable Ford to manufacture more models suitable for the global market from a few core platforms, thereby further cutting costs and improving the commonality of parts and systems.

The implication is that some other brands besides the Ford brand are within the target of reduction.

Alan Mulally's plan is also supported by Bill Ford, so the sale of Aston Martin, and even more brands, is already expected. At most, it is just a matter of time.

In this way, Caesar Fund's negotiations with them to acquire the three British car brands left only the final price issue.

The initial bid from Caesars Fund for three car brands, including Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover, was US$4 billion, but Ford believed that it could not be lower than US$5 billion.

There has been no agreement on this point, and neither side has made any concessions.

Even after Caesars Fund reached an agreement with Volkswagen Group to acquire the Bentley brand, Caesars Fund even reduced its contact with Ford and became less active in the acquisition of those three brands.

You know, although after the news of Ford's intention to sell Aston Martin initially came out, including the offer from Caesars Fund, nearly 30 companies or institutions became interested in it and had contact with Ford. This even includes luxury brand group LVMH Group.

However, none of the bids from these companies and institutions were able to satisfy Ford. Even as Barron once said to Bill Ford, among them, Caesars Fund was already considered the most sincere.

Therefore, after such a situation occurred, Ford was a little uneasy. They became more proactive and said that they could package Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover for sale, but in terms of price, US$4 billion was not feasible. Accepted.

However, Caesars Fund did not raise the price as they wished. Instead, it started talking to Ford about the pension fund issues for employees of these three brands.

You know, for example, when Caesars Fund acquired a German factory of the Volkswagen Group, the most they could do was bear the contributions of the pension funds of current employees after the acquisition. Those who have retired belong to the Volkswagen Group and need to be borne by the employee pension funds of the Volkswagen Group. part of the pension.

The Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover brands that acquired Ford are different because these brands are all subsidiaries of Ford, and the pensions of their retired personnel are borne by the employee pension funds of these three companies. If Caesars Fund completes the acquisition, Caesars Fund will be responsible for it later.

The meaning of Caesar Fund is very simple. I can raise the price, but the pension funds of retired employees of these companies need your capital injection. After all, people have retired before.

After going back and forth like this, the two sides finally reached a general agreement-Caesar Fund increased the acquisition offer to US$4.5 billion. At the same time, Ford needed to inject a total of US$350 million into the employee pension funds of the three companies to own these three companies. Provide pension security for retired employees during the brand period.

So far, after paying a total of nearly 9 billion US dollars (2.5 billion pounds + 4.5 billion US dollars), Caesars Fund has finally completed the acquisition of four British car brands: Bentley, Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover.

This news also made the whole of England excited.

Correspondingly, this acquisition by Caesars Fund brought four British car brands back to the UK, and also received support from the government and local governments. During negotiations with them, it obtained a series of benefits including tax cuts and subsidies. policy.

After acquiring these brands, Caesars Fund merged them to form the British Automotive Group, whose four brands are Bentley, Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover.