One Thousand One Hundred and Seventy-Nine, Where There Is Danger, There Is Opportunity

The original debt was caused by the loans from the many banks that the former head, Stefano, wanted to expand rapidly.

Later, Voegelin's business situation deteriorated, which was also caused by the huge financial pressure brought about by this huge loan.

It can even be said that in the end Stefano shot Voegelin because he could not repay the huge loan.

Voegelin was a listed company at the time, and their market value was mostly paper wealth.

When the stock price is high, the company's asset value is high.

The quarterly financial report is a barometer that affects the size of the company's assets.

When Voegelin's business conditions were good before, their stock prices were fine.

But later, because of this huge debt, their annual net profit was all swallowed up by these debts.

Even their quarterly profits are not enough to repay the interest generated by these debts.

The straw that broke the camel's camel appeared. Since three years ago, Voegelin has suffered losses for the first time.

Since then, they have suffered losses for three consecutive years.

At the same time, their stock price also fell from the peak of 72 US dollars to 56 US dollars.

At that time, if the decline could not be reversed, their stock prices would continue to fall.

If that situation continues, sooner or later, there will be insolvency.

Until then, Voegelin can really only declare bankruptcy.

It was at that time that Xiao Feng took over Voegelin.

And the first thing he did after taking over was to privatize Voegelin and delist it.

In this way, Voegelin's financial report does not need to be released, and it will not affect Voegelin's stock price.

Moreover, during the acquisition process, Xiao Feng lowered the price several times, and the cost of repurchasing Voegelin in the end was actually much lower than his previous estimate.

So he used the remaining funds to repay part of the loan.

And during this period, because Voegelin's business situation improved rapidly, they used their profits to repay part of the loan.

After all, the company has been privatized now, and there is no need to pay dividends to shareholders, so they can spend the company's profits as they want.

In the view of Chamberlain and Helen, repaying the loan is the most correct way.

And Xiao Feng also very much agreed with their approach.

After all, debt management is not a good habit, if it is a rising period in a big economic cycle.

When the global economy is very optimistic, operating in debt is naturally no problem.

But now, it is obviously due to the downward cycle of the global economic downturn. It would be too irrational to operate in debt at this time.

And the most important thing is that during this period of time, the central bank of the United States, the Federal Reserve, has begun to pour water in order to save the economy of the United States.

Now it is very easy to borrow money everywhere in the United States, so Chamberlain and Helen decided to borrow new debts and pay off old debts.

Because before, Voegelin borrowed money from banks and financial institutions.

Most of them were borrowed by Stefano during his management period. To be honest, the interest on these loans is very high.

Some have an interest rate of more than 3 o'clock or more than 4 o'clock, and such ones are generally borrowed from banks.

And borrowing from some financial institutions, some are even as high as 7% and 8%.

If such an interest rate is in China, it must be considered normal, but in the United States, where the financial industry is extremely developed, such an interest rate is definitely very high.

As the world's financial center and the distribution center of hot money all over the world, there are a lot of funds circulating in the US market.

Therefore, when borrowing money from the United States, the interest rate is generally very low.

Especially large companies with good qualifications and bargaining power want to borrow money. At the lowest time, they can even receive money at an interest rate of a few percent.

Aside from operating and time costs,

Almost all of this money was borrowed for nothing.

Don't think this is an exaggeration. In fact, this is quite common in the US market.

Stefano, Voegelin's former head, obviously lacked in this aspect.

Because the interest rate on the money he borrowed was very high, some of the most outrageous ones were even as high as 12%, 13%, and the highest was even 15%.

This interest rate is almost comparable to the loan interest rate of those bad companies in the financial market of a certain country.

The first thing Xiao Feng did after taking over Voegelin was to arrange for Chamberlain to negotiate with banks and financial institutions with high interest rates.

Get them to lower the interest rate, or extend the repayment period.

Of course, most of the answers he got were rejections, so Xiao Feng simply used the remaining money in his hand to repay the loans.

But even so, the company is still burdened with nearly 10 billion in loans.

And these loans can generate four to five billion in interest every year. Although it is not high, it is not low either.

And recently, it just so happened that the U.S. central bank released a lot of water, and Chamberlain and Helen had a discussion.

Immediately decided to find a new bank loan and repay the original loan.

After all, there are low-interest loans everywhere on the street now, and the handling fees are even lower.

Compared with those previous loans, the financial expenses alone can save more than one billion yuan.

In fact, the most important thing is that Xiao Feng arranged for them to secretly bring in the Southern Cross Bank.

Anyway, the money is earned by the bank, so who is it earned?

Southern Cross Bank, its own bank, can also provide cheaper loans.

The most important thing is the diamonds and gold he got from other worlds, as well as the gold from Sunanli, and some shady wealth from South America.

Through this channel, you can go to the US market for a while, wash it, and then return to the account of Southern Cross Bank.

In this way, once you enter and exit from the United States, the money will be clean.

In this way, one in and one out can also be mortgaged to other banks and financial institutions as collateral.

For example, part of the real estate of the store, as well as the company's equity, were transferred to Southern Cross Bank.

This is much safer.

This is a very good opportunity for asset transfer.

Chamberlain and Helen did a very good job, and Xiao Feng was also very satisfied.

At the same time, they also formulated a series of new business plans.

Recently, the overall economic environment of the United States has been hit by a large-scale epidemic, and economic growth has experienced a large-scale decline.

And recently, because of BLM, people in the United States have begun to take to the streets to obtain production materials for free.

The development of the real economy in the United States has suffered a huge blow at this stage.

It is obviously unwise to expand and open stores on a large scale at this time.

But as the saying goes, where there is danger, there is opportunity.

In the opinion of Chamberlain and Helen, now is actually the best time for Voegelin to expand aggressively.

But this expansion does not mean opening new stores all over the world.

Instead, we started to make plans and waited for the BLM situation to subside, and after the epidemic passed, our business scope expanded.

Now is the economic downturn in the United States, but you have to know that the economic background of the United States is very strong.

After surviving this difficult period, the US economy is destined to recover quickly.

And this cycle, if it is slow, it will be two or three years, if it is fast, it will be one or two years.

If you wait until then to make a development plan, it will be too late.

And now is really the best time to start laying out.

Especially with the pandemic, and what's going on with BLM.

Many physical stores in the United States have closed down one after another because they cannot continue to operate.

If you are lucky, you will close down, and if you are unlucky, you will basically go bankrupt.

As a result, many big cities in the United States have vacated shops in prime locations.

You must know that when the economic environment is good, the rents and prices of these shops are very expensive.

For example, in New York, in Upper Manhattan, a set of shops in a prime location.

In normal times, it is absolutely priceless, and no one will sell it to you if you want to buy it.

And even if it is sold, the price is sky-high, a set of shops facing the street on Fifth Avenue.

The one with an area of ​​200 square meters can easily cost tens of millions of dollars.

Don't be too expensive!

But now, because the owners have financial needs, such properties are being sold in large numbers.

Stores that used to cost tens of millions of dollars are now basically selling at 20% off, or even half price.

This gave Voegelin an opportunity to sneak in.

We must know the reason why Voegelin was able to overwhelm CVS when the number of stores was thousands of fewer than CVS.

It relies on the high quality of the stores, and their stores are often chosen to open in wealthy areas, or neighborhoods where the middle and high-class people live.

The reason why Voegelin had to bear a heavy debt of 18 billion before was because it was too expensive to buy a house in such a neighborhood.

As the leading large-scale chain in the United States at that time, they never bothered to rent houses in rich areas.

Of course, they also have the experience of renting a house, but some of them end up unhappy.

Landlords see that they are making money, so every time the lease is due to be renewed, they will ask for a house price increase.

Or, seeing that Voegelin wanted to rent a house, he simply offered a very high rent price.

It is precisely because of such an unpleasant history that Voegelin chose to buy a house and open it himself when he opened a store later.

In this way, on the one hand, the operating cost can be greatly reduced, and on the other hand, the company's asset valuation can be greatly improved.

This is also a support point for Voegelin's stock price, and it is also the main reason why Xiao Feng is willing to give Stefano more than 40 billion to buy Voegelin, knowing that Voegelin is not doing well.

Because Voegelin has brand value, he still has a lot of real assets.

Ninety percent of his more than 7,000 branches are his own.

Even if he fails to manage and closes down after taking over, he can still recover part of the capital just by buying real estate.

But now, when there is a wave of large-scale bankruptcies across the United States, Chamberlain and Helen intend to maintain Voegelin's original business philosophy and even carry it forward.

For them, now is a good time to make big money!

It's also a good time for them to prepare for the future...