In a deck with only three sides of the cabin and an open deck garden on the other side, wearing autumn suits and windbreakers, blowing the air conditioner, drinking cold brew coffee and eating durian to discuss business, even Giorgio Armani felt a huge impact.
Unreality.
The reason why I wear autumn clothes is because it is already autumn in early October. When Giorgio Armani took off from Milan, the temperature was just right for wearing autumn clothes. As long as there is air conditioning along the way, there is no need to change clothes and harm your elegance.
But in a tropical area like Port Moresby, it's the hottest season, and it's still on an open deck, this combination is very magical and realistic.
Gu Kun waited for the other party to calm down and re-adapt to the position of both parties, and then he spoke calmly:
"Do you understand? Let me tell you the truth. Three days ago, the major shareholder behind Adidas, the Dassler Trust Fund, had a direct showdown with me. If Adidas hadn't been a company that has been listed for many years, it would have so many outstanding shares.
In the hands of retail investors, it is more difficult to deal with.
Otherwise, Mr. Dassler would like to give me 5% of Adidas shares for free. He wants nothing. As long as I am willing to be a shareholder of Adidas so that he can use this as a selling point for publicity in the future. However, I have just
I stepped on Nike and couldn't immediately accept Adidas' benefits, so I declined for a few months and asked him to take his time."
Gu Kun's words were very appropriate.
I didn’t say how much you should honor me, I just said that others were already rushing to beg me to get the shares, and I didn’t want to lose my reputation if I took them too quickly.
So it’s up to you what to do!
Giorgio Armani knew that this statement could not be avoided directly, so he dared to answer the question immediately: "In the past half month or so, I have also read the performance data of channel dealers at all levels reported by France and Italy, and it is true that the growth rate is relatively high.
obvious.
I admit that most of this growth is due to your implanted endorsements. When I come this time, I am ready to allow you to invest in Armani and issue a large amount of non-voting Class B shares. As long as you give
The price is right, and even if the dividend accounts for more than 50% of the future financial income of the Armani brand, it is not impossible to consider.
But please also understand that I cannot transfer the company's business decision-making power and design autonomy. You can take the main part from the money my company makes, but you cannot affect my design and positioning."
If it had been a year and a half ago, when the two parties had just discussed cooperation, when Gu Kun first invested his money in Armani, the conditions would have been much more stringent than they are now.
At that time, the stocks in Gu Kun's hands were exchanged from those held by Xiangjiang Investment Bank during the Southeast Asian financial crisis. They were all historical problems left over from Armani's poor capital chain turnover in the early years, such as debt-for-equity swaps.
Otherwise, given Armani's operating conditions at the end of 1998 and early 1999, there would be no need to issue new shares. Anyway, as long as this kind of luxury goods company operates well and does not have rapid expansion of promotional expenditures, there is no need to issue shares to raise funds.
Now, Giorgio Armani has agreed to further issue new shares in order to win over Gu Kun, just in exchange for Gu Kun doing his best in brand promotion and a win-win situation with him.
"If Gu Kun wears a certain style of suit and windbreaker, the cumulative sales of this style of suit and windbreaker will be several hundred million euros more." Giorgio Armani has already realized the power of this.
And "if Gu Kun wears out a certain brand of clothes/shoes", the market value of that brand will fall as badly as Nike does now.
Both positive and negative, there are few big luxury brands that can't be intimidated by Gu Kun.
As for Giorgio Armani, after Gu Kun invested heavily in Armani's shares, he might even help him secretly hack his competitors.
Gu Kun doesn't even need to criticize other people's quality. He only needs to let the low-level bodyguards and followers around him wear Versace. He himself is allowed to wear Armani, and then let the news go. With the popularity and top traffic of Gu Kun's reputation in the past two years, he is not afraid.
Versace is not black and white.
This is similar to how Gu Kun proudly drove a Maybach himself during the Olympic Games and let his tool workers drive a Rolls-Royce as a tool vehicle.
Of course, this trick cannot be easily imitated by others.
Even if Bill Gates and Buffett are richer than Gu Kun, if they also "ride the Maybach themselves and let the tool people ride in the tool car Luo Luo", they will not have the same effect as Gu Kun.
Although everyone knows that Bill Gates is the richest man in the world, the world's focus on Gates is completely different from that on Gu Kun. On the other hand, Gates does not pay attention to luxury. He is not in this business.
There is no need to indulge in extravagance. Microsoft is engaged in rational economics, and its boss needs a rational public persona.
Therefore, Gu Kun's right to speak out about luxury and luxury is something that no one else can envy at the moment. And with such a mix, the residual heat of this right to speak can be maintained for at least two or three years.
After all, Gu Kun will continue to use his various ventures in the business world to maintain popularity. Until the next Olympics, when he no longer competes due to his old age, the public will subtly recognize his right to speak.
…
We are all smart people, so we know what scale to use to negotiate terms.
Giorgio Armani's current valuation is only over two billion US dollars, which is actually only equivalent to one-third of Adidas. How can such a brand have such high gross profit but such low sales volume?
Giorgio Armani first came up with a plan, hoping that Gu Kun could inject an additional billion US dollars for further brand promotion and channel expansion, as well as the global layout of the design and production team.
Moreover, this billion does not even require Gu Kun to cash out all. Armani recognizes that Gu Kun's personal goodwill can be worth at least 300 million US dollars in this transaction. In fact, it only needs to pay 700 million US dollars.
Strictly speaking, this kind of operation is illegal according to China's company law, because goodwill cannot be used as capital contribution, and this thing cannot be mortgaged and executed.
However, the company law used by both parties is not Chinese, so there is not so much pretentiousness. There are no third-party small shareholders in this company, and there is no need to consider the interests of small shareholders. Gu Kun and Armani can just nod their approval.
"This investment, I can admit, is equivalent to 30% of the company's total equity after the capital increase, plus the 25% of the company's equity you previously held. It needs to be diluted by multiplying by 0.7, which is converted into 17.5%. Add the two parts,
you can get
47.5% of Future Company’s equity. 17.5% of which are normal Class A shares with voting rights, and 30% are Class B shares that only pay dividends but do not vote. When dividends are paid, you can get a cumulative 47.5%." Armani explained his plan.
This price obviously left room for Gu Kun to bargain.
Armani also knew that it directly let Gu Kun hold more than 50% of the shares without any resistance, just in case Gu Kun felt that it was too easy and continued to speak loudly.
However, Gu Kun definitely wanted the lion to open his mouth.
It wasn't because Armani's offer was too low, but because he found that the basis for Armani's decision just now was actually far from comprehensive enough.
"Do you think that my help to the Giorgio Armani brand so far has only allowed you to sell several hundred million more euros in sales in France and Italy? Your growth data is too incomplete. You should look at it carefully.
Look, in the past few months, the growth in the Asian market has been terrifying——
I have here a copy of Lanfang’s luxury tourism shopping sales data for the second and third quarters. I asked them to send it via email and fax after we docked today. I think you need to open your eyes and recognize a reality - the French and Italians
People’s future purchasing power is nothing at all.”
Gu Kun said and clapped his hands. Luo Haili, who was next to him, immediately walked over and handed a folder to his hand. Gu Kun threw it on the bar.
Giorgio Armani did not doubt that Gu Kun had falsified the data, because it was not necessary. The falsification would be revealed sooner or later.
After taking a closer look, he was slightly surprised:
"In the second quarter, the sales volume of the Giorgio Armani brand in Lanzhou was 900 million yuan? Equivalent to more than 100 million US dollars? The travel shopping for all clothing, bags, shoes and hats was 1.6 billion yuan?
In the third quarter, there were actually 2.2 billion yuan? Nearly 300 million U.S. dollars. The total sales of clothing, bags, shoes and hats were 3.5 billion yuan? In other words, most of the increase in the third quarter compared with the second quarter was due to the growth of our brands? "
To be honest, the absolute value of this number is not very high. After all, it is only 2000, and the Chinese are generally still relatively poor and have not yet reached the pace of large-scale consumption of luxury goods.
It would be at least five or six years before luxury goods began to explode in second-tier cities. After more than ten years, it was gradually the turn of young people in third- and fourth-tier cities and small towns to compete for luxury goods (although young people in small towns generally buy "luxury goods" on Pinduoduo)
)
However, the growth trend and the magnitude of the change in the curve are already alarming enough.
“The Armani brand luxury goods purchased by Chinese people traveling to Lanzhou are equivalent to 40% of the Armani brand sales in France and 27% of the Armani brand sales in Italy during the same period.”
Giorgio Armani has data from channels such as France and Italy. After a little comparison, you can see how powerful it is.
Gu Kun's influence in the Chinese world is too exaggerated, and the future consumption potential of the Chinese is also too exaggerated.
"Times have changed. The French have become hypocritical and disdain to chase big brands. Alas." Giorgio Armani sighed from the bottom of his heart.
Gu Kun took the opportunity to make an offer: "I think my new capital injection should be worth 40% of the company's equity after the capital injection. The previous 25% can also be converted into 15% at 0.6 - that is, I want 55% of the total shares.
Instead of a mere 47.5%.
I'm not much worse than your quotation, right? I believe you can figure it out clearly. All I want is the title of 'I will own most of the money the company makes' to show my appeal and authority."
"Okay, I don't want to get entangled with the dividend difference of seven or eight points." Giorgio Armani agreed.
Gu Kun immediately followed up with a warning: "One more thing, you are not allowed to make all sales data public before I make it public. After I make it public, if the media asks you for verification, you must actively prove that these are true."
Giorgio Armani was slightly stunned: "Why is this? Forget it, okay, I agree."
Once on the road, Gu Kun was no longer in a hurry.
Gu Kun did this, of course, so that when he plays the white knight in the future, his character will be more upright.
Wouldn't that make it appear that Giorgio Armani's rapid growth was all due to Gu Kun's substantial increase in holdings? In this way, other brands will have this example of a rich man, and they will also know how to welcome Gu Kun.