Chapter 240: Europe's First Move

What is a rich person? One of the characteristics of a rich person is that he or she can do whatever he or she wants without any scruples. Whenever he or she wants to go out for fun, he or she can go immediately.

You can also play the best and enjoy the best service.

There is only wanting and not wanting, there is no such thing as being able to and not being able to, and there is no need to make a budget in advance.

The night view of the Alps is still very beautiful.

It was already night, night in the snowy mountains of the Alps.

Gstaad is a mountain town that relies mainly on tourism. In the evening, there is nothing to do but stay in the hotel for drinking and other indoor entertainment.

There aren't many other options.

It's impossible to go out skiing in the middle of the night, right? That's too dangerous.

Milo came here to travel, not to die.

As the most luxurious ski town in Europe, this town has a large number of five-star hotels.

In a way, Gstaad could even make it into the Guinness Book of World Records.

For example, something like "the town with the most five-star luxury hotels".

The name of the hotel is Ultima Gstaad, which means "The Last Gstaad" in Chinese.

The hotel is very strange, it consists of three wooden buildings.

One of them is a functional building, which houses the hotel lobby and various service facilities.

The other two buildings are hotel rooms.

The guest rooms in these two hotels are very large, with one building having six or seven rooms.

Under normal circumstances, the hotel can only receive about 15 guests at a time.

It only has so many rooms.

In order to avoid having other people disturb his fun, Milo naturally booked the entire hotel, that is, two guest rooms.

There wasn't enough room for us, so we booked a room in a nearby hotel.

In the wooden house in the hotel lobby, Milo and Irene had dinner and admired the snow scenery for a while.

Basically I just go back to my room and sleep.

Everyone needs to adapt to the mountain climate and altitude sickness.

Will start playing tomorrow.

Milo naturally shared a room with Irene, which was the largest room in the entire hotel.

The two were in the stage of adultery, especially Irene.

It can be said that she has no skills in love and relies entirely on emotional expression.

Such a pair of lovers, alone in a room.

Whatever should happen should happen naturally.

A sweet night.

Sleep until you wake up naturally.

It was around 8:00~9:00 in the morning, when the sun was just rising.

Milo woke up naturally.

His current physical fitness has long surpassed the limits of normal humans.

In fact, you only need to sleep two or three hours a day to ensure that you are energetic throughout the day and maintain good health for a long time.

But most of the time, he sleeps until he feels comfortable and satisfied.

I'm not an employee, and I don't need to go to bed late and get up early to work every day.

You make so much money and have so many achievements, so of course you should enjoy them.

Fine wine, beautiful women, villas, yachts, luxury cars and famous watches are all enjoyments.

Sleeping freely and comfortably is also a kind of enjoyment.

After waking up, Milo was dazed for a few seconds and then went to the bathroom.

After washing up, he climbed onto the Simmons mattress, hugged Irene, and just as he was about to get intimate with her, he noticed that it was snowing outside again.

In the sunshine, the snowflakes are floating in the air, and against the backdrop of the snow-capped mountains and small towns in the distance, there is indeed a very ethereal and beautiful beauty.

Suddenly, Milo turned his head and said unhappily, "I'm awake, so what are you doing?"

"Woo woo. Nothing. " I whimpered in response.

"What are you doing with your hands?"

"Hey, hey, I'm cold. It's warmer inside."

Milo snorted coldly and didn't indulge her. He just threw her on the bed.

He let the awake Irene roll around on the bed without even looking at her.

Irene pouted, but had to get up and have breakfast together.

Have breakfast in the hotel lobby.

After breakfast, it was already ten o'clock in the morning.

At this time, the drizzle outside had stopped and the sun was shining everywhere, making the snow-capped mountains look even more beautiful.

It was good weather for skiing, so a group of people set out.

But what made Irene a little unhappy was that Milo said he came to play with her.

But he didn't play for long and started working again.

After lunch at noon.

Milo even brought a large group of consultants and staff from the Blackburn Foundation into the hotel's conference room and never came out.

"Andre, tell me."

In the conference room.

Milo looked at Andre, the second-in-command of the Blackburn Foundation who was in charge of the meeting and his second-in-command.

During this time, he stayed in the UK not just for tourism and dating Irene.

Apart from a few small moves in the London financial market.

He is actually more concerned about the French market.

Because compared to Britain and Germany, the only country among the three major European powers that has not been completely swallowed up by the Americans is the French.

Looking at his boss, Andre nodded and said softly:

"After combining multiple channels and data, we found that the situation in France is obviously more complicated than that in Germany and the UK."

The view that the situation in France is more complicated than that in Britain is not just Andre's random analysis, but the reality.

Among the current European Big Three - Britain, France and Germany.

The country with the most relaxed attitude towards the Oilers is undoubtedly the UK, which is caused by many factors.

The most obvious example is the situation of the three countries during World War II.

Not to mention Germany, but when France fell, all the oil workers in the country were purged by Germany.

On the contrary, Britain, protected by the English Channel, defended its homeland, so the strength of the oil families and consortiums in the UK was preserved.

Not to mention, London, England is also the financial center of Europe.

There are many listed companies in the UK. The oil families and consortiums are experts in this area and can easily control or influence many companies, which naturally affects the UK's attitude towards them.

On the contrary, in France and Germany, especially Germany, those families are not keen on listing their family businesses. What they value is the control over the enterprises and their future development. From this aspect, the infiltration of the oil people's power has been blocked to a large extent.

The situation in France and Germany has also allowed many families to maintain control over certain areas for decades or even hundreds of years.

Even though the nature of France has changed several times, these families have never changed.

Because no matter whether France was a constitutional monarchy before or a republic now, it is still the same families that rule France, and it has not changed at all.

This can be seen from the fact that the Bourbon, Orleans and Bonaparte families that once ruled France still exist at the same time!

It really still exists. This is a European tradition. For this reason, there were always dynasties restored in ancient Europe.

Unlike ancient China, there are rarely remnants of the previous dynasty...

According to statistics, among the top 250 domestic companies in France and Germany, the proportion of family-owned businesses exceeds 40 percent!

Many of them hold 80%, 90%, or even 100% of the shares! This ratio is very scary, because as far as Milo knows, less than one-third of American businesses are family-owned.

Most of them were acquired solely or jointly controlled by major conglomerates in the later stage. There are companies that have been controlled by a certain family from beginning to end, but their number is very small.

Isn't Cargill of Cargill Group powerful enough? They are the C among the four major grain traders, but Cargill Group only controls about one-third of the shares of this group.

As the saying goes, flies don't bite seamless eggs!

Many of France's "delicious eggs" are seamless.

Milo and his team are good at many business methods, but they are simply useless when facing many French companies!

Moreover, the connections between the major ancient families in France are very close. If you don't grasp the right degree, poking one of them will be like poking a hornet's nest.

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If it were not for this reason, France would not be the most difficult country for American capital to enter.

This can be seen from the fact that France often acts on its own, does not give the United States face, and even sings a different tune.

Among the three European giants, Britain is the most obedient because they are conjugated father and son and their interests are basically the same.

Germany is stuck with its garrison and can't stand up, so France is the only one that remains as tough as ever.

Governments in capitalist societies all represent the will of capital. American capital manipulates the government to achieve its own goals, and French capital can certainly also influence the government to resist or even fight back.

In the explanation of Andre and several consultants.

Milo gradually came up with a basic idea.

After much deliberation, Milo decided that his career in France should focus more on the tertiary industry, supplemented by the secondary and primary industries.

It’s not that he doesn’t want to deeply penetrate the industrial manufacturing industry that is related to people’s livelihood and affects the foundation of France, but the reality does not allow it.

There is no need to think about the vast majority of France's heavy industry and military industry. A large portion of them are state-owned enterprises, and the rest are family businesses of some French families, which are difficult to take away.

For example, the two major French automobile companies, PSA Group and Renault Group.

The former is in the hands of the Peugeot family and the government. Although the Peugeot family only holds 25% of the shares, its voting rights are as high as 38%.

The French government also holds 14 percent of the shares, and when the two join forces, no one can take them away.

As for the latter Renault Group, there is no need to mention it.

This company, now the second largest automobile manufacturer in France, is also a French military-industrial giant. It produced guns, ammunition, aircraft and light tanks for France during World War I, and weapons and munitions for Germany during World War II.

After the victory of World War II, the Renault family was destroyed by the French government, and the Renault Group became wholly owned by the government.

In addition to these two heavy industry and military industry giants, France also has many large industrial groups.

But those giants in Milo are also French state-owned enterprises.

Later facts also proved that if a country does not want its heavy industry to be controlled by foreign countries.

The only way is to nationalize these heavy industries.

Because if privatized, profit-seeking capital can easily sell unprofitable heavy industries to foreigners.

Therefore, it is difficult and risky to engage in manufacturing in France.

Of course, the most important thing is that most of them have no future! Yes, they have no future! At this moment, Milo is the only one in the world who can make such a firm judgment!

Although France began to implement "de-industrialization" in the past few years.

However, aviation, automobiles, rail transit, military industry, nuclear power, etc. still maintain strong competitiveness in the world.

The big families and conglomerates engaged in these fields cannot sit idly by and watch the family businesses decline.

According to statistics produced by the French government's statistics department at the beginning of this year, in 1996 the added value of the manufacturing industry accounted for 18.49 percent of the gross national product, while the service industry accounted for 57.83 percent.

But Milo remembered that in 2020, the added value of France's manufacturing industry accounted for less than 10% of its GDP! The added value of the service industry accounted for more than 70% of its GDP, which was higher than that of Britain, Germany and Japan! In the future, France does not have no large manufacturing companies that are competitive on a global scale, but they are relatively few.

France is world-famous for its retail industry, luxury goods, cosmetics, wine and fast-moving consumer goods!

However, these industries are still far from having the explosive influence they will have in the future, so it can be said that they have an extremely bright future.

Under the premise that it is difficult to enter the inherent domain of French big families and consortiums, it is undoubtedly most appropriate to rely on the vision of future generations to occupy the track in advance.

Wait until the power and financial prospects of these fields explode.

It will be too late for the big French families and financial groups to impose restrictions, and Milo will not be able to truly gain a foothold in France.

With these core pillar industries, supported by companies in other fields, the overall competitiveness and influence will definitely not be weak!

With this in mind, Milo picked up a pen and wrote down three words on paper - fashion, wine, and retail.

This just happened to complement his original purpose of coming to Europe.

These are all industries where Paladin Media can play a role without arousing hostility from the French government and big corporations.

So where should we start in the fashion sector? Gucci is Italian and the negotiations are almost complete.

It's just a matter of time to get it.

But France is where all European luxury brands gather.

According to the information collected by Andre, it is impossible for the L'Oréal Group, the most powerful French cosmetics company, to be acquired. This is indeed a pity for Milo.

But there was no way. Liliane Bettencourt, the only daughter of Eugene Schueller, the founder of the L'Oreal Group, was on guard against everyone. If he couldn't acquire her, then neither could anyone else.

Moreover, this woman is very cautious and rarely leaves Paris.

Even if Milo wanted to risk offending all the big French conglomerates, he would not be able to succeed in the same way he played on STMicroelectronics.

There is no way the American police could rush into Paris to catch that old woman, right? From this point, we can also see that the members of these French conglomerates are very cautious and do not trust Americans.

They really rarely leave France, rarely leave Europe, and rarely go to the United States...

Currently, the largest shareholder of L'Oréal Group is Gesparal, which holds 53.7% of the shares of L'Oréal Group.

However, this company is just a shell company established solely for cooperative holding, with only two shareholders, Liliane Bettencourt, who holds 51% of the shares, and the Swiss Nestlé Group, which holds 49% of the shares.

The reason for such control was that in 1974, Liliane Bettencourt learned that the French government at that time wanted to nationalize the L'Oréal Group, so she took a life-saving measure and introduced the Nestlé Group to protect herself.

That year, the French government, inspired by Nestlé's successful public relations, approved the collaboration.

However, it restricts Liliane Bettencourt and the Nestlé Group from resell, transfer or mortgage their shares in the L'Oréal Group within 20 years.

Now the deadline has passed.

If Milo wants to take over the L'Oreal Group, the only way is to acquire the Swiss Nestlé Group.

Otherwise, you can only acquire part of the shares from the stock market and become a major shareholder.

In Milo's opinion, investing in the L'Oréal Group is a must.

But for his strategy to work, he had to have a cosmetics company that he had complete control over.

As for Chanel, there is no hope either.

The company has not yet gone public, and the Widmore family owns more than 70% of the shares.

This family is very powerful. It previously held half of the shares of Felix Amiot, the manufacturer of the French Amiot bomber. It is an old family in France.

The Hermès company has now been passed down to the fifth generation of the Hermès family, and the family’s collective shareholding has reached 56.2%, which is also difficult to manage.

Kering Group, which is still just a timber company established for more than 20 years, is transforming into the luxury goods field.

On the contrary, it is LVMH Group, whose market value is second only to L'Oréal Group among French luxury companies in later generations.

The luxury goods group was formed ten years ago by Bernard Arnault by merging Louis Vuitton and Moët Hennessy.

According to the Blackburn Foundation's analysis, it is the most consistent with Milo's acquisition ideas.

One is that it is the result of the merger of two large companies, with dispersed internal equity. The internal integration has only been completed recently and is not yet stable, with constant power struggles within the company.

The second reason is that its current scale is not yet the LVMH of the future. It has not yet caught up with the explosive growth of the global luxury goods market, and its strength is far from what it will be in the future.

So, is there any need to hesitate?

Let’s start with this!

(End of this chapter)