Chapter 213: Sudden Attack

Barron asked Daisy to collect relevant information about the Selfridges Group, not just to vent his anger. Unless Galen G. Weston was really ignorant, there was no need for him to spend billions of dollars on something that would not bring him any benefit just for such a small matter.

The main reason is that the Selfridges Group is indeed a good acquisition target. Baron already owns high-end brands such as Duke's Selection and affordable department store chains such as Argos in the retail industry. It is not surprising to add a high-end department store such as Selfridges.

Barron also remembered that in the original time and space in 2022, after the death of W. Galen Weston, the head of the Weston family and the father of Galen G. Weston, the Weston family sold the Selfridges Group for 4 billion pounds. At that time, the company that was confirmed to buy was Central Group, a retail group founded by the Zheng family, a Chinese family from Thailand.

At that time, Selfridges department store was already known as the most profitable shopping mall in London.

Of course, the Selfridges retail group that Central Group spent 4 billion pounds to buy does not just include the Selfridges Group stores that the Weston family is preparing to buy at this time.

At that time, the Weston family combined some of their other retail brands with Selfridges department store to form the Selfridges Retail Group, which consisted of five department stores: Holt Renfrew in Canada, de Bijenkorf in the Netherlands, and Brown Thomas and Arnotts in Ireland.

Central Group purchased four stores of Selfridges Department Store Group (two of which are self-owned properties) plus two self-owned stores of Brown Thomas and Arnotts in Dublin, Ireland.

But no matter what, the profitability of Selfridges Department Store Group is unquestionable. From now until 2019, its revenue has maintained a relatively high growth rate. It is no wonder that it has become one of the most profitable department stores in London and even the whole of Britain.

As someone said at the time: "When a unique asset like Selfridges is sold, it is a once-in-a-lifetime deal."

But in Barron's, if you want a high-end department store, there are other options besides Selfridges, such as Harrods.

This is also one of the most prestigious department stores in the world, located in Knightsbridge, London.

Before being surpassed by Hua Xia Yanjing's SKP in 2020, Harrods had always been the shopping mall with the highest sales in the world. In 2010, this "king of department stores" was acquired by the Qatar Investment Authority for 1.5 billion pounds.

Of course, the Weston family is now preparing to acquire the Selfridges Department Store Group. If you participate in it, you can not only put a pressure on Galen G. Weston, but even if you can't snatch Selfridges from them in the end, you can still make a lot of profit.

Just like before, although Barron snatched Manchester United Club from the Glazer family, the Glazer family also gained a lot of benefits from it.

Moreover, department stores like Harrods and Selfridges cannot be bought at any time. One needs to wait for the opportunity when their owners are willing to sell. Since the Weston family in the original time and space was able to buy the Selfridges department store group this year, it means that the chances of buying Selfridges will be better. Therefore, Baron will also focus on Selfridges.

In addition to the matter regarding Selfridges department store, Baron also took a look at the situation of the Athena Fund.

As for the Athena Fund, the main task within the current month is to use supercomputers to improve the mathematical model of their quantitative trading. First, through the operation of the virtual disk, after testing and making the model "usable", they will start the real-time program to automatically buy and sell arbitrage.

Of course, these processes must be carried out step by step with caution. Baron does not want to suffer heavy losses due to procedural errors, or even cause a huge impact like the stock market flash crash in 2010 in the original time and space.

This is why he is not in a hurry to expand the size of Athena Fund. With the current fund size of US$400 million, he can fully afford even if there are losses. The key is to perfect their mathematical model in the early stage so that their "core competitiveness" can carry out arbitrage stably and efficiently.

"Baby, where are you?"

"Oh, I'm with Mrs. Beckham right now. She asked me to go shopping with her today."

After more than two months of work, Bonnie now has a relatively rich vacation.

On the phone, she told Barron that she would be with Victoria Beckham today. Beckham has now gone to Madrid, Spain, and joined the Real Madrid Club, while Victoria will stay in London with her two children most of the time.

In 1999 and 2002, Victoria gave birth to two sons for Beckham respectively. Because the children were still young, they naturally needed to be taken care of at home in London.

I have to say that Victoria was very thoughtful, because Beckham left Manchester United and joined Real Madrid, and they were also worried that this would offend the owner of Manchester United at the time - Barron Cavendish, Duke of Devonshire.

After meeting Barron and Bonnie at the birthday party of Holly, the eldest daughter of the Virgin Group, Victoria has been keeping in touch with Bonnie. It seems that she hopes to take the "lady route" and ease the relationship with Barron through Bonnie.

It seems that no matter what their status is, shopping is always a big hobby for women, especially for "workaholics" like Bonnie, shopping is a way to relieve stress.

Now that she has someone to go shopping with, Barron is naturally happy to have some free time.

However, this phone call reminded Barron that last month, Manchester United signed Cristiano Ronaldo from Sporting Lisbon of the Portuguese League for 10 million pounds.

By that time, Barron had already gone to America, and until now, he has not met the future football superstar.

In his previous life, Barron admired one thing about Ronaldo very much, which was his self-discipline. It was indeed not easy to maintain his competitive form until he was nearly 40 years old.

Many people know that in the next nearly twenty years, world football will be a competition between the twin stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi.

Relatively speaking, Ronaldo looks more handsome, and if he can avoid some of the negative news later, his commercial value will have greater potential.

Regarding the commercial operation of Manchester United Club, Ronaldo will also be a crucial part in Barron's plan.

In addition to requiring Ferguson to train this young man with great potential in terms of competition, Barron will also let Manchester United's brand management company provide customized packaging for this future football superstar in terms of personal commercial value.

However, in order to prevent Beckham from being poached by Real Madrid from happening again, Barron is also preparing to get closer to the young rookie Cristiano Ronaldo.

Just as he was about to go to Old Trafford to take a look, Barron received a call on his private mobile phone. When he saw the caller ID... it was Amanda Hearst!

So his plans changed and the Rolls-Royce Phantom went directly to the Devonshire Hotel in Chelsea.

The reason was that the Hester sisters had surprised him by flying to London and checking into the Devonshire Hotel.