The two of them whispered tenderly. Sophia noticed Yulia Shulhikina's look of a little lost when she stood up silently and left silently. She whispered to the little man who was still hugging her waist: "One more, do you like to capture a woman's heart like this?"

Simon focused on Sophia, but did not notice Shulhikina's condition. Hearing this, he said, "You are wronged by me. I am almost forgetting how to capture a woman's heart now, but it is too easy to capture a woman's body."

Sofia smiled and patted the man on the shoulder.

But, thinking about it, too.

With Simon's current wealth, power and status, he does nothing. He just needs to appear in front of others and can easily attract a lot of women to throw themselves into his arms.

Where else do you need to spend any effort?

However, Sophia suddenly discovered that the woman who was originally holding a simple embrace and hugging her heart was approaching Simon. Later, she was inevitably gradually faded because of his strength, gentleness, mystery, generosity, knowledge and other personalities, because these were already very attractive to women, and the halo of wealth and power on him magnified this attraction infinitely.

Think about yourself, isn’t it one of them?

Without outsiders, I felt the man exerting a little force. Sophia sat on the man's lap, wrapped her arm around Simon's neck, and inexplicably moved to kiss the man's face, saying, "Suddenly, I was worried that you would completely forget me when you woke up."

Simon drew a circle on her belly through the woman's black base shirt: "It was possible before, but now it won't be. You are my child's mother."

Sophia snuggled at the man and bent her lips: "It seems that I have discovered a big secret. I want to not forget you and have a baby."

Simon ticked the piano keys a few times and smiled, "I think you must be more determined to protect this secret than me, right?"

Sofia didn't answer.

But of course, I don’t want this secret to be discovered by other women.

I made up my mind quietly and must try my best to avoid this happening. Maybe I should discuss it with two Jenny in private.

She has never been a generous woman.

Thinking of this, Sophia heard the piano sound in her ears, turned her body slightly towards the direction of the piano keys, and said, "Let me play one too, well, there are two babies."

"OK."

Simon agreed with a smile, feeling the intoxicating woman in his arms. After thinking for a while, he still hugged Sophia with one hand, and his spare right hand began to leap. He used one hand to pull out Beethoven's song "To Alice". It was a very simple song, but it was very consistent with the atmosphere at this time.

Sophia snuggled in the man's arms, listening to the sound of piano floating in the air, suddenly understood what Shulhikina felt just now.

This little man is such a devil who can steal a woman's heart without knowing it at will.

Little bastard.

However, the most basic skin is already outstanding enough, and the personality is so easy to get close to women. But he still has wealth that ordinary people can't see, but he seems to be omnipotent. It is probably difficult for such a little man to find a second one in this world.

It took me a long time, but it was not until Girl A reminded that the dinner was ready that Sophia reluctantly stood up from the man's arms.

Because it was the New Year's Eve in China, the Chinese chef specially invited prepared a sumptuous dinner according to the specifications of the New Year's Eve dinner. Simon and Sophia couldn't eat it at all. Fortunately, there were enough people in the villa, so the two of them just left one of their own and distributed the others directly, which was a benefit for this special day.

During the dinner, Sofia also talked about Burberry with Simon.

Founded in 1856, Burberry's brand is famous for its classic 'plaid pattern' and 'royal royal' and has maintained its prosperity for more than a century. However, in the 1950s, Burberry's heirs sold the brand to GUS, a large British retail chain, thus breaking away from the label of a family business.

The economic prosperity in the 1980s allowed GUS to increase Burberry's expansion pace and gradually extended its business to markets such as North America and Asia. This expansion came to an abrupt end in 1992.

The European currency crisis has caused the economies of major European countries to fall into recession.

As an important sub-brand of GUS, the disadvantages of inefficient corporate management and sharp decline in profit margins caused by Burberry's excessive expansion have also begun to appear. With the rise of comprehensive luxury groups such as Melisandra and LVMH, Burberry, which is only dependent on a diversified retail group, is increasingly unable to find its own direction.

So, when Sofia started contacting GUS at the end of last year, the other party quickly responded positively.

As one of the largest retail chains in the UK, GUS's retail business not only covers the fashion field, but also includes all aspects such as home, electrical appliances, insurance, and finance. The group's total market value on the London Exchange has exceeded 13 billion pounds recently.

Due to the economic downturn, GUS, which involves too many fields, is also streamlining its business. At this time, Burberry, which has lost control or even lost its development direction, is undoubtedly a good choice.

For GUS Group, Burberry's expansion in the 1980s was a bit overly expanding, but Sofia was interested in the extensive market resources established by this luxury brand in Europe, North America and Asia, which just happened to help the global expansion strategies of many brands under Melisandra.

Moreover, Burberry's unique style does not form too clear competition with brands such as Gucci, Versace, and CK. Instead, it can further enrich the luxury products of Melisandra.

Taking this brand into consideration comprehensively, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

After expansion in the 1980s, Burberry's total revenue worldwide reached 530 million pounds and net profit of 62 million pounds, equivalent to US$790 million and US$93 million respectively in 1994.

After several consecutive negotiations after the New Year, the two sides finally finalized a price of 800 million pounds, equivalent to 1.2 billion US dollars, and traded again in stock and cash. Melisandra's company paid 400 million pounds (equivalent to about 600 million US dollars) plus 6% of its own stock to exchange 100% of Burberry's shares from GUS Group.

The deal also increased Melisandra's valuation from $7.3 billion in the acquisition of Bulgari last year to $10 billion.

After the transaction is completed, the equity distribution of Melisandra will be that Westeros holds 72.8% of the shares, Sofia holds 18.2% of the shares, the UK GUS Group holds 6% of the shares, and the Italian Bulgari family holds 3%.

Simon had already discussed with Sophia about Melisandra's IPO last year.

Although Melisandra will not make too much move in the short term after taking over Burberry, investment or mergers for some small brands will not stop. IPO operation can make Melisandra more convenient for various capital operations. Moreover, unlike the privatization state, after public listing, the stock premium will also make Melisandra's various investment operations more advantageous.

When determining whether to conduct an IPO, there are inevitably considerations about where to conduct an IPO.

After some discussion at dinner, I finally decided to place it in the United States.

Simon doesn't like to keep eggs in one basket, but considering the growing deep-rootedness of the Westeros system in the United States and the strong prosperity of the US economy in the late 1990s, listing in the United States is undoubtedly the most beneficial to Melisandra.

Even Nokia, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, will launch its listing plan on the New York Stock Exchange this year.

The acquisition has been finalized, Melisandra, which owns a series of luxury brands such as Gucci, Versace, CK, Burberry, Bulgari, Van Cleef and Arpels, Vacheron Constantin, and its comprehensive strength has completely surpassed the French LVMH Group with Dior and LV as its core.

In the original time and space, LVMH's boss Bernard Arnault took advantage of the economic prosperity of the United States and Europe in the 1980s and rose through a series of mergers. He temporarily lies in the early 1990s due to economic downturns, and began to expand widely from the late 1990s using another economic prosperity.

The other two comprehensive luxury goods groups, Kering and Richemont, also began to rise in the late 1990s.

Now, the pattern of the luxury goods industry is destined to no longer move towards the trajectory of its previous life.

Relying on the towering tree of the Westeros system, in the early 1990s, when other luxury brands were recuperating due to economic downturns, Melisandra had created a powerful luxury brand "fleet". The next step is to continue to deepen their industry advantages in the wave of globalization that started in the late 1990s, and at the same time, snipe the rise of other competitors as much as possible.

At least, Kering Group, which once occupied most of its sales share just Gucci, will definitely not appear again this time. Although Richemont Group, which focuses on jewelry and watches, already owns the flagship brand Cartier, it is difficult to achieve its former development under the sniping of Melisandra's Bulgari, Van Cleef & Arpels, Vacheron Constantin and other companies.

During the dinner, Simon also discussed with Sofia, and perhaps he could eat Cartier in the future.

Early the next morning, Simon and Sophia set off for London and flew to Rome.

The matter here will be left to the capable deputy Angela Alendz who was promoted a few years ago. After more than six years of joining Melisandra Company, Angela Alendz has followed Sofia's pace all the way, and her ability has also been quite affirmed.

Coincidentally, in the past history, it was Angela Arenz who joined Burberry after the new millennium and started this declining luxury brand again. In eight years, Burberry's stock price tripled, returning to the ranks of first-tier luxury brands, and relying on this qualification to become the second-ranked Apple figure after Tim Cook.

Although Apple's luxury strategy ended in failure later, it could not conceal the luxury strategy that Angela Alendz used the luxury strategy to continue to maintain differences with other brands during the period when competition in the mobile phone industry was getting fiercer, and avoided the mediocrity of prices and brands.

You should know that it is very difficult for any industry to hit the high-end from the low-end, and it is even more difficult to hit the high-end from the high-end.

Therefore, Apple's luxury strategy did not make any mistakes, it was just unsuccessful.

On the contrary, after Angela Alendz left, Apple adjusted its pricing strategy and began to significantly reduce prices. It may increase sales in the short term, but in fact it is damaging Apple's own brand value and the profit margin of the product will also be greatly reduced. Once the price is completely in line with the flagship of its competitors, the two sides will fall into close combat, and the result is even more unpredictable.

This time, Burberry was handed over to Angela Arenz for integration, and both Simon and Sophia were very relieved.

From leaving the entertainment room last night and boarding the plane in the morning, Simon did not see Yulia Shulhikina again. He probably understood that Sophia quietly sent the other party away, but he didn't mind. However, Simon did not forget to agree to Shulhikina's solo dance MV, and sent an email to Daenerys Entertainment British Branch on the plane to Rome to ask the other party to plan the matter.

Compared to Rome, Simon actually prefers Cannes, because the mansions on the top of Cannes can overlook the Mediterranean Sea. Simon likes this feeling very much. However, Rome was built on a plain and there is no condescending sea view for Simon to enjoy.

The reason why I didn't go to Cannes is because of the conflict between the Westeros system and France since the Rwandan War last year.

Because of a big fall in Rwanda, France's small actions against Simon have never stopped in the past six months. Last year, French media went to Ukraine to explore the inside story of UFMS. Simon does not think this is the spontaneous behavior of the French media out of news enthusiasm.

Not only that, the rise of Melisandra, which has the Italian brand as its core, has also caused many French luxury goods companies that have always had the advantage to have a strong sense of fear and hostility.

There are also Hollywood movies that have siegeed France in recent years.

Starting from the original "Batman", under the continuous bombardment of a series of blockbusters, the market share of French local films, which originally had an advantage, has shrunk rapidly over the years. In recent years, all the annual box office champions in the French film market have been Hollywood movies.

Moreover, whether it is the original Batman, Jurassic Park or the Lion King outside the DC movie universe, or the French box office champion last year, they all happen to be closely related to Daenerys Entertainment, or the Westeros system.

Therefore, the French film circle has been strongly calling on the French government to set thresholds for Hollywood movies. Of course, Hollywood will not give in. By lobbying to use the power of the Washington authorities to counterattack, the game between the two sides in private is very fierce.

In short, Simon is now a thorn in France's side. Even if he goes through it quietly without saying a word, it is inevitable that France will not make any mistakes.

Just don't go.

In comparison, although there was the Stefano family incident last year, Simon already has a deep foundation in Italy after the Westeros system has been operating for many years. If nothing unexpected happens, Universal Studios in Europe will probably choose a location around Rome, so that Sophia will take care of her baby here.

It is located in a 30-acre farm-style estate in the southern suburbs of Rome.

Many areas in northern Europe are still covered with snow, and have not escaped the coldest season of the year. Rome, located along the Mediterranean coast, is as warm as spring. The manor in the southern suburbs is planned by Sophia, with lawns, green trees, low walls and stone forts complementing each other, and at first glance, it looks like a beautiful rural pastoral painting.

In addition, when he came here, Simon finally saw the girls he had raised for exactly one year without realizing it.
Chapter completed!