The reason why De Sole made this request is obviously that he does not want the Gucci Group to make wedding dresses for others like LVMH did before.
In this regard, Barron readily agreed. He said:
"If the acquisition is completed, Gucci Group will become the parent company of our luxury strategy in the future. This is a brand with a long history. I believe that in our hands, it will continue to create brilliance."
Of course, such an important matter cannot be accomplished with just a few words from them.
Prior to this, De Sol had also investigated Barron, the Duke of England. On the one hand, Barron's aristocratic status was indeed more in line with the positioning of the Gucci Group; on the other hand, the companies acquired by Barron's DS Holdings did not have a record of being split up or sacrificed, and were all run by the original team. In this regard, his reputation was also very good. These supported De Sol in making the final choice.
After it was revealed that DS Holdings controlled 35% of Gucci Group's shares, PPR Group also felt threatened and contacted De Sol.
However, although the cooperation with the PPR Group was indeed good in the beginning, with the decline in Gucci Group's performance in the past two years, the contradiction between the PPR Group and De Sol has become increasingly greater. Even though the PPR Group is eager to show goodwill to him at this time, De Sol is not a fool. What he has to consider is that even if he supports the PPR Group this time, will the other party be able to remember this and maintain his management of the Gucci Group?
Having seen too many similar things, De Sol would certainly not be so naive.
It can be said that the competition between DS Holdings owned by Barron Cavendish, the Duke of England who ranks sixth on the world's richest list, and PPR Group for Gucci Group has been the hottest news during this period, covering multiple channels including finance and fashion.
The final ownership of the Gucci Group is also a concern of the public.
After completing many mergers and acquisitions, can DS Capital succeed in Gucci Group this time? After
all, PPR Group is also strong, and previously held 42% of Gucci Group's shares!
After reaching a consensus agreement with Gucci Group's management led by De Sole, and spending $4 billion, DS Holdings announced that they hold 40% of Gucci Group's shares.
Their combined shareholding with the Gucci Group's management exceeds 50%, so under the cooperation between the two parties, the PPR Group has no chance at all.
What's more, the Gucci Group still has a powerful weapon, the targeted issuance of additional shares, which is useless - the PPR Group was once a beneficiary of this "powerful weapon". They naturally understand that even if their current shareholding is higher than that of the former LVMH Group, the other alliance can still dilute their current shareholding ratio by issuing additional shares after controlling more than 50% of the Gucci Group's shares.
Of course, this kind of thing is a tactic that kills one thousand enemies but injures eight hundred of your own, so the Gucci Group will not use it easily unless it is absolutely necessary.
In despair, they offered $4.5 billion for their 42% stake in Gucci, saying they could sell the shares to DS Holdings at this price.
At this time, DS Holdings only had $500 million left of the $4.5 billion loan it had obtained from Northern Rock Bank by mortgaging the shares of several companies...
According to the offer of PPR Group, plus the subsequent acquisition of Gucci Group management shares and the privatization tender offer for the remaining shares, it is likely that about 6 billion US dollars will be needed...
At this time, including Northern Rock Bank, Barclays Bank and Goldman Sachs Group all expressed that they could provide financing services for his acquisition this time...
After all, compared with the $4.5 billion in funds that Barron has already taken out, it is not too risky to use the remaining part to mortgage all of Gucci Group's future shares to obtain financing.
Although Barron's mortgage loan from Northern Rock Bank was not meant to be a show of weakness, it did not mean that he was really willing to put his life and death in the hands of others. Therefore, he finally chose to finance this time through Standard Chartered Bank.
After agreeing to mortgage future Gucci Group shares, DS Capital obtained a £3 billion financing loan from Standard Chartered Bank at an interest rate of 6%, which is slightly higher than ordinary mortgage loans and is considered acceptable.
Next, DS Holdings will complete the acquisition of 42% of Gucci Group's shares from PPR Group, and subsequently complete the privatization offer for Gucci Group, including management holdings and other shares circulating in the secondary market.
In this way, the vigorous acquisition battle for Gucci Group came to an end, and DS Holdings became the new owner of Gucci Group.
Of course, this is all in the past...
…
It was already mid-to-late September when Barron returned to London from Italy. At this time, he received news from Boeing that the Boeing 747 he had ordered, the Devonshire, had been completed. According to his request, the other party would fly the plane directly to London Airport to complete the handover with him.
While waiting for the plane, Barron also met Clara Foss, CEO of the London Stock Exchange.
Clara Fuss, 46, has served as CEO of the New York Stock Exchange since January 2001. In this male-dominated field, Clara is also the first female CEO of the London Stock Exchange.
During this period, when DS Holdings was acquiring Gucci Group, Global Industrial Investment Fund was also not idle. Not only did they increase their holdings in the London Stock Exchange to about 10% through purchases in the secondary market, they also reached an agreement with Tianli Investment and Scottish Widows to acquire their shares in the London Stock Exchange at a price of 5 pounds per share, a premium of 25%.
Initially, the GII Fund offered the two investment institutions 4.6 pounds per share, a 15% premium compared to the previous share price of less than 4 pounds on the London Stock Exchange.
However, both investment institutions believed that this was not "sincere" enough. Later, after the GII Fund offered another price of 5 pounds per share, this 25% premium finally impressed them.
This cost more than £250 million and the GII funds acquired a combined 20.3% stake in the London Stock Exchange.
In this way, GII Fund now holds 30.3% of the London Stock Exchange's shares, making it the largest shareholder of the London Stock Exchange.
After reaching this shareholding ratio of more than 30%, GII Fund made its first full acquisition offer to the London Stock Exchange, and made their acquisition offer at a price of 1.25 billion pounds for the total market value of the London Stock Exchange.
During the meeting with Clara Foss, she also mentioned the GII Fund's acquisition of the London Stock Exchange:
"Your Highness, the GII Fund is only an investment institution, not a financial institution with rich experience. Therefore, if it becomes an investor in the London Stock Exchange, we will welcome it very much. However, to acquire the London Stock Exchange completely is not a feasible option for us, and it will not be of much benefit to the future development of the London Stock Exchange..."
"What if, Ms. Firth, we can promise to acquire more exchanges in the future, such as... Euronext, or Lijiapo, or even Nasdaq, and merge them with the London Stock Exchange?"