Chapter 102 Love Chapter 88: Luring the Wolf into the House
What's more, with LV's status in the European fashion industry and Henri Lacamier's connections in the business world, he has many partners to choose from.
There are actually many colleagues who have cooperated with each other, have a certain friendship, and can trust each other.
Just like Chanel or Pierre Cardin, there is actually no need for him to put his money on a stranger whom he has just met and doesn't know very well at all.
So why did he do this?
The answer is also very simple, that is, he is too conceited and too greedy.
In fact, if anyone could really put themselves in Henri Lacamier's shoes, it would not be difficult to understand the choice he made in a hurry.
Don’t forget, the merger of LV and MH was originally a decision made by Henri Lacamier himself.
But he never thought he would get such a result. In fact, he already deeply regretted it in his heart.
In addition, he had just suffered a big loss from MH's back stab, and the pain in his back had not yet dissipated.
He is inevitably a bit cynical, so much so that he has doubts about the concept of "companion".
Therefore, even in the face of the unfavorable situation at hand, for him, whether to introduce another evenly matched ally was actually a choice that made him feel quite embarrassed and worried.
Yes, although good old partners like Chanel and Pierre Cardin are good, in the past, their cooperation with each other was only temporary cooperation for a certain product or for a certain theme event.
There is no equity involved, nor are they tied together.
God knows if Henri Lacamier turned to them and brought them into his company.
After MH and Guinness are subdued, will these old friends also have conflicts with him because of their interests and power?
If this is the case, what will he do then?
Not to mention that he has too many scruples in terms of relationships, even in terms of strength, these old friends are not at the mercy of others.
Dior's Bernard Arnault is completely different from Henri Lacamier.
First of all, in Henri Lacamier's view, although this person has abilities, he studied architecture and was an unknown real estate agent five years ago. He is a newcomer who has just entered the fashion industry for a few years.
The qualifications are still young, the experience is lacking, and the team is weak and has limited strength.
Today, the annual turnover of Dior Fashion is only over 100 million US dollars, which is far behind Louis Vuitton. The two companies are not at the same level.
This can even be seen when the two of them chat with each other.
Henri Lacamier could feel that Bernard's attitude was particularly humble. He only asked for advice in a low voice and treated him like a student treating his teacher.
This also gave him blind confidence, believing that after the company was stabilized, he would be able to firmly hold on to the younger generation in the industry simply by relying on his industry status and company qualifications.
Secondly, Henri Lacamier also knew that the Dior owned by Bernard Arnault was actually bought from the French government.
In Henri Lacamier's view, since this kid was able to obtain the approval of the French government to complete the commercial acquisition of this well-known brand, and he was able to achieve such perfect results, it has indeed helped Dior get out of the quagmire of business difficulties.
This undoubtedly represents that Bernard Arnault is a reliable person, not only has certain abilities, but also has business reputation.
In addition, this man looks well-mannered, comes from a prestigious school, and looks like a gentleman.
So Henri Lacamier also committed the problem of judging people by their appearance, and subjectively believed that Bernard Arnault's character should be more reliable.
Finally, in addition to this, Henri Lacamier actually had a small agenda in his heart that was not easy to express to others.
That is that he has actually been thinking about the Dior fashions in Bernard Arnault's hands.
In this world, many people mistakenly believe that Dior is a unified brand owned by only one company.
But in fact, this brand is divided into two parts: fashion business and beauty and perfume business.
Moreover, Dior's life experience is far more complicated than the world imagines.
On October 24, 1957, Christian Dior died of a heart attack.
These two businesses were sold to different targets by his descendants.
So from that day on, the Dior brand has been in a state of division.
Boussac Textile Group acquired Dior's clothing business, which was later acquired by Bernard Arnault due to operational difficulties.
LVMH Group has always owned Dior’s beauty and fragrance business.
This means that whether it is Henri Lacamière or Bernard Arnault, the Dior brand in their respective hands is incomplete.
Only when they are united can Dior become a complete Dior.
So in fact, Henri Lacamière still had a dream hidden in his heart that he couldn't express openly.
On the one hand, he wanted to use Dior's beauty and perfume business as a bait to lure Bernard Arnault into a donkey led by a carrot, for his own use, and to become his own pawn.
On the other hand, he wants to gradually control Bernard Arnault, his ally, and eventually transfer Dior Fashion to the LVMH Group to achieve "unification" with Dior Beauty and Perfume.
It must be said that Henri Lacamier is indeed the fourth generation of Louis Vuitton. He is indeed a cunning man who has calculated every aspect.
I found him as a partner, and he seems to be a good fit anywhere.
Not only can it help him solve his current dilemma, but after solving the problem, it can also help him make LVMH bigger and stronger.
Bernard Arnault will use his Dior fashion to piece together the last piece of the LVMH puzzle for Henri Lacamier, so that the LVMH group that falls into his hands will shine as brilliantly as the sun and become the largest fashion group in France.
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How wonderful it would be if all this could be realized!
But the problem is that Henri Lacamier is only a Frenchman after all.
He suffered a loss because he had never read Chinese history books, nor had he read "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Sun Tzu's Art of War".
He doesn't understand what "can't take advantage of everything, can't take advantage of all the cleverness", and doesn't understand what "the agencies are too clever in their calculations, and they end up costing their lives".
Never would he have thought that Bernard Arnault, who looked harmless on the surface and wanted to be his father's supporter, was a wolf in sheep's clothing.
He is really a ruthless person who can even kill his own father. How can he be willing to be manipulated by him?
In fact, it is not surprising that Henri Lacamier was thinking about the Dior clothes in his hands.
But why were they not thinking about plotting against him?
So the final result goes without saying.
Because Henri Lacamier was completely confused by Bernard Arnault's appearance, he not only failed to bring in reinforcements, but also led the wolf into the house, adding an extremely insidious enemy to himself.
Don't look at the fact that Bernard Arnault agreed to him on the surface, but in fact he didn't do what the two of them combined.
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On the surface, they are just pretending and playing "pretending to be a pig and eating the tiger" with Henri Lacamier.
But behind the scenes, this guy played an extremely insidious trick - killing someone with a borrowed knife.
That's right, when he received the investment invitation from LV and found out that he could actually get involved in the other half of Dior's business, Bernard Arnault was really ecstatic about this opportunity.
Moreover, he is backed by Lazard Investment Bank. If he is really willing to raise the funds required to acquire shares from the investment bank, this condition will apply, so it won't be a big problem.
But both Bernard Arnault and Lazard Investment Bank are eager for quick success and very practical.
If they participate in any investment, they only hope to maximize their benefits and obtain the greatest benefits in the fastest way at the lowest cost.
As for everything else, it doesn't matter. They don't take credit, morality, face, conscience, etc. at all.
So after careful analysis of this matter, they found that LV was actually at a disadvantage, and that the MH and Guinness alliance had a stronger overall strength and a greater chance of winning, so they were not going to help LV.
Because if they clearly support LV, once they make any move, it will be equivalent to provoking the alliance of MH and Guinness. Not only will there be no way out, but they are also likely to receive a severe blow from the other party.
How can these two wine companies be trivial?
Regardless of their industry status, personal connections, or capital, they are not comparable to them. If this treasure is misplaced, it will be very bad to steal the chicken but lose the rice.
However, if they give up because of this and waste this opportunity, there will be no benefit at all, and they are unwilling.
After all, they have been salivating over this big fish like LVMH for a long time. Now that they are looking for it, can they miss it?
That's a crime!
So the final result of the discussion was that they had to blend in, but they had to follow the jungle law of the jungle and try their best to stand on the side of the strong.
Not only must we absolutely not help LV, but we must sell LV cleanly and completely.
The specific method is to bring funds to negotiate with MH and Guinness, and gain the trust and acceptance of the other parties by selling LV in exchange for some shares.
Then use Bernard Arnault's personal charm to continue to stabilize LV, and use the alliance's knife to kill the pig and divide the meat, and first completely destroy LV.
In this way, after Bernard Arnault made a plan with Lazard Investment Bank, and with the help of the investment bank's funds, he found MH and Guinness to surrender, and he was indeed welcomed by them.
To this end, the three parties simply established a new company and formed a new alliance.
By putting together the funds they hold and the 24% shares owned by MH, the interests of the three parties are completely tied together.
And that's not all. Next, Bernard Arnault also cleverly took advantage of the mentality of MH and Guinness, which both cooperated and feared each other, hoping to contain each other.
He used his personal charm and outstanding eloquence to win the support of both parties, and he became the controller of the new company, occupying 60% of the control of the new company.
By this time, Bernard Arnault had basically mastered the knife used to kill people.
And soon the former president of MH, Alain Chevalier, also had a close look at LV’s fourth generation, Henri Lacamie.
After the new company of the three-party cooperation acquired a certain number of shares, Alain Chevalier, as the promoter, convened a board of directors and formally requested that Bernard Arnault, the representative of the new company, be admitted as a director of the company.
He also announced through the media, "We need a strong shareholder organization to prevent hostile takeovers, and now we have found our very good partner, Mr. Bernard Arnault. He is simply a gentleman."
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There is no doubt that when this incident was exposed, LV’s fourth generation Henri Lacamier was completely confused at the board meeting!
This old man almost vomited blood because of Bernard Arnault's two-faced manipulation!
Only then did I realize how dangerous the world is, and what it means to "know people, know faces, but not know hearts."
In fact, before this, Bernard Arnault had been flirting with him, which made him always feel that this was my own person, and he was just waiting for his rice to fall into the pot.
Who knew that after waiting and waiting, we would actually get such a result.
Yes, the other party did put the rice into the pot.
But it is a pity that this Bernard Arnault suddenly became his opponent.
The food he cooked was not for himself. Everyone seemed to be uniting to plot against him.
Needless to say, it was difficult for Alain Chevalier to remain calm after encountering such a sudden blow. He was simply furious and could not sit still at all!
I thought to myself, you are a bitch, you are not with me, why did you end up over there?
Okay! Don’t you want to respond harshly to me? Then I can’t let you be happy, and I have to respond harshly to you.
So at that time, Henri Lacamier slammed the table, stood up, and threatened in front of all board members that he would purchase shares and increase his shareholding ratio to 33%.
This number is a very subtle number. If Henry can really do what he says, one person will own so many shares.
This means that he has veto power on LVMH's major decisions.
Of course, on MH's side, no matter how many alliances there are, they can't do whatever they want.
But the problem is that Henri Lacamière was happy with his mouth, but he didn't understand that "a biting dog never barks".
In fact, what he said impulsively was like a wake-up call to the other party.
Didn’t he say he wanted to buy a veto?
Bernard Arnault would definitely not allow it.
It turned out that it was sooner than later. Bernard Arnault's hands were indeed faster than the rumors spread.
And not only is he fast, he is also rich!
Within three days, Bernard Arnault spent US$600 million on behalf of the three companies to acquire shares in the open market regardless of cost.
The shareholding of LVMH under the company's name reached 37.5%, making him the largest shareholder of LVMH, with the first veto power.
By this time, Henri Lacamier was really on the verge of tears.
If he was full of anger when he made bold words in the boardroom and formally declared war.
Now I feel so regretful that my intestines are blue.
It was like sitting on pins and needles, like a thorn in the back, like a lump in the throat!
And now that the situation has collapsed, what else can he do in this situation?
That was the last way left, so he decided to put aside his old face and seek help from his old friends.
