With the "previous experience" of the LVMH Group, Barron will be more cautious this time.
He would keep a low profile, communicate through "agents", and use offshore companies to share shares to avoid reaching the 5% stake requirement.
Moreover, he does not need to complete the control of Hermès in the short term. He only needs to achieve the goal within five years before LVMH Group takes action.
The reason why Barron needs to be extremely careful is not only to prevent Hermès from noticing his actions, but also to prevent being discovered by the LVMH Group.
After all, France is the home base of the LVMH Group, and in the original time and space, when the LVMH Group acquired shares of Hermès, the bank that cooperated with them was headed by Edmond de Rothschild Bank.
The founder of this bank is the father of Benjamin Rothschild, who is now the chairman of the bank.
France is also the Rothschild family's stronghold...
Therefore, it is necessary for him to act cautiously.
…
Before Baron came to France, the board of directors of Sweden's OMX Group had already decided to accept the London Stock Exchange's $3.5 billion cash acquisition offer, which also meant that the bidding for OMX Group was settled.
Of course, this deal still needs to wait for the approval of relevant EU agencies, but from the current perspective, there will not be any big problems - behind the scenes, Barron has also done a lot of work within the EU through the British government.
After completing the merger and acquisition, they will form the LOMX Group (London-OMX Group), and all the businesses of the OMX Group will be incorporated into this group.
The merged LOMX Group will become Europe's largest exchange group, rivalling Deutsche Börse and Euronext.
It should be noted that another reason why the London Stock Exchange was able to complete the acquisition of OMX Group was that Nasdaq Group gave up competing with the London Stock Exchange and did not continue to increase the price.
But there is a reason for this.
On the one hand, the acquisition price of US$3.5 billion has reached the bottom line of Nasdaq Group's valuation of OMX Group.
After all, before this bidding, the market value of OMX Group was approximately US$3 billion, and the acquisition price of US$3.5 billion was already a considerable premium.
In addition, the London Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Group have also reached an agreement to hold shares in each other and deepen cooperation.
Therefore, Nasdaq Group did not gain nothing this time.
According to the agreement between the two parties, the merged LOMX Group is valued at US$7.2 billion. They will issue additional shares worth US$800 million to the Nasdaq Group in exchange for additional shares of the same value from the Nasdaq Group...
Nasdaq Group's current market value is approximately US$5 billion, so after the stock swap, Nasdaq Group holds a 10% stake in LOMX Group.
LOMX Group holds 13.79% of Nasdaq Group's shares.
And Nasdaq Group and LOMX Group will also list on each other's exchanges.
It is expected that both parties will be listed on the corresponding Nasdaq and London Stock Exchanges respectively in the first half of next year.
Therefore, after completing these agreements, the shareholding ratio of LOMX Group is as follows: Global Industrial Investment Fund holds 90% of LOMX Group's shares; Nasdaq Group holds 10% of the shares.
Among the holdings of GII Fund, GII-1 holds 46.25% of the shares, and GII-2 invested US$3.5 billion in the acquisition of OMX Group and holds 43.75% of the shares.
However, after completing the acquisition of OMX Group, if LOMX Group wants to continue to acquire the Italian Stock Exchange, the review it faces from the EU and Italy will become more stringent...
In fact, while waiting for the final decision of the OMX Group's board of directors, negotiations between the London Stock Exchange and the Italian Stock Exchange on the acquisition have been ongoing.
The difference between the two parties on the price is getting smaller and smaller... After the second offer from the London Stock Exchange, the Italian Stock Exchange has almost agreed to their offer of 1.5 billion euros, equivalent to 1.8 billion US dollars.
Unfortunately, even though the funds involved this time are "only" 1.8 billion US dollars, which is far lower than the time when the OMX Group was acquired, the antitrust review of this acquisition will be particularly strict because the merged LOMX Group is already the largest exchange group in Europe in terms of scale.
Usually this kind of review can take as short as three months or as long as 18 months...
Therefore, the LOMX Group will first digest the acquired OMX Group as soon as possible, and technically upgrade its subsidiaries such as the London Stock Exchange.
As for the acquisition of the Italian Stock Exchange, it is necessary to be prepared to deal with the relevant review agencies of the European Union and Italy for a long time...
To this end, LOMX Group has set up a special team to follow up on this series of reviews.
…
By the time Barron returned to London, it was already December. Soon, 2005 was about to pass and the new year was about to come.
Here, he waited for a group of little guests.
They are the outstanding students from Devonshire International School in Colo Prairie Province.
When he first went to this school, he promised in person that he would reward those children with excellent academic performance with the opportunity to study in London. The ten children who came here now were the students with the best academic performance.
These students have different skin colors and their eyes are full of surprise and expectation when they come to a developed city like London for the first time.
Barron hosted a banquet for the children at his home.
"Your name is Rami, right?"
After dinner, Barron asked someone to call a boy and a girl to come in front of him. Both of them looked very delicate and obviously had Arab ancestry. He asked the older boy.
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"Yes, Your Highness..."
The boy bowed respectfully to Barron and said:
"My name is Rami and she is my sister Ravi."
Barron reached out and ruffled the boy's brown curly hair affectionately, then said with a smile:
"I heard that you are very smart. You are only thirteen years old, but you have already started studying high school courses, and your grades have always been first, right?"
Rami raised his head childishly and spoke fluent English in a clear voice:
"I just think that what the teacher teaches is not difficult, Your Highness."
"Very good, Rami, study hard. I told you just now at dinner that I will give a certain number of places to the school every year and rank them according to their grades. Those outstanding students can be sent to the best schools in London. I promise you that if you are the first among them, I will allow you to bring your sister to London, and I will continue to support you."
Hearing Barron's words, Rami's eyes flashed with surprise:
"Really? Your Highness the Duke!"
"Yes, I never lie to anyone. Do you have confidence, Rami?"
"I will definitely be the first, Your Highness."
"come on..."
After encouraging the boys, Barron sent someone to take them back to the Cavendish Hotel.
The boy he just talked to, Rami, and his sister Ravi, were adopted from Lebanon by the Devonshire Charity Foundation. Barron had read their information. They were born in Palestine. Their family was considered relatively wealthy there, but for well-known reasons, they fell into poverty. Their father took them to Lebanon, where he contracted an illness and died...
The brother and sister became orphans and almost starved to death, but fortunately they were met by the Devonshire Charity Foundation.
After entering Devonshire International School, Rami showed his talent for learning. In just over a year, he had completed the courses from elementary school to junior high school. He had some basic knowledge of elementary school courses before, but such performance was really surprising, which was also the reason why the school teacher specifically told Barron about Rami's story.
Rami's sister Ravi is three years younger than him. She is just ten years old this year. She is also excellent in study. Although not as exaggerated as her brother, she is cute and very well-behaved, so she is also loved by school teachers.
Originally, only Rami was given a place in London this time, but he didn't want to be separated from his sister, so he wanted to refuse at first... After the school principal reported the matter to Barron, he gave him special treatment and allowed him to come with his sister.
Barron still admires this child very much, but his future development depends on his own efforts.