Chapter 1298 Like-minded
It is also a French company in the fashion industry, and they are also negotiating for capital investment. They also encountered cold eyes and contempt from the other party when they met for the first time.
However, the feelings and results brought to Ning Weimin by these two negotiations were completely different, and they were essentially different.
For no other reason than because the decision-makers of the two companies have completely different temperaments.
Henry Lacamier, the head of LV, is a headstrong, blindly arrogant, very emotional person who relies entirely on his personal preferences.
Even the most basic courtesy is not shown to the people who come to help him.
Although as the head of LV, he does have an extraordinary artistic style and a high social status.
But such a person who acts extremely egotistically and doesn’t care about other people’s feelings is unreasonable.
There is no way to rationally analyze problems with him and make unanimous decisions together.
And this man is still very suspicious, and even the person he seeks help from, Master Pierkaton, does not fully believe it.
It was as if after suffering a loss, he had a psychological shadow on people, and it was difficult to trust anyone again.
When you conspire to do something big with teammates like this, how likely is it to come true? How much pain will it feel?
To put it bluntly, from Ning Weimin's perspective, such a person cannot cooperate at all.
The so-called alliance is actually just a form he acquiesced to comfort the master.
In fact, it has no binding force on him, and he will not have high hopes for it.
If his plan goes smoothly, God will do his best, and everyone's interests can be taken into account in the end, then everyone will be happy.
But if not, then he will definitely abandon the LV CEO without hesitation and only consider the interests of himself and the master.
But the two decision-makers of Yves Saint Laurent are different.
No matter which one of them it is, Ning Weimin truly appreciates it and considers it a partner who can cooperate sincerely.
First of all, although Yves Saint Laurent himself is a contemporary fashion master and design genius comparable to Pierre Cardin and Chanel Lafayette.
Even in addition to this, he also takes into account his identity as a descendant of a baron and the second generation of rich people.
But he himself has no arrogance.
On the contrary, he is a humble, polite, personable, and friendly person who looks very soft, shy, and introverted.
In particular, Ning Weimin learned that the founder of Yves Saint Laurent was also deeply troubled by drugs and mental illness.
Looking at his performance, he still has a bit of interpersonal phobia.
For such a person, he not only felt extremely sorry and sympathized with him.
And I suddenly understood why Pierre Bergé was so suspicious and wary of him.
To be honest, he didn't expect that the design master would be able to attend today's negotiations in person in such a state.
Although Catherine's role cannot be ignored, it is actually a kind of respect in itself, which makes him feel gratified and satisfied.
In addition, although Pierre Bergé was picky about Ning Weimin in every possible way, apart from the reasons, he could indeed be seen to be serious and responsible, shrewd and capable, and full of business ethics.
For Saint Laurent to have such a business manager, it is exactly what Ning Weimin needs and is grateful for.
He and Keiko Matsumoto are busy enough with their own affairs, and he is too lazy to get involved in Pierre Cardin's main clothing business. How can he be willing to spend his time and energy in faraway France? Strange Europe?
How cool is it to be a jobber when you can just lie down and make money?
It is undoubtedly the most beautiful thing to wait for listing and dividends without doing anything.
If Yves Saint Laurent's business managers lack such qualities and he still needs to worry about specific operations, it will only give him a headache.
Therefore, it is precisely based on this feeling and basis of cooperation that both of them can say that they have the same goal and achieve the same goal through different paths.
Although at the beginning, there were some misunderstandings in the words because they did not understand each other.
But once we exchanged our opinions openly and fully, things started to become gratifying and smooth.
In the end, both parties were in a mutually happy mood and quickly reached the following agreement on the same day.
First, Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko should make three overseas remittances of 100 million francs, 200 million francs, and 200 million francs in the first week of each month in the next three months. Complete the acquisition of 25% of the shares of the French company Yves Saint Laurent, otherwise the acquisition agreement will be invalid.
Second, after the acquisition was completed, all transaction equity was recorded in Matsumoto Keiko’s personal name.
Matsumoto Keiko does not seek a seat on the board of directors, does not actively interfere in the company's operations, and agrees to maintain the company's current management structure.
Matsumoto Keiko has temporarily entrusted Catherine Deneuve with full agency for her personal shareholder rights.
In other words, Matsumoto Keiko's shares will be bound to Catherine's personal shares, and voting decisions will be made in major resolutions of the board of directors in the form of joint voting.
Fourth, the agreement on the withdrawal mechanism midway.
In order to ensure the orderly progress of the listing, Matsumoto Keiko's equity is prohibited from being transferred or withdrawn within three years.
If the company fails to go public, the target of Matsumoto Keiko's equity transfer three years later will need to be approved by the board of directors.
Fifth, Keiko Matsumoto continues to increase her shareholdings, both before and after the listing.
The proportion of its shares cannot exceed 33% of Saint Laurent Company.
This is a necessary restriction to comply with the relevant laws of the French government and to prevent a one-vote veto.
All in all, this agreement is one to sign.
Matsumoto Keiko is about to become the third largest individual shareholder of the French company Yves Saint Laurent.
Of course, he is also the only foreign shareholder.
Its shareholding ratio will be second only to Yves Saint Laurent himself, who owns 33% of the shares, and Pierre Bergé, the general manager, who owns 27% of the shares. , which is much higher than Catherine Deneuve’s 6% personal shareholding.
There is no doubt that once this deal is completed, it will not only help Matsumoto Keiko improve her personal status in the international film industry,
It can also allow Yves Saint Laurent to receive capital injections without any worries and let it develop its ready-to-wear business, which can be said to be a happy outcome for everyone.
And that's not all, because the social status of Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko, a young couple, is somewhat special.
One of them is the major shareholder of Yi La De Company and the inventor of the trolley suitcase.
In addition to being a Japanese movie star, the other one is also the owner of Fog Studios.
So there are many directions in which they can cooperate with Yves Saint Laurent in other fields.
For example, in order to help Saint Laurent improve its operating income as soon as possible, Ning Weimin took the initiative to cooperate with Saint Laurent on the trolley suitcase business.
Considering Yves Saint Laurent’s current tight financial situation, Ning Weimin even proposed that the licensing fee be calculated based on actual product sales.
In principle, Yves Saint Laurent can develop this product immediately as long as it pays a deposit of five million francs.
Ning Weimin is even willing to provide mature production drawings for free, or provide domestic OEM services to produce accessories for them.
The fees Yves Saint Laurent needs to pay are only calculated based on the sales volume of related products every year.
Sell more and pay more, sell less and pay less, and make sure you make money without losing money. In other words, if a trolley suitcase based on Yves Saint Laurent's reputation is priced at around eight or nine thousand francs, for every product sold, Yves Saint Laurent only needs to pay five hundred francs to Erad Company.
If the entire cost of domestic OEM parts, including freight and customs duties, is estimated by Ning Weimin, the cost will only need to increase by about 700 francs.
This means that Yves Saint Laurent’s profit from each bag sold is at least about 80%.
This proposal naturally surprised Pierre Bergé.
He never expected that such a big pie would fall and hit him on the head.
You must know that since Pierre Cardon's trolley cases are all made in Hong Kong, they are products manufactured by Zeng Xianzi of Goldlion.
Currently, it is not even enough to supply the Southeast Asian market, and there is no way to sell Pierre Cardin’s trolley suitcases to Europe.
Facing the European market, Pierre Cardon is currently mainly signing patent authorizations for Yi La De Company and collecting authorization fees.
The kind of things that can be seen in France at present, apart from some avant-garde people who like to travel, bought them from Japan or Singapore, some celebrities who have friendship with Pierre Cardin received them from the master. of gifts.
The same goes for Catherine Deneuve and Alain Delon. Because they are spokespersons for Pierre Cardon China, they also received several trolley suitcases from the master.
But even so, this new thing has already caused a sensation in France's upper class and amazed many people. This is enough to prove that this still blank market has great prospects.
In fact, after Pierre Bergé saw this thing from Catherine Deneuve's home not long ago, he felt that it was convenient and beautiful and had great market prospects.
But because it is a product of Picardon, I can’t make any further decisions.
And I’m a little jealous, thinking that Pierre Cardin will definitely occupy a place in the field of suitcases in the future if they have such a product.
Who would have known that today, Catherine would send funds to the door together with the founder of this trolley suitcase.
Moreover, they have also taken the initiative to relax patent licensing conditions for cooperation between the two parties, providing considerable convenience.
Where can I find such a good thing?
So it is not only for profit, but also out of respect.
Not only did he agree to the matter, but his attitude towards Ning Weimin also changed fundamentally, and there was no longer any contempt or suspicion.
After all, being able to invent this kind of device that can significantly change life is more worthy of respect than wealth.
Pierre and Yves Saint Laurent, the design master, have lived together for half their lives. Of course he knows how to appreciate real geniuses, and he never hesitates to praise them.
In addition, for Fog Studio’s second masterpiece - "Crazy Rich Asians" which is about to start filming.
Ning Weimin had an idea and had a brilliant idea.
That is, he hopes that Yves Saint Laurent will follow the model of supporting Catherine Devner when they were filming the movie "Beauty de Jour", and also provide costumes for several important characters in their movie. .
In fact, Ning Weimin's original idea was to let Pierre Cardon take over this business.
He even wanted the master to design several costumes himself.
After all, there is no room for outsiders.
But then he considered that the film would be screened across Asia, and maybe it would have to be screened in Europe.
Mainland China, which brought Pierre Cardin to the sky, is not the main box office market.
Therefore, just relying on a brand like Pierre Cardon that is positioned as a popular ready-to-wear brand may turn the wealthy family in this movie into a joke.
Later he did not dare to mention it.
But now it’s better. I met Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre today, and they had a very happy conversation, and successfully established a cooperative relationship.
Ning Weimin immediately thought that with the high style of the Saint Laurent brand, it would certainly be very stylish and suitable for the clothing of wealthy families.
In this way, it can not only help Saint Laurent expand its business and increase its popularity overseas, but also reduce the cost of filming the film, and even get an additional advertising sponsorship for Keiko, so why not?
Needless to say, related-party transactions like this that benefit both parties are welcome.
So not only Pierre and Saint Laurent expressed great interest, but they quickly nodded in agreement.
In order to repay Ning Weimin's favor, Catherine Deneuve even offered to make a cameo role in the film for free if necessary.
Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko were naturally overjoyed and agreed.
But of course they can’t do anything for free, so they still have to pay.
Anyway, no matter what, now both Alain Delon and Catherine Deneuve will appear in this movie.
This has undoubtedly raised the influence of this movie to a new level. It is destined to become a movie with many stars. The gimmick alone is enough to attract countless people to buy tickets and enter the cinema.
I have to say that this is another unexpected gain that no one expected.
But is this all the fruit of their friendship?
No, of course not.
The biggest surprise was that Ning Weimin and Yves Saint Laurent hit it off instantly when they met for the first time. They actually found their common hobbies and interests in casual conversation.
In addition to being a master of design, Yves Saint Laurent’s aristocratic background and rich second-generation BUFF bonus also made him a collector known as the “King of Paris”.
Although he has been burdened by huge design pressure throughout his life, he has not been to many places, but China and Japan are the only places he has been.
As early as the 1960s, Yves Saint Laurent visited Kyoto, Japan, and was deeply fascinated by Japanese Zen monasteries.
Although he had not visited China yet, seeing Ye Zhiqiu, Saint Laurent was particularly interested in Chinese culture.
Saint Laurent often visited China in his imagination. After that, he began to collect Chinese porcelain and other antiquities to decorate his residence on Avenue Babylon in Paris.
He was good at finding inspiration from works of art. Even before arriving in China, he launched a series of clothing inspired by China in 1977, integrating the Chinese style he understood into the design.
From silk fabrics to Chinese elements such as plackets, stand-up collars, buttons, and embroidery, to highly saturated colors such as red, gold, purple, and emerald green, to the use of patterns in traditional Chinese clothing and porcelain.
It all demonstrates his obsession with Chinese culture, and also shows the oriental aesthetic awareness and cultural appreciation that Saint Laurent gradually developed in the process of collecting Chinese artifacts.
In 1985, Diana Vreeland, then head of the fashion department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Metropolitan Museum) (who also worked for Harper's BAZAAR for a long time) held a personal exhibition for Saint Laurent, which was also the first time for the Metropolitan Museum of Art to hold a personal exhibition for Saint Laurent. For the first time, an art museum has dedicated an exhibition to a living designer.
Subsequently, the exhibition traveled to the Huaxia Art Museum in Beijing, which also contributed to Yves Saint Laurent's first trip to China.
In fact, not long after Ning Weimin arrived in Japan, Yves Saint Laurent also visited the capital, came to Tiananmen Square, appreciated the Chinese national quintessence - Peking Opera, and had interactions with Chinese students studying fashion design Communicate cordially.
Through this trip to China, Saint Laurent not only gave back to the China of his dreams in his own way, but also continued to influence and inspire the new generation of fashion designers in the Republic like Pierre Cardin. He has completely become a fan of traditional Chinese aesthetics.
While Ning Weimin was shopping for treasures in Japan, Yves Saint Laurent also raided Ning Weimin's home. He bought a large number of antiquities and handicrafts in China, including utensils and silk from the Temple of Heaven Park. After returning to France, his collecting interest has never shifted from Eastern antiquities. To this day, he has many collections that he is very proud of.
Then an unexpected situation appeared again. Saint Laurent, a "social fear" who should not be approached by strangers, because he and Ning Weimin became closer and closer to each other on topics related to China, he actually took the initiative to invite Ning Weimin. Visit his mansion with Keiko Matsumoto.
Who would become friends with a stranger on the first day they met?
Obviously, Saint Laurent expressed his friendship with practical actions.
The bond that connects friendship is mutual cultural hobbies.