The entire 1980s was also known as the decade of greed in world financial history.
Why?
In fact, the answer has nothing to do with Japan's economic bubble.
Mainly because corporate mergers and acquisitions in European and American countries are increasingly becoming a great business.
And there are more and more ways to play.
As we all know, in modern times, under the background of the Industrial Revolution and the capitalist system of European and American countries, large-scale and unprecedented private enterprises have been born in European and American countries.
These private companies have not only subverted the old life model one by one, but also occupy leading positions in all walks of life, forming almost the most important part of the world economy.
This situation remained roughly the same until the 1980s.
However, in the 1980s, a large number of corporate founders in European and American countries were reaching old age and were facing the problem of corporate inheritance.
These elderly people had no choice but to allow various professional managers to take their place on the stage and start dancing with guns and sticks.
In the context of slowing economic growth, many companies have begun to merge and reduce competition in order to survive.
Therefore, increasing revenue and profit scale through mergers and acquisitions has become the only choice and basic operation for professional managers in this era.
LVMH is a very typical example.
Henri Lacamier of LV hopes to expand the company's business categories in order to stabilize the company's operations and increase profits to a higher level.
What Alain Chevalier of MH fears most is that there are too many shareholders and the management has insufficient voting rights. He hopes to cling to a big tree to avoid being acquired by outsiders.
It was precisely because of their different interests that the two of them were willing to complete the marriage between the brand and the enterprise.
In addition to this reason, in this era, there are many loopholes that can be exploited in corporate mergers and acquisitions, and gold can really be struck.
Although there are laws and regulations governing it, the laws still need to be improved.
Commercial companies also suffer from untimely, opaque, slow dissemination and other shortcomings in information disclosure.
In addition, there are always a small number of geniuses in this world. Even if they are appointed by the founders, the management of the vast majority of listed companies are very corrupt and incompetent.
What they are best at is often cultivating relationships rather than effectively managing the enterprise. The most common thing most CEOs do is destroy value rather than create value.
This has resulted in many companies being severely undervalued, and the quality of the company deviating significantly from the value of the shares they issued.
As a digression, it is actually because of the difficulty in finding a suitable successor.
Whether it was Henri Lacamier or Pierre Cardon himself, even though he knew that his body and energy had declined severely, he still had to personally take charge of the company and sit in the top position to support it hard.
None of them can rest assured and leave their brands and companies to outsiders to manage.
Therefore, in such an ecological environment, this led to frequent mergers and acquisitions in European and American countries during this period, and a large number of financial giants emerged to feed on this.
From 1982 to 1988, the overall transaction amount in the United States alone rose from US$11 billion to US$181.9 billion. It can be said that every family has wine to drink and everyone has meat to eat.
Then there is no doubt that the world's financial center has moved from Britain to Wall Street in the United States.
Of course, those currently engaged in this industry also use American companies and Americans as the industry benchmark.
In this era, the most famous related private equity fund in the United States is KKR.
This private company with a total of three founders and a history of less than ten years has achieved amazing success in terms of corporate mergers and acquisitions despite its short establishment.
Not only is its reputation well established on Wall Street, it has already solidified its status as the No. 1 acquisitions leader, but its scale of management also leaves its followers far behind.
They are even the root of the term "barbarians at the gate."
You know, a year later, in 1988, in the business war to acquire Reynolds-Nabisco, KKR relied on its wealth to confront the management head-on without reaching a consensus with the management.
The acquisition was completed through brutal and tough measures.
As a result, it received this classic title from its competitors, and became the title of a book and movie that recorded the acquisition in the future. It also became a keyword in the Chinese capital market from 2015 to 2017.
As for companies in the world that can match their M&A capabilities and achievements, there is only one lone actor—Carl Icahn, known as the “corporate predator” in the United States.
In 1985, Carl Icahn became famous in the hostile takeover of Trans World Airlines, and has since become the "Wolf of Wall Street" that has shocked the United States.
The annual compound rate of return of Icahn Capital under his name is even higher than that of Buffett, Madoff, and Ross, but the gameplay is completely different.
Carl Icahn was able to keenly observe the differences in interests between senior managers and shareholders of listed companies, and used various financial means to make profits.
Of course, this is actually the secret to KKR's fortune.
The commonality of playing this kind of capital game is that in addition to having a unique vision and being able to keenly discover the weaknesses of good companies and companies, you also have to be good at using various financing methods to maximize your leverage.
Because of this, if you want to look at everything Bernard Arnault did for LVMH from a professional perspective.
In fact, it is difficult to give any good evaluation to this little French wolf that has just developed its bloodthirsty and is far from mature.
In fact, in addition to being like a Jew, Bernard Arnault has a greedy heart and a vicious and selfish temperament. Compared with real M&A experts, both in terms of M&A experience and methods, he has obvious differences.
Gaps and too many shortcomings.
You must know that in corporate M&A transactions, the most stable business processes and most successful models should usually be carried out according to the following steps.
1. Choose a company worth starting with and find its weaknesses.
Second, negotiate with the management to reach an agreement on intentions - for example, although it is an overall acquisition, management equity and management incentives will be given).
Third, design a plan to complete fund raising - factors such as interest rates, cycles and equity ratios must be considered.
Fourth, acquire shares to complete privatization.
5. Improve short-term operating efficiency - after taking over a company, they often try to increase cash flow and profits in three to five years by reducing costs, splitting businesses, etc., to bring public confidence and stimulate stock price increases.
Sixth, sell shares - be merged or re-listed, sell them at a higher price and exit.
In short, the indispensable elements are timing, funds and allies, which are the time, location, and people in Chinese culture.
Therefore, in order to hit the target with one hit and reduce variables, even industry leaders KKR and Carl Icahn inevitably have to reach an agreement of interests with some people in the company and make appropriate concessions before acquiring the company.
Then, funds are raised to complete mergers and acquisitions, and finally the stock price is pushed up or split and sold to achieve a result that benefits all shareholders.
So much so that even though their image in the media has become that of ruthless corporate predators, managers of U.S. listed companies all give them a wide berth.
However, Fortune magazine gave a positive affirmation from the perspective of shareholders and expressed the sentiments of another group of people - "Whether you believe it or not, they have made more money for shareholders than any other speculator on the planet."
But Bernard Arnault is not like that.
First of all, the timing of his annexation of LVMH was just good luck. It was an unsophisticated person like Henry who got mad and took the initiative to come to his door. Otherwise, he would not have even the slightest chance.
Secondly, Bernard Arnault relies entirely on deceit and deception. He betrays when he betrays and plots when he plots.
He is too selfish and stingy, and his ultimate goal is to keep all the benefits to himself.
Since morality has been lost, it is difficult to find real helpers.
In addition, he only relies on Lazard Investment Bank for funding.
He lacks professional financial capabilities and does not know how to issue junk bonds or establish private equity funds. His methods are single and his funds are limited, resulting in high financing costs.
In fact, no matter how you look at it, it is difficult for him to succeed.
Even now that he is at the height of his popularity, he has fished in troubled waters in LVMH's internal strife and has completely gained an absolute advantage.
But if you analyze it carefully, you can see that his strength is limited.
There are undoubtedly major hidden dangers in various aspects, and we are stepping on the trap of "unjust and unjust".
It can only be said that in the previous life that Ning Weimin experienced, this business war, which was regarded as the number one in Europe, was actually not a high-level fight.
The success of this little French wolf was largely due to luck, a matter of accident.
The main reason is that the French financial industry market is too small, develops too slowly, and the qualifications for mergers and acquisitions are relatively restricted, which gave him, an outlier who didn't want to be a gentleman at all, an opportunity to take advantage of and develop.
Otherwise, if Americans also focus on the fat piece of LVMH, and if there are no restrictions on the shareholding ratio of foreigners, I am afraid that Bernard Arnault will have nothing to do with it.
Therefore, even Ning Weimin has little experience in corporate mergers and acquisitions, and he entered the market late, and it seems that the day lily has gone cold.
Although he didn't have much money, he could only rely on the hundreds of millions of dollars that he and Pierre Cardon scraped together to fish in troubled waters and take advantage in the second half.
Even though he is still Chinese, there is no way he can control the entire LVMH group.
But in fact, it really can’t be seen that simply.
In fact, Ning Weimin's disruption is not only the biggest variable in this business war.
It is destined to bring an unexpected turn to the final outcome of this business war.
Even for Bernard Arnault, the appearance of Ning Weimin meant that he already had his natural enemy.
First of all, Ning Weimin, a well-rounded man based on the Chinese business spirit, represents the good in business.
He values peace, knows how to share, pays attention to balance, and pays attention to integrity, which is the opposite of the selfish and unethical French wolf.
This ensures that his alliance is unbreakable and he has the advantage of getting more help.
Although he has not yet gained the recognition and attention of the fourth generation of LV, as long as Henry discovers that it is impossible to obtain peace through appeasement, he will know what choice he should make sooner or later.
Secondly, funding is not Ning Weimin’s disadvantage, but his biggest advantage.
On the surface, due to the influence exerted by Lazard Investment Bank, no bank in France is willing to lend money to people who want to help Louis Vuitton's fourth generation.
But the source of Ning Weimin's funds came from Japan, which was at the height of the economic bubble. Japanese banks had already started crying and even kneeling down to beg for loans.
As long as he is willing, he has too many real estate properties and companies that can be used as collateral to obtain huge loans.
Moreover, loan interest rates are much lower than those of banks in European and American countries.
How can it be compared to a French coyote backed by investment bank Lazard?
In fact, his "ammunition" is only superficially lacking, but the reality is that it is quite sufficient.
What's more, he doesn't seek control of LVMH.
As long as I can get LVMH shares at a low price, I can wait for dividends and enjoy the worship of vain people all over the world.
No matter what the final result is, it is a personal victory for him and he will be satisfied.
As for the end, Ning Weimin also had an exclusive advantage in terms of timing, and no one could imitate it.
Even if Bernard Arnault entered the game first and already controlled 37.5% of the group's equity, his advantage would not be as great.
After all, he is a time traveler who can "predict the future" and has a time plug-in.
Looking at the calendar and counting the time, he certainly knew that the famous "Black Monday" in history was not far away.
Although due to the butterfly effect, the timing of this stock market crash, which has made the entire capitalist world tremble, may not change, the general trend will not change.
What is absolutely certain is that this will eventually happen to stock speculators around the world.
For Ning Weimin, this is the best arbitrage opportunity with a guaranteed win and no loss.
If God is kind and allows him to make thorough preparations and lay the groundwork, then it won't be a question of how much profit he can make personally.
There is a very high probability that he can help Henri Lacamier stand up in one fell swoop, avenge his past humiliation, and completely drive away the powerful enemy that dominates the magpie's nest.
By the way, he can also promote the master to the board of directors of Louis Vuitton and reward him as a mentor and helpful friend with generous benefits.
So, even though Ning Weimin did what seemed like the stupidest thing.
He and the master used CLSA, a brother company of Credit Agricole, to entrust a stock broker to start a two-way bet on LVMH, which was already obviously at a high level.
I plan to spend 300 million US dollars to acquire shares first, and then start short selling after buying them.
Later, they would use Matsumoto Keiko's name to open an account and sell the same number of shares through securities lending.
But his mentality was indeed completely calm, let alone uneasy, and he did not feel panic at all when the stock price was pushed up further.
This has left CLSA's stockbrokers and analysts collectively confused and confused.
No matter how they thought about it, they couldn't figure out the real intentions of these two big customers.
Because hedging in the securities lending game seems to be meaningless. If there is no extreme market trend of sudden rise and fall, it will only contribute fees and commissions to the securities companies in vain.
They never dreamed that someone could predict the occurrence of extreme market conditions in advance. They did this in order to wait for the best arbitrage opportunity and make the right layout in advance.
But then again, even if Ning Weimin had the upper hand and had thought of everything he could think of, he wouldn't be able to control everything.
No, an unexpected situation soon gave him new needs for funds.
Because Catherine Deneuve found him a few days later when he was just starting to sell, and because she recognized his character, she asked him to invest in the Yves Saint Laurent company.
Ning Weimin never expected that sometimes the good fortune brought by his good character would actually be a burden.
This can not but be said to be a kind of sweet trouble.