Monday, October 19, 1987.
At ten o'clock in the morning, the largest conference room at LVMH headquarters was packed, and Bernard Arnault held a press conference here as the helm of LVMH.
On this day, he made a statement to several French mainstream media specifically in response to the recent rumors that have been popular outside, as well as the controversy created by Henri Lacamier's deliberate slander of the company's products at the autumn conference. A series of clarifying announcements.
For example, LVMH's internal operations are all normal. Except for Henri Lacamier, who is dissatisfied with the company's ability to attract new blood, is jealous of talents, and obstructs the company's management, the other board members are in harmony. The unity remains.
Then he pulled all the board members together and announced the "banning order" on Henri Lacamier by a collective vote of the board of directors without Henri Lacamie present.
In addition, Bernard Arnault also predicted in advance that the company's operating performance in the third quarter of this year will be greatly improved, and investors will not be disappointed.
The entire meeting went smoothly and successfully. There were too many reporters holding microphones and competing to ask questions.
However, Bernard Arnault did not give reporters much time. He only spent about ten minutes answering five or six questions, and then put his hands behind his back and announced the end of today's press conference. meeting.
Accompanied by several staff members, he walked leisurely outside the conference room door while maintaining a gentleman's smile.
He was the first to leave the venue and went straight to his office.
Along the way, he nodded to almost all the subordinates he met, responded politely to greetings from others, and dutifully played the role of a confident leader of the company. .
It wasn’t until he returned all the way to his office and closed the door that he was the only one left, that the smile on his face disappeared.
At this time, he let go of all restraint, but seemed to be a completely different person. He made a call to Lazard Investment Bank in an impatient manner.
If he was seen like this by any of the reporters just now, it would undoubtedly make all his speeches at the meeting no longer credible.
The reason why he was so rude was because in just a few days, the market value of LVMH and Dior clothing has been falling.
In other words, his net worth continues to shrink.
Although it was just a temporary loss, it didn't take long for this incident to start to make him feel heartbroken.
"How is it!? How is it? Frank, this is Bernard, how is the market situation now?"
I just heard Frank Meyer's voice coming from the microphone, Bernard Arnault asked impatiently.
Unfortunately, Frank Meyer on the microphone did not provide any good news to Bernard Arnault, "It's still not good. My friend. After the market opens today, whether it is LVMH or Dior clothing, Still continues to fall, including last week’s Well, this is the third consecutive day, and today's selling intensity has also slightly increased. Fortunately, the decline is not too drastic. LVMH's stock price has only fallen by less than 2%, and Dior clothing has fallen today. Three percent..."
The bad news immediately sent Bernard Arnault into a rage.
"Isn't that enough? Do you mean that everything I have done these days is useless? I am acting according to the plan we have recently discussed. The idea is yours I even spent millions of francs to entertain the editors-in-chief of three French newspapers, the person in charge of a radio station, and the producer of a TV news program in order to reverse the bad influence and save the public's confidence in LVMH. , boarded the yacht to attend the model party. But now that I have spent the money, the news has been published, but you tell me that it still can’t stop the stock price from falling, and even Dior clothing has fallen. Can you tell me. , what is going on? Besides informing me that my net worth is shrinking rapidly, what else can you, an investment expert, do for me?”
“Don’t worry, don’t worry, I’m very worried. I understand your feelings, my friend. But what can you do if you are angry with me? The problem now is that you have fallen into the trap of others, do you understand? >
Frank Meyer patiently comforted the other party, and his words were definitely not to shirk responsibility or to be alarmist.
"I am now very sure that someone is deliberately shorting your company. And I have found out that the short-seller should be your old rival. I tracked the sales department that sold these stocks through special channels The account information and selling orders all came from the CLSA Fifth District Sales Department. In addition to Henri Lacamier's account, the other one was named Pierre Cardin, and there was another one who seemed to be an Asian. I couldn't name him. Name. Anyway, they are aggressive this time and have a lot of money. They seem to have raised a lot of funds and raised a lot of securities to sell short.”
However, his explanation was almost ineffective. After hearing these remarks, Bernard Arnault became even more excited, and he almost shouted into the microphone.
"So what? Even if these people target me together, so what? They are just my defeated generals, completely overestimating their own capabilities. They don't think about it. They have not done anything in the past year. If you beat me, how can you beat me today? Otherwise, LVM can beat me. H. It’s not me who makes the decision now. Well, originally I wanted to let this old lunatic, Henri Lacamier, live a prosperous second half of his life. Since he still refuses to give up and wants to ruin my business, then I will. No more kindness. And that Pierre Cardin, who makes mass-produced clothing and only knows how to OEM. The old man who sells goods dares to look down on me. Compared with me, he is a person with no dignity. Frank, I am really angry. You have to help me make these people who dare to fight against me lose their money." br>
“Of course I’m on your side, but I also I have to advise you to restrain your anger and act rationally. The current situation is a bit complicated."
Frank Meyer considers himself a relatively objective bystander, and he doesn't care at all whether Bernard's pride can bear it. He insisted on speaking out about his biggest concerns.
“The issue of public opinion is very difficult to deal with. Yes, you did as I said and launched crisis public relations in a relatively timely manner, but how could you have Henri Lacamier’s friend in the fashion industry? How much? He has been in the industry for many years and is much more famous than you. Most people think that he is an expert, so they will inevitably take his side and criticize you for kicking him out of the board of directors. This is just like Yi. husband saint laurent General Manager Pierre Bergé, last weekend, he laughed at you on every occasion as an outsider in the fashion industry. You know, he has always been jealous that your Dior clothes can be released in advance of Saint Laurent, so he is meeting now. People say that LV’s glory is all because of Henri Lacamie. If you exclude this expert, both LVMH and Dior clothing will be finished sooner or later.”
"This Pierre Bergé is also crazy! I remember him! Frank, I swear, I will stop Saint Laurent from going on the market!"
Bernard Arnault doesn't care about himself at all now How many enemies did he have? He added another name to his list of revenge.
Frank was noncommittal about this,,
"That's for the future. As for now, we still have to focus on the most important issue at hand. Listen, friend, I don't care if you have How angry, but we must pay attention. They are probably prepared because they have Henry inside LVMH, and they should be aware of the current management conflicts and equity competition in LVMH. The company's value is seriously deviated from its fundamentals. They will deliberately create bad influence at this time, and use the media to repeatedly criticize and start shorting. Even if your M&A strategy is successful, as long as the equity is firmly in your hands, they will suddenly. It is unlikely that you will regain control of the company through an attack, but now it seems that as long as they no longer miss this point and are determined to sell the chips in their hands, they should all. You can make some money as compensation. Maybe it’s their intention to disgust you.”
“And I’m not trying to scare you. I feel like they’ve become smarter now and seem to have discovered it. Another weakness of yours is Dior Clothing. They are different from the past. Now they are attacking two companies you control at the same time. This will not only make it difficult for us to distinguish their true and false, but also cost us a lot of money. They have too much unnecessary funds to take care of themselves. I am not sure yet whether they have understood that controlling Dior is equivalent to getting 6% of LVMH shares. So we must be careful, otherwise they may find it. An opportunity to take advantage of. If you really let them come back and take LVMH away from you, we will become a well-known joke in the investment community.”
Bernard Arnault finally listened to these words.
Because his core interest lies in the control of LVMH, he is like a dragon guarding the treasure, full of the highest level of vigilance regarding equity. He did not express his anger this time, but remained silent for a while and spoke solemnly in a lowered voice.
"They have great ideas. I will not let them get what they want. Let's discuss it now. How should we deal with the next step? Now it seems that the US$200 million is obviously not enough. If we want to get them Damn it, I still need more money. Can you raise it for me as soon as possible?"
However, when it came to this, Frank Meyer hesitated for the first time.
“No, no, no, it’s not that simple. I’ve said it a long time ago. Lazard has invested too much money in you. If you count the two hundred million, we have already invested in you. If you don't have a billion dollars, putting all your eggs in one basket is a taboo in investing. If so, I can't give you more. The Ministry of Finance told me that it was time for the United States to cause trouble for me. And I suspected that the Asian was probably Japanese. Considering the Japanese behavior of having too much money and nowhere to spend it, I was worried that they might have some money in their hands. Four to five billion dollars, or more. So no matter what, we need financial reinforcements.”
"What reinforcements? What do you mean?"
"What I mean is that in order to be 100% sure, I can contact other investment banks to be our allies. For example, JPMorgan Chase, Lehman Brothers. To LVMH With the shares of Dior Clothing and our Lazard Bank's credit rating as endorsement, we can raise enough money from these investment banks, no matter whether it is another billion or two billion, it will be no problem for those outsiders. money, they also It's just a layman who doesn't understand the secrets of the financial industry. Few people know that our investment banks borrow funds from each other, which is almost unlimited, as long as you are willing to pay more interest. I'll do it for you. I'll help you use funds to get rid of them. As opponents, we have to redeem them at a high position and lose all our money." I understand.
Although Frank had a good idea, Bernard Arnault, who understood the subtext, immediately cursed, "You Jew, do you want to take advantage of this moment to blackmail me again? I really I wonder if you understand the meaning of friendship? You have to tell me the conditions every time. Do you want to get a fortune from it? I really regret the watches, clubs and fine wine I gave you on weekdays. Now It looks like a complete waste.”
F. Rank responded shamelessly, "Don't say that, you are tarnishing our friendship. In fact, you know best in your heart that I am the friend who can really help you. Don't I use my professional expertise to help you?" Have you dealt with a lot of troubles that are not worthy of your precious energy? The services I provide you are not available to ordinary VIP customers. Who doesn’t think about themselves in this world?”
Money can make the world go round, and the emperor has no shortage of hungry soldiers. Foreigners also understand this truth. Bernard Arnault is also a well-organized person. After thinking about it, he still has to grasp the big and let go of the small.
"Well, Frank, I have to say that you are still my teacher when it comes to profit-making. But I like your idea and the last sentence. Forget it, as long as you win, I don't care how much more you spend. I agreed, and you should be satisfied with this as an extra benefit, right?” My mood improved immediately.
"Ah, great, Bernard, I knew you would understand. Generous people are destined to achieve great things."
Of course, for this reason, he treated the current situation , and naturally become more responsible.
"Ah, by the way, before we get reinforcements, the $200 million we promised you can be paid first. Although it is a bit difficult to protect two stocks with this money, there is no problem with one stock. I want to ask you, you Which stock is the most urgent to keep? You'd better choose one. Let's take care of the other things first. I will seize the time to solve them and try to help you get funds by the end of today..."
"I will. Choose Dior, please help me keep Dior first. Your reminder is necessary. Maybe they really want to control LVMH shares by raiding my Dior, and we have to guard against this risk."
"Okay, I'll do it right away. Just wait for my call." With that, Frank Meyer hung up the phone.
It was only then that Bernard Arnault had some time to relax mentally and emotionally.
He pressed the phone on his desk and asked the secretary outside the door for a cup of coffee with double whiskey in it.
He had to admit that after this conference call, he felt much more at ease.
Although Frank is greedy, he has never let him down in the financial field and handling finances. He is convinced that this guy can do what he says and his money will not be wasted.
After lunch, the situation improved a lot.
Because Frank called his office and said that he had spent 100 million to protect the market for Dior clothing, the decline had stopped and instead rose by 2%.
Preliminary communication has been made with JP Morgan regarding credit financing. After 3 o'clock this afternoon, US$200 million will be obtained first, and another US$300 million will be obtained in the next three days.
After hearing these good news, Bernard Arnault has basically begun to dream about how he will use financial weapons to teach his opponents a lesson again and knock out their teeth.
Hmph, these fools who only know how to make clothes, and are laymen when it comes to finance, actually want to fight him with their bodies?
I don’t even know what’s going on.
So, even in the afternoon, when someone from Guinness called and asked about the recent rapid decline in LVMH’s stock price and the damage to LVMH’s reputation, Bernard Arnault responded quite forcefully.
He assured Guinness that everything was fine, that the stock price would soon return to its proper level, and that all unstable factors in the board of directors and management would be swept away by him like garbage.
However, he was still too optimistic.
Because of the time difference between the United States and Europe, when the afternoon time came to 2:30, it was also the opening time for the Wall Street Stock Exchange in the United States.
And that stock market crash, which was destined to attract worldwide attention and shocked the world, came at exactly the right time.
It didn’t take long for the three major U.S. stock indexes to suddenly collapse.
The traders were stunned, holding their heads and looking at the straight downward curve, dumbfounded. (End of chapter)