Transcript excerpt from a Cracks Podcast episode where Eugenio Baeza recounts a complex negotiation over the sale of Parma (and other shares) involving Nestlé, Sigma, Swiss M&A contact 'Ching/Qing', and financing interactions (Slim, Sinbursa). The passage describes stalled negotiations, a dinner meeting in Switzerland, price disagreement (asking $25M vs offer $20–21M), and the speaker arranging short-term financing to close the deal.
And when we were about to close, it was 91 1. So I called the people at Slay and said, hey, wait, let me see if they're going to lend me the money. And then the negotiation started to get very complicated because the person who ran Nestle here didn't want to sell the Parma, Sabour and Campestre shares, so he wouldn't let us move forward.
He.
He was getting in our way. And then we had Sigma on the other side wanting to get involved. So I went to Switzerland and asked for a meeting with a gentleman whose last name was Ching. Mr. Qing was the mergers and acquisitions guy at N. A very appropriate name, right? So he finally gave me the appointment and I went into his office and he said, hey, I have five minutes because I'm in a very important negotiation. No, well, I want you to sell me Parma. And then they're asking for $25 million and I want to pay you 20. That's the whole issue. Ah. He said to me, look, wait for me and we're going to dinner. Are you going to invite me? No. To dinner? Yes, I'll invite you. Well, we went to dinner and then during dinner he was telling me a very, very interesting story. Right? Well, for me, imagine when he started telling me that what had him in such a hurry was that he was closing Purina for 5,000 million euros and I wanted to pay him 20. So, well, the conversation was very nice because he was going to talk to a person who is doing those transactions when you're playing marbles. Well, it was very attractive, right? Very interesting. In the end he told me, yes, this, that they would sell it to me for 20, 21, I think, and that I should pay for dinner. Right. And the bottle of wine that I had ordered, we laughed for a while and he said, you have to pay for it this week. So Guillermo, my brother and the lawyer from La Paz come here to the Nestle corporate office to sign and so on. And I had met the engineer Dim at the stock exchange placement and Tony and so on. And so I spoke to Tony and said, look, I just bought Parma and I need the money. And so Sinbursa deposited it for me until I returned from Switzerland. I came to sign the promissory notes. So I am very grateful to Mr. Slim. Yes, well, their Pepe Chapura talks about them the same way. Oh yes.
