Chapter 475 Bentley?
In the end, the German team won the penalty shootout 4-2 and advanced to the semi-finals with a total score of 5-3.
After watching this game, Barron received an invitation from Wolfsburg - the headquarters of Volkswagen, which is in Wolfsburg, also commonly known as Wolfsburg.
In fact, Wolfsburg is roughly between Bremerhaven and Berlin, but after leaving the A&R shipyard in Bremerhaven last time, Barron and Fan Bingbing headed west. I entered the Netherlands for a tour, so I didn’t pass by Wolfsburg.
Currently, the Volkswagen Group ranks behind General Motors, Toyota and Ford, ranking fourth in the sales rankings of global car companies.
But in five years, the Volkswagen Group will surpass the previous three and become the world's largest car company.
While visiting the headquarters of the Volkswagen Group, Barron tentatively asked Dr. Perred, the current CEO of the Volkswagen Group, if he was interested in selling the Bentley brand owned by Volkswagen. He could invest 2 billion pounds in cash to purchase it.
You know, in 1998, the Volkswagen Group purchased the Bentley brand for only 640 million pounds. Eight years later, Barron increased its price to more than three times the previous price.
"Sorry, Your Highness, the Duke, the Bentley brand has been integrated into the Volkswagen Group and is an important part of our strategy. We have never thought of selling it."
Hearing what Dr. Perred said , Barron glanced at the other party and said:
"However, I heard that investors in the Volkswagen Group have strongly requested you to reduce costs, but your restructuring plan has been resisted by the union... With all due respect, Bentley's profit itself is not high, and now, I'm afraid it will not be good for you The importance of the Volkswagen Group is decreasing. Selling Bentley will give Volkswagen more capital to make adjustments."
In fact, Volkswagen's profits have been declining in recent years-their profits in 2004 have been. It dropped from 2.9 billion pounds in 2001 to 697 million pounds, so investors are increasingly calling for cost reductions at its base in Germany.
Most of Volkswagen's workers are in Germany, and hourly wages are among the highest in the auto manufacturing industry.
Perred's restructuring plan in terms of cost reduction was met with resistance from employees.
Barron captured that after he said these words, there was something in Bride's eyes, but in the end he still said:
"I need to discuss it with the board of directors, Your Highness the Duke."
"I will wait for your reply."
Barron knows that Brick's hesitation is that this year is the last year of his CEO term. In 2016, it has not yet been decided whether he will renew his contract with the Volkswagen Group - because as the current CEO, Perred has a tense relationship with Piëch, chairman of the Volkswagen Group Supervisory Board and former CEO of the group.
It was when Piech was the CEO of Volkswagen Group that he led the acquisition of Rolls-Royce-Bentley. However, Rolls-Royce only lasted for five years before it was taken away by BMW. However, What Piëch advocated at that time was the Volkswagen Group's high-end brand strategy.
However, due to the decline in profits of the Volkswagen Group, Perred is more inclined to increase the group's profits. For example, high-end brands cannot increase sales and cannot contribute much profit to the group. In fact, Perred does not He doesn't take it seriously, which is why Piech is dissatisfied with Perred for abandoning the high-end brand strategy he advocated when he was in office.
Previously, Barron was not willing to give in, and still sent someone to make a bid for BMW, preparing to take back the Rolls-Royce brand from them at a price of 500 million pounds, which was more than ten times the price of the original purchase of the Rolls-Royce brand by BMW. times.
But not surprisingly, his willingness to acquire was rejected by BMW without hesitation.
Now Barron can only focus on Bentley, a British luxury car brand, and wants to acquire Bentley from the Volkswagen Group. At present, it seems that it can only be done when Perred is in charge of the Volkswagen Group. Only then can we succeed. If according to the original process of time and space, Martin Winterkorn, CEO of Audi, will take over as CEO of Volkswagen Group next year. After that, I am afraid that Volkswagen Group will not have the idea of selling the Bentley brand...
……
At 8 pm on July 9, the final of this World Cup was held at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, and Barron and the others were still watching the game in the box where they had watched Germany VS Argentina.
The final is between France and Italy - before this World Cup, the "phone scandal" broke out in Italian football that several clubs led by Juventus were suspected of illegal contact with referees.
Suddenly, many old accounts about referee misjudgments and misjudgments were uncovered, and the Italian judicial department quickly launched an investigation. For a time, whether the Italian team could participate in the World Cup in Germany was in doubt. .
Of course, in the end, the Italian team was able to participate in this World Cup, and their performance was... good.
And this World Cup final is also very famous...
"Zidane is too impulsive..."
Seeing Italian player Materazzi successfully use trash talk to anger Zidane, the "brain" of the French team, and Zidane knocked down the horse. Traci was then sent off by the referee with a red card. Abramovich shook his head and said to Barron.
"I'm afraid we have to congratulate the Italian team, the Hercules Cup belongs to them."
Zidane, who was sent off with a red card, also "flyed" the French team's World Cup champion cup.
Sure enough, the Italian team, which was not good at penalty kicks, finally felt proud and proud, defeating France 5:3, and Italy stood on the podium of the world championship for the fourth time.
After the World Cup, Barron also got the news he hoped for. Volkswagen Group CEO Perred called Barron and expressed that the Volkswagen Group was willing to negotiate with them on the sale of the Bentley brand.
It seems that Barron's offer of 2 billion pounds finally impressed the other party. After all, with these funds, the profits that the Volkswagen Group can earn from investing in other brands will definitely be higher than it is now.
As for luxury cars, Volkswagen also owns Bugatti and Lamborghini. Although they are both sports car brands, they are also well-known brands - at this time, the Volkswagen Group has not acquired Porsche.
To be honest, the price of 2 billion pounds to buy Bentley is really not low, because since it was acquired by Volkswagen, or it has always been, Bentley's profitability is not strong, that is, it owns luxury cars. The brand image makes the Volkswagen Group reluctant to part with it, otherwise it would have been sold long ago.
But the future automobile industry planned by Barron does require luxury car brands like Rolls-Royce and Bentley - and they are both of British origin, led by Barron, a British The Duke's acquisition is also more symbolic and can easily gain the support of the British people...
After it was difficult to win Rolls-Royce, he had no choice but to use an attractive price to get it from the Volkswagen Group at this time.
Having said that, if Perred was not the CEO of the Volkswagen Group now, I am afraid that even if Barron offered 3 billion pounds, the other party would not sell Bentley.
(End of this chapter)