Distressed Asset Empire-Building

"Returned to the hands of a private buyer, the Agache-Willot group would give birth to the flagship of the global luxury industry: LVMH."

"It thus clearly appears that the Willot group benefits from extraordinarily favorable conditions in this operation. Not only does it not have to spend a cent in taking over Boussac, but on the contrary, it improves its cash flow through the recovery of receivables and liquidity and by selling Boussac's stock. A new working capital is established thanks to the supplier credit that the group can negotiate again. The sales of assets already made will allow for the repayment of the first installments."

""From a small family business, the creation of an international conglomerate is based on a number of simple but profitable ideas: • - choosing external growth by purchasing struggling companies at low prices that hold latent resources; • - diversification focused on the textile origin of the group and also the distribution sector; • - restructuring and making profitable the acquired companies through decentralized management and the search for productive niches; • - liquidation of dormant and unnecessary real estate assets. The originality of the system was to develop without any equity from the Willot brothers, by drawing the necessary financial resources for this expansion from the internal resources of affiliated companies... and thus the Willot brothers increased their personal fortune by increasing the value of their stakes, their dividends channeled by SFFAW and the salaries they allocated to themselves in the various subsidiaries.""

"The Boussac Saint Frères file is one of those. The quality and influence of the Christian Dior brand greatly impressed Bernard Arnault. He would really like to know more... He knows the brothers, who are also from the North, why not meet them? On July 15, 1984, a first meeting takes place in Croix, at Croquet, the name of Jean-Pierre Willot's lavish home. Who will outsmart whom? Bernard Arnault mostly talks about Dior, but it's all or nothing..."