"...We have now acquired 44.6% of the shares of Abbey National Bank. Except for 5% of the remaining shares, which are concentrated in the hands of Abbey National Bank employees, the remaining shares have been acquired by Spain's Santander Bank and France's Bouygues Group.
In their hands, they hold 29.4% and 21% of the shares of Abbey National Bank respectively!" Sally Krawcheck gave Liu Dong a brief report in the car taking him to the hotel. +
"Why does Bouygues Group not agree to our merger of Abbey National Bank into Standard Chartered?" Liu Dong asked after a long silence.
Liu Dong has no interest in retaining other banks besides Hanhua Commercial Bank, Bank of America and Standard Chartered Bank. Moreover, when he acquired Abbey National Bank in the UK, his plan was to merge the sixth largest bank in the UK.
Enter the standard charter to form a combined force.
"It's not clear yet, but Mr. Martin Bouygues has sent us an invitation, asking you to be a guest at his manor outside Paris tomorrow!"
After taking the beautifully bound invitation letter from Sally Krawcheck, Liu Dong said thoughtfully: "It seems that Mr. Bouygues knows my whereabouts quite well!" After a pause, "You do it for me?"
I replied to Mr. Bouygues that I will definitely visit on time tomorrow."
"Yes, Chairman!"
…
The expansion pace of Jiahua Hotel has not yet reached Europe, so Liu Dong stayed in the presidential suite of the higher-end Hilton five-star hotel here.
Although it took more than ten hours to fly from Beijing to Paris, Liu Dong did not feel tired at all.
Standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, he looked at the ancient buildings under his feet that were full of European Baroque style, as well as the French cultural atmosphere that was definitely different from Chinese civilization. His calm face frowned slightly.
When he came to France this time, for some reason he could always feel the atmosphere of "a storm is coming". Especially with the acquisition of Abbey National Bank, this strange feeling in his heart became stronger and stronger.
.
Of course, Liu Dong knew in his heart that someone was trying to harm him. But his biggest weakness, which had risen too quickly, was that he lacked the huge network of contacts accumulated by those ancient wealthy families over the years.
If this were in China, the background of the Liu family would be enough to make him fearless without breaking the law. But abroad, the presence of the Liu family did not bring him much help.
Even after the successful acquisition of Daewoo Group, he got a reminder from Clark Ford. But who was trying to deal with him this time and what specific forces were there? Liu Dong basically had a blank look.
.
If we say the only thing that is certain, it must be the Durant family and the Yasuda family. The original competition for Daewoo Motors and Daewoo Heavy Industries basically put Liu Dong and these two large consortiums on opposite sides.
But if it were just them, they wouldn't be able to convince Clark Ford to say so confidently that he would lose $20 billion.
"Who else is there?" Liu Dong's frown deepened.
"Honey, what are you thinking about?"
Accompanied by the pleasant aroma and crisp sound, two soft jade arms suddenly hugged Liu Dong's waist, and the two huge soft masses behind him quickly soothed Liu Dong's originally irritable mood.
"After a day of flying, why don't you take a rest? Aren't you tired?" He turned around, held the beauty's round shoulders, and said with a gentle smile.
"I'm not tired, and I already rested long enough on the plane!" Helen said coquettishly.
After smiling and nodding, Liu Dong naturally took the beauty into his arms.
After getting along for more than a month, the relationship between the two is no longer as simple as friends.
Although Liu Dong didn't have too many other ideas when he left Helen by his side, he overestimated his ability to resist beauty and forgot about the completely different cultures between China and the West.
Far more daring to love and hate than oriental girls, and when the stunningly beautiful Helen turned from passive to active pursuit of the person she liked. As a man, Liu Dong was captured with almost no resistance.
The Huanxi Zen internal energy in his body is simply the most powerful aphrodisiac. Not only can it make him quickly give up reason and obey the needs of his body, it can even affect the women around him unconsciously.
Then, one night three days before arriving in Paris, everything that was supposed to happen happened.
This time, Helen also came to Paris with Liu Dong as his secretary.
"By the way, dear, don't you like collecting art? It's still early, why don't we go to the Louvre to have a look?"
Because Liu Dong received the call from Sally Krawcheck in a hurry, they took a private plane to Paris in the evening, and after arriving here, it happened to be morning!
Considering that Martin Bouygues's banquet was still tomorrow, Liu Dong didn't want to sit in the hotel all day doing nothing. Therefore, he agreed to Helen's proposal after only a brief consideration.
"Okay, let's go quickly! The Louvre opens at nine in the morning. It's still an hour away. We haven't eaten yet. Plus the time it takes to drive there, we're already very nervous!"
Looking at the excited Helen, Liu Dong shook his head and smiled: "Actually, it doesn't matter if we go later!"
"If you go late, you will have to queue up! I don't want to queue up!"
In fact, Helen overestimated the time it would take her to put on makeup and eat. By the time the two of them packed up everything and rushed outside the Louvre, there was already a long queue in the square outside the entrance.
Originally, according to Liu Dong's idea, he wanted to change places to play, wait until the morning rush hour, and come back in the afternoon. However, Helen disagreed. In desperation, Liu Dong had to wait in line with her for nearly an hour to enter.
The Louvre, one of the four most famous museums in the world.
The Louvre was built in 1204. It was originally a royal palace in France and was home to 50 French kings and queens. It is one of the most precious buildings in the French Renaissance and is famous for its rich collection of classical paintings and sculptures.
The statue of Venus, the oil painting of Mona Lisa and the stone sculpture of Victory are known as the three treasures of the Louvre!
It is a pity that the six exhibition halls of the Louvre are only open on Mondays, three or two days, and are open on a rotating basis on the other four days. Only half of them are open on Sundays. And the exhibits only account for 1/3 of the entire collection.
Therefore, Liu Dong and the two who came over on Tuesday did not see Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa"!
However, the blooming female beauty of the Venus statue and the goddess of victory, as well as the fascinating sculpture art of ancient Greece, still made Liu Dong feel that his trip was worthwhile.
In fact, in Liu Dong's view, among the roughly 400,000 pieces in the Louvre's collection, there are many works of art that are no less precious than the three treasures of the museum.
Like "The Code of Hammurabi", Fouquet's "Portrait of Charles VII", Leonardo da Vinci's "Madonna of the Rocks", Raphael's "The Beautiful Gardener" and so on!
However, while Liu Dong was lingering in the Louvre's rich and precious works of art with gusto, recalling the glory of ancient civilizations and the rich artistic ideas of past masters, he also noticed some special groups of people.
These special groups are the vast majority of painting enthusiasts who hold paintbrushes in the Louvre Museum of Painting and focus on copying the works of masters on the walls as if no one else is around. Of course, there are also painters among them!
In fact, since the establishment of the Louvre Museum, it has never restricted the footsteps of art lovers.
It is precisely for this reason that many famous masters have emerged from the Louvre, including the famous French 19th-century painter and Impressionist leader Edouard Manet, and the famous contemporary Chinese painter Xu Beihong!
Moreover, the tolerance of the Louvre has further contributed to its reputation. It has to be said that its status as the first of the four major museums is probably due to the high praise of these painters in addition to its rich and precious works of art.
"Perhaps the Yuanming Museum can follow suit in the future!" Liu Dong thought to himself.
He has never been a conservative person. If he encounters a really good method, he is not afraid of "using it"!
"Huh……!"
"Honey, what's wrong?"
"I saw a nice painting!"
"Nice paintings? Every painting here is a top-notch oil painting!" Helen couldn't help but said.
"I'm not talking about the exhibits here. Let's go and take a look!"
As he spoke, Liu Dong took Helen's hand and slowly walked behind a middle-aged man with curly brown hair, wearing a black coat, and a thin and serious face, who was concentrating on copying the master's works on the wall.
Helen also reacted at this time, but when she was about to speak, Liu Dongqing 'shushed' her and stopped her!
After noticing Liu Dong's expression, Helen nodded, and like him, turned to look at the painter's canvas.
Helen, who was born in the Wittgenstein family, received a very strict aristocratic education since she was a child. Although the level of painting, especially oil painting, is not very high, it is far above ordinary people, and she also has a deep foundation in the appreciation of paintings.
Therefore, she quickly understood the reason why Liu Dong focused on this oil painting.
A famous oil painting "The Raft of the Medusa" in the history of world art created by the French painter Théodore Géricault in 1819. Thanks to his exquisite artistic skills and ideological creation, he not only retained the central idea of the painting, but also retained the central idea of the painting.
Moreover, a certain degree of innovation has been carried out. In Liu Dong's view, the level of the entire work has almost reached the peak of the master level. Maybe with just an opportunity, the other party can enter the level of a master.
"He is an excellent painter!"
After watching Liu Dong for a while, Helen whispered in his ear.
"Yes!" Liu Dong nodded in agreement. At the level of oil painting, this person was much better than himself.
"Shall we go?" Helen said softly.
"hold on!"
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ps: Thank you to book friends ‘Fang Jing’ and ‘Sergeant Major vvv’ for their 100 starting coin reward and support. Thank you very much!