"Gucci's current value is severely underestimated; it's hard for it to get any worse. If I buy this company, even if I don't manage it well, you can replace me with someone else to run it, and it will still be profitable", Sophia said, pausing before adding, "If you're unwilling, there's another option. I can use the money you gave me to buy a 10% stake in Gucci. As long as you support me, the Gucci family should be willing to relinquish control and let me manage it. A few years later, if Gucci's situation improves, you can then consider buying more shares".
Simon remained noncommittal, asking, "What about your original plan for the wine business?"
"The backup plan I just mentioned was originally intended for the wine business", Sophia replied. "My target is Latour, one of Bordeaux's traditional five great growths, and it's the only one for sale. Lafite and Mouton Rothschild are held by the Rothschild family, Haut-Brion is with the Dillon family, and Margaux is owned by Félix Potin Company. Château Latour's original controllers were two British companies: Pearson Group, holding 75% of the shares, and Harvey & Sons, holding 25%. Pearson Group's main business is education and publishing, and their investment in Latour was purely for financial returns. The winery's operations have always been managed by Harvey & Sons, a wine trading company. Recently, Harvey & Sons began seeking to sell its shares due to financial difficulties. My initial idea was to acquire that 25% stake and the operational rights to Latour".
Simon listened intently, finally understanding why the woman had suddenly told him she wanted to do something last time and offered such 'tempting' conditions.
"What happened next?"
Sophia's expression was a little disappointed as she said, "I was almost done negotiating with Harvey & Sons, but another British company, Unilever Group, suddenly intervened and snatched the deal away".
Simon observed Sophia's expression and asked, "It was taken so easily? Didn't you try to fight for it?"
"Unilever Group is a strong, diversified company involved in alcoholic beverages, food, and fast food. Moreover, Unilever's offer was very high. They not only bought Harvey & Sons' shares but are also seeking to acquire Pearson Group's shares. It's rumoured that their offer for Pearson Group's 75% stake has reached £100 million, and it might even go higher if the deal closes". Sophia explained, adding, "Château Latour is very valuable, but it's not worth such a high price. Potin Company bought Château Margaux, also one of the five great growths, for only $16 million. In my opinion, Latour's current actual price should be around $100 million. My original rough offer to Harvey & Sons was $25 million".
£100 million, at the current exchange rate of approximately 1.6 USD to 1 GBP, is $160 million.
Sophia's ex-husband's family were wine merchants, so Simon didn't doubt her judgment in this area.
Upon hearing the name Château Latour, Simon was actually very interested.
A French national treasure like Latour, even if it couldn't turn a profit, would be far superior as a collection than antiques or calligraphy.
However, since Sophia said Château Latour wasn't worth such a high price, Simon decided not to compete with Unilever for the overvalued asset. He currently didn't have the financial strength to casually throw away one or two hundred million dollars. Money still needed to be spent wisely.
Jennifer, holding a few pieces of clothing, quietly stood by the bedroom door at some point.
Simon noticed his assistant, checked his watch, and said, "It's almost time. We'll discuss this after dinner with the Gucci family representatives".
He stood up, took the clothes from Jennifer, and headed towards the bathroom.
To host the Gucci family representatives, dinner was specially arranged at an Italian restaurant near the Kendall Hotel.
Guccio Gucci, the founder of Gucci, had three sons, and the legacy has now reached the third generation, making the family quite extensive.
After Guccio Gucci's death, the shares of Gucci Company were not managed uniformly through a fund or trust, but rather distributed equally among all family members, leading to years of infighting within the family.
By now, most Gucci family members had realized that continued conflict would only lead to the collapse of the Gucci company. Therefore, when Sophia began to mediate, and the three factions confirmed that Simon Westeros, the newly rising young tycoon, was backing her, they quickly reached a consensus.
In fact, Sophia's ability to simultaneously persuade the three fiercely feuding factions to send representatives to Melbourne to negotiate the acquisition had already made Simon look at her in a new light.
Otherwise, if Sophia had mentioned this over the phone, Simon would have directly refused.
Although Simon had adopted a somewhat critical stance towards Sophia during their private discussion, he began formally discussing the specific acquisition details with the Gucci family representatives during dinner.
Simon had done some homework beforehand, and the dinner was a pleasant experience for both parties.
Around ten o'clock Melbourne time, dinner concluded. Although the deal hadn't been completely finalized, everyone understood that it was a done deal as the meal ended.
Back in the hotel suite, Sophia still looked at Simon with a strange expression.
The woman wasn't surprised by the homework Simon had done beforehand, nor was she bothered by his change in attitude before and after the dinner. What astonished her was Simon's fluent Italian.
The Gucci family hails from Italy, and not many of them speak English. However, Sophia was proficient in Italian, having grown up in Corsica, an island closer to Italy than to mainland France.
She had originally intended to help Simon with translation at the dinner table, but was surprised to discover that the young man's Italian was even more fluent than her own.
Moreover, this clearly earned Simon the strong goodwill of the Gucci family at the dinner table.
Sophia knew Simon spoke French, but Italian, that was somewhat unexpected. Considering all the other traits Simon displayed, the woman's innate curiosity grew even stronger.
How did a twenty-year-old man grow to be so brilliant?
Entering the room, this time they didn't stop in the living room, but went to the study.
Simon motioned for Sophia, whose expression was still a bit odd, to sit opposite him at the desk. He took out a folder from the nearby filing cabinet and opened it. Just as he was about to say something, the phone on the desk rang.
He regularly received calls from the US around this time every day to discuss company matters. Signalling Sophia to wait, Simon picked up the receiver. Today's first call was from Nancy Brill.
Simon spoke softly with Nancy about business. Jennifer brought in a pot of coffee, poured a cup for both Simon and Sophia, and then, instead of leaving, sat quietly on the nearby sofa, flipping through some documents.
Because she habitually wore her hair in a ponytail, the assistant's lowered head revealed a section of fair, enticing neck, like a tender, white scallion pretending to be unnoticed but actually quite striking.
"Alright, Nancy, you can mortgage it, but no more than 5%... Don't haggle with me, Daenerys Entertainment is already undervalued at $2 billion, don't even think I'll agree to 10%... This has nothing to do with risk. If Citibank can't accept it, then forget it".
After discussing the loan and hanging up with Nancy, Amy called immediately afterward to talk about firing Ron McMillan.
To be honest, Ron McMillan's ability as a producer was at best mediocre; without opportunities like 'Run Lola Run', he would have remained an independent producer on the fringes of Hollywood his entire life.
He was originally kept in the company out of consideration for their past collaboration on 'Run Lola Run', but ever since Ron McMillan deceived him regarding the casting for 'Scream' last year, Simon no longer trusted him.
As Daenerys Entertainment continued to grow and expand, Simon had to prioritize loyalty over executive ability. He could tolerate executives disagreeing with him, but he would not tolerate them deliberately deceiving him.
Combined with Ron McMillan's private life, which could easily cause trouble for Daenerys Entertainment, firing him during this audit was a relief for Simon.
Hanging up the phone, Simon noticed Jennifer sitting quietly in the corner. He merely curved his lips, looked at Sophia across the desk, and joked, "I'm starting to suspect that you two French women conspired to set me up".
According to the information he'd seen, Nancy Brill immigrated to the US after college, and Brill is a standard French surname.
Sophia was, of course, also French.
In the recent call, Nancy insisted that there was no risk in Simon mortgaging Daenerys Entertainment shares, but Simon still disagreed; he needed zero risk. Under Nancy's persistence, he finally relented and agreed to mortgage 5%, still feeling a bit shortchanged.
Of course, Simon also understood that as his personal debt increased, banks couldn't simply continue to allow him to obtain funds solely through credit guarantees; providing collateral was inevitable.
Sophia looked a bit bewildered when Simon said that, and she defended herself, "Boss, I didn't set you up".
Simon smiled and explained, "A new French female executive recently joined the company. I'll introduce you two sometime. You two, well, are quite similar in some ways".
Sophia nodded, waiting for Simon to get to the point.
Simon wasted no more words, opening the folder in his hand and saying, "I recently had someone collect some information on LVMH, and I must say, your thinking is very sound. However, you haven't managed a company before, and that's one of my concerns".
Sophia looked at Simon and couldn't help but retort, "Boss, you also didn't have experience managing a company before, yet Daenerys Entertainment has developed very rapidly".
Simon glanced at Sophia and said, "Are you planning to compare yourself to me?"
Sophia instinctively wanted to roll her eyes, but decided against it, realizing she truly couldn't compare to this young man. After a moment of thought, she added, "I majored in Business Administration for my undergraduate degree and earned an MBA three years ago. I helped my ex-husband run his family business and gained sufficient experience. My work in real estate brokerage has also been excellent; if I had continued, I should be able to open my own real estate brokerage firm by now. Boss, don't these prove that I have the ability to manage a company?"
Simon recalled the information about the woman that he had specifically had a detective agency investigate after hiring Sophia, and finally nodded, saying, "Alright, I'll give you one year..."
"At least two years, boss. Gucci's current situation is very bad. Adjusting management, streamlining product lines, rebuilding the corporate image, all these must be done, but not too hastily. To restore Gucci to its former glory, I need..."
Simon, whose words had just been interrupted midway, was a little displeased. Without waiting for Sophia to finish, he instinctively said, "Don't haggle with me".
Sophia paused, recalling Simon's words during his recent call with the female executive named Nancy. She found it amusing, but didn't back down, slightly lifting her chin and staring at the man as she insisted, "Two years".
Simon's fingers gently rubbed the paper in the folder. After a moment of silence, he finally nodded: "Alright, two years".
Sophia was a bit surprised, not expecting Simon to agree immediately. Thinking about the difference in treatment between herself and Nancy, she couldn't help but feel a little smug.
Simon, of course, had no intention of treating them differently. He was never an opinionated person; having calmed down from his previous emotions, he naturally agreed once he confirmed Sophia's request was reasonable.
The two then began discussing the specific details of acquiring Gucci shares and subsequently operating the company.
Simon's ultimate goal in acquiring Gucci was to build a large luxury goods group similar to LVMH.
Many years later, as the world's largest diversified luxury goods group, LVMH's market capitalization once surpassed the $100 billion mark. While it couldn't compare to giants like Apple or Amazon, for a non-high-tech, non-monopolistic industrial group, reaching a market capitalization of hundreds of billions of dollars was already extremely rare.
According to information from his memory, at its peak, LVMH owned over sixty world-renowned top luxury brands, including Dior, Givenchy, Hermès, and Louis Vuitton. Even Gucci was once an acquisition target for LVMH.
In the original timeline, with the great success of LVMH's luxury brand portfolio operation model, other companies also followed suit, eventually forming a three-way luxury market pattern with LVMH, Kering Group, and Richemont Group.
Among the three companies, the Swiss-based Richemont Group primarily focused on jewellery and watch businesses, and its competition with the other two was not as intense.
Kering Group's brand portfolio model, however, was very similar to LVMH's, and the two were in fierce competition for a long time. Moreover, Kering Group's core luxury brand was precisely Gucci. Many years later, the Gucci brand, which supported half of Kering Group, was worth at least tens of billions of dollars.
Currently, LVMH, which had only been integrated two years prior, was still just the embryonic form of a luxury empire. Bernard Arnault, the future head of LVMH, hadn't even fully controlled the company; the LVMH management and Arnault, the major shareholder, were in a tense standoff.
Beyond Dior and Louis Vuitton, brands like Givenchy, Hermès, Fendi, and Bulgari had not yet been acquired by LVMH.
Kering Group and Richemont Group had not even formed yet.
LVMH was built by Bernard Arnault with Christian Dior as its foundation.
Simon, by securing Gucci, a luxury brand with complete product lines across fashion, handbags, cosmetics, and other categories, would likewise possess the foundation to build a comprehensive luxury goods group.
If he could expand according to LVMH's development model in the original timeline, leveraging Daenerys Entertainment's media resources in Hollywood, and with proper operation, Simon might even be able to create a top-tier luxury empire that replaces LVMH's position in the original timeline.