After Christmas, the first season of Britain's Got Talent, broadcast on ITV, also concluded its finale.
The new program produced by Stuart Media was still a success. At this point, Bonnie finally felt relieved and no longer had to put too much energy on the company.
After Christmas, Barron and his group went to Australia.
In addition to Barron and his wife, Earl Bute and his family also came with them this time.
Unlike the damp and cold weather in London at this time, Australia is located in the southern hemisphere. Unlike London, it is now summer, with daily temperatures between 20 and 30 degrees, which is considered a relatively comfortable time.
A day ago, they walked out of the villa in the cold wind of London, and now, they were sunbathing on the white sandy beach.
Barron and his team first came to Whitehaven Beach in the Whitsunday Islands, Queensland.
The beach here is made of high-purity silica sand, which is soft and cool to walk on.
Bonnie is nearly six months pregnant, and even when she is lying on the beach, there is a special team of nurses to take care of her.
Barron occasionally strolls along the beach holding his three young children...
This naturally includes his daughter Ethel.
Although she is actually his biological daughter, Barron is now nominally Ethel's godfather, so they are father and daughter in name only.
"Argent Real Estate Group is progressing very smoothly in Australia. We have already established connections here. After acquiring a local real estate company, we took over their project and have already started construction on the land we acquired in Melbourne..."
When Barron sat down on the lounge chair on the beach and took a sip of the iced juice, Earl Bute said to him.
Well, speaking of which, Count Bute's figure is well maintained. Although not as sculpted as Barron's, his muscle lines give people a sense of beauty, but at least you can still see that he has abdominal muscles - except for the pink beach pants he wears, which makes Barron a little unacceptable in terms of taste...
"Indeed, Australia's economy will have good prospects. As a resource export destination, it is also very attractive to investors. Recently, it has also made good attempts in the field of science and technology."
"But in the eyes of Europeans, this place is always a wild place, isn't it?"
The Stuart Mining Group of the Butt family also has business in Australia, but in terms of scale, it is certainly not comparable to the giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto here...
But what he said is also true. If America had not become the "leader" now, I am afraid that even the people there, the Europeans would still look down on them.
If the original Americans were mainly Puritans from England, then the Australians are purely descendants of exiles. In their contempt chain, Australia is far behind America.
"I will go to our Argent Property Group's Melbourne branch to take a look. Would you like to come with me?"
"Oh, no, Ian, my main job this time is to accompany Bonnie on vacation..."
Barron shook his head and said.
"The water is nice now, don't you want to go swim in the sea for a while?"
The one who came over and said this to them was Countess Chris, who had already changed into a swimsuit. Although what she wore was not a bikini that was too revealing, but a one-piece swimsuit, the style was still very seductive and showed off her attractive figure very well.
"Where are the children?"
Although Chris invited the two to go swimming, her eyes were always on Barron... Well, I have to say, Barron's figure and muscular outline were indeed eye-catching even in his beach shorts...
When she heard her husband asking about the child, she looked at him and said:
"The servants are watching. Do you want to lie down for a while?"
"Uh... yes, this sunshine right now is very comfortable, isn't it."
So Barron "had no choice" to accompany the Countess to swim in the sea...
The beach here is not dangerous at all, as it has been artificially modified. And when it comes to water skills, Barron is really not afraid of anyone - even his beautiful coach once marveled at his swimming speed, which is not inferior to that of professional athletes, and his athletic ability in water is extremely strong.
Well, serious athleticism.
However, after entering the sea, Barron realized that the Countess might not be so serious as to ask him to swim with her.
As the two gradually moved away from the shore and approached a reef in the sea, they stood behind the reef, blocking the sight of the people on the shore...
Barron supported the Countess from behind, while she placed her hands on a smooth stone surface.
As he paddled harder, the waves around them grew bigger and bigger...
At this time, Earl Bute, who was sitting on a lounge chair on the shore, was following the two people's tracks with his eyes. After seeing them hide behind the reef, he felt a sense of loss.
…
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Of course, they were not limited to Australia. After Earl Bute went to Melbourne, Barron took everyone to New Zealand.
Compared to the coast of Australia, New Zealand is slightly cooler. After all, many places here are at a high altitude.
Because they had to take care of Bonnie, who needed to be more careful in her movements, their journey was slow.
By the time they returned to Australia from New Zealand, it was already mid-January 2006.
After arriving in Melbourne, while everyone was taking a break, Barron also met Andrew Cole, CEO of West African Mining Company.
"Your Highness, after two months of negotiations, our acquisition has finally been approved by the board of directors and shareholders' meeting of OZ Mining Company. However, the details of the acquisition will still need to be reviewed by the Australian side."
Before becoming the CEO of West African Mining Company, Andrew Cole had held management positions at Rio Tinto. Therefore, he is very familiar with many situations of Australian mining companies. It is a very correct choice to have him be responsible for this acquisition.
OZ Minerals Ltd is headquartered in Melbourne and is a mid-sized mining company with a market value of A$1.6 billion (approximately US$1.2 billion at the current exchange rate).
In October last year, Andrew Cole was assigned to be responsible for the acquisition of OZ Mining by West African Mining Company. The main reason for this was that OZ Mining suffered serious losses due to operational errors in their futures investment department, which resulted in a debt of up to A$1.2 billion that was about to mature and could not be repaid on time. This triggered a series of chain reactions, causing OZ Mining to fall into crisis.
Under such circumstances, it is natural that West African Mining's proposal to acquire the company as a whole is timely.
However, the negotiation process this time was not so smooth, because for a mining company like this, especially one that involves a lot of debt relationships, it would take more than a few days to conduct a thorough due diligence on it.
In addition, OZ Mining also owns mining operations in many locations, including Sepon, Golden Grove, Century, Rosebery, Avebury, Dugald River, Prominent Hill, Martabe, etc., and they also have mines in Cambodia and Thailand.
The authenticity of the reserves of these minerals and their valuation are not easy matters - market value is market value, and if you really want to acquire the other party, you certainly cannot just use the market value corresponding to the stock price. The two parties conducted multiple rounds of negotiations on these prices before finally reaching a definite result.
According to the contract reached now, West Africa Group's acquisition of OZ Mining will cost a total of US$1.8 billion (including assuming the 1.2 billion Australian dollars, equivalent to US$900 million in debt that OZ Mining needs to repay immediately). This is a 50% premium over the previous market value of OZ Mining!
However, although the West African Group has reached an acquisition agreement with OZ Mining at this time, the contract still needs to wait for the approval of the Australian government before it can take effect and start the process of privatizing OZ Mining and completing the delisting process.