46 Chapter-46 : Carnival

12 February 1992 Paris

In a certain cafe in this bustling city of Paris, a young man can be seen sitting at a table, reading a book covering his face.

At that moment a man in an office suit entered the cafe looked around a bit, saw the face covered young man and went straight towards him.

He sat on an empty chair facing the person.

"You have certainly taken your time Kyle," said the person closing the book and keeping it on the table.

"Well, I am still trying to stay a bit less conspicuous. You might not know where KGB is around." joked Kyle.

"Your humor hasn't been missing, it seems. It's great to have you back, Kyle," replied smiling Ric while patting on Kyle's arm.

"It's good to be back," he replied while smiling back.

"Okay, let's forget the chit-chat and come back to business. Here take this," said Ric while bringing a file out of his bag and gave it to kyle while continuing,

"I have written a well-detailed plan about what to do with this capital in there."

The file basically contains a plan to establish a holding company like <Feather Inc> but focusing on the fashion, food, sports, tourism & hospitality industry through M&A.

And the list of all potential M&A targets.

When kyle took the file, he noticed a name written on the top. The name says <Carnival Inc>. Then he opened the file and started reading it.

"Wow!!! Ric, how long were you planing this," said Kyle after reading the entire plan.

"I have been researching the European market quite sometime now while you were off the grid. After all, doing nothing other than studying tends to give you a lot of time," replied Ric.

"It might take a lot of time even if I assemble my team. And more I'm importantly where to start," said Kyle while looking throw the file again.

"Don't worry. It is a long-term project. After all, we are dealing with real estate here. It won't be developed in one or two years."

"It's well and good, but about the fashion department, most of the potential companies are in Italy, so why are we in France." said kyle getting confused.

"Kyle, I have a big ambition with the tourism& hospitality department of 'Carnival'. From amusement parks to hotel chains, from air travels to tour services. All of this together makes carnival tourism.

Not only that, Carnival's half of the industry will be dapped in real estate. Stadiums, Amusement parks, Restaurants, Malls, Stores, Hotels are all real estate.

And have you noticed Kyle, tourism and real estate is a way to cooperate with the government," replied Ric.

"Yes. I understand you have a big ambition, but you still didn't tell me why we are in France," said Kyle.

"tsk-tsk, you still haven't figured it out how sad," Ric said while shaking his head, and before Kyle can reply, he continued,

"Le-meridian... we are here for Le-meridian. But if we are lucky, we can get Accor also."

"Oh...Ooo... so, you want to start by buying a hotel chain first," said Kyle.

Instead of answering, Ric got up, put the charge under the cup, and started moving towards the exit while saying,

"Enough chit-chat, let's finish some job before I go back to the US."

"Hey Ric, wait for me," said Kyle while chasing after Ric.

Later that day, Ric and Kyle met with people from Air France regarding Le-meridian.

After some discussions and negotiations, Air France decided to sell its subsidiary hotel chain for 68 million dollars with a 25% customer discount.

A week went by as the company was handed over and reorganized. And first thing Ric did was adding a line under the name of the hotel. He added the line Carnival's luxury class hotel.

Like that it Le Meridian became a part of <Carnival's Hotel & Resort>.

Then he ordered the company to expand in different key locations of different countries in the fastest possible time. To make it possible, he injected 132 million dollars and promised to inject more.

As Ric was busy with the meeting of the management team of Le-Meridian, Kyle was sent to establish contact with Accor for M&A purposes.

Initially, Accor declined any form of acquisition. But when offered a high premium price above the market, they decided to sit at the negotiation table.

After a few rounds of negotiation over the week, it was decided that Ric would acquire Accor for 250 million dollars and marge with <Carnival's Hotel & Resort> to form <Carnival's Accor> hospitality company.

It also made a change in Le-Meridian's naming to <Carnival's Accor Le-Meridian>

Ric stayed another week for the reorganization of <Carnival's Accor> and a few management meetings. Then they went to Germany.

Ric spent about two weeks in Germany. During his stay, he went on a buying spree.

At first, he did coming to Germany was buying the Penta hotel for 50 million dollars. Adding another hotel chain under Carnival of <Carnival's Accor>

Then went into a discussion and negotiation with HUGO BOSS for buying it.

And finally bought 60% of the company's share for 150 million dollars while injecting another 150 million.

Making the brand under the wings of newly established <Carnival's Wears >

Then they went to Italy. There Ric spent his last two weeks.

While staying there, Ric struck a deal with Armani and D&G getting 60% & 57% of their company share for a total of 300 Million Dollars, bringing them under <Carnival's Wears>.

Throughout Ric's stays in Europe, he has bought a few small and large lands, wineries, restaurants, pub & club chains.

Also, a few less famous or defunct large and small motel chains, clothing brands, perfume brands, and distribution departments to bolster Carnival.

The total expenditure for these additional things was about 500 million dollars.

As Ric left Europe, Kyle is responsible for establishing the other sectors of <Carnival Inc>as planned while developing its own hotel chains and own brand in the fashion industry.

During Ric's stay in Europe, things were on fire in the gaming market back at his home.

As <The Lost Vikings> finally released in the market 2 weeks after Ric went to Europe.

Unlike other game companies, <Feather's Nest> games enter the marketing stage a week prior to its release.

The company also follows a strict rule of not sharing or announcing the release date or progress of any games during its development period.

Even the marketing stage of the game gets the green light when the game itself gets the green light from the production department.

This helps to reduce the chance of missing the lunch date as well as create good hype.

Blizzard being a part of <Feather Inc>, marketing of its new game already started a week before the game's release.

In fact, as Ric was personally involved with the game, it got preferential treatment by <Feather Nest> by organizing an introduction program on the day of its release live.