Chapter 550: Lagardere Family

In the final analysis, William Weber Capital is only a part of Barron's short-selling plan related to the subprime mortgage crisis in Europe.

At this time, the various funds under the DS Group have gradually increased their short-selling in the European market, with a total investment of up to 10 billion euros. However, it will take time for the impact of the subprime mortgage crisis to spread to Europe, so they will gradually increase their positions and will not invest all these funds at once.

For example, as mentioned earlier, Societe Generale was bullish on European stocks due to the private operation of their trader, which eventually caused it to lose 4.9 billion euros.

The other party's bullish positions, in fact, are now almost all carried out by the DS Group...

Wealth will not disappear, but will only transfer. If there is an institution that loses money, there must be a party that makes a profit. This is the truth.

"Hello, Mr. Sarkozy."

"Welcome to Paris, Your Highness."

In fact, the meeting with Ashley Weber was just a by-product. After that, Barron met Nicolas Sarkozy in his newly purchased villa in Paris.

In fact, he and the other party are also kindred spirits...

Salos was previously the Minister of the Interior. He won the election in May this year and became the new President of France.

In addition, Bruni, who used to be Barron's French teacher and taught him personally, has also been secretly dating Salos. The two will make their relationship public in a few months, and then according to the trend of her previous life, Bruni will also become the first lady of France.

In fact, Bruni's fate is quite tortuous and bloody, but she also knows that she and Barron, the Duke of England, are destined to have only a short-term relationship. Therefore, after meeting Salos, she began to get along with him.

Barron and Salos were introduced by Bruni, and their meeting was arranged.

Sarkozy is very interesting. He was originally on the side of former French President Jacques Chirac. Later, in the 1995 election, he switched sides and supported Chirac's rival. Then, in the 2002 election, he returned to Chirac's side and worked hard for his campaign... Of course, he was rewarded and later served as the Minister of the Interior. In this year's election, Chirac announced his retirement and supported Sarkozy, which eventually helped him win the election. Compared with South Korea, the French presidency can be said to be very safe, but Sarkozy still became the first French president to go to prison later - although he was only sentenced to one year in prison and suspended execution at the time. Now Sarkozy is naturally in a period of success. He has just taken over a high position and is also successful in love, but he is still very friendly to Barron, the young British Duke - after all, he also knows the capital and strength of the other party. In terms of policy, Sarkozy is a hardliner, which can be seen from his tough attitude to quell the Paris riots when he was the Minister of the Interior. At the same time, he also has a tough attitude towards immigration. After he took office, he proposed to add French and national values ​​tests to those who join French nationality.

Therefore, Lao Sa also strongly supports the cooperation between France and Britain to repatriate illegal immigrants.

At present, a "refugee resettlement area" has been demarcated on the eastern border of Colo, on the side of neighboring Benin, to accommodate illegal immigrants transported from Britain and France.

On the British side, the coast guard established by the Protector Security Company cooperates with the French law enforcement department to prevent illegal immigrants from landing, and both sides pay to send these illegal immigrants to West Africa.

It can be said that compared with the burden and negative impact caused by these illegal immigrants entering the country on the welfare system and social security, it is still worthwhile for Lao Sa to spend some money to solve this problem. Therefore, after he took office, he vigorously promoted this cooperation with Britain, and limited its scope not only to illegal immigrants who were found at sea and at the border to enter the country, but also to illegal immigrants who were found illegally staying in the country.

Barron is also very supportive of this move. Currently, more than 1,000 "illegal immigrants" from Britain and France have been transported to the resettlement area in Benin. Among them, after review by Kolo, more than 200 people have obtained residence permits in Kolo. If they perform well within 5 years, they can obtain Kolo nationality.

All these people have received a certain education or have a skill, which can make up for some of the labor gaps in their country during the current great development of Kolo.

In addition to the resettlement of illegal immigrants, Barron and Lao Sa also talked about investment in France.

At present, the largest asset of DS Group in France is Gucci-Hermes Group, which is composed of two top luxury brands in France and Italy. In fact, in addition to the two brands of Gucci and Hermes, the two companies also owned some other luxury brands before the merger.

For example, before the acquisition, Gucci Group already owned many brands including Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Boucheron and Yves Saint Laurent.

Before Hermès merged with Gucci Group, in addition to the Hermès brand, it also owned brands such as John Lobb, Saint Louis and Puiforcat.

It can be said that France and Italy have the most luxury brands in the whole of Europe. Old Sa also hopes that Barron can invest more in France to promote the local economy.

In general, the meeting between the two this time is mainly to "establish connections". After all, after making a fortune in the subprime mortgage crisis, Barron will definitely start to make large-scale acquisitions while the market value of many companies is at a low point. At that time, it will be easier for France to have Old Sa to help.

And Old Sa is also happy to establish a good personal relationship with Barron. He even said that he could introduce some local families to Barron to promote cooperation between the two sides.

He was not just talking, and soon introduced a man to Barron at a banquet...

This man's name is Arnault...

Well, it's not Bernard Arnault, the chairman of LVMH Group, but Arnault Lagardère, the new head of another wealthy French family, the Lagardère family.

As for why Sa introduced this man, who is called the "most failed heir", to him, Barron is still unsure - but at least the benefit is that when Arnault wants to sell any industry, Barron can take over more conveniently.

From now on, the Lagardère family can be ranked among the top business families in France. Arnault Lagardère's father is one of the most famous and respected businessmen in France, Jean-Luc Lagardère, who has built a business empire including missile manufacturer Matra and publisher Hachette.

Currently, the Lagardère family's Lagardère SCA is one of the world's three largest publishing groups, owning Paris Match, Le Journal du Dimanche, Hachette Publishing, Europe 1 Radio and some important duty-free chains.

The Lagardère Group's businesses include television stations, publishing, media magazines, tourism, etc.

They own nearly 100 magazines in more than a dozen countries, including ELLE, Automobili Zeitung, Version Femina, Art & Décoration, France Dimanche, Télé 7 Jours, Ici Paris and Public.