Chapter 542 Parmigiani Fleurier

As far as Baron knows, in his previous life, in order to acquire Reuters Group, Thomson Group even sold a considerable part of its assets to raise funds.

At that time, Thomson Group sold its higher education asset Thomson Learning to investment company Apax Partners and Canadian large pension fund OMERS Capital Partners for about US$7.75 billion.

It also sold its asset Thomson Prometric to education assessment and research institution ETS for US$435 million.

Most of the funds raised were used to acquire Reuters Group at that time.

After the formation of Thomson Reuters Group, the Thomson family held 53% of the shares of the new group through its Woodbridge Holdings Company and still controlled Thomson Reuters Group.

Other shareholders of the original Thomson Group and the original Reuters Group shareholders owned 23% and 24% of the shares of the new group respectively.

At the same time, SEM Group was also raising funds for the acquisition of Reuters Group.

After several reductions, the shares of SEM Group held by DS Holdings (Cavendish Trust) have been reduced from the original 130.5 million shares to about 105.5 million shares.

Their shareholding ratio in SEM Group has also been reduced from the previous 62.14% to 50.24%, and they are still the controlling shareholder of SEM Group.

In this process, Cavendish Trust also obtained more than 950 million pounds of funds by reducing its holdings.

According to SEM Group's acquisition plan for Reuters Group, they will complete the acquisition of Reuters Group by 5.8 billion pounds plus the issuance of 70 million new shares.

Based on the current price of SEM Group's stock of 4.115 pounds, their bid for the acquisition of Reuters Group is as high as 8.68 billion pounds, slightly exceeding the acquisition price of 8.6 billion pounds of Thomson Group.

In fact, because SEM Group currently holds more than 30% of Reuters Group's shares, they only need to take out about 4.05 billion pounds of funds and issue 49 million new shares to complete this acquisition.

For the 4.05 billion pounds of funds, Cavendish Trust Fund took out 1.05 billion pounds through DS Holdings to purchase SEM Group's convertible bonds. They can convert this debt into SEM Group's common stock at any time within two years at the average price of 30 trading days at that time.

For the remaining 3 billion pounds, SEM Group obtained a loan line from Barclays Bank for this acquisition.

In this way, SEM Group and Thomson Group began negotiations on the acquisition of Reuters Group.

It is estimated that this process may even last for several months-after all, although it seems that SEM Group's bid is a little higher, Thomson Group has more advantages in terms of synergy after the merger.

However, the merger of Reuters Group and Thomson Group faces regulatory issues.

Therefore, it is still difficult to get results in a short time.

...

Barron opened the door to the balcony of the room and immediately felt the cool breeze blowing towards him, bringing a fresh breath.

The balcony was facing the green forest on the hillside, and the scenery was very nice.

"Dear, what do you think of this windbreaker?"

Barron looked in the direction of the voice. Beatrice was wearing a lavender windbreaker and was smiling at him. She looked very cute.

"Very beautiful, baby."

Barron opened his arms, greeted the girl, hugged her in his arms, kissed her on the lips, and said softly:

"It's almost time, let's go see Mr. Landot."

He and Beatrice were at the Dolder Hotel in Zurich, Switzerland. Today, Barron met with Pierre Landot, the third-generation heir of the Sandoz family.

In 1886, the Sandoz family began to get involved in the business field. Sandoz was originally a chemical company and later became a pharmaceutical company.

Currently, the investment fields of the Santos family cover pharmaceuticals, modern agriculture, hotel tourism and high-end watchmaking.

"Hello, Mr. Landot, this is my friend, Miss Beatrice from the Borromeo family in Italy."

"Hello, Your Highness, and this beautiful lady."

The Santos family has a unique holiday villa in Zurich, and Barron came to visit with Beatrice Borromeo.

The main industry of the Santos family is Novartis Pharmaceutical Group, one of the world's top 500 companies and one of the world's three largest pharmaceutical companies.

However, Barron's visit to the other party this time was not for this purpose, but because he was interested in the high-end watchmaking industry controlled by the Santos Foundation.

The world-famous Swiss top-level watch brand - PARMIGIANI belongs to the Santos family.

Since 1996, the Santos family decided to invest in supporting independent watchmaker Michel Parmigiani to establish the watch brand Parmigiani.

With the support of the Santos Family Foundation, Parmigiani has rapidly risen to become one of the world's top brands in just a few years, becoming a rare legend in the circle of independent watchmakers.

And Parmigiani is still one of the few independent watchmaking brands that has its own full-line production network.

The Santos Family Foundation has established a watchmaking network around the Parmigiani brand, which includes all the technical businesses required for making watches.

For example, the core component of a watch is the movement, and many watch brands currently need to outsource their movements.

But the Santos Foundation owns the well-known high-end movement manufacturer Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier (VMF).

In addition, it should be noted that last year, in 2006, Hermès spent 25 million Swiss francs to purchase 25% of the shares of this movement factory.

Therefore, Hermès watches currently use VMF's high-end movements.

Barron came here this time in the hope of facilitating the acquisition of the Parmigiani watchmaking system, including the VMF movement factory, by the Gucci-Hermès Group, thereby increasing the top-level watch business for the luxury group Gucci-Hermès.

"In fact, our family's relationship with the watch industry did not originate after investing in Parmigiani..."

Pierre Landot is just 60 years old this year. In addition to inheriting the management of the family's Santos Foundation, he also has many industries in Brazil. This time, he also took time to meet Barron after returning to Switzerland from Brazil.

He did not directly talk about the sale of Parmigiani's watchmaking business, but said with reminiscence:

"Earlier, dating back to the late 19th century, our family once supported the creation of a watch museum, which is famous for its collection of ancient Chinese royal watches. Most of the watches that can still work today were restored by Mr. Parmigiani himself. These treasures were once treasures in the palaces of Emperor Kangxi and Emperor Qianlong of China..."

This is the first time Barron has heard of this matter, but it does not mean that the Santos family has no intention of selling their watchmaking business. It may also be a gesture for bargaining.

In fact, the watchmaking industry is only a small part of the Santos family's industry, and as far as Barron knows, the younger fourth generation of the Santos family is no longer interested in these "ancient" watches, so it is very likely that these businesses will be sold.

If the Santos family is ready to sell their businesses, then Gucci-Hermès Group can be said to be the most suitable buyer.

Because Hermès not only owns 25% of the shares of VMF, the core of its watchmaking industry, but also owns some shares in Atokalpa, Elwin, Quadrance, Habillage, Les Artisans Botiers and other subsidiaries within the Parmigiani Fleurier manufacturing system...

These companies are subsidiaries of Parmigiani Fleurier responsible for producing most of the movement parts such as escapements, screws, levers, gears, as well as external parts such as dials and cases.