On November 20, Barron came to Paris, where the new store of Devonshire Hotel, a luxury hotel brand under the Cavendish Hotel Group, held an opening ceremony.
This is the first Devonshire Hotel in France and the first Devonshire Hotel to open overseas in England after the Magic City of China.
The hotel opened shortly after France ended a major riot that lasted more than 20 days. The riot started in the suburbs of Paris and later spread to the whole of France, even affecting parts of Germany and Austria, which also affected the opening of the Devonshire (Paris) Hotel.
The original plan was to open on November 10, but it was postponed for 10 days.
On the opening day of the Devonshire Hotel (Paris), Barron met Carla Bruni, whom he had not seen for a long time, and reviewed with her in the Duke's Suite of the hotel...well, French and Italian teaching.
By the way, at this time, Bruni had not yet been with her future husband from her original time and space, Old Sa...
The current French Interior Minister, speaking of which, at the beginning of the riots, Saddam had a very tough attitude towards minority immigrants, which was one of the reasons for the escalation of the riots...
Speaking of which, Barron was very satisfied with the environment of this hotel.
The Devonshire Hotel (Paris) was originally built in 1896 as the residence of Prince Roland Bonaparte, Napoleon's great-nephew.
It is located in the elegant and quiet 16th arrondissement of Paris, adjacent to Trocadero Square and the Champs Elysees.
In Barron's previous life, this building was listed as a French historical monument for protection in 2009, and was later purchased by the Shangri-La Hotel Group and built into the Shangri-La Hotel, Paris. However, this time, it was taken over by the Devonshire Hotel.
The hotel is located on the Chaillot Hill on the banks of the Seine, facing the Eiffel Tower on the opposite bank of the river. According to people in the past, Prince Roland Bonaparte chose this place for his residence because it could see the Eiffel Tower.
In order to open this hotel, Cavendish Hotel Group specially invited French interior design master Pierre Yves Rochon to create this historical monument, and finally combined 19th century imperialism and 20th century minimalism to reproduce the grandeur of this building.
It can be seen that the former palace has been reborn under their transformation. Here, one can feel the unique leisure of Paris and the intoxicating classical temperament.
The entire Devonshire (Paris) Hotel has 100 rooms and suites. The interior design is dominated by Rococo tones, and exquisite fabrics and oil paintings can be seen everywhere, making the interior full of Versailles style.
For example, in the Duke's Suite where Barron is now, in the sunlight filtering through the flowing gauze, the classical-style furniture exudes a soft luster and elegance, highlighting the aristocratic temperament that seems to be sealed in time.
…
Barron had another thing to do when he came to France this time. The board game company Asmodee, which he had previously invested in, will be raising funds again.
DS Capital has previously acquired 74.35% of Asmodee's shares through two investments.
They used the funds to acquire some small tabletop game companies, which not only increased the categories of Asmodee's games, but also expanded its scale.
Asmodee is now one of the most well-known tabletop game companies in Europe.
Through this process, Asmodee's founding team has also tasted the sweetness of expansion through capital acquisition. This time, DS Capital's fund will invest 40 million euros to increase their total stake in Asmodee to more than 90%.
Next, Asmodee plans to purchase more than 60% of the shares of Esdevium Games, the largest tabletop game distributor in the UK, to take control of the company.
In general, in Baron's previous life, Asmodee's expansion was somewhat similar to that of the LVMH Group in the luxury goods industry. Through continuous acquisitions, it brought companies with development prospects under its umbrella.
But after all, the scale of the current board game industry is still limited. For example, Asmodee's revenue for the whole of last year did not exceed 30 million euros. Even with a large-scale growth this year, it is still within 50 million euros.
Therefore, Barron does not need to personally appear in Asmodee's financing this time.
Another goal of his visit to France this time was Hermès, or more precisely, part of their shares.
"Your Highness, we have entrusted two banks to purchase some of the shares held by the Hermès family members. These shares will be held by offshore companies, and each company's shareholding ratio will not exceed 5%."
They are very cautious about purchasing shares of Hermès and will proceed in a low-key manner, after all, there are precedents.
Baron knew that LVMH now owned a 4.9% stake in Hermès, which they had secretly purchased in 2001-2002.
The purpose is to keep the ratio below 5% so that it can be avoided from being announced and thus noticed by the Hermès family.
This is Bernard Arnault's usual strategy. He first lurks in secret for his prey, then waits for the right moment to start buying up shares...
The entire LVMH Group includes many luxury brands, but in the field of leather women's bags, Hermès is an absolute top luxury brand and a brand that can support the entire group.
In the luxury goods industry, there has always been a certain chain of contempt.
Just like the "LV" in the LVMH Group, Louis Vuitton is often referred to as the entry-level brand of luxury goods...
In the world of luxury bags, only Hermès can be regarded as the highest level of the contempt chain.
Therefore, it can be said that Bernard Arnault has been coveting Hermès for a long time.
Later, LVMH Group joined hands with French banks and, through a financial product called "equity swap", acquired another 17.1% of Hermès' shares in 2010, thus increasing its shareholding in Hermès to more than 22% and becoming its largest shareholder.
Read the original text at Liu#9@书/吧!
At this point, I have to briefly mention the shareholding structure of Hermès. Although it is a family business and has always been managed by the Hermès family, the family holds 70% of the shares, but these shares are scattered among more than 200 family members, and no one holds more than 10% of the shares.
The reason is that as the Hermès family is passed down, there are more and more family members - it is worth mentioning that none of the current members of the Hermès family have the surname "Hermès" because in the early 1950s, the "head" of the Hermès family, Emile Maurice, passed away and the family business was inherited by his three daughters and sons-in-law. The current members of the Hermès family are all their descendants.
The LVMH Group took advantage of this and prepared to gain control of Hermès through a "sneak attack".
However, what they didn't expect was that when LVMH announced that it would become the majority shareholder of Hermès and was preparing to defeat Hermès' small shareholders one by one and acquire more shares little by little, making Hermès a property of LVMH…
In order to maintain the Hermès family's control over the company, 52 key members of the Hermès family held a secret meeting in Paris one day in December 2010.
It is said that the room where the meeting was held was protected from eavesdropping in advance, no minutes were left at the meeting, and even the participants were asked to hand over their mobile phones before entering the room.
After several rounds of communication, the Hermès family members decided to give up their personal interests and unite to protect Hermès.
They will hold their combined 50.2% stake in strict custody and cannot sell it for 20 years.
At the same time, Hermès began to use regulators and laws to defend its control. In July 2012, they filed a lawsuit with the Paris Public Prosecutor's Office, accusing the LVMH Group of holding 22.02% of Hermès' shares through unconventional means such as "insider trading" and "collusion between insiders and outsiders."
In 2013, the French Financial Markets Authority determined that LVMH Group's transaction to increase its stake in Hermès was opaque and could be considered "fraud", which was a serious misconduct.
On July 7, French market regulator AMF announced that LVMH will be fined 8 million euros for failing to make proper disclosure when it increased its large stake in competitor Hermès.
At the time, it was the largest fine ever imposed by the AMF.
In the end, LVMH Group had no choice but to give up its acquisition of Hermès, distribute its shares in Hermès to the company's shareholders, and promise not to increase its stake...