I Become A Noble in England

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

Especially for a combination of physical stores and e-commerce like Argos, they need to build a large number of cargo transit warehouses 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 "infrastructures", coupled with Argos Holdings' acquisition of Supor and other upstream investments in the industry, there is still a shortage of funds.

At this time, Barron naturally needs financial support.

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

However, this valuation is not false at all. After all, Argos Retail Group now has nearly 1,000 stores in the UK, Ireland and France. Its e-commerce business and some warehousing and pickup points have also entered the entire Western European market and are currently heading towards the Nordic market...

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

Currently, DS Capital holds 67.5% of Argos Retail Group's shares; Rich23 Capital holds 22.5%; and GII Fund holds 10%.

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

GII-1's holdings include 47.5% of Four Seasons Hotels, 40% of Fast Retailing (after merging with the Primark clothing chain) and 100% of the London Stock Exchange, as well as an initial $500 million investment in Hera, a high-frequency trading fund based in London.

GII-2 Holdings holds 10% of Argos Retail Group's shares.

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 London Stock Exchange.

After receiving $1 billion in funding, Argos Retail Group will continue to strengthen its presence in the European market, so as to occupy as much territory as possible and consolidate the market before Amazon enters Europe.

…

When Barron, led by a waitress with a nice figure, opened the private room of this high-end private club, a noisy and lively atmosphere greeted him.

"Barron! My dear Barron, you are finally here!"

It was Prince William who shouted this at him, even drowning out the music in the room for a moment.

But from his red face, it can be seen that this boy has drunk quite a lot of wine.

Although Barron is not very old at this moment and will soon be turning 26, which makes him not much older than William and the others, the fact is that he is no longer accustomed to this kind of night-time carnival life.

After making a gesture to William, indicating that they should just continue playing, Barron looked around the private room and found a seat to sit down.

"My Lord Duke, we are almost leaving and you are just 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 close to Barron's ear and said this.

"It looks like you guys had quite a few drinks...Holly."

Although Barron could smell alcohol from Holly when she was talking just now, she didn't seem to be too drunk. She poured ice cubes into the glass, added whiskey, handed it to Barron, and said:

"You know, William is about to leave London..."

She shrugged and smiled,

"So, it makes sense."

Barron knew that William had just finished his internship at HSBC, and would be sent to the army for "training" at the beginning of next year. By then, as a prince, he would be watched by countless eyes, and it would be impossible for him to relax like he is now...

But since Holly happened to be next to him, Barron would not miss the opportunity. He said calmly,

"I heard that NTL is contacting your family, hoping to acquire Virgin Mobile?"

When Holly heard this, she smiled, winked at Barron, and said:

"I don't really care about the family business, Barron."

"oh?"

"Why, are you also interested in Virgin Mobile? By the way, O2 Telecom is your business..."

"If there's a chance, I'd still like to try it... maybe I can give you a better price, Holly."

"Ha ha..."

Hearing Barron's words, Holly laughed:

"It's unlikely, Barron. As a friend, I have to be frank. Even if you can offer a higher price, it's just my father using it as a bargaining chip in the negotiation with NTL."

"Because of the name Virgin?"

"Look, you know, Barron."

The current trend in the UK is that businesses such as the telecommunications industry and television channels have begun to integrate.

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

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

NTL is currently the largest cable TV operator in the UK. 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 smaller than that of O2 Telecom. According to information obtained by Barron's, NTL's offer for Virgin Mobile is less than US$1.5 billion, which is consistent with Virgin Mobile's value.

Just as Holly said, even if Barron could offer a higher price, her father Richard Branson would 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 it was renamed Virgin Telecom...

Richard Branson owns 72% of Virgin Mobile's shares. It is very likely that in the merger and acquisition, the shares of the new company he acquires will make him the largest shareholder of "Virgin Telecom". This will also expand the scope of the Virgin brand, which is what Richard Branson values ​​most.

Once this merger is completed, the new company will have 2.5 million broadband users, 4.3 million fixed-line users and more than 5 million mobile phone users, making it the first telecommunications giant in the UK to simultaneously provide "quadruple services" of mobile phones, fixed-line phones, pay TV and high-speed Internet access.

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

Even a strong company like O2 Telecom only has two businesses: broadband and mobile communications.