Pierre Cardin Troubled "Cheat" Whirlpool

The two Chinese companies competed for the brand ownership of “Pierre Cardin” in China. Their respective local governments made qualitatively different projects on this, leading to lower prices for companies to take the lead. As a result, this fire burned the old man of Pierre Cardin as far away as Europe. The party accused him of malicious deception, inciting competition from Chinese companies and seeking improper interests.

On October 19th, Sun Xiaofei was at Xiyuan Hotel in Beijing. His trip was to submit an application for the trademark transfer of “Pierre Cardin” to the State Trademark Office. He got up in the morning and turned on his computer. Suddenly he was caught in a news story and he was irritated.

Just one day ago, Shanghai Zhongfu Import & Export Co., Ltd. held a press conference to publicly criticize “Pierre Cardin” for a woman’s second marriage. On the one hand, she negotiated with Shanghai Zhongfu to negotiate the overall transfer of trademarks in Greater China, and on the other hand, Some trademark rights such as leather goods, knitwear, and leather shoes were transferred to another company in Wenzhou.

The anger of Sun Xiaofei was that Shanghai Zhongfu said to reporters that Shanghai Zhongfu is the only purchaser approved by the National Development and Reform Commission. The transactions of other companies with “Pierre Cardin” will not be recognized by the competent authorities of the Chinese government. If this is true, it would be equivalent to Sun Xiaofei’s “death penalty”. The previous 37 million euro purchase contract he negotiated with Pierre Cardin will become a piece of waste paper. The Cardan Road Group he controls may also face 6 million euros. Compensation for damages.

However, is this really the case?

Tit for tat

The card played by Shanghai Zhongfu seems to be very "destructive." It has come out with a red tape approved by the National Development and Reform Commission and insists that they are the only ones approved by the government.

In the media briefing delivered by Yao Yaoming, the person in charge of the Shanghai Legal Service Department, to the reporter, he expressed dissatisfaction with the rumored buyers and Pierre Cardin.

The circular said that Shanghai Zhongfu started the “Pier Cardin” trademark acquisition project in March 2009, and obtained the official approval from the National Development and Reform Commission in August. In the meantime, he consulted with Mr. Cardin several times and he has set up a subsidiary specifically for the acquisition in the central district of Paris, France. However, what they didn't expect was that in mid-September Mr. Cardin had transferred some trademarks such as leather goods to another company in China. This obviously violated the overall purchase agreement reached between Shanghai Zhongshang and Mr. Qiaodan.

“Mr. Cardin, as a world famous person and a business giant, has such a basic business ethics and has serious legal risks.” Shanghai Zhongfu directed the finger at Pierre Cardin himself and believed that he was suspected of using domestic companies against Peel. The feelings of Cardin's trademark provoke malicious competition and seek improper interests.

However, Cardan Road refuted the assertion that Shanghai Zhongfu insisted that their acquisition was legal.

According to Sun Xiaofei, his trade with Pierre Cardin was already submitted to the Wenzhou Development and Reform Commission and the Bureau of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, and was approved by relevant parties. The other party clearly told him that non-capital projects do not need to be reported to the National Development and Reform Commission. Therefore, everything that Cardin Road does is reasonable and legal.

The reporter then called the Wenzhou Municipal Development and Reform Commission and the Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau. The other party replied that they did indeed find that the project on Cardin Road was not a capital project and did not require their approval.

According to the feedback from related parties, Cardin Road acquired the right to use the brand of “Pierre Cardin” in China. The brand is registered in China and does not belong to overseas capital mergers and acquisitions.

Interestingly, the Shanghai Development and Reform Commission has determined that this is an overseas investment project. They applied for the application submitted by Shanghai Zhongfu and submitted it to the National Development and Reform Commission for approval.

As for the subject of the two parties, only one side is an overall merger and acquisition, and the other side is a partial acquisition. Why is the qualitative difference in different local government departments completely different?

Hu De Bing, a senior lawyer at Beijing Jiade Law Firm, stated that if it is just a trademark transfer, whether it is a domestic or a foreign trademark, it is not an act of a capital account. However, if it involves the establishment of a subsidiary overseas, or the subject’s purchase of real estate overseas, it should be treated as an overseas investment. Items with a value of more than US$10 million must be reported to the National Development and Reform Commission for approval. The reason why the local government is different from the qualitative one is that it has a lot to do with the information submitted by the company when submitting the project. In general, a large amount of transactions will not generally be as simple as a simple trade mark. However, he also pointed out that in specific business practices, companies may be able to wipe the ball, in the early cooperation, only the purchase of the trademark, which can avoid a lot of cumbersome approval process.

Confusing acquisition

The most eye-catching cross-border acquisition in the history of clothing has been confusing from the very beginning.

Sun Xiaofei is the earliest actor in this legend. As early as June of this year, it was reported that two private enterprises in China participated in the acquisition of trademark use rights for “Pierre Cardin”. One was Guangzhou Jiansheng, and the other was Cardin Road, which Sun Xiaofei was in charge of. The former, it was announced later. Due to the lack of financial strength, this business competition is withdrawn.

At the beginning of the news, people were surprised at why Peel Cardin’s old man had sold his fashion empire, which he had operated for decades, to the Chinese, and he was also doubtful whether the two Chinese agents were truly able to take over. . Some people even questioned whether they might just use this acquisition opportunity to make hype in order to win everyone’s attention. Sun Xiaofei, who was questioned, thus disappeared from people's perspective for a long time and refused to accept any media interviews.

However, Wenzhou companies Aokang, Hu Hao, and Kangnai were also involved. Of these, Aokang was one of the most rumors of rumor. The reason is simple. It has the most acquisition strength and experience. The dramatic effect is that when people speculated that Pierre Cardin would be acquired by someone, a financial reporter suddenly received a mysterious message stating that the companies involved in the acquisition were far more than those mentioned above, and The new list was disclosed in the text message. As a result, several private enterprises such as Zhejiang Huazhong Industrial and Guangdong Haihua Industry were also pushed to the front desk.

In this chaos, at the end of August this year, an unfamiliar Shanghai service suddenly announced publicly that the overall acquisition agreement between them and Pierre Cardin has made substantial progress, and its acquisition has successively acquired Shanghai Business. Committee, National Development and Reform Commission approval. This is tantamount to setting a tone for this acquisition: "Pier Cardin" will change his name to Shanghai's middle service in the future. At this point, the acquisition of "Pier Cardin" has been interpreted as a feast of Chinese clothing enterprises collective feast.

No one expected that, just as people thought that the acquisition was going to come to an end, a paper announcement in Shanghai sent people into another unknown mystery.

The dark truth

Shanghai Zhongfu was the only state-owned company among the many hearsay purchasers, and the only one to propose an overall acquisition. According to Yao Yaoming, they had been actively negotiating with Pierre Cardin, although he had also heard that other companies had participated in the acquisition. However, since there are red-headed documents in their hands, they have always believed that there will be no problems. They are very shocked until they get the exact news, and this starts the investigation.

According to the survey conducted by Shanghai Zhongfu, “Pier Cardin” and Cardin Road signed a trademark transfer agreement worth 37 million Euros in early July this year. Mr. Cardin received 33.3 million Euros in early September. What shocked them was that one of the 6 million euros had already been handed over as early as May of this year. Based on this, Shanghai Zhongfa concluded that Pierre Cardin’s negotiations with their so-called overall acquisitions, which lasted for 8 months, were in fact only a form of malicious deception. Otherwise, it would not be possible to receive payment in May. At the same time, they also negotiate with them in a respectful manner. According to this, Shanghai’s service considers itself to be played.

"If Mr. Cardin does not provide a reasonable explanation for this, we do not rule out the organization of a lawyer group to initiate a lawsuit to pursue Mr. Cardin's legal responsibilities and demand the revocation of improper transactions," said Shanghai Zhongfu.

Hu Debing believes that according to the relevant laws, even if the parties to the negotiation do not sign a contract, if one party does make a lot of preparations for this purpose, he can also pursue the other party’s negligence.

In Cardan Road, there is another version.

Sun Xiaofei disclosed to the reporter some of the lesser-known details of his negotiation with Pierre Cardin. Sun Xiaofei started contact with Pierre Cardin in December of last year and reached a preliminary agreement in April this year. At the end of August, he signed a formal contract and in early September paid the entire amount to Pierre Cardin’s account in France. He said that until the end of August, he had never heard of Cardin’s old man saying that there were third parties involved in the acquisition.

However, on August 28th, when he flew to Paris, France, he met with Pierre Cardin and smelled a bit of “smoke smoke”. On that occasion, it was originally about Pierre Cardin’s coming to China to personally announce their cooperation. However, due to the poor health of Pierre Cardin, Sun Xiaofei had to go to Paris himself. During the chat, Cardin’s old man suddenly asked him a question: “Someone held a red file and told me that they are legal. You are not legal. Why is this?” Sun Xiaofei learned at this time that there was another company. Intended to purchase Pierre Cardin’s brand rights in the Greater China region as a whole, the price tag is 200 million Euros and the first payment is 60 million Euros. This price tag is clearly higher than that of its own. Then, Pierre Cardin proposed that if Sun Xiaofei is willing to give up, they will compensate him for a sum of money.

Sun Xiaofei rejected the advice of the Cardinan elderly, but Pierre Cardin, despite some vacillation, still demonstrated the quality of his contract. However, he insisted Sun Xiaofei agreed to add one to the contract: if the acquisition of Cardin Road violated If China’s relevant laws lead to failure of cooperation, Cardin Road will assume legal responsibility and compensate him for the loss of 6 million Euros. Sun Xiaofei also very happy to sign.

“Pier Cardin is not like they are talking about an old man playing tricks. He is sincere and has always had deep feelings for China.” Sun Xiaofei “rehabilitated” Pierre Cardin, whose image was damaged in this incident.

"Pierre Cardin" of "Soul-Body"

Pierre Cardin has a deep connection with China.

One story was repeated by latecomers: In 1979, Pierre Cardin set up a “T” stage at the National Cultural Palace in Beijing. The male and female models who shuttled back and forth looked at each other, shoulder-to-shoulder and shoulder-to-shoulder. People are nervous and breathless. What's even more interesting is that, in the dressing-out area, the careful Chinese people pulled a large tarpaulin and divided the room into two parts. They wanted to separate the men and women's models and change their clothes. The result was Pierre Cardin's stubborn withdrawal and the Chinese reception. Face to face with each other, the staff finally obeyed the opinions of the masters, but this detail was required as a "discipline" to be able to escape the wind.

It can be said that 30 years ago, when the Chinese opened the window to see the world, the brand they saw at first sight was “Pier Cardin”. Since then, "Pier Cardin" has become a top-level, luxury, identity label for the Chinese people. Once Pierre Cardin, once once in a brilliance, would not have thought that in the wake of more international high-end brands such as LV and GUCCI entering China, and the Chinese version of the cottage version of “Pier Cardin” playing in the double attack, he had one day. Will sell their own empire created. However, the "frantic" reaction of Chinese businessmen saved the face of the elderly.

Although throughout the entire process, it has always been a question as to whether the acquisition of Pierre Cardin is worthwhile, ridiculing Chinese companies for acquiring an already-lost "nobility" at a high price, but these will not prevent Chinese businessmen from "觊觎".

A rumors buyer once told reporters that the influence of Pierre Cardin has never disappeared in his age group. The lifestyle he has cultivated over the past few decades cannot be denied in a few words. .

Sun Xiaofei also did not conceal his feelings about “Pier Cardin”. In his eyes, if the acquisition is successful, this desolate aristocrat is enough to make his Cardan Road Group become a typical example of Chinese private enterprises acquiring international famous brands. The milestone in history shows that "Chinese businessmen have the ability and wisdom to dominate the world famous brand and play an important role in the world's business empire." He believes: "The money spent more than tens of millions can be earned, but the opportunity is not always there."

From these brave words, we can have a glimpse of the Wenzhou businessman's ambition. According to a person familiar with the matter, this may be just a way for Sun Xiaofei to ask for a stone, and his next goal is to win the operation center of “Pierre Cardin” at its headquarters in Paris, France. "'Pier Cardin' has its network system in 146 countries around the world. Do you know what this concept is? It means that once you control 'Pier Cardin', your product is immediately globalized, This will drive how much China exports!” The person familiar with the matter said that from this perspective, Sun Xiaofei’s vision is very long-term.

It is understood that Cardin Road Group has started to fully take over the management of “Pierre Cardin” related issues in China, and the communication with related agencies will also be carried out, this work may take more than a month.

As of press time, Pierre Cardin, who was far away in Europe, has not responded positively to this incident.