Chapter 241: A Blitzkrieg in France

Erin is happily skiing outside.

Milo continued to work.

After reading all the information on the French fashion, wine and retail industries compiled by the Blackburn Foundation.

Milo pondered.

He knew that the United States had been infiltrating France, or even the entire Europe, all along.

The Marshall Plan, which helped Europeans revive their economies and prevent them from falling into red tides everywhere, was one of the ways of infiltration.

It can be said that this plan was very successful, especially under the huge military pressure of the Red Bear at that time.

It can be said that the Europeans have walked themselves onto the chopping block that the Americans have arranged for them.

So after a few decades, Europe became the old Europe of today.

Just look at the Big Three.

The British? No need to infiltrate.

It only took a few years after the so-called Iron Lady came to power.

To Americans, the British have basically become a country no different from Canada.

The British Isles is the Canada of the United States in Europe.

The only thing they can still insist on against the Americans is their former status as the overlord of the thirteen North American continents and their ancestral home.

So this is also the reason why Britain is completely controlled by the United States, but can still struggle from time to time, and why many people are still unconvinced and like to make sarcastic remarks about Americans.

After all, they are the ancestors of the Americans.

The remaining Germany can be said to be very easy to control because of its so-called "original sin".

Dare you not accept?

Find out about the largest number of military bases and garrisons in Europe.

Let’s talk about those Eastern European countries.

Even the Russians are now bootlickers.

It was the kind where he was injured again and again, beaten half to death, and then the goddess said hypocritically that I didn't mean it.

It will then run back to lick it like a dog.

Other small Eastern European countries are now experiencing even more turbulent trends of thought.

Everyone is rushing to embrace America.

To be honest, if it weren’t for the soul of a time traveler.

Look at it from the perspective of today's Americans.

This kind of man is invincible, and people in most countries around the world are his bootlickers.

Our country has been promoting itself for many years, saying that it is the beacon of the world and the hope of human civilization.

It’s really not the Americans’ fault that they have that self-satisfying feeling of “being appointed by God and being America’s number one.”

The truth is that at this moment on this planet, except for one or two individual countries.

There is no one else who does not lick America, and there is no one who does not lick Americans.

But there are always exceptions, and there are still some people with backbone in some countries.

For example, the big country in the East, or France in Europe today.

In front was Charles de Gaulle, and in the back was Chirac who inherited de Gaulle's legacy.

But unfortunately, after Chirac, the French will still fall into the hands of the Americans.

It’s just that the French still have antibodies against this subtle brainwashing and invasion.

So when Milo wanted to attack the French.

For the time being, he can only choose these relatively marginal industries that will not affect national security and will not cause much resistance from the French.

For example, the fashion, wine and retail industries.

But it cannot be sensitive industries such as aerospace and heavy industry that can control the national economy and people's livelihood.

"Andre, next, what you need to do is to build a pillar in each of the three fields of French fashion, wine, and retail. There is only one goal in the near future, which is to gain a foothold in these three fields."

Watch as Milo finishes his thoughts and starts talking.

Andre was startled, then nodded and started recording.

Milo didn't care about that. He continued:

"I know that the European branch does not have sufficient funds. So I will transfer the funds to achieve these strategic goals directly into the company. You just need to fully cooperate with me to achieve these goals."

"Any questions?"

Andre was pleasantly surprised. He shook his head and said loudly, "No problem!"

The boss is indeed the boss!

He speaks and acts so domineeringly! It seems that he can really be reused this time.

You have to know that this is not only the case within companies like Paladin Media, but also within the Blackburn Foundation.

Struggle also exists.

For example, there is the Yuancong faction headed by Shabotet and others, most of whom have a strong Boston background.

He was the first to follow Milo and was Milo's earliest think tank.

They have done the most things, so they are currently the most powerful and influential faction in Milo's faction.

As for the rising star group headed by Andre, their origins are varied.

Most of them are elites from various industries recruited and recruited from all over the world after Milo took over Yahoo.

These people are currently slightly marginalized in the Blackburn Foundation because of first-come, first-served and trust issues.

The fight between the two sides was not that intense because they were both worried about offending their boss.

Currently they are all confined to one scale.

But the struggle exists.

And because the original followers were in Milo's original corporate system.

The voice is too high and the first-mover advantage is too great.

The up-and-coming group can only count on other areas opened up by Milo.

Europe, for example, is pretty good.

There also happen to be many Europeans in this faction.

Like Andrei himself, he is of Russian descent and went to the United States when he was seven or eight years old.

This time the boss obviously wants to do big things in Europe.

This opportunity must be seized firmly, achievements must be made, and as much support as possible from the boss must be obtained.

Milo nodded with a little satisfaction: "In France, our most important task right now is this. Acquire LVMH Group."

"Please set up an acquisition team as soon as possible and make a preliminary acquisition plan for me. I will personally oversee this acquisition."

"In addition, I also want you to arrange personnel to investigate the market conditions and company conditions in the three areas I just mentioned. I hope that you can provide me with relevant information as soon as I need it."

"Any questions?"

Milo's vigorous and decisive attitude was clearly revealed, and this was also the first thing the boss actually did in Europe, so Andre naturally agreed unconditionally.

Besides, these tasks are not difficult to accomplish. The key is to do them well and leave a better impression on your boss.

With a serious face, he said without hesitation: "Boss, I promise to complete the task!"

A smile appeared on Milo's stern face, and he nodded slightly and said, "Well! I'll see how you perform!"

"Hurry up and get busy!"

"Okay, boss, I'll go down first!"

After saying that, Andre slowly walked out of Milo's office.

A few days passed by in a flash...

When Milo and Irene had already returned to London after their vacation.

When he arrived at the company early in the morning, Andre came to his office with a confident smile and steady steps to submit the task to him.

"Boss, here is all the information you want about LVMH."

"Here is the list of members of the acquisition team and the acquisition plan that we have prepared. Please review it."

Milo glanced at the thicker material and realized it would take at least an hour to read.

He had no intention of wasting Andre's time.

The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!

He smiled at Andre and praised him, "You are very efficient. I will let you find me after I finish reading it. Go and do other work first!"

"OK!"

After Andre left, Milo flipped through the information of this company which would later become famous.

LVMH is the result of the merger of two large groups.

To be exact, there should be three.

Because one of them, Moët Hennessy Wine Group, was originally the merger of two large wine companies.

It was once one of the largest wine groups in France and originally ranked third in the French wine market.

After all, there are many categories in the wine market, such as champagne, brandy, red wine, anise liquor, etc.

The original Moët Hennessy Wine Group was the dominant player in two of these areas, namely the champagne market and the brandy market.

This brings us to the previous situation of Moët Hennessy Wine Group.

The group was formed in 1971 by the merger of Moët et Chandon, the leading champagne company, and Hennessy, the world's dominant brandy company.

Although the two companies have merged, it is mainly in terms of channel business and resources. In fact, at the beginning, they still let the two companies produce their own wines internally, so as to ensure that there would be no confusion in production and the quality of the wine was guaranteed.

Data shows that Moët & Chandon Champagne House owns a total of 664 hectares of vineyards, and the various types of champagnes produced account for a quarter of the total amount of champagne exported from France!

Hennessy is not far behind. Although it only directly owns 585 hectares of vineyards, it has 25 vineyards that have signed contracts with Hennessy to supply all the grapes they produce to it.

In terms of production, Hennessy also owns 28 distilleries with extremely strong industrial assembly line production capabilities.

It is precisely because of Hennessy's strategy that its output is very considerable.

The financial report from ten years ago showed that Hennessy sold 130 million bottles of brandy worldwide, accounting for 41% of the world's cognac market. Hennessy brandy is definitely synonymous with brandy!

Therefore, after the two giants merged together, their strength became even stronger!

In addition, Alain Chevalier, a professional manager who volunteered to become the general manager of Moët & Chandon Champagne House more than 20 years ago and single-handedly promoted the merger of Hennessy Company, has great ambitions.

He doesn't want Moët Hennessy to be tied down.

So in 1978 he led the group to acquire the perfume distribution business of the Boussac Group, a large textile company with 30,000 employees, and started selling perfume brands such as Dior, Labs and Roc.

Then there is the Louis Vuitton Group, which mainly deals in handbags, travel goods, small leather goods, and personalized customization services.

The original Louis Vuitton company was not listed, so it has always been unknown.

But then along came this guy, Bernard Arnault, who brought in some American money.

Louis Vuitton then began to engage in the accessories, shoes, ready-to-wear, watches, high-end jewelry and other businesses that later became famous.

However, the company has not been around for that long, and its current number of stores worldwide is far less than the more than 400 it has in later generations, with only 64.

This was the situation before the merger.

They merged together to form the current LVMH Group.

It is just limited by the special circumstances of the luxury goods industry.

Although they belong to the same group, they still do their own things.

The current president of LVMH is Bernard Arnault, and he was the one who pushed for the merger of the two groups.

This person is also the largest shareholder, although he has not yet been given the title of "Napoleon of luxury goods" that he will later receive.

But the wave of mergers and acquisitions in the world's luxury goods industry was initiated by this person.

Fortunately, although the current LVMH Group is powerful, it has not yet truly expanded beyond Europe.

After the merger, LVMH Group is a listed company, and its market value now reaches more than 35.85 billion francs, which is equivalent to nearly 6.3 billion US dollars!

The company's total share capital is 324 million shares, and the price of each share was 123.75 francs at the close of yesterday.

In terms of equity, the distribution structure is what Milo would like to see.

Thanks to the fact that LVMH was formed through a merger and a series of acquisitions, its equity has become more dispersed.

Among them, Bernard Arnault is the largest shareholder, holding 34.4%.

The Vuitton family is the second largest shareholder, holding 9.5 percent.

The Hennessy and Moët families are the third and fourth largest shareholders, holding 8.5 percent and 8 percent respectively.

The rest are some banks, whose cumulative shareholdings have reached 26.8 percent.

Next in line is investment institutions holding shares, which reach 5.4%, and the remaining 8.9% is held by retail investors of all sizes.

Bernard Arnault, the Vuitton family, the Moët family and the Hennessy family hold more than 60% of the shares, so they can firmly control the board of directors.

However, due to the long-term launch of mergers and acquisitions, the money spent on mergers and acquisitions from 1988 to the present has exceeded 7 billion US dollars.

In today's luxury goods sector, things are not as exaggerated as they will be in the future.

Bernard Arnault and LVMH obviously cannot come up with $7 billion.

So they mortgaged a lot of shares, borrowed money from some local banks in France and other banks, and issued corporate bonds.

The debt is nearly $5 billion.

Compared with the market value of US$6.3 billion, it is actually quite healthy from Wall Street's perspective.

But no matter how healthy you are, this is still a weakness.

After reading the information about this company, Milo looked relaxed and in a very good mood.

Even without looking at the acquisition plan formulated by Andre and others, many acquisition methods emerged in Milo's mind based on this equity situation.

He chose the right acquisition target! If it were Hermès or Chanel, they would have easily failed unless they had used force and directly engaged in a straightforward business war.

After a short rest, Milo once again opened the acquisition plan made by Andre and others. After browsing it, he found that this acquisition plan was quite well made.

However, there are also some changes.

The key is that the acquisition team did not know Milo's determination and capital, so the acquisition plan, which seemed very bold, still had some limitations.

In order to establish a foothold in the fashion industry as quickly as possible, Milo decided to launch a blitzkrieg in France and use this opportunity to promote Paladin Investment and his fame.

Do it when you think of it.

Milo made some changes to the acquisition plan.

Then he called Andre and told him to make a new plan immediately.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, Milo convened the entire acquisition team and assigned tasks to everyone according to their responsibilities.

With his order, the entire Paladin Investment began to operate rapidly.

(End of this chapter)