Chapter 57 - 57 053 Investment

57: Chapter 053 Investment 57: Chapter 053 Investment An hour later, Ye Fan drove away from the hotel to head home. By the time he got home, it was already past nine-thirty in the morning, and, since he hadn’t changed clothes, Ye Fan naturally had to take a shower and change. After ten, having had something to eat, Ye Fan sat on the sofa in the first-floor living room watching TV. Just past eleven, his cell phone rang. Picking it up, Ye Fan saw it was his mom’s call. “Son, the evaluation results for your wife’s ‘Biomedical New Project Planning’ are out,” Ye Fan’s mom said with a laugh. Ye Fan asked, “How’s the evaluation?” “A-. I’ve already sent the detailed analysis to your email,” chuckled his mom, “Heehee, I didn’t expect your wife to have seventy or eighty percent of my old skills.” “Oh, thanks, Mom. I’ll go take a look,” Ye Fan replied. “Okay,” said Ye Fan’s mom. After hanging up, Ye Fan went back to his room, opened his computer, logged into his email, and found the ‘Biomedical New Project Planning’ evaluation analysis his mom had sent him. Having spent a few minutes reading the analysis, the professional evaluation team from Hua Chang Investment Fund had given a very favorable review of ‘Biomedical New Project Planning,’ indicating that the project’s potential for success in getting off the ground with the Emali Group stood over seventy-five percent, and it would yield a very substantial and long-lasting profit return. After pondering for a short while, Ye Fan took out his phone and called his mom. “Mom, I’ve looked over the project evaluation analysis,” he said, “I also think ‘Biomedical’ is a very profitable project. Do you think Hua Chang Venture Capital Fund could invest in this project?” “Of course,” his mom immediately replied, “But such a profitable project, and one that Emali Group can operate on its own, they probably won’t want me to get involved.” Ye Fan laughed, “Mom, you’re mistaken. Not everyone has the investment vision and boldness you do. Within Emali Group, apart from Zhao Jun who’s advocating for it alone, the other shareholders are resisting, believing it requires too much capital and carries too high a risk.” “Heehee, I get it now!” Ye Fan’s mom suddenly burst into delighted laughter, “So you’re asking me to help out your wife. Okay, realizing that ‘when husband and wife unite, their strength can cut through metal,’ it seems you two are getting along quite well. Don’t worry, even if it’s a losing project, I’m jumping into this pit regardless since I only have you, my precious son. I’ll call your wife right away.” Ye Fan’s mouth twitched slightly, getting along well? They were nearly archenemies. He stopped his mom, “Mom, don’t contact her. I don’t want her to know.” “Heehee, okay, okay,” his mom chuckled, “Heehee, son, I didn’t expect you to be quite the charmer with your wife. You don’t want her to know now, but one day she’ll find out for herself and will probably be moved to tears. Haha, son, am I right?” Black lines sprouted from the back of Ye Fan’s head—he wasn’t thinking that at all. He just didn’t want to lose a million, and the project really was very profitable; helping Li Zhaojun was just incidental. And another thing—his mom, as an elder, why didn’t she have any airs of an elder? Was this kind of “winning the wife’s favor” conversation really something a mother should casually have with her son? He’d rather have his mom maintain a sense of superiority and not chitchat so freely and equally about everything. However, he couldn’t refute his mother’s wild speculations without giving away his indifference towards Li Zhaojun. He said, “Mom, we must follow standard business procedures and avoid being swayed by emotions. If Huachang Investment Fund doesn’t see fit to invest, then so be it. We mustn’t force it. That’s an investment of over a billion yuan; it’s not a game.” “Ha, I know that. After so many years in the business world, do you think your mom would be swayed by emotions?” Ye Fan’s mother said with a self-praising tone, like a huckster selling her wares. After that, Ye Fan and his mother chatted for another fifteen minutes. Finally, unable to stand his mother’s lack of parental gravitas, turning everything into a joke to tease him, he hung up the phone. The next day, Monday, in the Emali Group’s conference room, Li Zhaojun convened a general meeting of directors and shareholders. After Wang Siyan distributed the latest version of the “Biomedical New Project Planning” proposal to every director and shareholder in attendance, Li Zhaojun spoke earnestly and intently, “My fellow directors and shareholders, I have to emphasize once more that while it appears that the Emali Group is developing swiftly, we are on the brink of a growth bottleneck. If we don’t find a new path before we hit this bottleneck, don’t expect to maintain today’s profits. If our stock price falls, banks won’t lend to us, and the monthly bank interest will weigh us down, leading to a continuous decline.” “The new project proposal you’re holding has been significantly modified after I invested a great deal of time and effort. I hope you will read it carefully and consider it, and then swiftly pass the new project. You have fifteen minutes to review the planning proposal for the new project and then a half-hour for discussion before we take a preliminary vote.” Having said that, Li Zhaojun turned off the microphone and sat quietly, waiting. For this particular board and shareholder meeting, she had run herself ragged for over a month, working early and late, seeking out resources, and nearly never resting on weekends. If the proposal failed to pass this time, she truly didn’t know what to do next. The conference room was very quiet, with only the sound of flipping pages. The future development of Emali was at stake; not a single shareholder dared to take it lightly. Fifteen minutes passed, and Li Zhaojun turned on the microphone, saying, “I believe everyone is clear on the success rate of the new project. These are not my baseless conjectures but the results of extensive research and data analysis. Everyone is afraid of the large investment required, so I have reassigned personnel to recalculate and significantly reduce costs, bringing the total investment down to three billion yuan, with one billion for the first phase and two billion for the second phase. The source of the one billion for the first phase has been clearly outlined in the project planning; extracting two hundred million from the group’s cash flow, issuing 30 million new shares on the stock market to raise about three hundred million, and taking out a loan of five hundred million from the bank. Regarding bank loans, I’ve already negotiated with major banks who are unanimously willing to provide us with the loans.” “The money borrowed from the banks still needs to be repaid,” the second-largest shareholder, Gong Yongfu, exchanged glances with the third-largest shareholder, Sun Yuan, before signaling to a smaller shareholder. The smaller shareholder immediately raised an objection. Sun Yuan echoed immediately, “Our group’s debt ratio is already high. Another five hundred million in loans would bring it to an excessive level, and just repaying the bank interest every month could sink us.” “I disagree with raising funds by issuing new shares in the stock market. Sёarch* The Nôvel(F)ire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Biomedical isn’t within our group’s industrial chain, and it is a high-risk project. By issuing new shares for financing, we would only spark panic in the stock market, leading individual investors holding our group’s shares to sell off, which not only would fail in raising funds but would also cause our group’s stock value to plummet!” Gong Yongfu spoke out loudly. “Indeed, it’s too risky,” other shareholders began discussing amongst themselves, their expressions filled with concern. Seeing so many people concurring with him, Gong Yongfu felt triumphant and said, “I won’t agree to the biomedical new project.” “I disagree as well,” Sun Yuan immediately chimed in. “We also disagree,” three mid-to-small shareholders who stubbornly followed Gong Yongfu and Sun Yuan shouted. Other neutral mid-to-small shareholders also looked hesitant and indecisive, but most were leaning towards disagreement.