Chapter 674

Name:Hollywood Hunter Author:Just Do
Among the three candidate companies, Constantine, which focuses on the production of top clocks and watches, has the longest history and has been established for more than 200 years.

In 1987, Jacques Cutler, the then head of the controlling family of Constantine, died. His children chose to sell the brand and were bought by Ahmed Yamani, a former Saudi oil minister who had just emigrated to Switzerland.

As a rare non Royal high-level government in Saudi Arabia, Ahmed Yamani, with his outstanding personal ability, has become the core oil minister of Saudi Arabia. He also planned the Middle East oil crisis in the 1970s and won a lot of interests for OPEC.

Unfortunately, personal ability is not equal to court struggle.

In the mid-1980s, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Yamani's biggest backer, was assassinated and killed. The oil minister was dismissed by the new Saudi king the next year and moved to Switzerland to avoid further cleansing.

At that time, Jiang shidanton happened to be looking for a buyer, and Yamani took advantage of the situation.

According to media reports, the former Saudi oil minister was keen on collecting clocks and watches, which led to the purchase of Constantine. However, in Simon's view, this incident is more like a typical way of self-protection in which many rich emerging countries go to the west to buy basketball or football teams.

Like Rolex and Patek Philippe, Constantine is the top watch and clock brand in Switzerland. Buying such a company can greatly enhance the holder's international reputation.

Many times, fame is really an invisible talisman.

From the mid-1980s to now, over the years, Saudi Arabia's political situation has been stable, and no one cares about a long lost former oil minister, Yamani, who has just begun to seek to sell this watch brand that occupies a lot of his assets.

Different from the mass production of ordinary watch and clock companies, the annual output of jiangshidanton has just exceeded 11000. However, because the average price is more than US $10000, there are many luxury limited edition products every year. In 1993, the turnover was US $143 million and the net profit was US $21 million.

During the initial contact, Yamani offered a price of US $300 million.

The top watch brands can not expand rapidly by increasing production and strengthening marketing as the luxury companies of clothing and bags. Therefore, although the profits are stable, the growth is very weak. According to the profit scale of 1993, the quoted price of 300 million US dollars is still on the high side with a price earnings ratio of 14 times.

According to the assessment in the information just now, if we really launch an acquisition, we should be able to win the company at a price of no more than 250 million US dollars.

Sophia delivered a glass of juice to Simon, but she was still not willing to get off his leg. She heard the man say, "they are all very good and have problems." she said, "that's why I want you to make up your mind."

Simon took a sip of cold fresh apple juice, put his other hand around the waist of the woman in his arms, and said, "three companies, do you want to get Bulgari most?"

Sophia nodded, moved slightly to make it easier for men to hold him, and said: "I have investigated many comprehensive jewelry and watch brands, such as Cartier, Bulgari, count, etc., as well as our own van cletta, and found that these companies have a unified feature. The sales volume of jewelry is the largest, and the sales volume is basically more than 70% of the brand's total revenue, Watches tend to account for only about 20 percent. "

Simon said with a smile, "so it's women's money."

Sophia gave him a glance and then said: "unlike Gucci and CK, the top jewelry and watch companies can't expand too much if they want to maintain the brand value. The turnover of a single brand is best to maintain within 1 billion US dollars. Therefore, if we want to expand this part of business, we can only expand in disguised form by acquiring multiple brands. "

Simon directly pointed out Sofia's problem: "the Bulgari family is not willing to sell too many shares. How do you plan to solve it?"

"I thought that if we were willing to give up some of melisandro's shares, the Bulgarians would be excited," Sophia said

Melisandro has used cash in its previous acquisitions, so now it has no other shareholders except Simon and Sophia.

Over the years, through several successive incentive equity transfers, Simon has given Sofia up to 20% of melisandro shares.

Because there is no listing, the outside world's valuation of melisandro company has been very different, generally ranging from 5 billion to 10 billion US dollars. Even at a minimum valuation of $5 billion, Sophia is now a top woman with a fortune of $1 billion.

However, Sofia is very low-key in this matter, and melisandro's equity structure has always been kept secret. Many media even think that melisandro is fully owned by Simon, so women have never appeared on any wealth list.

Using melisandro, one of the four women in the westero system, to buy shares in exchange, the Bulgarians should understand the gold content as long as they are not stupid.

Simon didn't object to Sofia's suggestion, but said, "if you think well, Sophie, this time use melisandro's shares, and later buy other brands, the other party will probably put forward the same request."Sophia said: "I know, but it's certainly OK for us to maintain a controlling interest for a long time to come. For example, this time, I think it's enough to transfer 3% of the shares to the Bulgari family, and the rest will be paid in cash. "

Simon asked, "what about the valuation?"

If you want to exchange shares, melisandro's valuation is also a very troublesome issue.

It's not unreasonable for the outside world to make a huge difference in the valuation of melisandro, because it's really not easy for the company to make a valuation. In the past few years, due to different shareholding shares and different types of subsidiaries, melisandro's financial reports were calculated separately by each subsidiary.

Take 1993.

Gucci is still the core of melisandro, holding 75% of the shares. In 1993, its revenue was US $1.89 billion, with a growth rate of 32%, and its net profit was US $310 million.

Then.

Vanke arbor: holding 60%, 1993 revenue of 350 million US dollars, growth rate of 35%, net profit of 59 million US dollars

CK: holding 55%, 1993 revenue of 170 million US dollars, growth rate of 33%, net loss of 8 million US dollars

lato winery: holding 100%, 1993 annual revenue of 36 million US dollars, growth rate of 7%, net profit of 6 million US dollars.

Christie's: holds 31% of the shares. In 1993, the auction turnover was US $2.36 billion, with a growth rate of 41% and a net profit of US $73 million.

According to the shareholding ratio and profit figures, in 1993, the profit of all melisandro brands belonging to the parent company was about 290 million US dollars.

However, for the development of these companies, Sofia did not implement the full dividend, but only recovered about half of the profits.

Not to mention that.

According to the calculation of the net profit scale of US $290 million belonging to the parent company, and because melisandro's other brands have maintained a high growth rate of more than 30% except for the Latour winery, which is Simon's collection, it is easy to obtain an IPO valuation of 20 times of P / E ratio, which is close to the market value of US $6 billion.

If it's really listed, it's not a big problem for the P / E ratio to rush to more than 30 times after listing, which will be the market value level of 10 billion US dollars at that time.

As a result, now that both sides are not listed, if they want to adopt the stock exchange acquisition mode, the valuation problem will inevitably lead to a tug of war between the two sides.

The best solution, of course, is to go public.

Sophia may be able to guess Simon's mind. Although she has kept a low profile these years, she doesn't object to melisandro's listing at the right time, saying: "if it's an IPO, it's definitely too late this year."

Simon thought about it and said, "let's talk about it. Try not to suffer too much. What's more, we can let the Bulgari family know about the listing in advance, which should also win us a lot of initiative. "

Sophia nodded.

Danielis entertainment IPO market miracle, even as far as Italy is also well known.

Melisandro is also a "woman" of Westeros, and probably no one will doubt her listing prospects. The Bulgari family should also be aware that once melisandro gets its equity under privatization, once melisandro makes an IPO, the value of the other party's shareholding is likely to double in one or two years.

This rate of return is absolutely attractive.

With Sophia's favorite Bulgari, Simon asked, "what's the matter with Versace?"

Sophia said: "I met Jennie Versace at Cannes Film Festival in May. After a few words, he invited me to a party of Versace brand, and then made several contacts. In the middle of last month, Versace took the initiative to test whether I was interested in taking a stake in his company. "

Simon asked with a smile, "what do you think?"

Sophia took Simon's glass, which had already bottomed out, sipped the straws, drank the last juice, put the glass aside and said, "Versace obviously wants to use our influence to get rid of the Mafia, so it's not what I think, it's what you think. You're a man. Of course it's up to you to decide. "

Why was Jennie Versace shot?

Because Versace wants an IPO.

After IPO, enterprises must disclose their operation and financial status publicly. If some people don't want to be arrested, they can't use Versace's shell to launder money.

At the end of the day, Jennie Versace wants to get rid of the Italian mafia.

It's a pity that it didn't work out in the end.

Simon has no fear of the Mafia.

The Italian mafia boasts a group of Desperado. Simon, who dares to launch a war in Africa, is not a higher-level Desperado.

What's more, the Mafia should not forget Mussolini's iron means.

Because the deterioration of public security in recent years has led to a public outcry, the Italian government has been continuously increasing its efforts to crack down on gangsters in recent years. With the continuous layout of the westero system in the Italian political and business circles in recent years, if the Mafia dares to provoke itself, Simon does not mind instigating the Italian government to launch a larger-scale anti gangster action.Sophia, who is waiting for Simon to make a decision, suddenly feels a certain chill and deep from the man in front of her, and soon realizes that she has made a mistake.

It's a serious mistake.

The little man who is strong enough to make many people despair is not afraid of those underground forces like bedbugs, which is why she put the information of Versace company in front of him.

However, she didn't want to release the devil side of his heart because of such a small matter.

Sophia would rather his little man bully himself to death in bed than be wrapped up in negative emotions that should never appear on him. He should always be in good shape.

Thinking of this, Sophia leaned over Simon, gently kissed him and said, "I've decided that the next target is Bulgari."

Simon put his hands around the woman's waist, looked at her for a moment, and suddenly said with a smile, "are you worried that I will suddenly recover from mental illness one day..."

Before she finished, Sophia would kiss again.

So after a while, they split their lips. Sophia's face rubbed the man's face with a light stubble, and her tone became more firm: "it's Bulgari."

Simon nodded slightly: "OK, listen to you. However, it's also good to buy Jiang shidanton by the way. "

The merger war of the world's major luxury goods giants started in the late 1990s when the European economy revived. Now, since there is no shortage of funds and sufficient strength, of course, the earlier the layout, the better to win more luxury brands.

Sophia let out a slight hum.

Both of them later stopped talking about Versace.

However, Simon occasionally had an idea that since he could not acquire such a company, it would be best to completely destroy it. As an Italian brand, Versace's style has many similarities with Gucci's, belonging to the most direct competitor. Now that Jennie Versace has some thoughts and can't rely on the Westeros system, he may be able to promote the other party's IPO in advance.

Quietly making up his mind, Simon continued to discuss with Sophia about the details of the acquisition of Bulgari and Constantine. They left Martha's vineyard at about 10 a.m.

Returning to Greenwich from the island, it was almost noon. After having lunch at Sophia's home, Simon rushed to the airport and left for the west coast.

Boeing 767 front cabin.

After the plane took off smoothly, girl a sent a thick stack of documents to Simon's study in the front cabin. Neil Bennett also gave Simon a code suitcase after boarding the plane, which contained the regular operation report and intelligence summary of the intelligence team of the Westeros family.

Simon did not rush to open the password box, but first looked at the North American cinema box office data in the past week.

Today is July 16, Saturday.

In the last box office week from July 8 to July 14, two new films in North American Theaters, true lies, successfully withstood the crush of the phenomenal Forrest Gump, relying on the creative partners of James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who created the terminator series, and earned $40.83 million in the first seven days of the week.

In fact, there is a big difference between true lies and Forrest Gump in the audience.

True lies is an action blockbuster with full popcorn attributes. In addition, Batman: the rise of the dark knight, which was released in early June, revived the audience's desire to watch movies after a month. During this period, there were no other blockbusters of the same type, so it could be a success.

However, "true lies" still ranked second at the box office in its first week.

After the number of screens increased from 2137 in the first week to 2836 in the second week, the box office of Forrest Gump fell only 11% in the next week, and received another $47.53 million, easily ranking the top of the box office in a single week.

In two weeks, Forrest Gump went straight to the box office club with a total of $100.98 million.

Because the two blockbusters were too powerful, another new film last week, Julia Roberts' love movie "I love trouble", took the third place with only $12.28 million at the box office in the first week.

Denise entertainment initially signed a five film contract with Julia Roberts. However, with the change of many things, the actress is still popular after the successive blockbuster movies such as "pretty girl" and "order of the gannet", but Simon doesn't attach much importance to each other.

With no suitable project in hand, Simon generously let Roberts work with other film companies.

Warner Bros. invested in "I love trouble" because of Roberts' participation, the production cost is as high as US $45 million, and the box office of US $12.28 million in the first week is less than half of Warner Bros. the estimated total box office of US $30 million in North America means Warner will continue to lose money on this project.

Warner has to rely on the profits created by Batman: the rise of the dark knight to make up for the loss.According to a girl's remarks after the box office report, Time Warner's share price fell 2.9% in the last trading day of this week after yesterday's box office data came out. One day's market value fell from $16.1 billion to $15.6 billion, and a single day's market value evaporated $500 million.

Hit by the box office sales of "true lies", the fourth week's "evocation" box office fell by 31% this week, closing another $12.15 million, lagging behind "I love trouble".

However, the cumulative box office of this soul stirring movie, the opening work of the universe, has reached 96.31 million US dollars, and it is about to break 100 million US dollars.

Jack Nicholson's new movie "werewolf life and death", released in the box office week of the Independence Day holiday on July 1, saw a box office drop of 54% in the next week, only $11.45 million, ranking fifth in this week's list. The cumulative box office of the film in two weeks is $36.36 million, and the total box office in North America is expected to be about $50 million.

Considering that the production cost of the film alone is as high as $50 million, Jack Nicholson is hopeless.

In addition to the top five, the box office of phantom, which ranked sixth, fell 49% in the next week. The box office in a single week shrank to less than 10 million US dollars, with only 7.51 million US dollars at the box office, and the cumulative box office was only 22.18 million US dollars.

With the release of "true lies" and the phenomenal explosion of "Forrest Gump", a series of films that Hollywood studios had originally placed high hopes on, such as "zero point blast", "city bumpkin 2" and "detective Beverly 3", they completely dropped out of the summer season competition.