"Gucci's current value is seriously underestimated, and it is difficult to get worse. If I really can't do it well, it will still be profitable for you to replace someone else to operate it," Sofia said, hesitating for a while and said, "If you don't want to, there is actually another solution. I will use the money you gave me to buy 10% of Gucci's shares. As long as you can support me, the Gucci family should be willing to let me run it. In a few years, if Gucci's situation improves, you can consider buying more shares."

Simon said without comment: "Where is the wine business you originally planned?"

"The backup plan just now was originally intended to be used in the wine business," Sofia said. "My goal is Latour, one of the five traditional famous Bordeaux estates, and it is the only one for sale. The other Lafite and Mouton wineries are in the hands of the Rothschild family, and Obiang wineries are in the hands of the Dillon family, and Margot wineries are held by Felix Potting. There were two original controllers of Latour wineries, namely Pearson Group, which holds 75% of the shares and Harvey and Sons, which holds 25% of the shares. They are both British companies. The main business of Pearson Group is education and publishing, and they invest in Latour is just for investment. The operation of the winery has always been the responsibility of Harvey and Sons, who are engaged in the red wine trade. Some time ago, Harvey and Sons began to seek to sell their shares due to the company's business difficulties. My initial idea was to take over the 25% of the shares and the operating rights of Latour."

Simon listened carefully and finally understood why the woman suddenly told herself that she wanted to do something last time and offered such 'tempting' conditions.

"What happened later?"

Sofia expressed a little disappointed expression and said, "I almost had an agreement with Harvey and his sons, but another British company, United Leon Group, suddenly intervened and snatched the business."

Simon looked at Sophia's expression and said, "It's so easy to be taken away, you haven't fought for it?"

"United Lion Group is a comprehensive liquor, food and fast food company with strong strength. Moreover, United Lion's offer is very high. Not only did they buy shares of Harvey and his sons, they are also seeking to acquire shares of Pearson Group. It is said that the offer for 75% of the shares of Pearson Group has reached 100 million pounds. If the deal can be completed, it may be even higher." Sofia said, and explained: "Latu Winery is very precious, but it is not worth such a high price. In 1976, Felix Potting's company bought Margot Winery, one of the five famous houses. In my opinion, the actual price of Latu Winery should be around 100 million US dollars. The price I had agreed on with Harvey and his sons was $25 million."

100 million pounds, according to the current exchange rate of USD to 1 to 1.6, it is USD 160 million.

Sophia's ex-husband's family is a wine merchant, and Simon does not doubt women's judgment in this regard.

Simon was actually very interested when he heard the name of Latu Winery.

Even if you buy an old French national treasure winery like Latu, even if you can't make a profit, it will definitely be much better than those antique calligraphy and paintings just for collection.

However, since Sofia said that Latu Winery was not worth such a high price, Simon did not intend to compete with United Leon for this sucker. He did not have the ability to spend $100 million or 200 million to be a sucker now, and money still has to be spent on the edge.

Jennifer stood quietly by the bedroom door with a few clothes in his arms.

Simon noticed the figure of the female assistant, looked at the watch, and said, "It's almost time. Let's talk after dinner with the representative of the Gucci family."

After saying that, he got up, took the clothes from Jennifer, and turned to the bathroom.

In order to entertain representatives of the Gucci family, an Italian restaurant near the Kendal Hotel was specially selected for dinner.

Gucci, the founder of Gucci, has a total of three sons. The inheritance has been passed down to the third generation, and the family seems very large.

After Gucci's death, Gucci's shares did not use fund trusts to manage them uniformly, but were distributed equally to all family members, which caused an internal struggle within the family for many years.

Until now, most members of the Gucci family have realized that continuing to fight will only cause the Gucci company to collapse. Therefore, when Sophia began to intervene in the mediation, the three companies confirmed that Simon Westeros, the newly rising young tycoon, stood behind the woman, and quickly reached an agreement.

In fact, Sophia was able to convince the three companies that were in trouble at the same time to send representatives to Melbourne to negotiate the acquisition, which made Simon look at her differently.

Otherwise, if Sophia mentioned this on the phone, Simon would directly refuse.

Although Simon used a pounding gesture to Sophia during the private discussion, during the dinner, he began to formally discuss the specific acquisition details with representatives of the Gucci family.

Simon did some homework in advance, and a dinner was a joy for the guests and guests.

Dinner ended at around 10 o'clock in the evening of Melbourne time. Although the deal has not been completely finalized, the meal was over and everyone understood that this matter was a foregone conclusion.

When Sophia returned to the hotel suite, she looked at Simon with a strange look.

The woman was not surprised that Simon did some of the homework in advance, nor did she mind that Simon's attitude changed before and after the meal. What surprised her was Simon's fluent Italian.

The Gucci family comes from Italy and not many people can speak English, but Sofia is proficient in speaking Italian. Corsica, where she grew up, is closer to Italy than in France.

I was originally thinking of helping Simon translator at the dining table, but I accidentally found that the little man's Italian language was even fluent than me.

Moreover, this obviously made Simon gain great favor from the Gucci family on the dining table.

Sofia knew that Simon could speak French, but in Italian, this was a bit beyond her expectations. Thinking about the other things Simon showed, a woman's instinctive curiosity became stronger and stronger.

How did a 20-year-old man grow up so dazzlingly now?

When I entered the room, I did not stay in the living room this time, but came to the study.

Simon signaled that Sophia, who had a strange expression, sat down opposite the desk, took out a folder from the file cabinet next to it and opened it. Just as she was about to say something, the phone on the desk rang.

The United States would call him about this time of day to discuss the company's affairs. He signaled Sophia to wait, and Simon picked up the microphone, but the first call today was called by Nancy Brill.

Simon whispered to Nancy and Jennifer brought in a pot of coffee, poured a cup of Simon and Sophia respectively, but then did not leave, sitting quietly on the sofa next to him to look through a document.

Because of habitual ponytail, the female assistant lowered her head and showed a white and seductive neck, like a tender white little water onion that pretended not to exist but was actually very eye-catching.

"Okay, Nancy, you can mortgage it, but it's up to 5%... Don't bargain with me. Daenerys Entertainment is underestimated for $2 billion. Don't think I agree to 10%... This has nothing to do with the risk. If Citibank cannot accept it, then forget it."

After discussing the loan, Amy hung up Nancy's phone call, and then called again and talked about the firing of Ron Macmillan.

To be fair, Ron Macmillan has very mediocre abilities as a producer. Without the opportunities of "Rola Run", he would have been a sole producer who would be on the edge of Hollywood for the rest of his life.

He was originally thinking about the collaboration between "Rolla Run" and left him at the company. Since Ron Macmillan deceived himself on the casting of "Scream" last year, Simon has no longer trusted him.

As Daenerys Entertainment continues to grow and grow, Simon has to be more loyal than executives' abilities. He can allow executives to disagree with him, but will not tolerate them deliberately deceiving him.

In addition, Ron Macmillan's private life style that easily causes trouble to Daenerys Entertainment, took advantage of this audit to fire the other party and settled Simon's thoughts.

Hang up and noticed that Jennifer was sitting quietly in the corner. Simon just bent his lips and looked at Sophia opposite the desk, and joked: "I'm all a little doubtful now, if you two French women have colluded and want to cheat me."

According to the information I have read, Nancy Brill only immigrated to the United States after college, and Brill is a standard French surname.

Sophia is naturally French too.

On the phone just now, Nancy insisted that Simon had no risk in pledging Daenerys Entertainment shares, but Simon still did not agree. What he needed was zero risk. Under Nancy's entanglement, she finally let her mortgage 5%, and Simon felt that she was at a loss.

Of course, Simon actually understood that with the increase of personal debt, it is impossible for the bank to blindly allow him to obtain funds through credit guarantees, and it is inevitable to provide mortgages.

Sophia heard Simon say this, but her expression was a little confused, and she defended: "Boss, I didn't cheat you."

Simon smiled and explained: "The company recently joined a French female senior executive. I will introduce you to you if you have time. You two, well, are quite similar in some aspects."

Sofia nodded and waited for Simon to get to the point.

Simon stopped talking nonsense and opened the folder in his hand and said, "I recently asked someone to collect some information about LVMH. I have to say that your thinking is very correct. However, you have not managed a company, which is also my concern."

Sophia looked at Simon and couldn't help but retort: ​​"Boss, you have no experience in managing the company before, Daenerys Entertainment is still developing very rapidly."

Simon glanced at Sofia and said, "Are you going to compete with me?"

Sofia subconsciously wanted to roll her eyes, but she still gave up. She really couldn't compare with this little man. After thinking about it, she said: "I majored in corporate administration and got an MBA three years ago. I helped my ex-husband run a family business and accumulated enough experience. I also have a very good job in real estate brokerage. If I continue, I should be able to open my own real estate brokerage company now. Boss, can't these prove that I have the strength to manage a company?"

Simon recalled the information about the woman who had specially asked the detective company to investigate after hiring Sophia, and finally nodded and said, "Okay, I will give you a year..."

"At least two years, the boss. Gucci's situation is very bad now. It is necessary to adjust management, sort out product lines, reshape corporate image, etc., but it cannot be too urgent. If you want Gucci to restore vitality, I need..."

Simon was interrupted halfway through the words, and couldn't help feeling a little unhappy. Without waiting for Sophia to finish speaking, she subconsciously said: "Don't bargain with me."

Sophia was stunned for a moment, remembering that Simon was talking to the female senior executive named Nancy just now. She felt a little funny and did not give in. She raised her chin slightly and stared at the man insisted: "Two years."

Simon rubbed his fingers gently on the paper, and was silent for a moment, and finally nodded: "Okay, two years."

Sofia was a little surprised, but she didn't expect Simon to agree immediately. Thinking about the difference in treatment between herself and Nancy, she couldn't help but feel a little proud.

Of course, Simon had no intention of treating it differently. He was never a stubborn person, and calmed down from his emotions just now. Since he confirmed that Sophia's request was reasonable, he naturally nodded in agreement.

The two then began to discuss the specific details of the acquisition of Gucci shares and subsequent operation of the company.

After buying Gucci, Simon's ultimate goal is to build a large luxury goods group similar to LVMH.

Many years later, as the world's largest comprehensive luxury goods group, LVMH's market value once broke through the 100 billion US dollars mark. Although it cannot be compared with giants such as Apple and Amazon, as a non-high-tech non-monopoly industrial group, it is very rare to be able to develop to a 100 billion US dollars market value scale.

According to the information in memory, LVMH's heyday had more than 60 world-renowned top luxury brands including Dior, Givenchy, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, etc. Even Gucci became the acquisition target of LVMH.

In the original time and space, with the great success of the operating model of LVMH's luxury goods portfolio, other companies followed suit, and eventually formed a three-legged luxury goods market structure with LVMH, Kering and Richemont.

Among the three companies, Richemont Group, headquartered in Switzerland, mainly engages in jewelry and watch business, and its competition with the other two companies is not fierce.

Kering Group's brand portfolio model is very similar to LVMH, and the two sides have been in a fierce competition for a long time. Moreover, the core luxury brand under Kering Group happens to be Gucci. Many years later, the Gucci brand that supported half of Kering Group's Kering Group could be worth at least 10 billion US dollars.

Now, LVMH, which was just integrated two years ago, is just the prototype of a luxury empire. Later, LVMH leader Bernard Arnault, failed to completely control the company. LVMH's management and Bernard Arnault, the major shareholder, have been in a tense confrontation.

In addition to Dior and Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Hermes, Fendi, Bulgari and other brands have not yet been acquired by LVMH.

Kering Group and Richemont Group have not taken shape.

LVMH was built by Bernard Arnault on Christian Dior.

Simon now takes over Gucci, a luxury brand with a complete range of fashion, luggage, cosmetics and other products, which is equivalent to having the foundation to build a comprehensive luxury group.

If it can expand according to the development model of the original LVMH Middle Time and Space, relying on Daenerys Entertainment's media resources in Hollywood, as long as it is operated properly, Simon may even build a top luxury empire that replaces the original LVMH Middle Time and Space.
Chapter completed!