Rebirth of England

Entering the new century, Ford has begun to decline.

In 1999, Jacques Nasser was appointed CEO of Ford. In the same year, Bill Ford, the great-grandson of Henry Ford and the fourth generation of the Ford family, became chairman of the board of directors.

Then under Nasser's leadership, Ford quickly fell into the pit.

Nasser spent tens of billions of dollars investing in luxury brands such as Volvo and Land Rover.

Other investments included car repair businesses and internet companies - a financial venture.

Some media criticized Nasser for deviating from the focus of his business - car manufacturing and sales - and focusing too much on e-commerce, recycling waste and Ford's quick service operations.

By the fall of 2001, Ford's losses had reached $54 billion, and Nasser had to leave sadly.

Subsequently, Bill Ford was appointed as CEO.

Bill said: "There have been many difficult times in Ford's history, and we have come through them again and again. We will get through it this time."

After taking office, Bill proposed a detailed revival plan for Ford.

However, the drastic reforms he carried out left a deep impression on people for nothing more than two points: closing factories and massive layoffs.

Compared to his great-grandfather and uncle, Bill Ford's reform agenda lacked imagination.

In 2003, Ford's 100th anniversary, at a press conference during his trip to Yanjing, China, on October 17, Bill Ford said: "Ford not only wants to celebrate history, but also creates history."

Ford is truly making history right now.

In the U.S. market, Ford Motor's market share fell to 15.6%, the company's lowest market share since 1920.

Its position as the world's second largest automaker was also lost to Toyota this year.

In addition, due to the impact of Asian automakers, Ford began to fall into quagmire in other emerging markets such as Europe and Asia, making Ford's overall losses inevitable.

Especially last year, Ford set a 103-year loss record, with global business losses as high as US$12.7 billion, and an average loss of US$1,925 per vehicle sold.

"I heard news that Bill Ford intends to resign as CEO of the company and is looking for a new CEO... It is likely that the sale of these brands, including Aston Martin, will need to wait until the new CEO takes office. Decide……"

Statistics show that during Bill Ford's tenure, Ford laid off 73,000 employees and its stock market value dropped by $18 billion.

In Barron's previous life, in September this year, Bill Ford hired Alan Mulally from Boeing to replace him as Ford Motor CEO to make adjustments to Ford.

Barron told Pat Friedman:

"You can talk to them first, and they will probably respond soon."

In order to get out of the predicament, Ford sold some brands one after another in the original time and space, and finally retained only the Ford brand in order to turn losses into profits with concentration.

They sold luxury car brand Aston Martin in 2007, and Jaguar and Land Rover to India's Tata Group in 2008.

In fact, even if they don't actively inquire now, Ford will start to put Aston Martin on the market in August this year...

At the beginning, they actually planned to sell the Jaguar and Aston Martin brands. Jaguar suffered a huge loss last year, while Aston Martin was at least still profitable.

But it was later decided to sell Aston Martin first because Jaguar could share chassis with Ford's car series and reduce development costs.

Moreover, some parts of Jaguar are sourced from Land Rover, another Ford brand, so the mutual costs can be further reduced.

So although Aston Martin was profitable and Jaguar lost money in 2005, Ford still decided to only sell Aston Martin because Aston Martin has a single model range and is too high-end, so it is not good for Ford in the long run. global strategy.

But this time, Barron asked the CEO of Caesars Fund to talk to Ford, not just about the Aston Martin brand, but to prepare a package to acquire Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover, three original British cars. brand.

During Barron's previous life, Ford sold Aston Martin, retaining about 15% of its shares and selling 85% of its shares to the chairman of Prodrive for £475 million (equivalent to $848 million at the time) David Richards led a consortium that included American investment banker John Hindes and two Kuwaiti companies.

Then it sold two car brands, Jaguar and Land Rover, to India's Tata Group for US$2.3 billion.

Now, Barron hopes to directly buy back these three British car brands from Ford.

But even if Ford has the idea of ​​selling these brands, this time the negotiations between the two parties will not be completed in the short term.

Because in the original time and space, Ford sold Aston Martin in early 2007 for less than 1 billion U.S. dollars. Compared with when they initially announced that they were preparing to sell Aston Martin in August 2006, the price has dropped by nearly 1 billion. half……

At that time, after news broke that Ford intended to sell Aston Martin, 30 companies around the world expressed their willingness to buy it, including the famous fashion group LVMH.

…

"Your Royal Highness, Argos Retail Group will be listed on the London Stock Exchange on June 15th..."

After getting off the plane, Barron got the latest progress on the IPO of Argos Retail Group from his personal assistant Wang Wanting.

Argos Retail Group's IPO will publicly sell 300 million new shares, bringing their total post-listing share capital to 3.3 billion shares.

The issue price of its shares was finally set at 3 pounds per share - because it has the most "fashionable" e-commerce concept, and has more than 1,000 stores throughout Western Europe, and its online shopping coverage has covered some cities in Western and Northern Europe. Therefore, Argos Retail The group's stock price expectations are still very optimistic.

And currently in the European market, Argos.com is also the dominant player in the e-commerce field. Although there is news that Amazon is about to open a European station, Argos.com's first-mover advantage cannot be ignored.

"In addition, Your Highness the Duke, Miss Fan Bingbing is already waiting for you at the shipyard."

"Okay, I know."

Barron arrived in Germany this time. After the Devonshire landed, they took a convoy directly to a small town not far away.

There, there is a century-old shipyard called Abeking \u0026 Rasmussen.

Abeking \u0026 Rasmussen Shipyard was founded in 1907 by Georg Abeking and Henry Rasmussen. This shipyard has built a wide variety of boats, including commercial ships, military ships, sailing boats, motor boats, etc., and has rich experience in the field of shipbuilding.

Abeking \u0026 Rasmussen Shipyard currently has orders for commercial multi-purpose ships and naval minehunters, as well as fully customized yachts.

Well, that includes the superyacht that Barron customized last year.