National Tide 1980

Besides, with LV's position in the European fashion industry and Henri Lacamier's connections in the business world, he has many partners to choose from.

There are actually quite a few colleagues who have worked together, have a certain friendship, and can trust each other.

For example, Chanel and Pierre Cardin, there is no need for him to put his money on a stranger he just met and doesn't know very well.

So why did he do this?

The answer is also very simple, that is, he is too conceited and too greedy.

In fact, if anyone can really put themselves in Henri Lacamier's shoes, it is not difficult to understand his hasty choice.

Don't forget that the merger of LV and MH was originally a decision made by Henri Lacamier himself.

But he didn't expect to get such a result, and in fact he had already deeply regretted it in his heart.

In addition, he had just suffered a big loss from MH's backstab, and the pain in his back had not yet dissipated.

He was inevitably a little cynical, so much so that he doubted the concept of "companion".

So even in the face of an unfavorable situation, for him, whether to introduce another equally powerful ally is actually a choice that makes him feel embarrassed and worried.

Yes, although Chanel and Pierre Cardin are good old friends, their cooperation in the past was just temporary cooperation for a certain product or a certain theme event.

It does not involve equity, nor does it tie them together.

God knows if Henri Lacamier asks them for help and introduces them into his own company.

After MH and Guinness are subdued, will these old friends also have conflicts with him because of interests and power?

If this is the case, what should he do at that time?

Not to mention that he has too many concerns about human relations, even in terms of strength, these old partners are not easy to be manipulated.

And Bernard Arnault of Dior is completely different for Henri Lacamier.

First, in Henri Lacamier's opinion, although this person has the ability, he is an architecture student and was an unknown real estate developer five years ago. He is a newcomer who has just entered the fashion industry for a few years.

He is still young and lacks experience, and he is weak and has limited strength.

Today, Dior Fashion's annual turnover is only more than 100 million US dollars, which is far behind Louis Vuitton. The two companies are not at the same level at all.

This can even be seen when they chat with each other.

Henri Lacamier can feel that Bernard's attitude is particularly humble. He only asks for advice in a humble manner and treats him like a student treats a teacher.

This also made him blindly confident, thinking that after the company is stable, he only needs to rely on his industry status and company qualifications to firmly grasp the younger generation in this industry.

Secondly, Henri Lacamier also knew that Dior in Bernard Arnault's hands was actually bought from the French government.

In Henri Lacamier's opinion, since this guy was able to obtain the approval of the French government to complete the commercial acquisition of this well-known brand, and he was able to achieve such a perfect result, he really helped Dior get out of the quagmire of business difficulties.

This undoubtedly represents that Bernard Arnault is reliable, not only has certain abilities, but also has business reputation.

In addition, this person looks gentle and refined, comes from a prestigious school, and behaves like a gentleman.

So Henri Lacamier also made the mistake of judging people by appearance, and subjectively believed that Bernard Arnault's character should be more reliable.

Finally, in addition to this, Henri Lacamier actually has a little calculation in his heart that is not easy to tell others.

That is, he has actually been thinking about the Dior fashion in Bernard Arnault's hands.

In this world, many people mistakenly believe that Dior is a unified brand that belongs to only one company.

But in fact, this brand is divided into two major parts: fashion business and beauty and perfume business.

And Dior's life experience is much more complicated than people imagine.

On October 24, 1957, the master Christian Dior died of a heart attack.

These two businesses were sold to different parties by his descendants.

So from that day on, the Dior brand has been in a state of division.

The Boussac Textile Group acquired Dior's clothing business, and later it was acquired by Bernard Arnault due to business difficulties.

The LVMH Group has always owned Dior's beauty and perfume business.

This means that whether it is Henri Lacamier or Bernard Arnault, the Dior brand in their hands is incomplete.

Only when they are united, Dior will be a complete Dior.

So in fact, Henri Lacamier still has a dream in his heart that is not easy to express to the outside world.

On the one hand, he wants to use Dior's beauty and perfume business as a bait to seduce Bernard Arnault, so that he can become a donkey led by a carrot, use it for his own purposes, and become his pawn.

On the other hand, he wanted to gradually control his ally Bernard Arnault and eventually transfer Dior Fashion to the LVMH Group and achieve "unification" with Dior Beauty and Perfume.

It must be said that Henri Lacamier is worthy of being the fourth generation of Louis Vuitton. He is indeed cunning and has calculated every aspect.

The partner he found seemed to be suitable in every way.

Not only could he help him solve the current dilemma, but after solving the problem, he could also help him make LVMH bigger and stronger.

Bernard Arnault would use his Dior fashion to put together the last piece of the LVMH puzzle for Henri Lacamier, so that the LVMH Group in his hands would shine as brightly as the sun and become the largest fashion group in France.

How wonderful it would be if all this could be realized!

But the problem is that Henri Lacamier is just a Frenchman after all.

He suffered because he had never read Chinese history books, nor had he read "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "The Art of War".

He did not understand what "you cannot take advantage of everything, you cannot take advantage of everything" meant, and he did not understand what "too clever to make all the calculations will lead to the loss of your life" meant.

He never thought that Bernard Arnault, who seemed harmless and wanted to treat him as his father, was a wolf in sheep's clothing.

He is a ruthless man who can kill even his own father. How can he be willing to be manipulated by him?

In fact, don’t think that Henri Lacamier is thinking about the Dior clothes in his hands.

But hasn’t he been thinking about calculating him?

So the final result is needless to say.

Because Henri Lacamier entrusted the wrong person, he was completely deceived by Bernard Arnault’s appearance. Not only did he not bring in reinforcements, but he also let the wolf into the house, adding an extremely insidious enemy to himself.

Don’t think that Bernard Arnault agreed to him on the surface, but in fact he did not do it according to the two people’s plan.

On the surface, he was just pretending to be a pig and playing "playing the pig to eat the tiger" with Henri Lacamier.

And behind the scenes, this guy played an extremely insidious hand - killing with a borrowed knife.

That’s right, when he received LV’s investment invitation and found that he could get involved in the other half of Dior’s business, Bernard Arnault was really ecstatic about this opportunity from the bottom of his heart.

Moreover, he has Lazard Investment Bank as his backer. If he really wants to raise the funds needed for the acquisition of shares from the investment bank, he also has the conditions to do so, which is not a big problem.

But both Bernard Arnault and Lazard Investment Bank are eager for quick success and are very practical.

If they participate in any investment, they only hope to maximize their benefits and get the greatest benefits at the lowest cost and in the fastest way.

As for other things, they don’t care about reputation, morality, face, conscience, etc. at all.

So after careful analysis of this matter, they found that LV is actually at a disadvantage, and the MH and Guinness alliance has stronger comprehensive strength and a greater chance of winning. They don’t plan to help LV.

Because if they support LV with a clear-cut banner, once they make any move, it will be equivalent to provoking the alliance of MH and Guinness. Not only will they have no way out, but they are also likely to be hit hard by the other party.

How can these two wine companies be easily provoked?

Whether in terms of industry status, connections, or funds, they are not comparable. If they bet on the wrong treasure, it would be terrible if they lose more than they gain.

However, if they back down and waste this opportunity, they will not benefit at all, and they are unwilling to do so.

After all, they have been salivating over the big fish LVMH for a long time. Now that it comes to them, how can they miss it?

That's a crime!

So the final result of the discussion is that they should still get involved, but they must follow the law of the jungle of the survival of the fittest and try their best to stand on the side of the strong.

Not only must they not help LV, but they must sell LV cleanly and thoroughly.

The specific method is to take funds to negotiate with MH and Guinness, and gain the trust and acceptance of the other party by selling LV in exchange for some shares.

Then use Bernard Arnault's personal charm to continue to stabilize LV, and use the alliance's knife to kill the pig and divide the meat, and first completely level LV.

In this way, after Bernard Arnault made a plan with Lazard Investment Bank, with the financial support of this investment bank, he found MH and Guinness to surrender, and was indeed welcomed by the other party.

For this reason, the three parties simply established a new company and formed a new alliance.

By putting their respective funds and MH's 24% shares together, the interests of the three parties were completely tied together.

And that's not all. Bernard Arnault also cleverly took advantage of the fact that MH and Guinness both cooperated and feared each other and hoped to restrain each other.

He used his personal charm and outstanding eloquence to get the support of both parties and became the controller of the new company, holding 60% of the control of the new company.

At this time, Bernard Arnault had basically mastered the knife of borrowing a knife to kill people.

And soon MH's former president Alain Chevalier also showed his dagger to LV's fourth generation Henri Lacamier.

After the new company formed by the tripartite cooperation acquired a certain number of shares, Alain Chevalier, as the initiator, convened a board meeting and formally requested that Bernard Arnault, the representative of the new company, be accepted as a director of the company.

And also announced through the media, "We need a strong shareholder organization to prevent hostile takeovers, and now we have found our very good partner, Mr. Bernard Arnault. He is simply a gentleman."

There is no doubt that when this incident was exposed, LV's fourth generation Henri Lacamier was stunned at the board meeting!

The old man was almost vomiting blood because of Bernard Arnault's two-faced operation!

Only then did he realize how sinister the world is and what it means to "know a person's face but not his heart".

In fact, before this, Bernard Arnault had been flirting with him, making him feel that this was my person, just waiting for his rice to be put into the pot.

Who knew that after waiting for so long, he actually waited for such a result.

Yes, the other party did put the rice into the pot.

But it's a pity that Bernard Arnault has turned into his opponent.

The food he cooked is not for himself, and everyone seems to be united to calculate him together.

Needless to say, it was difficult for Alain Chevalier to remain calm after such a sudden blow. He was so angry that he couldn't sit still!

He thought, you bastard, you are in the same group with me, why did you run over there?

Okay! Aren't you going to annoy me? Then I can't let you have a good time, I have to annoy you too.

So at that time, Henri Lacamier stood up and slammed the table, threatening in front of all the board members that he would buy shares and increase his shareholding ratio to 33%.

This number is a very subtle number. If Henry can really do what he said, he would own so many shares.

Then it means that he has a veto power on major decisions of LVMH.

Then naturally, no matter how many alliances there are on MH's side, they can't do whatever they want.

But the problem is that Henri Lacamier only cares about his mouth, but doesn't know that "the dog that bites doesn't bark".

In fact, his impulsive words are equivalent to reminding the other party.

Didn't he say that he wanted to buy a veto power?

Bernard Arnault would definitely not allow it.

It turned out that it was too late, and Bernard Arnault's hands were faster than the rumors.

And not only was he fast, he also had money!

Within three days, Bernard Arnault spent $600 million on behalf of the three companies to buy shares in the open market at any cost.

He increased the company's LVMH shares to 37.5%, becoming the largest shareholder of LVMH and taking the lead in obtaining a veto.

At this time, Henri Lacamier really wanted to cry but had no tears.

If he was full of anger when he made bold statements and officially declared war in the board of directors.

He really regretted it now.

He felt like sitting on pins and needles, like a thorn in his back, and like a fishbone stuck in his throat!

And since the situation has collapsed to this point, what else can he do in this situation?

That only left the last way, he decided to put down his old face and ask his old friends for help.