Chapter 488 British Automobile Group
In early September, Barron came to Germany again.
More than three months later, the 330-foot superyacht he bought before the World Cup finally completed the interior decoration - designing the "Devon Hill Series" of the Gucci Group The interior decoration style was perfected by Alexander Michel, which made Barron very satisfied.
Barron will next take the superyacht he named "Caesar" on its maiden voyage, entering the Strait of Dover from the North Sea, first docking in Le Havre, France, and then Turn back up the Thames estuary and dock in London.
However, before Barron left Germany, he still went to Wolfsburg and met with the CEO of the Volkswagen Group, Perred.
So far, Caesar Fund's acquisition of the Bentley brand has finally come to fruition. The Volkswagen Group's board of directors finally approved the agreement after the new acquisition plan was reached.
In the final agreement, Caesars Fund will pay a price of 2.5 billion pounds to acquire the Bentley brand, as well as the Crewe plant in England and an automobile factory in Wolfsburg, Germany.
However, of the 2.5 billion pounds that Caesars Fund needs to pay to the Volkswagen Group, 350 million pounds is used as an advance payment for the W12 engine purchased from the Volkswagen Group after acquiring the Bentley brand.
Currently the most high-end automobile engines include V12 engines from Mercedes-Benz and BMW brands and W12 engines from the Volkswagen Group.
Before this, the engine used by the Bentley brand was the W12 engine provided by the Volkswagen Group. Therefore, in order to ensure the smooth production of the Bentley brand in the future, they still need to purchase the W12 engine from the Volkswagen Group. This time the agreement is Includes confirmation of purchase orders for these engines.
Of course, the Volkswagen Group can also obtain stable income and get rid of the burden of a German automobile factory. These are the reasons why Perrudder was able to convince the board of directors, especially Piech.
Initially, the Dresden factory that Perred was preparing to sell to Kaiser Fund was the Dresden factory used to produce the Phaeton model. In this relatively new factory with an investment of nearly 200 million euros by the Volkswagen Group, more than 800 employees have the highest number of employees every day. Can produce 150 Phaeton model cars.
However, Piëch was firmly opposed to the sale of the Dresden factory. In order to appease the other party, Piëch replaced the sold factory with another automobile factory in Wolfsburg, which was also an integrated company. car assembly factory.
Although the salary expenses of employees in this German factory will be a burden, these number of auto workers are also needed to restructure the Bentley brand, so in the end they decided to provide services to the Volkswagen Group "Taking over" once.
Considering that these personnel can provide technology for some new automobile production plants in China and elsewhere, this is not so difficult to accept.
After completing the signing of the agreement, it means that the Bentley brand has officially begun the process of separating from the Volkswagen Group and belonging to the Caesars Fund.
After this news began to spread, it not only became a hotly discussed news in Britain, but also put a certain amount of pressure on Ford.
After entering September, Ford's new CEO Alan Mulally has taken office. His first priority after taking office is to plan for the future development of Ford.
What he proposed is the "OneFord" strategy, which is to restructure the company, optimize production capacity and achieve profitability, adjust product structure and accelerate the development of new models, and accelerate the concentration of resources on the core Ford brand building.
The goal proposed by Alan Mulally is to enable Ford to manufacture more models suitable for the global market from a few core platforms, thereby further cutting costs and improving the commonality of parts and systems. .
The implication is that some other brands besides the Ford brand are within the target of reduction. Alan Mulally's plan is also supported by Bill Ford, so the sale of Aston Martin, and even more brands, is already expected. At most, it is just a matter of time.
In this way, the final price issue remains in the negotiations between Caesars Fund and them to acquire the three British car brands.
The original bid from Caesars Fund for three car brands, including Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover, was US$4 billion, but Ford believed that it could not be lower than US$5 billion.
On this point, the two sides have never reached an agreement, and neither side has made any concessions to each other.
Even after Caesars Fund reached an agreement with Volkswagen Group to acquire the Bentley brand, Caesars Fund even reduced its contact with Ford and became less active in the acquisition of those three brands.
You know, although after the news of Ford's intention to sell Aston Martin initially came out, including the offer from Caesars Fund, nearly 30 companies or institutions became interested in it. Ford has had some contacts, including the luxury brand group LVMH.
However, none of the bids from these companies and institutions were able to satisfy Ford. Even as Barron once said to Bill Ford, among them, Caesars Fund is already considered the most sincere. .
So after such a situation occurred, Ford was a little uneasy. They became more proactive and said that they could package Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover for sale, but in terms of price, , $4 billion is unacceptable.
However, Caesars Fund did not raise the price as they wished. Instead, it began to talk with Ford about the pension fund issues for employees of these three brands.
You know, for example, when Caesars Fund acquired a German factory of the Volkswagen Group, the most they could do was bear the contributions of the pension funds of current employees after the acquisition. Those who have retired belong to the Volkswagen Group and need to be borne by the employee pension funds of the Volkswagen Group. part of the pension.
The Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover brands that acquired Ford are different because these brands are all subsidiaries of Ford, and the pensions of their retired personnel are provided by these three companies. The employee pension fund will bear the responsibility. If Caesars Fund completes the acquisition, Caesars Fund will be responsible for it later.
Caesar Fund’s meaning is very simple. I can raise the price, but the pension funds of these companies’ retired employees need your capital injection. After all, people have retired before.
After such back and forth, the two parties finally reached a general agreement-Caesar Fund increased the acquisition offer to US$4.5 billion. At the same time, Ford needed to inject a total of US$350 million into the employee pension funds of the three companies. to provide pension security for employees who retired while they owned these three brands.
At this point, after spending a total of nearly 9 billion U.S. dollars (2.5 billion pounds + 4.5 billion U.S. dollars), Caesars Fund has finally completed its investment in Bentley, Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover. Acquisition of automobile brands.
This news also made the whole of England excited.
Correspondingly, this acquisition by Caesars Fund brought four British car brands back to the UK. It also received support from the government and local governments. In negotiations with them, it obtained a series of benefits including tax reductions. and preferential policies including subsidies.
After acquiring these brands, Caesar Fund merged them to form the British Automotive Group (British Automotive Group), whose four brands are Bentley, Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover.
(End of this chapter)