In August, the world's attention was focused on Athens, Greece.
This year is the Olympic year, and the 28th Olympic Games will be held in Athens from August 13th.
Barron's most profound impression of this Olympics in his previous life was that the Chinese sprinter Liu Xiang broke the Olympic record in the 110-meter hurdles and won the gold medal with a time of 12.91 seconds.
This is not only a glorious moment for China, but also a record-breaking moment for the whole of Asia and the yellow race.
Athens is not too far from London, and it only takes three hours to get there by plane. Barron, Bonnie and the Viscountess also flew to Athens during this period to watch some of the games.
In fact, Britain has not performed well in the Olympics in the past decade.
At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, the British were slapped in the face...
If Radcliffe and Matthew Peterson had not won the coxless double rowing event, they would have achieved a breakthrough in Olympic gold medals - a breakthrough to zero rather than breaking zero.
What made all the British people even more embarrassed was that a Times reporter witnessed two British divers, Morgan and Avery, selling their Olympic uniforms on the streets of Atlanta to raise funds...
In 1997, Britain made an important decision: to spend money on Olympic medals!
The first step for the British to "spend money" was to set up the UK Sports Council - UK Sport.
It was a wealthy institution and the then Major government decided to "fill up" the ASC's accounts with government grants and National Lottery funds.
The All England Sport Council's job is to invest in athletes' sporting careers.
With the investment, the performance of the British delegation began to improve.
In Sydney in 2000, England won 11 gold medals, and in the original time and space, in this year's Athens Olympics, England won 9 gold medals...
It can only be said that "there has been improvement", because with this result, England is only ranked 10th in the medal table, which does not match the status of Great Britain.
Before this Olympics, the Devonshire Charity Foundation donated 5 million pounds to UK Sport to improve the training and medical care of athletes of the British Olympic team during the Athens Olympics. After this matter was reported by the media, it also won Barron widespread praise.
It is also worth mentioning that the Bank of Communications Credit Card Department, which is a collaboration between Standard Chartered Bank and Bank of Communications in Hua Xia and issues cards in the name of the two banks, signed an endorsement contract with Liu Xiang before this Olympic Games, inviting Liu Xiang to become the spokesperson for their credit card brand for five years at a price of 10 million Chinese yuan.
You know, the endorsement contract he signed with Coca-Cola last year only paid him 350,000 yuan...
Therefore, the 5-year endorsement contract worth 10 million at this time was already a very high price for Liu Feiren.
Even after winning the Olympic gold medal, Liu Feiren's advertising income this year was only 23 million yuan. His highest value was before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
After arriving in Athens, Barron also met Prince Walid, who also came to watch the Olympics. He also came with his wife Amina.
When meeting with Walid, Baron talked to him about the cooperation between Global Industrial Investment Fund and him on the Four Seasons Hotel.
At this time, Finn Hudson, CEO of the GII Fund, had met with Walid in Riyadh to discuss the matter.
There have always been two areas that Prince Waleed is very fond of investing in: one is the banking and financial industry, and the other is the hotel industry.
Since acquiring a stake in Fairmont Hotel Group in 1994, Walid has never stopped his pace in entering the hotel industry.
In April 1994, Walid received accurate intelligence that Isadore Sharp, president of Four Seasons Hotels, was looking for some investors to help the hotel with cash financing, and the people who took the initiative to look for them were all powerful people in politics and business.
Although Walid became famous for his stake in Citigroup, many people still doubt the true source of his funds, believing that he represents a group from a Middle Eastern country. Some even think that Walid is engaged in arms trading.
However, these did not affect Walid's investment plan. He took the initiative to find Sharp and proposed the idea of investing in Four Seasons Hotel.
However, Isadore Sharp, who was skeptical about Waleed's source of funds at the time, did not give him an accurate answer until Waleed agreed to buy Four Seasons Hotel shares at a price 50% higher than the market price. Isadore Sharp then began to be tempted.
In fact, Walid's offer of such a high price was not without conditions. He hoped that he could become a substantial shareholder and participate in the management of the hotel.
In the end, Waleed bought 22% of the shares of Four Seasons Hotels for US$120 million. After the Four Seasons Hotels went public in 1997, his shares were diluted to 16.5%, which is how much Waleed held in Four Seasons Hotels at that time. Over the years, he has never sold any shares in Four Seasons Hotels.
The GII Fund is preparing to work with Prince Alwaleed to privatize and delist the Four Seasons Hotel, making the hotel their "private property."
Of course, to do this, you first need to obtain the consent of Isadore Sharp, the founder of Four Seasons Hotels.
Isadore Sharp currently holds about 25% of the shares of Four Seasons Hotels Group through Triples Holdings Limited, and Prince Alwaleed holds about 16.5%. Over the past period of time, through purchases in the secondary market, the GII Fund has held about 20% of the shares of Four Seasons Hotels...
With the purchase by GII Fund, Four Seasons Hotels' stock price has risen by about 10% during this period, and its market value has reached US$2.2 billion.
After the GII Fund promised that it would only be a financial investment and would not affect Isadore Sharp's operation of the Four Seasons Hotel as long as its interests were not harmed, Isadore Sharp, through Prince Waleed's persuasion, has in principle agreed to the plan of privatizing the Four Seasons Hotel jointly by Waleed's Kingdom Investment and the GII Fund.
In this plan, GII Fund and Prince Alwaleed will privatize Four Seasons Hotels Group at a valuation of $2.86 billion - this valuation is a 30% premium over the current market value of Four Seasons Hotels Group of $2.2 billion!
After the privatization, Alwaleed's Kingdom Investment and GII Fund will each hold 47.5% of Four Seasons Hotels Group's shares, and the Isadore Sharp family will retain 5% of Four Seasons Hotels Group's shares.
This shareholding ratio is also the reason why Isadore Sharp agreed to Kingdom Investment and GII Fund's plan to privatize Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.
Although Kingdom Investments and GII Fund each hold a much higher proportion of shares than Isadore Sharp, because their shareholding ratios are the same, Isadore Sharp's 5% shareholding is of decisive significance in some major decisions, especially decisions that may lead to disagreements between Kingdom Investments and GII.
What if the two parties agree?
Isadore Sharp's family's holdings are far lower than the sum of Kingdom Investments and GII Funds. Isadore Sharp has always focused on Four Seasons Hotels and has no businesses in other fields, nor the ability to expand its holdings. So if Kingdom Investments and GII Fund agree, Isadore Sharp itself will have no way to deal with it...
Following the completion of the privatization of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Isadore Sharp, 73, will continue to serve as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, continuing to lead all aspects of the company's day-to-day operations and strategic direction. Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts will remain headquartered in Toronto, Canada.
Four Seasons Hotels was founded by the Sharp family in 1960. It currently owns more than 60 hotels around the world, located in the United States, Canada, Australia and Japan. They entered the Chinese market in 2002, and the Shanghai Four Seasons Hotel was the group's first hotel to open in China. However, the development of Four Seasons Hotels in China has not been fast. Next year, a new Four Seasons Hotel will open in Hong Kong, China.
Currently, the privatization plan proposed by King Investment and GII Fund has been submitted to the board of directors of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. At the same time, the board of directors of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts has established a special committee composed of independent directors, which will consider the proposed transaction and provide advice to the board of directors, and will be responsible for overseeing the preparatory work related to the formal estimation of the transaction.
After this news was announced, the stock price of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts immediately rose by more than 30%!
Isadore Sharp said in an interview with reporters that a change of ownership is inevitable, "because my children will sell it one day."