Chapter 213 Sudden Attack
Barron asked Daisy to collect relevant information about the Selfridges Group, not just to vent his anger, unless that Galen G. Weston is really ignorant, and he also There is no need to use hundreds of millions of funds to do things with no profit just because of such a trivial matter.
The main thing is that Selfridges Group is indeed a good acquisition target. In the retail industry, Barron’s owns high-end brands such as Duke’s Select Supermarket and affordable department store chains such as Argos. Adding another brand such as Selfridges A high-end department store is not out of the ordinary.
And Barron still remembers that in the original time and space of 2022, after the Weston family speaker, Galen G. Weston’s father, W. Galen Weston, passed away, The Weston family sold the Selfridges Group for 4 billion pounds. At that time, it was determined to purchase the retail group Central Group founded by the Zheng family, a Chinese family from Thailand.
At that time, Selfridges was already known as the most profitable shopping mall in London.
Of course, the Selfridges retail group that CentralGroup spent 4 billion pounds to purchase does not only include the stores of the Selfridges group that the Weston family is preparing to purchase at this time.
At that time, the Weston family combined some other retail brands they owned with Selfridges department stores to form the Selfridges retail group, including Holt Renfrew in Canada, deBijenkorf in the Netherlands, and Brown Thomas and Arnotts in Ireland. .
What CentralGroup purchased includes four stores of the Selfridges department store group (two of which are self-owned properties) plus two self-owned properties of Brown Thomas and Arnotts stores in Dublin, Ireland.
However, no matter what, there is no doubt about the profitability of Selfridges Department Store Group. From now until 2019, its revenue has maintained a relatively high growth rate. It is no wonder that it has become London and even the entire One of the most profitable department stores in Britain.
As someone said at the time: "Once a unique asset like Selfridges is sold, it will be a once-in-a-lifetime transaction opportunity."
But here in Burren, if it is a high-end department store, besides Selfridges, there are other options, such as Harrods.
This is also one of the most prestigious department stores in the world, located in Knightsbridge, London.
Before being surpassed by China Yanjing's SKP in 2020, Harrods Department Store had always been the shopping mall with the highest sales in the world. In 2010, this "King of Department Stores" was acquired by the Qatar Investment Authority Acquired for £1.5 billion.
Of course, the Weston family is now preparing to acquire the Selfridges department store group. If you participate in it, not only can you give Galen G. Weston a beating, even if you are unable to snatch the Selfridges department store from them in the end, That can also make a lot of profits.
Just like when Barron snatched the Manchester United club from the Glazer family before, the Glazer family also made a lot of profits.
Moreover, department stores such as Harrods and Selfridges cannot be bought at any time. They also need to wait for the opportunity when their owners are willing to sell. Since the Weston family in the original time and space can buy the Selfridges department store group this year, This shows that the opportunity to buy Selfridges is better, so Barron will also regard Selfridges as his main target.
In addition to matters related to Selfridges department store, Barron also took a look at the situation of the Athena Fund.
As for the Athena Fund, within the current month, the main task is to use supercomputers to improve their mathematical model of quantitative trading. First, through the operation of virtual disks, and after testing, the model can be made After it is "available", the real offer process of automatic buying and selling arbitrage begins.
Of course, these processes must be carried out step by step with caution. Barron does not want to cause major losses to himself due to procedural errors, or even like the stock market flash crash in 2010 in the original time and space. , causing great impact.
This is why he is not in a hurry to expand the size of the Athena Fund. With the current fund size of US$400 million, he can fully afford even a loss. The key is to take advantage of the early stage At the same time, they should improve their mathematical models so that their "core competitiveness" can carry out arbitrage stably and efficiently.
"Baby, where are you?"
"Oh, I'm with Mrs. Beckham now. She asked me to go shopping today." After more than two months of work, now Bang Ni also got a relatively wealthy vacation.
On the phone, she told Barron that she would be with Victoria Beckham today - Beckham has now gone to Madrid, Spain, and joined the Real Madrid club. Victoria, on the other hand, will stay in London with her two children most of the time.
In 1999 and 2002, Victoria gave birth to two sons for Beckham respectively. Because the children were still young, they naturally needed to stay at home in London for care.
It has to be said that Victoria is really very considerate. Because Beckham left Manchester United and joined Real Madrid, they would also be worried about offending the owner of Manchester United at this time - Barron Cavan, Duke of Devonshire. Dish.
After meeting Barron and Bonnie last time at the birthday party of Holly, the eldest daughter of the Virgin Group, Victoria has kept in touch with Bonnie. It seems that she hopes to take the "lady route". Through Bonnie, to ease the relationship with Barron.
It seems that no matter what status, shopping is always a major hobby for women, especially for "workaholics" like Bonnie, shopping is a way to relieve stress.
Now that someone can accompany her shopping, Barron is naturally happy to be at ease.
However, this call also reminded Barron that last month, Manchester United signed Ronaldo from Sporting Lisbon in the Portuguese League for 10 million pounds.
At that time, Barron had already gone to the United States, and until now, he has not yet met this future football superstar.
In his previous life, one thing that Barron admired very much about Ronaldo was his self-discipline. It was indeed not that easy to be able to maintain competitive status until he was nearly forty years old.
Many people know that in the next nearly two decades, world football will be a competition between the twin stars of Ronaldo and Messi.
Relatively speaking, Ronaldo looks more handsome. If some subsequent negative news can be avoided, then his commercial value will also have greater potential.
As for the commercial operation of Manchester United, Ronaldo will also be a crucial part of Barron's plan.
In addition to the need for Ferguson to train this young man with great potential in terms of competitiveness, in terms of personal business value, Barron will also ask Manchester United Brand Management Company to conduct training for this future football superstar. Tailor-made packaging.
However, in order to prevent Beckham from being poached by Real Madrid from happening again, Barron is also preparing to get closer to Cristiano Ronaldo, who is still a young newcomer.
Just when he was about to go to Old Trafford to take a look, Barron received a call on his personal mobile phone and saw the caller ID on it...it was Amanda Hurst!
So his plan changed, and the Rolls-Royce Phantom went directly to the Devonshire Hotel in Chelsea.
The reason is that the Hearst sisters gave him a surprise attack. They had already taken a flight to London and checked into the Devonshire Hotel.
(End of this chapter)