Chapter 674 (1/2)
Among the three candidate companies, Constantine, which focuses on the production of top clocks and watches, has the longest history and has been established for more than 200 years.
In 1987, Jacques Cutler, the then head of the controlling family of Constantine, died. His children chose to sell the brand and were bought by Ahmed Yamani, a former Saudi oil minister who had just emigrated to Switzerland.
As a rare non Royal high-level government in Saudi Arabia, Ahmed Yamani, with his outstanding personal ability, has become the core oil minister of Saudi Arabia. He also planned the Middle East oil crisis in the 1970s and won a lot of interests for OPEC.
Unfortunately, personal ability is not equal to court struggle.
In the mid-1980s, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Yamani's biggest backer, was assassinated and killed. The oil minister was dismissed by the new Saudi king the next year and moved to Switzerland to avoid further cleansing.
At that time, Jiang shidanton happened to be looking for a buyer, and Yamani took advantage of the situation.
According to media reports, the former Saudi oil minister was keen on collecting clocks and watches, which led to the purchase of Constantine. However, in Simon's view, this incident is more like a typical way of self-protection in which many rich emerging countries go to the west to buy basketball or football teams.
Like Rolex and Patek Philippe, Constantine is the top watch and clock brand in Switzerland. Buying such a company can greatly enhance the holder's international reputation.
Many times, fame is really an invisible talisman.
From the mid-1980s to now, over the years, Saudi Arabia's political situation has been stable, and no one cares about a long lost former oil minister, Yamani, who has just begun to seek to sell this watch brand that occupies a lot of his assets.
Different from the mass production of ordinary watch and clock companies, the annual output of jiangshidanton has just exceeded 11000. However, because the average price is more than US $10000, there are many luxury limited edition products every year. In 1993, the turnover was US $143 million and the net profit was US $21 million.
During the initial contact, Yamani offered a price of US $300 million.
The top watch brands can not expand rapidly by increasing production and strengthening marketing as the luxury companies of clothing and bags. Therefore, although the profits are stable, the growth is very weak. According to the profit scale of 1993, the quoted price of 300 million US dollars is still on the high side with a price earnings ratio of 14 times.
According to the assessment in the information just now, if we really launch an acquisition, we should be able to win the company at a price of no more than 250 million US dollars.
Sophia delivered a glass of juice to Simon, but she was still not willing to get off his leg. She heard the man say, ”they are all very good and have problems.” she said, ”that's why I want you to make up your mind.”
Simon took a sip of cold fresh apple juice, put his other hand around the waist of the woman in his arms, and said, ”three companies, do you want to get Bulgari most?”
Sophia nodded, moved slightly to make it easier for men to hold him, and said: ”I have investigated many comprehensive jewelry and watch brands, such as Cartier, Bulgari, count, etc., as well as our own van cletta, and found that these companies have a unified feature. The sales volume of jewelry is the largest, and the sales volume is basically more than 70% of the brand's total revenue, Watches tend to account for only about 20 percent. ”
Simon said with a smile, ”so it's women's money.”
Sophia gave him a glance and then said: ”unlike Gucci and CK, the top jewelry and watch companies can't expand too much if they want to maintain the brand value. The turnover of a single brand is best to maintain within 1 billion US dollars. Therefore, if we want to expand this part of business, we can only expand in disguised form by acquiring multiple brands. ”
Simon directly pointed out Sofia's problem: ”the Bulgari family is not willing to sell too many shares. How do you plan to solve it?”
”I thought that if we were willing to give up some of melisandro's shares, the Bulgarians would be excited,” Sophia said
Melisandro has used cash in its previous acquisitions, so now it has no other shareholders except Simon and Sophia.
Over the years, through several successive incentive equity transfers, Simon has given Sofia up to 20% of melisandro shares.
Because there is no listing, the outside world's valuation of melisandro company has been very different, generally ranging from 5 billion to 10 billion US dollars. Even at a minimum valuation of $5 billion, Sophia is now a top woman with a fortune of $1 billion.
However, Sofia is very low-key in this matter, and melisandro's equity structure has always been kept secret. Many media even think that melisandro is fully owned by Simon, so women have never appeared on any wealth list.
Using melisandro, one of the four women in the westero system, to buy shares in exchange, the Bulgarians should understand the gold content as long as they are not stupid.
Simon didn't object to Sofia's suggestion, but said, ”if you think well, Sophie, this time use melisandro's shares, and later buy other brands, the other party will probably put forward the same request.”Sophia said: ”I know, but it's certainly OK for us to maintain a controlling interest for a long time to come. For example, this time, I think it's enough to transfer 3% of the shares to the Bulgari family, and the rest will be paid in cash. ”
Simon asked, ”what about the valuation?”
If you want to exchange shares, melisandro's valuation is also a very troublesome issue.
It's not unreasonable for the outside world to make a huge difference in the valuation of melisandro, because it's really not easy for the company to make a valuation. In the past few years, due to different shareholding shares and different types of subsidiaries, melisandro's financial reports were calculated separately by each subsidiary.
Take 1993.
Gucci is still the core of melisandro, holding 75% of the shares. In 1993, its revenue was US $1.89 billion, with a growth rate of 32%, and its net profit was US $310 million.
Then.
Vanke arbor: holding 60%, 1993 revenue of 350 million US dollars, growth rate of 35%, net profit of 59 million US dollars
CK: holding 55%, 1993 revenue of 170 million US dollars, growth rate of 33%, net loss of 8 million US dollars
lato winery: holding 100%, 1993 annual revenue of 36 million US dollars, growth rate of 7%, net profit of 6 million US dollars.
Christie's: holds 31% of the shares. In 1993, the auction turnover was US $2.36 billion, with a growth rate of 41% and a net profit of US $73 million.
According to the shareholding ratio and profit figures, in 1993, the profit of all melisandro brands belonging to the parent company was about 290 million US dollars.
However, for the development of these companies, Sofia did not implement the full dividend, but only recovered about half of the profits.
Not to mention that.
According to the calculation of the net profit scale of US $290 million belonging to the parent company, and because melisandro's other brands have maintained a high growth rate of more than 30% except for the Latour winery, which is Simon's collection, it is easy to obtain an IPO valuation of 20 times of P / E ratio, which is close to the market value of US $6 billion.
If it's really listed, it's not a big problem for the P / E ratio to rush to more than 30 times after listing, which will be the market value level of 10 billion US dollars at that time.
As a result, now that both sides are not listed, if they want to adopt the stock exchange acquisition mode, the valuation problem will inevitably lead to a tug of war between the two sides.
The best solution, of course, is to go public.
Sophia may be able to guess Simon's mind. Although she has kept a low profile these years, she doesn't object to melisandro's listing at the right time, saying: ”if it's an IPO, it's definitely too late this year.”
Simon thought about it and said, ”let's talk about it. Try not to suffer too much. What's more, we can let the Bulgari family know about the listing in advance, which should also win us a lot of initiative. ”
Sophia nodded.
Danielis entertainment IPO market miracle, even as far as Italy is also well known.
Melisandro is also a ”woman” of Westeros, and probably no one will doubt her listing prospects. The Bulgari family should also be aware that once melisandro gets its equity under privatization, once melisandro makes an IPO, the value of the other party's shareholding is likely to double in one or two years.
This rate of return is absolutely attractive.