There are always moments that make you feel emotional, just like the things around you that you have gradually become accustomed to, starting to replace the old with the new.
After returning to Chatsworth House this time, Barron realized belatedly that Butler Sean had obviously aged compared to before, even a year ago.
One could feel that he was trying his best to maintain an elegant posture, but his back was a little hunched.
The main reason was that he had fallen ill earlier. Although he had undergone careful treatment, Butler Sean's health condition was much worse than before.
In the end, he proposed his resignation to Barron, but Barron knew that Butler Sean had never been married in his life and devoted most of his time to Chatsworth Manor, so he couldn't just watch him leave like that.
Therefore, after Ramos took over the position of Butler Sean, Butler Sean would still have the title of manor consultant. In fact, he only needed to provide some of his own experience occasionally, which could be regarded as a kind way of saying that Barron was providing for his retirement.
"Your Highness, you have done a great job, better than anyone expected. I am proud of you."
After dinner, when Barron was alone with Butler Sean, they stood in the corridor of Chatsworth Manor, which was lined with many portraits of the manor owners. Butler Sean looked at Barron with eyes that were full of pride for his child's achievements.
"When I realized that I often think about the past and the best things in the manor recently, I realized that I am indeed old. Times have changed, but Chatsworth is still prosperous and the Devonshire family can continue to shine. This is what makes me happiest. I really hope that I can always protect this glory."
"You will, Butler Sean. You are an indispensable part of our family, so I hope you can stay here forever, with us and with the family."
It can be said that with the previous reality show "The traitors" and the TV series "Downton Abbey", especially the popularity of "Downton Abbey", Chatsworth House has become more well-known. Since this year, the proportion of overseas tourists among the tourists here has been increasing.
According to current statistics, this is the year with the highest revenue since Chatsworth House opened to the public, and Chatsworth House is also exploring more profit models, not only from tourists' tickets, but also including some aristocratic cultural experiences, which have brought it more income.
It can be said that these revenues are completely sufficient for better maintenance and repair here, and there is still surplus funds to invest in related cultural and tourism projects.
Of course, even now, less than one-third of the manor house is open to the public, including the Devonshire Manor Hotel in cooperation with the Cavendish Hotel Group.
Most of the remaining areas still belong to the private territory of the Devonshire family and are not open to tourists.
Currently in the whole of England, Chatsworth House can be said to be a model of the commercialization of aristocratic manors.
…
It was not until the end of December that DS Capital finally completed the closing of the EUR/USD trading pair in the foreign exchange market.
Ultimately, after closing their positions, they made a profit of approximately $7 billion.
Originally, DS Capital's average exchange rate for opening a position was 1.05. When the price of EUR/USD reached 1.25, the profit should have been around US$6 billion.
But the key point is that the exchange rate of the British pound, which serves as a margin, against the US dollar has been rising. Therefore, in this process, the US dollars that DS Capital can borrow has also been increasing relatively.
This factor also led to their final profit, which was higher than the expected $6 billion, reaching $7 billion.
At this point, of the £1 billion that was set aside as a deposit, £500 million was "returned" to O2 Telecom - this came from the pre-charge fees they had previously received.
The other £500 million was used to repay the original mortgage.
After settling the profits, DS Capital first took out US$350 million to repay the loan from Goldman Sachs Group.
Previously, Baron bought Google shares and stock options from Yahoo and AOL respectively. After exercising the options, the total cost was US$535 million.
More than $200 million of this came from the sale of NetEase stock when the stock price was high, and the remaining funds came from mortgage loans taken out from Goldman Sachs. Now that the US dollar has "depreciated", it is still very appropriate to repay these loans in US dollars.
Another option is to purchase Apple shares held by the Mars Fund.
At that time, when Mars Fund purchased 162 million shares of Apple from Jobs and three other fund companies, it cost a total of 760 million pounds, of which Mars Fund invested 200 million pounds and held 42.63 million shares of Apple.
Subsequently, the Mars Fund purchased approximately 54 million shares of Apple in the secondary market.
This brings the total number of Apple shares held by DS Capital and Mars Fund to 216 million shares, accounting for 30% of Apple's total share capital!
Up to now, Apple's stock price has risen from a low of around $7 to $8.86. The 96.63 million shares of Apple held by the Mars Fund are worth $856 million.
However, it is naturally not convenient to purchase these Apple shares directly in the name of DS Capital.
At this time, Rich23 Capital, the offshore company registered by Barron before, came in handy.
They will purchase 96.63 million Apple shares held by Mars Fund in the name of Rich23 Capital, holding 13.42% of Apple's shares.
DS Capital directly holds 16.58% of Apple's shares.
Another benefit of doing this is that Barron begins to hide his wealth. After all, Rich23 Capital is not registered in his name and it is an offshore company.
This kind of company, especially when its registered place is in the British Virgin Islands, can ensure that ordinary people cannot find out the specific relationship between this company and themselves due to its influence in the UK.
Otherwise, when the rich lists began to be announced in 2004, Barron's ranking would probably be quite eye-catching, especially as he was only 24 years old at the time, and would definitely become the focus of media reports.
Likewise, after completing this, DS Capital's profit funds were left with approximately $5.8 billion.
These funds were also transferred to the account of Rich23 Capital, and after the exchange rate of pound to dollar dropped from the highest 1.78 to 1.75, they converted the profitable US dollars into pounds, which was about 3.314 billion pounds.
Because Barron knew that by the end of 2004, the exchange rate would be as high as 1.9 or above...
Of course, these funds will not stay in hand for too long.
Rich23 Capital invested £414 million in Argos Retail Group, holding a 25% stake.
Argos Retail Group will use £350 million to pay for the purchase of the Primark clothing chain, and the remaining £64 million will be invested in the development of its two brands.
Following this, Argos Retail Group's shareholdings will be held by DS Industrial Investments with a 75% stake and Rich23 Capital with a 25% stake.
When DS Capital purchased Argos, it spent 700 million pounds, but after this investment from Rich23 Capital, the corresponding valuation of Argos Retail Group is 1.656 billion pounds.
This means that the value of Argos, which DS Capital initially purchased for £700 million, has risen to £1.242 billion over time.
Of course, to put it bluntly, this is just Barron's operation of transferring money from one hand to the other. This valuation is still very fictitious. It will only be recognized by the market when there are other investors or the market value of Argos Retail Group goes public through IPO.
At this time, Bernie Ecclestone also returned to London again. His negotiations with the German Bayerischer Bank had come to a final conclusion. Next, Barron needed to step in to acquire SLEC.