Chapter 60 Argent Real Estate Group

"Congratulations, Your Highness. I am now revisiting the first novel every day from the serialization in The Independent. When are you going to start writing the second novel?"

"You know, ma'am, Bonnie has been very busy lately. We plan to start writing the second part of the novel later."

After meeting Viscountess Chris, Barron gently held her arm, gave her a kiss, and said to her,

"Like today, we had agreed to come together, but she couldn't spare the time in the end. She's much busier than I am now."

"She's been under a lot of pressure with her new show recently, but what I didn't expect was that you actually bought The Independent and are now running it so well."

"Yes, Your Highness, it was a very bold and successful move."

After Chris finished speaking, Viscount Bute beside her shook hands with Barron and praised him.

"Compared to our cooperation, that's just small business, isn't it, your lordship."

"Haha, Your Highness, I also hope that our 'big business' can be completed smoothly."

As he was talking to Viscount Bute and his wife and walking into the house, Barron inadvertently caught a glimpse of Viscount Bute's personal valet walking behind him. There was a hint of hatred in his eyes when he looked at him?

Maybe he noticed Barron's gaze, but the valet gave him a smile, which made him almost think he had seen it wrong.

Thinking of what I overheard at the ball at Viscount Bute's house that day...

interesting.

The party that Barron attended today was a meeting of the London Real Estate Dealers Association.

As the name suggests, the London Real Estate Agents Guild is an association of real estate agents. In London, there are about 110 guilds of various industries, the earliest of which has a history of nearly a thousand years, and there are also guilds of emerging industries established in the past century.

For example, the history of the Real Estate Dealers' Guild can be traced back to the 17th century, which is three hundred years ago. Among the members of this guild, there are many powerful families in the London real estate industry, such as the Duke of Westminster's family, which owns a quarter of the land in London.

Today, Barron and the Butts attended the meeting of the Real Estate Dealers' Guild as shareholders of the Argent Real Estate Group. The Butt family itself is a member of this guild and a member of the Management Committee of the London Real Estate Dealers' Guild. Viscount Butt's father is one of the members of this guild. When his father dies or steps down, Ian Butt, the family heir, will inherit this position.

Yes, the commissioners and members of these ancient trade guilds are mostly inherited - of course, in modern times, many trade guilds also regularly open up to new members, especially trade guilds in emerging industries, which are more open.

After a period of negotiations and consultations, Barron, Viscount Bute and other stakeholders finally reached an agreement on the renovation project of King's Cross.

All real estate holders willing to cooperate will be allocated a portion of the shares of the new company through the valuation of the real estate they hold. In fact, the reason why the discussion takes so much time is mainly because there are some differences in the definition of the ultimate value of the real estate held by each party, such as the weight of factors such as area and location.

But eventually a consensus was reached.

Another portion of the new company's shares will be used to merge into Argent Real Estate, a real estate development company with sufficient experience and qualifications, and to reserve a portion of shares for other partners.

Because it was merged into Argent Real Estate Company, the name of the new company was named Argent Real Estate Group. Among the shares of the new company, 60% of the shares were allocated to real estate holders in King's Cross who joined the cooperation. Barron's family trust fund acquired 15% of the group's shares with a gas tank plot of approximately 6 hectares of land; DS Asset Management Company acquired 5% of the shares with approximately 2 hectares of land.

Therefore, he holds a total of 20% of Argent Property Group's shares.

Viscount Bute acquired a 12.5% ​​stake in exchange for approximately 5 hectares of land, and the remaining shares were distributed to other property holders.

However, in the Argent Real Estate Group, Viscount Butt is still the controlling shareholder, because in the merged Argent Real Estate Company, the Butt family holds more than 60% of the shares. Relying on these shares, they also obtained an additional 12% of the shares, with a total shareholding of 22.5%, making them the largest single shareholder of the Argent Group.

Of course, these are all obvious holdings. It is not yet possible to determine how many other group holdings are closely related to it.

In addition, Barclays Bank's investment banking division has invested capital to become a shareholder holding 10% of Argent Property Group's shares, and Barclays Bank will be responsible for the financing of Argent Property Group in the entire King's Cross renovation plan.

Argent Property Group also has an additional 10% stake, which was acquired from other entities, including some powerful groups in King's Cross. It is worth mentioning that the London Real Estate Association also invested and holds a 5% stake in Argent Property Group.

Yes, nowadays, because they hold a large amount of real estate, many trade associations will actively invest in equity in some projects, including real estate projects, in order to continue their wealth. Just like in the Argent Real Estate Group, there are not only shares held by the London Real Estate Dealers Association, but also the Coal Traders Association and the Grain Merchants Association who have invested in shares through the land they hold.

After the establishment of Argent Property Group, it obtained the support of most property owners in the King's Cross area, and therefore obtained the authorization of the Camden District and became the main developer of the King's Cross renovation project. They will also receive the government's commission for the renovation plan of public areas.

At this time, Argent Real Estate Group has hired two local architectural and urban planning firms in London to carry out the master plan for King's Cross. After the plan is completed, it will be submitted to Camden Borough Council and reported to the London City Government.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that in order to promote the development of King's Cross after the transformation, the Camden District Council has applied to the London City Council to relocate Central Saint Martins College to King's Cross.

Central Saint Martins College was established in 1989 by merging two schools - the Central School of Arts and Crafts and Saint Martins School of Art. This school is the largest and best art and design school in the UK. It belongs to the University of the Arts London (ranked in the top three in art and design in the global university rankings) and is also one of the four largest fashion design schools in the world.

It is well-known in the international fashion industry as a prestigious school that produces many famous fashion designers. Most of its fashion design graduates are hired by many international fashion brands such as Dior and Gucci. Every year, the graduate fashion show at the London Fashion Week has become the focus of many international fashion brands and international fashion media to pay attention to and discover new design talents.

It can be said that the introduction of this university is very important for the King's Cross area.

However, there are not many plots of land in this area that are suitable for building a campus for this school. In the end, about 4 hectares of land on the east side of the 6 hectares of the "conjoined triplets" of abandoned gas tanks were expropriated as part of the Central Saint Martins campus.

To this end, the Camden Council will allocate approximately four hectares of land to Argent Property Group in an area immediately east of King's Cross Station, which was originally a government-owned public area, as compensation.

Barron could accept this plan. After all, the replacement land was closer to the two stations, and it was very close to the 0.8-hectare land he bought, so they could be planned in a coordinated manner.