On Janet's birthday, the couple flew to Miami together.

Taking advantage of the trough of the US real estate industry, Janet purchased a 6-hectare seaside land in North Palm Beach, Miami last year. The plot is located in a high-end wealthy area, with a golf course to the north, a private beach to the east, and a forest park to the south, which is a golden area.

If it weren't for the cold winter of the real estate industry that caused developers to cut their development plans, and the buyers would be Simon Westeros, who could bring great fame to the rich areas, and this plot of land that could be built with seven or eight luxury houses would definitely not be packaged for sale.

Even so, the transaction price of these 6 hectares of land reached US$10 million.

Janet plans to invest $20 million to build a Linhai manor. The main villa started construction last year, and the entire manor will be completed and moved in about the second half of next year.

As a transition, Janet also purchased a 1.5-acre mansion next to the manor. After the manor is completed, the manor, which covers an area of ​​half a hectare will be directly merged into the manor.

Because it was reported that Simon purchased property in this wealthy area, only in the past year, the surrounding housing prices have risen by 20%.

Several luxury houses around Simon Manor have become the target of many people for buying, and the quotations have even doubled the average housing price in the rich area. The smart developers have also used the properties around Simon Manor as signs to keep them tightly, hoping to sell them to more wealthy celebrities to further increase the popularity of this rich area.

Shopping, fishing on the sea, attending parties... Janet makes the three-day holiday schedule from Friday to Sunday colorful.

The couple returned to New York on Monday, March 16th.

Sofia Fessi has not left yet.

A detailed investigation of CK has been conducted in advance. Sofia's offer to CK on Saturday was US$50 million, of which US$40 million was used to purchase 55% of the shares of CK shareholders, and US$10 million was used to inject CK as a loan to alleviate the company's cash flow pressure.

In addition, Sofia also promised that after completing the acquisition of CK, Melisandra and the entire Westeros system will provide the company with resource support in channels, legal affairs, marketing and other aspects, helping CK quickly reverse the difficulties faced at this time and further develop and grow.

In addition to family infighting, many of the problems CK faced at this time were similar to Gucci's original one, and Gucci's rapid rise was visible to everyone.

Although the price offered by Sofia is relatively low, it is not harsh. It also retains 45% of the shares that can be reserved for future appreciation for other shareholders of CK.

Therefore, although only 24 hours of consideration were given, after several trials and bargaining, CK founder Calvin Klein and the company's board of directors accepted the offer from Melisandra at the last moment.

News of the acquisition agreement was published on the important page of the New York Times on Monday.

After Gucci, Latour Winery and Van Clerk Arpels, Melisandra once again acquired a well-known luxury brand and continued to take a step further towards the goal of a comprehensive luxury group.

CK is not a listed company.

However, with the announcement of the news, the bankruptcy haze that has been surrounding CK has been swept away. As media from all sides reported, even the sales of CK products have increased significantly. The attitude of the brand licensors who have been entangled with CK has eased. Although they are even more reluctant to release the authorization licenses, they also said that they can make corresponding concessions in terms of authorization fees and other aspects.

Simon did not return to the West Coast this week, but joined Janet in the next phase of Cersei Capital's development plan.

First of all, Cersei Fund Management Company, hedge fund.

After the oil market operation was completed last year, Cersei Fund Management faced a "transformation" problem.

In order to avoid possible targets in the entire Westeros system, Cersei Fund Management will next minimize macro hedging that may affect a country's economy.

In fact, when the Berlin Wall collapsed, analysts at Cersei Fund Management predicted that the European monetary system would experience a new reshuffle.

In 1979, under the leadership of Germany and France, the eight European Community countries established a European monetary system for fighting the US dollar. This system determined a relatively fixed exchange rate exchange mechanism based on the strength of various countries at that time. Britain, which had always been "maverick", did not announce its joining until 1990.

That's two years ago.

However, after the merger of East and West Germany, Germany's economic strength increased greatly, and it was very unfair to Germany to continue to maintain the original exchange rate system. In order to attract Britain to join the European monetary system, the exchange rate of the pound was significantly overvalued when he joined the European monetary system two years ago, thus creating a strong imbalance that needed to be reshuffled.

Of course, Britain, which has taken advantage of the situation, does not want to reshuffle it, which requires some external force to promote it.

In the original time and space, Soros's quantum fund launched an attack on the pound in September 1992, and eventually ended with the sharp depreciation of currencies from European countries such as the pound, Italian lira, and Spanish Pesetta.

Soros personally made a net profit of $1 billion in this currency sniping and became famous in one battle. Quantum funds and other hedge funds involved in sniping European currencies have also made a lot of money.

On the other hand, the UK withdrew from the European monetary system after the pound crisis, the European Community suffered a heavy blow, and the US dollar's status was further consolidated.

Not to mention the deep-seated game of great powers involved in this, if you are willing, with Simon's prophet advantage, Cersei Capital can now lay out European currencies in advance and slowly establish short positions in currencies such as pounds and liras that will definitely plummet.

However, the Westeros system is not as pure as the Quantum Fund. Once this is done, Cersei Capital may make a lot of money. The entire Westeros system will definitely encounter hostility and targeting from European countries in the future. Don’t think about doing other businesses in the future.

Therefore, after reading the relevant reports of Cersei Capital analysts, Simon personally spoke out to ban Cersei Capital from participating in this operation, and no penny is allowed.

With the big heads of Quantum Funds in front of you, Cersei Capital doesn't seem to attract much attention even if it makes a small profit from a small amount, but it doesn't have to get oil all over for some leftover soup.

Of course, the most important thing is that Cersei Fund Management has more appropriate goals.

Technology stocks!

The wave of new technology with the Internet as its core has emerged in advance. New technology companies such as Microsoft, Intel, Oracle, Cisco, and American Online have been rising rapidly in the past two years. However, according to the information in memory, Simon is very clear that the stock price is far from reaching the craziest moment.

Therefore, now is definitely the best time to join the market and go long for US technology stocks.

In the original time and space, Tiger Fund, which followed Quantum Fund to kill all sides in Southeast Asia in 1997, was liquidated in the following two years because of betting on shorting technology stocks. Tens of billions of dollars in funds lost more than 80% in just two years. Hedge funds are a zero-sum game. The case of Tiger Fund liquidation actually proves from the opposite direction how rich the hedge funds that were long in the technology stock market at that time were.

It may be a few years before the craziest period of technology stocks, but with the overall trend of the Nasdaq market, starting to go long now, the profits will still be very generous.

More importantly, when longing technology stocks, there is no strong political risk that is required to speculate on a country's currency. The overall market value of the Nasdaq technology stock market is worth trillions of dollars, which is enough for Cersei Fund Management to roam around it.

Inside the apartment on Fifth Avenue.

It is Wednesday, March 18th.

Simon and Janet came home from get off work from Cersei Capital headquarters in Midtown. Sofia also came to visit and stayed to have dinner together and talked about CK.

Although the two parties have reached a basic agreement and officially signed the acquisition contract, Melisandra still needs to conduct a more detailed operating and financial audit of CK to ensure that there are no unexpected debt and legal risks. If everything goes well, the acquisition will be completed at the latest early next month.

"After completing the acquisition, CK's main energy will focus on the three product lines of men's and women's high-end fashion, jeans and underwear. Although high-end fashion will form a certain competition with Gucci, it can still enrich the diversity of Melisandra's fashion business. The two major businesses of jeans and underwear are more important, which is also my original intention of acquiring CK, because these two product lines are areas that Gucci has not entered."

In the restaurant, Simon listened to Sofia's introduction and asked, "At the last party, Klein said that CK's perfume products were selling well, too?"

Sofia shook her head and said, "The perfume business only accounts for about 5% of CK's total sales, and it is difficult to compete with brands such as Dior and Chanel. This product line will not be cancelled, but it will not be invested more. Our focus in recent years is on developing Gucci's perfume business."

Janet, who was habitually sitting next to Simon, asked: "What about brand authorization?"

Sofia said: "This aspect is a bit complicated. In the 1980s, CK granted many product categories such as pajamas, swimsuits, glasses, socks, shoes, household goods, etc. It is very difficult to take them all back now, especially after Melisandra took over CK. However, these authorizations will expire within five years at the latest. My goal is to cancel some authorizations through negotiations as much as possible. If it is really impossible to take them back, we must ensure the quality of the authorized products to the greatest extent to avoid affecting CK's brand image."

Simon said again: "If you confirm that this company has no big problems, Oscars at the end of the month can arrange some exposure of CK brands."

"I'm already in touch," Sophia nodded, looked at Janet again, and asked, "How is the LTD acquisition case going on?"

LTD is the common abbreviation code for Limited Brands, the parent company of Victoria's Secret.

Janet said: "Recently, KKR and Blackstone have become interested in LTD, and there may be a bidding war. If the final offer is too high, we can only withdraw."

KKR is the private equity firm that set a record Reynolds Nabeske merger a few years ago, not to mention Blackstone, the old owner of Blackstone Asset Management, which Lawrence Fink is now in charge.

Both companies are top private equity firms whose strength cannot be underestimated.

Acquisition negotiations quietly started in February, and the two parties contacted each other several times but failed to reach an agreement. Then, the news inevitably leaked.

Although LTD firmly denied that it was leaking the news, the facts were obvious.

Affected by the leak of acquisition news, LTD's stock price has also seen a significant increase in recent days, with its market value exceeding US$1.5 billion.

Neither KKR nor Black Rock have formal offers yet, but it is obvious that once the two companies take action, a bidding war will be inevitable, and the planned well-intentioned acquisition will be impossible.

On Cersei Capital, Apollo Management's acquisition team has readjusted the acquisition plan and raised the quotation ceiling for LTD to US$2.5 billion, an increase of US$800 million compared with the initial $1.7 billion transaction price expected in the good faith acquisition stage.

Against the backdrop of the two competitors eyeing each other, even so, it is not a must-win.

However, the acquisition team has secretly absorbed 4.9% of LTD Group's shares. Even if the acquisition really fails, Cersei Capital will not be in vain after cashing out the stocks in it.

In Simon's memory, the peak market value of LTD Group once exceeded US$20 billion.

Even if you buy this company with $2.5 billion now, according to the holding cycle of private equity companies for about five years, the upward trend of the US economy in the next five years and the development potential of LTD itself, Simon also believes that in five years, the share price of LTD Group will be able to ensure at least 100% double growth.

With an average annual return of 20% over five years, this return on investment is not low for private equity.

Simon returned to Los Angeles the next day, and the time was also entering late March. The 64th Academy Awards ceremony to be held on March 30 is approaching.

According to the voting process, the judges of various Oscar awards have recently sent their votes, and the award results have basically been settled.

Daenerys Entertainment’s two key nomination films this year, "Don’t Love the Piano" and "The End of the Road" are destined to be just a runner-up. Other nominations such as "Ice and Snow World"'s best documentary feature film and the best foreign language film "The Big Red Lantern Hanging High" have not invested much energy in public relations.

This is destined to be a rather quiet year for Daenerys Entertainment on the awards.

After calculation, among the 22 nominations under Daenerys Entertainment, the only one that is more guaranteed is the heroine of "The Piano Don't Love".

Relying on the outstanding performance in "Piano Don't Love", the actress's nomination for Best Actress is a hit. Moreover, compared with several other candidates, Holly Hunter also has a deep connection in Hollywood. You should know that this actress was Spielberg's girlfriend.

In order for Hunter to obtain Xiaojinren, Holly Hunter's agency ICM also invested a lot of resources and connections in public relations.

Easter in 1992 is April 19.

One month in advance, Daenerys Entertainment's key Easter project "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2" entered the sprint publicity stage.

Simon is quite satisfied with the effect of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2". However, in the original time and space, the box office of several "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" released in the 1990s also made him a little worried about the box office performance of this sequel.

If the budget cost of the sequel is only $30 million, it also needs to cooperate with Blizzard Studio's "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" series, Simon has considered canceling the production of the sequel like "Flying Over Innocence".

After the release of the first song in 1990, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" did not immediately strike while the iron was hot and released the sequel last year, because of Simon's concerns.

In the final analysis, although "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" is very well-known, the IP image is tending to be younger. After the initial freshness, adult audiences can easily lose interest in the sequel. For children's audiences, even if the film itself has reached PG level, the live-action Mutant Ninja Turtles will not please children like cartoons.
Chapter completed!