Rebirth of England

Speaking of which, in the early stages of developing e-commerce, it was indeed very expensive.

Especially for Argos, which combines entities with e-commerce, they need to build a large number of cargo transfer warehousing and provide pick-up points for users in the markets they enter.

Even though almost all of Argos Retail Group's previous profits were invested in these infrastructure constructions, coupled with Argos Holdings' acquisition of Supor and other upstream industry investments, there is still a lack of funds.

At this time, Barron's naturally needs financial support.

So recently, the Global Industrial Investment Fund invested US$1 billion in Argos Retail Group and obtained 10% of the shares of Argos Retail Group. Based on this calculation, the valuation of Argos Retail Group reached US$10 billion.

However, this valuation is completely justified. After all, at this time, Argos Retail Group has nearly 1,000 stores in the UK, Ireland and France, and its e-commerce business and some warehousing and pick-up points have also entered the entire Western European market. It is currently in Heading towards the Nordic market…

Moreover, Argos Retail Group also owns 38.46% of Fast Retailing Group.

Argos Retail Group currently holds 67.5% of the shares in DS Capital; 22.5% in Rich23 Capital; and 10% in GII Fund.

It is also worth mentioning that since the GII Fund is divided into Phase I and Phase II funds, the company shares held by the funds in these two phases are respectively held by the two holding companies GII-1 and GII-2. held.

Among them, GII-1 holds 47.5% of the shares of Four Seasons Hotel, 40% of Fast Retailing Group (after merging with Primark clothing chain) and 100% of the shares of the London Stock Exchange. It also invests in high-frequency trading funds in London. Initial funding of $500 million in Hera.

GII-2 Holdings holds a 10% stake in Argos Retail Group.

In addition, GII-2 also holds 100% of the shares of Honor Electronics and 10% of the shares of TSMC.

Just like this time, the acquisition of OMX Group was carried out in cooperation with GII-2 and the London Stock Exchange.

After receiving $1 billion in funding, Argos Retail Group will continue to strengthen their presence in the European market to gain as much ground as possible and stabilize the market before Amazon enters Europe.

…

When Barron opened the private room of this high-end private club under the guidance of a good-looking waitress, a noisy and lively atmosphere greeted him.

Barron! My dear Barron, you are finally here!

It was Prince William who shouted this voice to him, even suppressing the sound of music in the private room for a time.

But from his red face, it could be seen that this boy had drank a lot.

Although Barron is not very old at this time and will celebrate his 26th birthday soon, which is not much different from William and the others, in fact, he is no longer used to this kind of night carnival life.

After giving William a gesture to indicate that they could continue playing, Barron looked around the private room and found a seat to sit down.

My lord the Duke, we are almost leaving, and you just came here...

Sitting next to Barron was Holly Branson, the princess of the Virgin Group. Because the music in the room was a little loud, she leaned into Barron's ear and said this.

It looks like you've had a lot to drink...Holly.

Although Barron could smell the smell of alcohol from Holly when he spoke just now, it seemed that she was not too drunk. She poured ice cubes into the wine glass, then added whiskey, handed it to Barron, and put it on her mouth said:

You know, William is leaving London soon...

She shrugged and smiled:

So, it's excusable.

Barron knew that William had just finished his internship at HSBC Bank and would be sent to the army for training at the beginning of next year. By then, as a prince and being stared at by countless pairs of eyes, it would be impossible to So relaxed now...

But since Holly happened to be by his side, Barron would not miss the opportunity. He said nonchalantly:

I heard that NTL is contacting your family and hopes to acquire Virgin Mobile?

When Holly heard this, a smile appeared on her face, she winked at Barron and said:

I don't have much involvement in family business matters, Barron.

oh?

What, are you also interested in Virgin Mobile? By the way, O2 Telecom is your industry...

If I have the chance, I still hope to try it... maybe I will give you a better price, Holly.

Ha ha……

Hearing Barron's words, Holly laughed:

It's unlikely, Barron. As a friend, I want to be honest. Even if you can offer a higher price, it will only be used by my father as a bargaining chip in negotiations with NTL.

Because of the name Virgin?

Look, you know, Barron.

Now the trend in the UK is that the telecommunications industry and TV channels and other businesses have begun to integrate.

Just two days ago, Sky TV bought the broadband service provider Easynet for US$375 million, thus completing a key step in the triple service of broadband access, pay TV and Internet phone calls.

The only thing they are not involved in now is the mobile phone business.

NTL is currently the largest cable TV provider in the UK, and Barron has also received news that they are in contact with Virgin Mobile, owned by the Virgin Group, hoping to complete a merger with it.

Virgin Mobile is the fifth largest mobile operator in the UK. Of course, its scale is far inferior to that of O2 Telecom - according to the information obtained by Barron, NTL's offer for Virgin Mobile was less than US$1.5 billion. This is consistent with the value of Virgin Mobile.

As Holly said, I am afraid that even if Barron can get a higher bid, her father Richard Branson will still not choose to sell Virgin Mobile to Barron.

It's because of the word Virgin...

In Barron's previous life, after NTL merged with Virgin Mobile, all its businesses were placed under the Virgin brand and renamed Virgin Telecom...

Richard Branson owns 72% of Virgin Mobile's shares and is likely to be merged with China Telecom. The shares he acquires in the new company will become the largest shareholder of Virgin Telecom, which will also expand the Virgin brand. Range, that’s what Richard Branson values ​​most.

And once this merger is completed, after the merger, the new company will have 2.5 million broadband users, 4.3 million fixed-line users and more than 5 million mobile phone users, thus becoming the first company in the UK to provide mobile phones, fixed-line phones, pay TV and high-speed at the same time. A telecommunications giant with network access quadruple services.

It is very likely that by then, the new company will also launch today's hot mobile TV business.

As strong as O2 Telecom, it only has two businesses: broadband and mobile communications at this time...