National Tide 1980.

Chapter 1290 Wolf Nature

Having said that, Pierre Catton has basically explained the whole story.

Ning Weimin never interrupted or spoke at all. He listened with great interest and did not find it boring at all.

For no other reason than that LVMH is such a powerful group company.

In Ning Weimin's previous life, he remembered very clearly that decades later, LVMH had already ranked first among the world's three largest luxury goods groups.

With a market value of 500 billion US dollars, it can earn 80 billion euros in profit every year, which is more than ten times the profit of Kweichow Moutai Company.

The three major luxury goods groups following it are Richemont Group in second place and Kering Group in third place. Even if the market value of the two groups combined is not as large as its market value.

LVMH is the largest listed company in Europe.

No matter from which aspect we look at the comprehensive strength, we are the undisputed leader.

  Why is it so awesome and profitable?

Because it owns more than 70 well-known luxury brands and has stores all over the world, almost all the wealthy people in the world are giving money to this group day and night.

Even Ning Weimin himself was not immune to vanity and wanted to keep up appearances and make others look up to him.

I have used my hard-earned money to buy LV, Bulgari, Hennessy, and Zenith...

I don’t know how much profit it has contributed to this group.

However, LVMH's brands still frequently raise product prices, engage in hunger marketing, and deliberately create queues at the door in an attempt to select loyal fans.

Finally, I got a new LV super-sized Speedy, which can be sold at a sky-high price of one million US dollars when it is launched.

It really grasps the weaknesses of human nature and is completely intended to kill people without any compensation.

Moreover, LVMH Group continues to spend money to buy businesses, brands, and companies whenever it has the opportunity.

It’s as if they have endless money and they want to buy all the luxury brands and fashion brands in the world and put them into the company’s pocket.

  How could he not envy such a company?

It really seems like it is sleeping on a mountain of gold, a company that is chased by countless loyal fans and fed by them.

  It's so profitable! It's so easy to make money!

But no matter how envious he was, he had never understood how this company grew and became so big.

  Why are so many luxury brands grouped together?

How did this company achieve such a strong accumulation?

Collecting brand names is like collecting stamps. This is incredible.

These are questions that have puzzled him for a long time.

Moreover, Bernard Arnault, the boss of LVMH Group, is also a very mysterious figure.

There is little information about him on the Internet.

It is well known that he has five outstanding children, each one more talented than the other.

His personal background was hidden quite well.

Most people only know that he started out in real estate, and before he was thirty-five, his career had almost nothing to do with the fashion and luxury goods industries.

He is neither a descendant of any luxury family nor has any relevant work experience.

I have no idea how it happened, but after turning 40, I became a fashion tycoon.

He actually holds the golden nugget LVMH firmly in his own hands.

He was also given an infamous nickname by the public media: people called him "the wolf in cashmere."

If you think carefully about the process in between, you will know that there must be a lot of stories hidden in it.

But if you want to know what exactly happened, there is really no hope.

Ning Weimin, out of curiosity and admiration for successful people, had searched the Internet several times, hoping to find the secret of Bernard Arnault's success, learn from it, and see how much wolf nature this man has.

But the problem is that all his efforts were in vain. All he could find was a summary of a few sentences, all official jargon.

In the end, I had no choice but to give up. I have to admire their excellent public relations work, which was flawless.

Unexpectedly, today, he would actually hear the master explain to him with his own ears how the company was established, and even learn in detail some secrets about the company's internal structure from the master.

Now, Ning Weimin was finally enlightened and his confusion was resolved.

Combining the information he had, it was not difficult for him to guess the trajectory of the incident from beginning to end, the final outcome of the business war, and figure out what Bernard Arnault did in it.

Bernard Arnault is a profit-driven, sinister villain with no moral bottom line and no loyalty at all.

Anyone who cooperates with him will be in trouble because he can betray everyone for his own benefit.

But alas, this despicable guy should have won.

Both the fourth generation of LV and the former president of MH are too stupid.

As the saying goes, flies don't bite seamless eggs; it is their own conflict that created the opportunity for others to take advantage of the situation.

This made Bernard Arnault the ultimate beneficiary.

It was probably thanks to this battle that Bernard Arnault got what he wanted and successfully usurped control of LVMH.

Not only was he able to turn this group company with profound background and unlimited value into his own pocket.

Moreover, in the future, I am afraid that the LV family heir, the former president of MH and Guinness will all be kicked out of the board of directors.

Even combined with his understanding of LVMH's future operating characteristics in his previous life, it was not difficult for Ning Weimin to infer the profit-making skills and money-making model that Bernard Arnault would maintain for a long time after taking control of the company.

To put it bluntly, his three tricks are making money, acquisitions, making up stories, raising prices, and hunger marketing...

Then, day after day, the brand value of the company is increased, stimulating consumers to pursue it out of vanity, encouraging consumerism, and this cycle continues indefinitely. It is so easy.

In short, this guy is rotten to the core, both at heart and to the bones, he is just a huge bastard.

In fact, if you think about it carefully, you can see that the LVMH he manages is fundamentally different from the traditional family business.

For example, they never consider the quality and practicality of the products and have no craftsmanship.

All the tricks he plays are targeting human nature. He only uses scrap metal and inferior products to cheat people out of money, and even deliberately adds fuel to the fire. No matter whether the people are rich or poor, he will make money from them. He has been actively selling class anxiety and sucking blood regardless of class.

They are particularly good at taking advantage of women's sensibility to hijack men's wallets.

  Even from the perspective of business philosophy, it has reached the point where it has no morals and is despicable. In the words of Zhao Lirong - it is black! It is really black!

But to be honest, when you understand all this, you can infer the most possible objective facts.

Ning Weimin felt mentally satisfied from eating melons and enjoyed being a spectator.

But if we ask him to get involved, it would be a bit overwhelming and he would feel a bit scared and cowardly.

It's not for any other reason, it's because his business philosophy is to value harmony and bring wealth, which is naturally in conflict with those who want to have it all to themselves.

When it comes to making money, he pursues a safe model that is neither too hot nor too cold, goes unnoticed, and can last for a long time.

I don't want to make enemies for myself at all, and I don't want to take the initiative to stand up and conflict with people who will do anything for profit because of other people's affairs.

Moreover, the parties involved in this matter are not the master himself, but just his friends.

Especially when Ning Weimin asked the master about the current situation of the confrontation between the two armies, how much funding gap the master wanted to help the fourth generation LV had, and what chances of winning he had.

Unexpectedly, the master told him frankly that the situation was not optimistic, and Ning Weimin lacked motivation to participate.

First, according to the information provided by the master, Bernard Arnault has already pushed up the price of LVMH Group's stock by 55% due to his huge spending on consecutive purchases. To make another move now is equivalent to buying shares at a high price, which is bound to consume huge funds.

Don’t think that Bernard Arnault acquired 13.5% of the shares for US$600 million.

But if they want to buy the same amount of chips as their rivals in the short term and take back control of the company for LV, who knows how high the stock price will go. I'm afraid they will have to spend at least twice as much as Bernard Arnault.

Second, Bernard Arnault is backed by Lazard Investment Bank.

His like-minded partner also owns a long-established family business with extensive connections and relationships in the French financial world, much like the Goldman Sachs of France.

Moreover, his main business is designing corporate merger and acquisition plans. He is even known as a "corporate sniper". He even dislikes the work of underwriting IPOs because he believes the profit is too low.

Therefore, not only do the targets they target rarely fail, but Lazard is also very powerful and can get most French banks to give them face.

For example, this time they took action and saw the weakness that family businesses in the fashion industry are not fond of borrowing and seldom deal with banks. They informed the major French banks in advance and almost blocked the financing channels for LV reinforcements in the financial field.

All loan requests from the master, Chanel and the bank were rejected, and they were told that due to monetary tightening, loan services would not be provided until at least next year.

So in view of this situation, Chanel, which originally wanted to lend a helping hand, became hesitant and, unable to do so, took the lead in withdrawing from the support operation.

Now only the Master is still holding on, because he can't bear to see the Fourth Generation of LV bow to the evil, and is making a final effort for his friend.

As for the only feasible plan at present, that is to buy 4% of the shares in the open market, which can obtain the same veto power.

But forget about the position of the largest shareholder and dominance of the group company. There is no hope at all.

But even so, the amount of funds required is still not a small number.

Although based on the current stock price, LVMH's market value is approximately US$6.8 billion, buying 1% of the shares is approximately US$68 million.

But as long as they buy, there is no doubt that on the basis of Bernard Arnault's already high stock price, it will stimulate LVMH's stock price to continue to rise rapidly in the short term.

Even if their opponents do not cause trouble, it is estimated that it will cost at least 300 million US dollars to buy enough quantities.

But everyone knows that Bernard Arnault, a ruthless man, will definitely not do anything.

In order to achieve final victory and completely control LVMH, he will certainly continue to buy shares and snatch their limited chips in the open market at all costs.

So this matter is a little hard to say. I am afraid that if things go wrong, it will cost at least 500 million US dollars to get a veto power.

As for the source of funds needed by the LV camp, the fourth generation of LV, Henri Lacamier, said that he could personally raise 120 million US dollars.

Master Pierre Catton has been busy with this matter recently. He has done his best and can probably withdraw $260 million from Pierre Catton.

Therefore, the money that Ning Weimin currently has in his account at the Banque de l'Indochine has become the last hope and reliance of the two old men, the Master and the Fourth Generation LV.

To be honest, as a businessman, you can do any business, but it is not good to do business that you know will lose money.

Although LVMH's future market value is as high as 500 billion, that is the future after all. The current quality of this company is clearly 4 billion US dollars.

  Ning Weimin had to spend more than 100 million US dollars to buy shares that others bought at an average cost of 45 million US dollars. Isn't this just being a sucker for other people's money?

How could he be happy?

Moreover, to put it bluntly, LVMH’s grand prospect of a market value of 500 billion was also realized after Bernard Arnault achieved his goal.

If we talk about it from a purely profit perspective, if Ning Weimin wants to benefit from it, he should be happy to see this happen.

Then buy on dips and reap the benefits.

  Otherwise, history has changed its course. Who knows if LVMH can still develop to this point without this greedy boss?

Moreover, Ning Weimin had also traded stocks in his previous life, and he was deeply pained by the experience of repeatedly chasing rising and falling stocks.

Even though you know that if you buy LVMH with your eyes closed, you will make your money back sooner or later, and that there is a fifty-fold increase, the feeling is another matter.

It’s so against human nature!

So really, the action plan that the master told from LV's perspective is a completely bad idea.

Ning Weimin believes that it is a completely passive and helpless act of being led by others. If you really do this, you have already lost.

In addition, he knew that behind Bernard Arnault stood Lazard, an investment bank with strong financial strength and rich merger and acquisition experience, and that they were colluding with him. This made him even more worried and resisted from the bottom of his heart.

As the saying goes, good shoes don't step on stinky dog ​​shit. People like him don't have too many opportunities to make money.

This is different from Bernard Arnault, who is now like a crazy gambler and has bet everything on this battle.

  When two armies meet, the brave one wins. Those people are all barefoot and are not afraid of the villains with shoes. He does not have the courage to draw his sword face to face!

It's just... facing the master's hopeful eyes, and thinking about how much he had boasted just now, he really couldn't say the words of regret.

After all, he is a kind person at heart, and he is a sunflower who worships heroes and yearns for light.

They are young people with ideals, morals, culture, and affection.

Emotionally speaking, he truly admired the master's heroic act.

Besides, it is because of the master's kindness and tolerance that he has the good life he has today.

He truly received a lot of favors from the master.

Now that this kind old man finally spoke to him, could he bear to refuse? Could he refuse?

It's just like what Alain Delon said, everything can be controlled, but once emotions are involved, things become complicated.

So what should we do?

  What a difficult choice!

(End of this chapter)