Chapter 539 Merger?

"Hello my friend."

"Welcome to London, Waleed."

In May, Prince Walid and his wife, Princess Amina, came to London. As an important partner, Barron hosted a banquet to receive the couple at his villa in Kensington.

In the early days of DS Capital, Prince Walid was one of their main investors, and until now, the two parties have maintained a good cooperative relationship.

"Your Highness the Duke, I found that your fund has reduced its holdings of many company stocks. Is it because you are not optimistic about the future market?"

After dinner, when the two sat down to chat, Prince Walid suddenly raised this issue.

Unlike when he first founded DS Capital's private equity fund, Barron still had to use various methods to seek investors. Now, the funds under DS Group have been able to attract more and more funds to invest or purchase. Their financial products, in itself because of Barron’s investment capabilities, have been widely recognized.

At the same time, and for this reason, many people are also studying the investment directions of some of his funds to observe his investment strategies.

Even though many of DS Group's investments are not public, we can still have a general understanding of them from the disclosure of some capital flows and shareholdings.

Just like when Buffett is not optimistic about the market, many people will become more cautious in investing. This is the same reason.

Prince Walid is already a very well-known investor, but he has also known Barron for a longer time and has a better understanding of the other party's investment strength, so he will also refer to Barron's views on the entire market.

This is also the reason why Barron’s made a low-key acquisition of the Black Swan Fund to short-sell the subprime mortgage crisis. It is also because by now, DS Group has become one of the most well-known investment companies in the UK, and too much attention has been paid to it. If there are more, it can be said that many of his investments can affect more funds, thereby affecting part of the investment market.

"Some of my funds are indeed reducing their holdings of some stocks. After all, it is time for some investments to withdraw part of their profits, and I will also have some acquisition plans recently and need to raise some funds."

Naturally, Barron will not reveal all his true thoughts, but he will not hide it completely. After all, the two parties still have a close cooperative relationship, so there is no need to "act" too much.

He said seriously to Walid:

"Of course, to be frank, there is also some risk aversion involved. You should understand that with the current scale of funds, the investment proportion needs to be appropriately adjusted."

"This may be necessary for some securities investments, but my investment direction is still mainly physical. Even if there are cyclical fluctuations in the economy, I only need to hold it."

This is true. Most of Waleed's investments are relatively high-quality assets. Even Citibank, which he invested in, saw its stock price plummet during the subprime mortgage crisis, but it slowly recovered in the following few years. This is It is important not to add too high leverage in investment. Even if you encounter huge fluctuations in the short term, as long as you continue to hold it, those high-quality assets will always return to their due prices.

Next, Barron talked to Walid about the Four Seasons Hotel Group.

When the Global Industrial Investment Fund was the first phase of the GII Fund, they completed the privatization of the Four Seasons Hotel Group together with Prince Walid's Kingdom Investment. Currently, the GII Fund and Kingdom Investment each hold 47.5% of the Four Seasons Hotel Group. The other 5% of the Four Seasons Hotel Group's shares are held by the Isadore Sharp family, the founder of the Four Seasons Hotel Group - they have also been responsible for the operation of the Four Seasons Hotel.

This time, the Devonshire Family Trust hopes to continue to acquire the shares of the Four Seasons Hotel Group held by Prince Walid, and finally complete the merger of the Four Seasons Hotel Group and the Cavendish Hotel Group owned by the Devonshire Family Trust.

As for why we didn't wait until after the subprime mortgage crisis broke out, the global economy was affected, and the market value of many companies fell before making this acquisition.

The reason is, first of all, the Four Seasons Hotel Group has completed the privatization, and its market value will not be reflected through the stock price. Of course, their revenue will also be affected and fall to a certain extent, but the other reason is that people like Walid The prince said that his investments will be held for a long time and will naturally not be sold at low prices during the economic crisis - unless it is affected by the economic crisis and needs to give up some assets to raise funds to save other industries. .

But it is obvious that this will not happen to Prince Walid.

Therefore, since this is the case, it is better to propose a more reasonable price now. Even if the other party does not agree for the time being, when the subprime mortgage crisis breaks out, if Barron's is still willing to make an acquisition at that price, then the other party's feelings will be It would be completely different - well, a feeling of friendship.

This time, Barron's expressed hope to acquire the 47.5% stake in the Four Seasons Hotel Group held by Prince Walid for US$1.66 billion.

Based on this price calculation, the Devonshire Family Trust's valuation of the Four Seasons Hotel Group this time will reach about US$3.5 billion. Compared with the US$2.86 billion valuation of the Four Seasons Hotel Group when it was privatized, its price has increased. Over 22%, it is considered a very reasonable price.

"I have stayed at the Devonshire Hotel in London and Paris, and I am really impressed by the brand of this hotel. If the Four Seasons Hotel Group and the Cavendish Hotel Group merge, I agree very much, which will benefit both parties. But as for selling shares, Barron, I have not considered this issue yet."

"This is just a proposal. I have the idea of ​​promoting this plan. Of course, it also requires the right time. I hope you can consider it carefully, Walid, I will keep this price."

Since Walid temporarily rejected this proposal, Barron also temporarily passed the matter over and turned the topic to other aspects.

Prince Walid is still very interested in the British Automobile Group established by Barron. When he heard that Bentley and Aston Martin were about to launch new models, he was very interested in visiting the production bases of the two brands during his stay in England and seeing those new models with his own eyes.

Bentley's new flagship Mulsanne was first unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in March, but what was exhibited at that time was still an initial standard model, but once it was unveiled at that time, it also attracted great attention.

So far, Bentley's Crewe factory has only completed the production of two Mulsanne sedans, and has not yet started to accept public orders.

One of the two sedans is a custom-made Queen's car for the royal family. It will be delivered to the royal family this month and unveiled at a public ceremony next month.

The other is a custom-made extended Mulsanne for Barron. The car's exterior and interior leather will bear the Devonshire family emblem.

Barron naturally welcomes Prince Walid's idea of ​​visiting the Bentley factory. After all, he is likely to be one of Bentley's first customers.