In the final analysis, William Weber Capital is only a part of Barron's short-selling plan related to the subprime mortgage crisis in Europe.
At this time, the various funds under the DS Group have gradually increased their short-selling in the European market, with a total investment of up to 10 billion euros. However, it will take time for the impact of the subprime mortgage crisis to spread to Europe, so they will gradually increase their positions and will not invest all these funds at once.
For example, as mentioned earlier, Societe Generale lost 4.9 billion euros because of the private operation of their trader, which was bullish on the European stock market.
The other party's bullish positions, in fact, are now almost all carried out by the DS Group...
Wealth will not disappear, it will only transfer. If there is an institution that loses money, there must be a party that makes a profit. This is the truth.
"Hello, Mr. Sarkozy."
"Welcome to Paris, Your Highness."
In fact, the meeting with Ashley Weber was just a by-product. After that, Barron met Nicolas Sarkozy in his newly purchased villa in Paris.
In fact, he and the other party are also kindred spirits...
Old Sa was previously the Minister of the Interior. He won the election in May this year and became the new President of France.
In addition, Bruni, who used to be Barron's French teacher and taught him personally, has also been secretly dating Old Sa. The two will make their relationship public in a few months. According to the trend of her previous life, Bruni will also become the first lady of France.
Bruni's fate is quite tortuous and bloody, but she also knows that her relationship with Barron, the Duke of England, is destined to be only a short-term relationship. Therefore, after meeting Old Sa, she began to get along with him.
Barron and Old Sa were introduced by Bruni and arranged for their meeting.
Old Sa is very interesting. He was originally on the side of former French President Jacques Chirac. Later, in the 1995 election, he switched sides and supported Chirac's opponent. Then he returned to Chirac in the 2002 election and ran around for his campaign...
Of course, he also got his reward and later served as the Minister of the Interior.
In this year's election, Chirac announced his retirement and supported Sarkozy, which eventually helped him win the election.
Compared with South Korea, the French presidency can be said to be very safe, but even so, Sarkozy still became the first French president to go to prison later - although he was only sentenced to one year in prison and suspended.
Sarkozy is now in a state of high spirits. He has just taken over a high position and is also in a happy mood, but he is still very friendly to Barron, the young Duke of England - after all, he also knows the capital and strength of the other party.
In terms of policy, Sarkozy is a hardliner, which can be seen from his tough attitude to quell the Paris riots when he was the Minister of the Interior.
At the same time, he also has a tough attitude towards immigrants. After he took office, he proposed to add French and national values tests to those who join French nationality.
Therefore, Sarkozy also strongly supports the cooperation between France and Britain to repatriate illegal immigrants.
At present, a "refugee resettlement area" has been designated on the eastern border of Kolo, on the side of neighboring Benin, to accommodate illegal immigrants brought in from Britain and France. On the British side, the coast guard established by the Protector Security Company cooperated with the French law enforcement department to prevent illegal immigrants from landing, and both sides funded the sending of these illegal immigrants to West Africa. It
can be said that compared with the burden and negative impact caused by these illegal immigrants entering the country on the welfare system and social security, it is worthwhile to spend some money to solve this problem in the eyes of Lao Sa. Therefore, after he took office, he vigorously promoted this kind of cooperation with the British side, and limited its scope not only to illegal immigrants who were found at sea and at the border to enter the country, but also to illegal immigrants who were found illegally staying in the country.
Barron is also very supportive of this move. At present, more than 1,000 British and French "illegal immigrants" have been transported to the resettlement area in Benin. Among them, after the review of Colo, more than 200 people have obtained residence permits in Colo. If they perform well within 5 years, they can obtain Colo nationality.
All of these people have received a certain education or have a skill, which can make up for some of the employment gaps in the country during the current great development of Colo.
In addition to the resettlement of illegal immigrants, Barron and Sa also talked about investment in France.
Currently, the largest asset of DS Group in France is Gucci-Hermès Group, which is composed of two top luxury brands in France and Italy. In fact, in addition to the two brands of Gucci and Hermès, the two companies also owned some other luxury brands before the merger.
For example, before the acquisition, Gucci Group already owned many brands including Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Boucheron, and Yves Saint Laurent.
Before the merger of Hermès and Gucci Group, in addition to the Hermès brand, it also owned brands such as John Lobb, Saint Louis and Puiforcat.
It can be said that France and Italy have the most luxury brands in the whole of Europe. Sa also hopes that Barron can invest more in France to promote the local economy.
In general, the purpose of their meeting this time was to "establish connections". After all, after making a fortune in the subprime mortgage crisis, Barron would definitely start to make large-scale acquisitions while the market value of many companies was at a low point. At that time, with the help of Old Sa, it would be easier for France.
Old Sa was also happy to establish a good personal relationship with Barron. He even said that he could introduce some local families to Barron to promote cooperation between the two sides.
He was not just talking. Soon at a banquet, he introduced a man to Barron...
This man was named Arnault...
Well, he was not Bernard Arnault, the chairman of the LVMH Group, but Arnault Lagardère, the new head of the Lagardère family, another wealthy family in France.
As for why Old Sa introduced this man, who was called the "most failed heir", to him, Barron was still not sure - but at least the benefit was that when this Arnault wanted to sell any industry, Barron could take over more conveniently.
From now on, the Lagardère family can be ranked among the top business families in France. Arnaud Lagardère's father is one of the most famous and respected businessmen in France, Jean-Luc Lagardère, who has built a business empire including missile manufacturer Matra and publisher Hachette.
Currently, the Lagardère family's Lagardère Group (Lagardère SCA) is one of the world's three largest publishing groups, owning Paris Match, Le Journal du Dimanche, Hachette Publishing House, Europe 1 Radio and some important duty-free chain stores.
The Lagardère Group's businesses include television stations, publishing, media magazines, tourism, etc.
They own nearly 100 magazines in more than a dozen countries, including ELLE, Automobili Zeitung, Version Femina, Art & Décoration, France Dimanche, Télé 7 Jours, Ici Paris and Public.