If there are words, it will be long; if there are no words, it will be short.
At the banquet, Gu Kun's in-depth interpretation of the pride of Chinese culture left a very deep impression on Ma Feng, and also left a seed in Ma Feng's three views, allowing him to crack down on fakes and guide public opinion in the future.
, every time he thinks of it, it subtly affects his decision-making.
Maybe this will make Ma Feng move a little slower, but he will definitely be more conscientious and steady.
After sending Ma Feng away, Gu Kun's share swap investment work in French and Italian luxury goods companies progressed in an orderly manner under Liang Jinsong's operation.
Of course, during the process, they must have strictly followed Gu Kun's layout instructions, and Gu Kun and his women carefully selected the brands that they felt would be more promising in the future.
Two weeks passed quickly, and one day in mid-December, Liang Jinsong finally got the results and came to report immediately:
"Thankfully, the shares of the luxury goods companies you requested to exchange are all here. These three columns are the company valuation, the proportion of shares exchanged this time, and the original mortgage for convertible bond financing.
Price - I mean those who have done the convertible bond operation, and the ones that are empty are the equities that have not been done and are directly traded in private placements."
"Proni, valued at US$420 million, with a share replacement ratio of 17.5% and a cost of US$76 million;
Giorgio Armani, valued at US$580 million, with a share replacement ratio of 4.2% and a cost of 24 million;
Gucci, with a market value of 5.5 billion, a replacement ratio of 2.3%, and a cost of 104 million;
Lanzi, with a market value of 1.6 billion, a replacement ratio of 11%, and a cost of 176 million;
Cartier, with a market value of 4.3 billion, a replacement ratio of 7%, and a cost of 310 million;
Tiffany, with a market value of 3.5 billion, a replacement ratio of 20%, and a cost of 700 million;
Fendi 14%... Girard-Perregaux 13.5%... A total of 11 companies were invested this time. The highest single company cost 700 million U.S. dollars. On average, each company spent 230 million U.S. dollars, with a total financial investment of about 2.6 billion U.S. dollars.
We swapped positions for stocks and completely cleared out the remaining financial stocks we had in the Hong Kong stock market.”
At the same time, in the process of selling off the Hong Kong financial sector, Gu Kun lost another US$2 billion in market value than originally planned. After all, the last remaining shares were not forced to liquidate, but were exchanged for shares, thus avoiding
Discount losses caused by forced liquidation of tail positions.
"Sure enough, you still need to specialize in the field, and you did a good job." Gu Kun was very satisfied with the result of this asset allocation.
Liang Jinsong: "Is there anything else that I should pay attention to? Are you prepared to hold it for a long time? If there is no need to operate, I will reinvest all my energy in the shipment of real estate stocks in the near future - you know the plan
, it will take at least half a year to throw away all the chips in Hong Kong real estate stocks."
Gu Kun thought for a while: "Then I can only ask you to work harder. I will divide the shares of these dozen luxury goods companies into three batches with different treatments.
Some of them are truly blue-chip stocks, or what I consider to be blue-chip brands. In the future, I will try my best to expand my holdings or even acquire them.
The second batch is just a financial investment. It will last for a few years and wait for the operator to pay dividends. At the same time, you can help me keep an eye on the market. There is really a good opportunity to cash out and make money. It can also be sold in a few years.
The third batch, in principle, is also a financial investment like the second batch, but it is currently the target of other potential competitor luxury groups that they are interested in acquiring. After we hold it, we even put forward some aggressive positions to increase our positions.
Disgust your opponent in exchange for some other chips - you know what I mean?"
Liang Jinsong shrugged indifferently: "I understand, the so-called third batch is represented by a brand like Lanzi? You know that Richemont is in Chongcang Lanzi, so you are disgusted with Richemont, but you don't really want to succeed, as long as Liang Jinsong
If Feng is willing to exchange the equity of another suitable brand with you, you will let it go, right?"
Gu Kun: "It's easy to talk to smart people."
Both Gu Kun and Liang Jinsong knew that with Gu Kun's status, if he wanted to enter the ranks of acquirers in the French and Italian luxury brand circles, he would have one more obstacle than Arnott or the bosses of Richemont and Kering.
That is, Gu Kun can only buy those tradable shares more conveniently through normal channels.
For those powerful independent brands in unlisted companies, it is impossible for Gu Kun to just come to the door and throw money to act as a barbarian at the door, because the other party's equity is not circulated, and it is impossible to play with people who are not in this circle.
.
So Gu Kun spent more than 2 billion U.S. dollars in exchange chips and only obtained shares of what seemed like a dozen big-name luxury goods companies, but the shareholding ratio of each company did not exceed 20%, and many were still under 5
% hovers around.
With Gu Kun's current status in this circle, he can only start as a small shareholder.
But when small shareholders are also artistic, they may not be able to enter the market, but they may cause trouble for other big players who are able to enter the market.
Richemont wants to buy Lanzi, Kering wants to buy Yves Saint Laurent.
Gu Kun has some scattered Lanzi and Yves Saint Laurent shares on hand, so he can exchange them for some of the Gucci, Armani, and Cartier he wants more at the critical moment of the merger.
Holding more than a dozen luxury brands is still too much for Gu Kun. Especially since he has not really entered the global luxury market competition. His original intention is only to compete for the future interests of some leading luxury brands in China.
Therefore, it is more appropriate to reduce the shares on hand to seven or eight brands within a year by exchanging the shares of some tool companies.
Then, it will be necessary to slowly lie dormant and endure the "credit period" for several years.
At the same time, we must vigorously build a high-end brand retail industry in Lanfang. While building the Burj Al Arab and Lanfang Tower, we must push forward the implementation of top-notch and large-scale boutique shopping mall projects.
Once completed, the brands in which Gu Kun holds some shares can be concentrated in those boutique SHOPPING-MALLs in Lanfang, giving them the most conspicuous and luxurious storefronts, the best publicity facilities, and the strongest tourist exposure and traffic flow.
(Of course, Gu Kun will never do compulsory shopping in Lanfang. That would be too low-key. Especially since Lanfang is basically his family, there is no need to look so ugly)
It only takes two or three years for French and Italian brands, which are still very dismissive of the Chinese market and feel that Chinese people are generally too poor to afford luxury goods, to realize the importance of the Chinese market and realize that Gu Kun is of great importance to the Chinese market.
It has great hidden power to influence the quality of luxury brands in the Chinese market.
Then, it is not hopeless to talk about expanding the shareholding or even controlling the company when the time comes.
As for those brands that "the room for growth in revenue and brand market value in the next few years is relatively stable, but none of the three major groups want to acquire them and cannot be used as replacement chips, and they will definitely decline in the long run in the next ten or eight years", Gu Kun does not
Busy throwing it away.
He told Liang Jinsong that he could maintain some "financial investment" ratios.
In his own mind, these financial investments can last at least three to five years, and it will not be too late to sell them around 2004/2005.
Because in the long run, the luxury goods industry will have a certain "winner-take-all" situation in later generations, and the Matthew Effect will become very serious.
This is closely related to the media attachment of luxury brand intangible assets.
In human terms, the Internet is an amplifier that further amplifies the reputation advantage of famous things.
In the era before the Internet, famous luxury brands could be more diverse. Compared with less famous brands, the gap in popularity between the most famous brands was not that big.
After the advent of the Internet, people from the upper class to the lower class have become more unified about which brands are famous. Even the vegetable sellers know that the Donkey brand bags are famous. In the era before the Internet, the vegetable sellers did not know the Donkey brand.
Therefore, the Internet winter was from 2001 to 2004, and these years were also the years when second-tier luxury brands could survive.
After the Internet fully recovers in 2005, the death of these "non-number one" players in the virtual economy will come one after another.
Gu Kun will definitely throw away these second-tier luxury brands before 2004/05, leaving only the top-tier ones.
This is not to say that second-tier luxury goods will not be able to sell in the future or will go bankrupt, but that they are no longer worthy of the positioning of "luxury goods" and will at most fall to the sub-level positioning of "classical fashion brands".
.The capital market’s model for estimating multiples of its price-to-earnings ratio and market-to-book ratio has to be lowered by one level.
Maintaining the proportion of these "financial investments" before 2005 has another use for Gu Kun, which is to be a "market bone", proving that Gu Kun is not a "barbarian at the door", but comes purely for dividends.
, never interfere with the company founder’s business decision-making rights and product design ideas and positioning.
This is very important for him to enter Gucci and Armani in the future.
Why does a company like Armani, which was founded in the 1970s and has always been personally controlled by the founder, resist going public and resisting equity financing? The most direct reason is that a eccentric designer like Giorgio Armani does not like having a major shareholder boss when he is working.
Pointing fingers.
Later generations of Gucci desperately resisted Arnault's acquisition, and the logic was the same.
These guys who claim to be genius designers all want absolute discretion. They can design whatever shocking style they want, and release new models whenever they want. If they are out of inspiration in a certain quarter of a certain year, they don’t want to
If he comes out with new models, he won't continue to sell old ones. The major shareholders are not allowed to force him to work.
Not only Armani, but even second- and third-generation designers from big brands, such as LVMH’s Galeazzo and Kering’s McQueen, hate being forced into schedules by their bosses.
There is a famous saying in the circle: "For people like Galeazzo, McQueen and Armani, the creations are just the vomit after they go to nightclubs and experience life."
That is the embodiment of their magical impression of life. Which person who originally wants to go to a bar can bear to have a boss induce vomiting after drinking? Vomiting is something that happens after drinking too much.
Give up as soon as possible.
Therefore, it will take time for Gu Kun to prove that he does not interfere with the rhythm of designers and founders. He has to hold on to other people’s company stocks for three to five years in the past three years and not say a word no matter how passively they sabotage their work, in order to win
His reputation as a generous and benevolent person in the industry can slowly make those companies relax their guard and be cannibalized by him.
Don't feel aggrieved. Arnault, who later became the world's richest man, also pretended to be a harmless animal for many years after he founded Dior in 1984. After buying shares of Donkey Brand, he did not do anything about Donkey Brand for ten years.
Only after giving advice on management and design did people in the industry relax their vigilance towards him. Then, when Vanchy retired in 1995, he sold all the shares of Givenchy to Arnault without any rejection.
If Gu Kun could achieve the endorsement of character credibility in this field in just three to five years, that would be twice as fast as Arnott.