Unlike the common leveraged acquisitions in the 1980s, Cersei Capital bought LTD and did not intend to split and sell them in a short period of time to cash out quickly, but instead tended to go public after long-term operations.

Therefore, to this day, Cersei Capital cannot adopt the short-term high-interest lending and junk bond financing model that was common in the 1980s.

In order to obtain the funds needed to acquire LTD, before the formal acquisition operation began, Cersei Capital was preparing to issue a fund specifically for the acquisition.

After the transaction was officially concluded, Cersei Capital also basically completed the fundraising work of this fund.

Although the acquisition of more than $2 billion is far from comparable to the Reynolds Nabesk acquisition with a total transaction amount of $33 billion, the acquisition has been the largest private equity acquisition in the past two years before the United States has completely emerged from the aftermath of the collapse of the bond market a few years ago.

In order to give investors confidence and for the investment considerations of the Westeros system itself, Westeros soon announced after the transaction was concluded that it would purchase 10% of LTD's shares at an agreed price, minus the other 10% of the shares held by the Wexner family. Cersei Capital actually bought only 80% of the shares of LTD, and the funds required to be paid are US$1.96 billion.

The addition of Westeros has enabled investors who had only signed an intention subscription agreement to quickly fulfill their fund subscription shares, thus ensuring the smooth completion of this acquisition.

The specific acquisition process will take two months to complete, but Simon quickly contacted Leslie Wexner, the founder of LTD.

Leslie Wexner's history of making a fortune is very typical in this industry.

The original fashion store started out, and the chain size continued to increase in the following twenty years, eventually creating the current LTD company.

Among them, the Victoria's Secret that Simon cares most is actually the underwear chain brand bought by Leslie Wexner from another businessman in 1982.

Because it is not the foundation of starting a business, although Victoria's Secret has developed very rapidly in recent years, and when it comes to LTD, people will only think of Victoria's Secret. In fact, Leslie Wexner still regards LTD's sub-brands such as women's fashion and sports fashion as the core of its operations.

Therefore, compared with the proportion of Victoria's Secret brand that later occupied more than 60% of the parent company's sales, Victoria's Secret accounted for only more than 20% of the sales share of LTD in 1991.

The economy was sluggish and over-expanding, and abandoned the initial "Limited Brands" business strategy to pursue more areas without restraint, which eventually led to LTD falling into operational difficulties after the collapse of the US bond market.

Speaking of which, Leslie Wexner, the founder of LTD, is a businessman with a very radical style, which is actually very similar to the impression Simon gave to the outside world.

The Westeros system has risen rapidly like a miracle in just six years. Simon's various big and risky actions in this process cannot even be described as simple radical.

However, Simon, who was a human being for two lives, has always been very clear about what he is doing.

Many Westeros have made unreasonable arrangements in the eyes of outsiders. For example, the incredible investment in Igrit Company in the past two years, for Simon, it only takes advantage of some opportunities that are destined to explode in the industry in advance.

Leslie Wexner obviously does not have the ‘advantage’ of Simon. The continued expansion of LTD over the past twenty years is more of a natural move by a risk-taking businessman.

The fashion field has long been a very competitive red ocean market.

The continuous expansion of LTD has inevitably fallen into the homogeneity problem that many fashion companies are inevitably facing: it is difficult for the fashion industry to play too many tricks after all.

The homogeneity of clothing products is serious, the scale of the enterprise is too bloated, and the relative cost increases, which inevitably leads to a decline in brand competitiveness.

Therefore, sales of LTD's women's clothing brands and sports fashion brands have declined significantly in recent years due to the sluggish US economy.

The only thing that went up against the trend was Victoria's Secret, who focused on underwear.

Simon was also privately curious if this was the legendary 'lipstick effect'.

However, the original LTD company in Time and Space began to turn more attention to the operation of Victoria's Secret in the 1990s and returned to the "limited brand" business strategy that focuses on core brands, which was probably inspired by the performance of Victoria's Secret market in the early 1990s.

LTD is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio.

Ohio is located in the northeastern United States, bordering Pennsylvania to the east and the Great Lakes to the north. Unlike the winding and mountainous western states and counties, Ohio is located in the endless eastern plains. As the capital of Ohio, Columbus is located in the center of this plain.

After returning from Australia, Simon and Janet soon accepted the invitation from Leslie Wexner and rushed to Columbus, Ohio as a guest.

Of course, there are other reasons.

Simon's "butterfly effect" on this world is becoming more and more obvious, but it has not changed the situation.

For example, the Los Angeles riot at the end of April 1992.

The cause of the incident was that in March 1991, a black young man, Rodney King, was beaten by Los Angeles police officers for drunk driving and racing arrest. After the incident was taken into a videotape by passers-by, he was sold to a TV station. As a result, major TV stations that were used to "creating topics" edited the first half of the videotape, leaving only the scene of Rodney King being beaten out.

On April 28, the Los Angeles District Court sentenced four police officers involved to be acquitted based on the complete record of the incident, which triggered dissatisfaction among the black community and thus triggered large-scale riots.

Although the riots only occurred in southern central Los Angeles in memory, who knows if there will be any abnormal changes this time.

As soon as the incident happened, Simon quietly left Los Angeles and met with Janet who came from New York in Columbus.

Due to habitual reasons, a farm-style manor covering an area of ​​50 acres has been established in advance.

Unlike Los Angeles and other major cities along the coast, Columbus, located in the central plains, seems very calm. This is actually easy to understand. Located in the conservative northeastern United States, the proportion of people of color in Ohio is far lower than that of states on the east and west coasts, and the proportion of white people is still above 90%.

Simon didn't feel much about the riot, and it was not the first time this happened in this country.

Leslie Wexner did not say anything about the sensitive incident at the farm estate in the northern suburbs of Columbus.

For politicians, this matter is wrong no matter which side it is, so President Bush only came forward and mixed up two days after the riot, and made a few calls without any pain. It was the year of the election, and all candidates were surprisingly silent about the riot, all of which were votes.

Simon and Leslie Wexner are both public figures. Even if they don’t have the same scruples as politicians, they will only make mistakes if they say too much.

Although it is clear that a country's progress towards some extreme political correctness is often the consequence of this constant silence and concession, Simon has no intention of changing anything.

He has always positioned himself as a passerby in this world.

We can’t talk much about politics, of course we should talk about business.

Today is May 1st, and it is already late spring and early summer.

Strolling on the business-filled farm path, ignoring the troubles of the outside world, I feel very comfortable unknowingly.

During the days in Columbus, Simon has been constantly discussing the next development of LTD.

LTD's dilemma in recent years has proven that the company must make changes.

In the original time and space, LTD abandoned many peripheral brands and focused on the operation of Victoria's Secret, which is the result of this change.

However, combined with the information in memory, Simon found that LTD could actually make another attempt.

Since it has proven to be very successful, it is of course still to be retained to promote the Victoria's Secret brand through sexy marketing techniques of Victoria's Secret Angels. However, for LTD's women's fashion and sports fashion businesses, Simon also proposed to Leslie Wexner another concept of "fast fashion" that has been gradually taking shape in recent years but has not grown.

Many years later, the world's most famous affordable fashion brands, Zara, H&M and GAP, all adopted the "fast fashion" operation model.

Simply put, fast fashion is a model that quickly promotes the fashion trends displayed by major fashion weeks in a very short period of time in a relatively cheap consumer field.

First-class design, second-class brand, third-class price, this is a very vivid summary of fast fashion brands.

To be honest, the so-called fast fashion is actually a rapid plagiarism and imitation of the popular trends made by major top luxury brands.

In Simon's memory, the Zara brand pays tens of millions of euros infringement every year for plagiarizing the design of top luxury brands, and is sued every day. However, the company has never changed its business strategy. Compared with the huge profits, the infringement fees of tens of millions of euros per year are indeed not worth mentioning.

Zara's boss, Spanish businessman Amancio Ortega, once squeezed out Warren Buffett with this world-class fashion brand, and ranked among the top three in the global rich list with tens of billions of dollars.

Whether it is Spain's Zara, Sweden's H&M or the United States' GAP, the three fashion giants have been established many years later. However, the three companies are still a long way to go before their peak period. LTD has already had a deep foundation in the fashion field. It is actually not too late to make advance arrangements before the three giants completely rise.

As affordable fashion chains have developed to a certain extent, further breakthroughs in brands have always been a problem that has plagued Leslie Wexner for a long time.

Unlike luxury brands, affordable fashion is too easy to homogenize, and it is difficult to create your own brand and characteristics.

The concept of "fast fashion" proposed by Simon in recent days has given Leslie Wexner a sudden feeling.

As for the business ethical risks such as plagiarism and imitation that may be involved, there is no psychological burden for a businessman who has been struggling in the mall for decades.

After several days of discussion, Leslie Wexner also accepted Simon's suggestion.

In the next step, while focusing on promoting Victoria's Secret brand, LTD also plans to integrate its fashion business and use the earliest brand foundation called 'Express' established by LTD to create a fast fashion brand.

In addition, LTD will also sell some non-core businesses. This kind of sale is of course not the kind of sale after the leveraged acquisition in the 1980s. The funds obtained from the sale of assets will be used to develop the two brands of ‘VS’ and ‘Express’.

"Simon, I thought about the idea of ​​the underwear fashion show you mentioned yesterday. It was a great idea last night. However, according to your idea, it would be too high to invite the top group of models in the fashion industry and have to broadcast it on TV. Maybe we can be a little simpler at the beginning."

"I have considered the budget issue," Simon smiled and said, "Rice, it's better to do this. This show was jointly produced by Daenerys Entertainment and LTD. Both parties share 50% of the budget. Daenerys Entertainment is responsible for the distribution of TV platforms and videotapes and other channels."

Strolling among the green farm roads, the scenery is pleasant but people are not drunk.

Leslie Weixnet quickly calculated.

Simon has known LTD for Leslie Wexner, and Weixner has also studied the young man's success more carefully.

Daenerys Entertainment can sell a Gucci brand documentary for tens of millions of dollars, and can make Madonna's concert documentary sell at the box office. So, it is hard to say whether this fashion show will have the same value.

"So, Simon, we share the budget, and the profits should also be shared, right?"

Simon glanced at the middle-aged man in his fifties beside him and said, "Rice, LTD can only take out half of his budget to get a large promotion of the Victoria's Secret brand. Isn't that enough?"

"But, we're half the budget after all."

Leslie Weixner hesitated, but still did not agree to LTD to bear the entire production budget.

Because, according to the young man next to him, such a big show cannot be obtained without tens of millions of dollars of funds.

It's a bit of a risk to invest tens of millions of dollars in one go for a fashion brand show.

Moreover, Simon needs to be personally responsible for planning, and even if he invites top supermodels, Simon Westeros' connections are needed.

Although Victoria's Secret's performance is very good, it is just an affordable underwear brand after all.

For many supermodels, it is a bit worthless when walking for such a brand. If you are still with other supermodels, it is a bit worthless. However, if you are walking for a project planned for Simon Westeros, it will probably be easier to accept.

Leslie Wexner still knows that the two "waist and leg genitals" suddenly rose in the fashion industry last year.

Westeros created two supermodels in just one time.
Chapter completed!