Chapter 542 Parmigiani

As far as Barron knows, in his previous life, in order to acquire Reuters Group, Thomson Group even sold a considerable part of its assets to raise funds.

At that time, Thomson Group sold its higher education asset Thomson Learning to investment company Apax Partners and large Canadian pension fund OMERS Capital Partners for approximately US$7.75 billion.

It also sold its assets Thomson Prometric to the educational evaluation and research organization ETS for US$435 million.

Most of the funds raised were used in the acquisition of Reuters Group.

After forming the Thomson-Reuters Group, the Thomson family controlled 53% of the new group through its Woodbridge Holdings Company and still controlled the Thomson-Reuters Group.

Other shareholders of the original Thomson Group and shareholders of the original Reuters Group own 23% and 24% of the new group respectively.

At the same time, SEM Group is also raising funds for the acquisition of Reuters Group.

After several reductions in holdings, the shares of SEM Group held by DS Holdings (Cavendish Trust Fund) have been reduced from the original 130.5 million shares to about 105.5 million shares.

Their shareholding ratio in SEM Group has also been reduced from the previous 62.14% to 50.24%, and they are still the controlling shareholders of SEM Group.

During this process, the Cavendish Trust also obtained more than 950 million pounds in funds by reducing its shareholdings.

According to SEM Group's acquisition plan for Reuters Group, they will complete the acquisition of Reuters Group for 5.8 billion pounds plus the issuance of 70 million new shares.

Based on the current price of SEM Group shares of 41.15 pounds, their bid for the acquisition of Reuters Group is as high as 8.68 billion pounds, slightly exceeding the Thomson Group's acquisition price of 8.6 billion pounds.

In fact, because SEM Group currently holds more than 30% of Reuters Group's shares, they only need to invest approximately 4.05 billion pounds and issue 49 million new shares to complete this acquisition.

For this 4.05 billion pounds of funds, the Cavendish Trust Fund took out 1.05 billion pounds through DS Holdings as a purchase of SEM Group convertible bonds. They can purchase them at any time within two years at an average price of 30 trading days at that time. price, converting this debt into ordinary shares of SEM Group.

For the remaining 3 billion pounds, SEM Group obtained a loan line from Barclays Bank to carry out the acquisition.

In this way, the two companies SEM Group and Thomson Group began negotiations to acquire the Reuters Group.

It is estimated that this process may even last several months - after all, although it seems that SEM Group's bid is higher, Thomson Group has an advantage in terms of post-merger synergy.

However, the merger of Reuters Group and Thomson Group faces regulatory issues.

Therefore, it is still difficult to achieve results in a short period of time.

…

Barron opened the door to the balcony of the room and immediately felt the cool breeze blowing in his face, bringing with it a fresh breath.

The balcony faces the woods that are already covered in green on the hillside, and the view is very good.

"Honey, what do you think of this trench coat?"

Barron followed the sound and saw that Beatrice was wearing a lavender windbreaker and posing for him with a smile on her face. She looked very cute.

"It's beautiful, baby."

Barron opened his arms to meet the girl, held her in his arms, kissed her on the lips, and said softly:

"It's almost time, let's go see Mr. Landot."

He and Beatrice were staying at the Dolder Hotel in Zurich, Switzerland, where today Barron met with Pierre Landot, the third generation heir of the Sandoz family.

In 1886, the Sandoz family began to get involved in the business field. Sandoz Company was originally a chemical company and later became a pharmaceutical company.

The current investment areas of the Santos family include pharmaceuticals, modern agriculture, hotel tourism and fine watchmaking.

"Hello, Mr. Landot, this is my friend, Miss Beatrice from the Borromeo family in Italy."

"Hello, Your Highness the Duke, and this beautiful lady."

The Santos family has a chic holiday villa in Zurich, and Barron came to visit it with Beatrice Borromeo.

The main industry of the Santos family is Novartis Pharmaceutical Group, one of the world's top 500 companies and one of the three largest pharmaceutical companies in the world.

However, Barron's visit to the other party this time was not for this reason, but because he took a fancy to the high-end watchmaking industry controlled by the Santos Foundation.

The world-famous top Swiss watch brand-Parmigiani belongs to the Santos family.

Starting in 1996, the Santos family decided to invest in supporting independent watchmaker Michel Parmigiani to establish the watch brand Parmigiani.

With the support of the Santos Family Foundation, Parmigiani Fleurier has rapidly emerged as one of the world's top brands in just a few years, becoming a rare myth in the circle of independent watchmakers.

And Parmigiani Fleurier is one of the very few independent watchmaking brands that has its own full-line production network.

The Santos Family Foundation has established a watchmaking network around the Parmigiani Fleurier brand, which includes all technical businesses required to make watches.

For example, the core component of a watch is the movement, and many watch brands currently need to outsource their movements.

But the Santos Foundation owns the well-known high-end movement manufacturing company Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier (VMF).

In addition, it should be noted that last year, in 2006, Hermès spent 25 million Swiss francs to purchase 25% of the shares of this movement factory.

Therefore, the current Hermès watches also use VMF’s high-end movements.

Barron came here this time hoping to facilitate the Gucci-Hermès Group's acquisition of the Parmigiani Fleurier watchmaking system, including the VMF movement factory, thereby increasing the top-end watch business for the luxury group Gucci-Hermès. .

"In fact, our family's connection with the watch industry did not originate after investing in Parmigiani..."

Pierre Landot is just 60 years old this year. In addition to inheriting the management of his family's Santos Foundation, he also has many properties in Brazil. This time, after returning to Switzerland from Brazil, he took the time to work with Barron met.

He did not directly talk about the sale of Parmigiani Fleurier's watchmaking business, but said with reminiscence:

"Earlier, dating back to the late 19th century, our family supported the creation of a clock museum, which is famous for its collection of ancient Chinese royal clocks. Most of the clocks in it that are still running today were also created by Pa Mr. Ma Qianni personally restored these treasures, which were once treasures in the palaces of Emperor Kangxi and Emperor Qianlong of China..."

This is the first time Barron has heard about this matter, but this does not mean that the Santos family has no intention of selling their watchmaking business, and it may also be a gesture for bargaining.

In fact, the watchmaking industry is only a small part of the Santos family's industry, and as far as Barron knows, no one in the younger fourth generation of the Santos family is interested in these "ancient" clocks anymore, so Selling these businesses is highly possible.

If the Santos family is ready to sell these businesses, then the Gucci-Hermès Group can be said to be the most suitable buyer.

Because Hermès not only owns 25% of the VMF movement factory, the core of its watchmaking industry, but also has related subsidiaries in the Parmigiani Fleurier manufacturing system such as Atokalpa, Elwin, Quadrance, Habillage, and Les Artisans Botiers. , also owns some shares...

These companies are subsidiaries of Parmigiani Fleurier responsible for the production of most movement components such as escapements, screws, levers, gears, etc., as well as external components such as dials and cases.