The reason why FGC was able to grow from a small bank to a large company with a market value of more than $7 billion at its peak in just over a decade was that in addition to relying on the development model that Hope had determined at the beginning to absorb savings and then do a large number of financial derivatives, another important reason for its rise was its rapid expansion.

Banks generally prefer to take a steady approach when expanding, because the cost of opening a branch in one place is much higher than starting an ordinary business, so few banks have expanded across the United States on a large scale like Hope.

Although FGC's unique operating model collapsed in the wake of the financial crisis, the branches that FGC opened over the years still exist throughout North America.

In the early stages of the financial crisis, Hope believed that the crisis would soon pass, so he invested a lot of money to support these branches in crisis. And now that his persistence has finally paid off, if it weren't for the existence of these large number of branches of the FGC, I believe Donald would never have sat here to negotiate with Hope.

In the actual negotiation process, although Hope expressed his eagerness to sell FGC at the beginning, when the two of them really negotiated the price, Hope suddenly showed his tough side.

At its peak, FGC Bank had a market capitalization of more than $700 million, and it is certainly not worth that much now, but even so, FGC Bank's market capitalization is still more than $500 million. Donald quoted a price well under half a billion, two hundred million dollars. For Donald, although the current value of FGC Bank is still above $200 million, considering the current situation of the industry, the market of FGC is all the way down, and now Hope cannot hold on. The likelihood of an outright collapse of the FGC Bank is significant. At this time, if anyone spends more than 500 million dollars to buy FGC, it will be really stupid. Donald is certainly not stupid, so he will not pay too much.

Donald offered $200 million, but Hope offered $800 million directly for his bank. Hope, undoubtedly, opened his mouth, and the first negotiation between the two ended in failure, the gap between them was too great, a full 600 million dollars, and if he accepted this price, then his reputation as Donald would be ruined the next day.

After the failure of the first negotiation, Hope did show his slick side. In fact, he knew that the bank itself was definitely going to sell. And Donald's desire to buy his own bank is also great, but although this desire is great, it is not unswerving. For Donald, if he really can't get along, he can also choose other banks, and now the industry background is sluggish. It's all too easy to buy a bank. So in the bottom of his heart, Hope is much more anxious than Donald. At the moment, he only has Donald as a buyer. Donald can't be let go.

So after the first negotiation, Hope did not let Donald take the initiative, but instead took the initiative to find Donald himself. The second negotiation between the two men failed, and Hope offered $650 million, although he lowered the price during the second negotiation.

After the second defeat, Hope quickly struck again. Donald was approached and the two sides began a third negotiation, and this time Hope lowered the price again, setting the price at $600 million. That's $50 million less than the last time, and $200 million less than the first time.

But $600 million is still a trick for Donald. Even the value of the entire FGC is less than 600 million, and if the FGC is to be sold, it will definitely have to be devalued and sold, so it is impossible for Donald to give a price of more than 500 million in any case.

Of course, the result of the third time was still predestined, but after the third failure, the fourth, the fifth, and even in just a week after that, the two men discussed almost ten times.

During the last negotiations, the two men finally agreed on the purchase price of FGC. Donald promised to buy FGC Bank for $360 million.

After the two discussed, Hope suddenly showed a triumphant smile, and Donald was stunned immediately, and then he reacted quickly, and then Donald realized that he had fallen for Hope's scheme.

In fact, if normal commercial negotiations were to be followed, the maximum sale price that the entire FGC Bank could now achieve would be between $280 million and $300 million. But now the two men have reached a turnover of $360 million. That's $60 million more than the highest possible deal.

And the extra $60 million was entirely Hope's own efforts, or rather a ploy.

It seems that it is Donald who has been playing a leading role in this acquisition, but in fact the real leader is indeed Hope. Hope's method is actually very simple, from the very beginning he fully expressed his willingness to sell the bank, and it was Hope's willingness to hang Donald, so that he did not turn around and leave immediately after hearing Hope's high price at the beginning, and never negotiate with Hope again.

In each subsequent negotiation, Hope expressed his strong desire to sell FGX Bank, and each time the purpose of the statement was to keep Donald from leaving because of the price.

In this way, while constantly hanging Donald's appetite, Hope showed his sincerity through his every initiative and the actual action of cutting prices every time. It can be said that every negotiation and every price reduction is a manifestation of Hope's nominal sincerity, and business negotiations cannot be a sign that one side always lowers the price while the other party does not express anything.

So every time after Hope's price cut, Donald has to show his sincerity, how to show it? Of course, it is to raise its own purchase price. Although each time he raised the price much less than each time Hope lowered the price, it was not enough to raise it more often.

No, when Hope lowered the price more than a dozen times, Donald also raised the price more than a dozen times, and finally when Donald made the last offer of 360 million, Hope shouted decisively. "Deal."

It was at this time that Donald reacted, and he unknowingly raised the price from $200 million at the beginning to $31.6 million now. Although he knew that he wanted to buy FGC Bank, the price increase was certain, but he didn't expect to raise the price so much? At first, the highest price he could accept in his heart was only 300 million US dollars, but now he has raised the price to 316 million, which is 60 million US dollars more than the highest price in his heart.

Hopper's method is so simple, he puts his posture very low from the beginning, and it can be said that it is his posture that paralyzes Hope to a large extent. The two who were equal at the beginning have now had earth-shaking changes in their identities and statuses, and it is absolutely impossible to say that Donald did not despise Hope's mentality before he came, so what Hope did was to continue to increase Donald's instructions for himself. Then in the process of paralysis again and again, I achieved the desired effect.

Although Donald had already understood at this time, the two had already initialed the contract, and it was impossible for Donald to throw away the credibility he had accumulated for decades for the sake of the 60 million dollars, so even if he knew that he was a little cheated by Hope, Donald had to admit it.

"I didn't expect you to be as good as ever." Finally, Donald had to say to Hope. But at the same time, there is a little pity for Hope. Hope's talent is definitely there. Otherwise, it would not have been possible to start FGC alone, but even if Hope was able to do it alone. It has always been a defeat to the overall environment of the entire bank. In today's environment, even if Hope is capable, it is impossible to make a comeback.

Unless, unless there is a very strong person who is willing to come up with enough funds to support Hope to continue to throw money, until the industry environment improves. But do such people really exist?

Not to mention, it really exists. It's not. Now Donald arranged for Hope to meet Lai Xiaohu, didn't he just want to give Hope such a chance.

When he first came to buy FGC Bank, Donald definitely didn't have the idea of leaving Hope behind, because at the time he thought Hope had made FGC Bank what it is now. The ability is definitely questionable. But as the two of them continued to come into contact, he realized that it was not Hope's ability to fail, but that he did not have the strength to go against the sky. Therefore, after suffering this blow, Hope will do everything possible to sell the bank, at least to leave a little chic capital for himself to live in the next life.

After contact, Donald once again recognized Hope's strength, so at this time, the plan to let Hope continue to serve as the president of FGC Bank was germinated.

After all, it is impossible for a person like Lai Xiaohu to directly participate in the actual management of this bank, and Donald's current center is all on the Huamei Group, I am afraid that he can occasionally supervise the operation of the bank, and if he wants to deal with the bank's affairs in detail, he will definitely not have the time and energy.

So in any case, when he bought the bank, he would definitely have to find a professional banker to run the bank for him. In that case, why wouldn't that person look for Hope? This confrontation between the two has made Donald recognize Hope's strength and ability, and as the founder and actual manager of FGC, is there anyone in this world who knows more about FGC Bank than Hope? Is there anyone better suited to be the president of a new bank than Hope?

Of course, Hope readily agreed to Donald's proposal, and he had no reason not to disagree at all. The reason why he sold the bank before and had plans to hide in the rivers and lakes was also forced to be helpless, otherwise he would definitely be penniless by this bank. Hope is a very rational and realistic person, people's survival is the first, as for their own ideals, their own enterprises are nothing in the face of survival. So for Hope's choice, no one can choose anything, although he gave up persistence, but he also made the most responsible choice for himself.

But when Donald said he wanted to re-invite him to the new bank, Hope's mind immediately changed. At the end of the day, the ideal in his heart has not been extinguished. used to be forced by reality, but now when Lai Xiaohu and Donald appeared, he saw the possibility of success again, so why not fight hard? So for Donald's invitation, Hope accepted it even without hypocrisy.

But whether Hope can be president of the new bank is not for Donald to decide. Through the conversation with Donald, Hope also learned that there was another big boss above Donald, and it was a mysterious Chinese.

And today is the time for Donald to arrange a meeting between Hope and Lai Xiaohu, for Lai Xiaohu, this meeting is mainly to get acquainted with Hope, but for Hope, this meeting is as important as the various exams he took when he was young and honest.

Hope was really unwilling to give up hope this time, and the more he talked to Donald, and the more he learned about Huamei Group, the more Hope wanted to be the president of the new bank.

Aware of the strength of the East West Group, Hope's vision for the new bank has changed from a possible success to a sure success. There is nothing in this world that money can't do, that's what bankers firmly believe. Through money, they can be free from the law. Through money they can change the law, through money they can destroy a country. There's no time they can't do it with money, they can't do it, it's just because they don't have enough money.

The strong strength of Huamei Group and the terrifying ability to make money completely shocked Hope, especially Donald's sentence that even if it loses tens of billions of dollars for this bank, it does not hesitate to make Hope speechless. Lived a lifetime. It was the first time that Hope had seen such a bold person, and of course this reflected from the side that Donald really didn't treat money as money. Actually, it is. With Huamei Group. Even if you lose 10 billion, so what?

The first time he saw Lai Xiaohu, Hope was shocked again, because Lai Xiaohu was too young, Hope knew that Lai Xiaohu was a young man before, but it would take a lot of time for him to be able to start a big company like Huamei Group. So Lai Xiaohu has to be a person about thirty years old. There's nothing wrong with being thirty years old to describe as young. But now it seems that he still miscalculated, and now Lai Xiaohu is like a college student who has not yet walked out of school, but at such an age, Lai Xiaohu has already founded such a large enterprise as Huamei Group.

The meeting between Lai Xiaohu and Hope lasted about two hours. With Donald on the side constantly helping Lai Xiaohu, his investigation of Hope is also going well.

As for those professional questions, Lai Xiaohu didn't ask Hope, as a layman, Lai Xiaohu is actually not familiar with the bank, especially the financial set, if it were Zhang Ying, maybe she would be able to discuss professional issues with Hope, but let Lai Xiaohu come, investigate the problem of Hope, a professional, that is, playing a big knife in front of Guan Gongmen.

So the professional problems Lai Xiaohu handed them over to Donald, in fact, Donald himself didn't know much about these professional problems. But he doesn't understand, he can pay someone who understands to see it.

Lai Xiaohu's investigation of Hope mainly focuses on Hope's ability and duty. As for the result, Lai Xiaohu thought it was not bad.

In addition to his professional ability, he can't inspect it, and Lai Xiaohu's other management ability and judgment ability for the industry are very recognized by Hope. And Lai Xiaohu's duty that he cares about the most, Hope has done a very good job.

Hope is a cunning person, but he is also a person who knows how to measure himself, this is Lai Xiaohu's evaluation of Hope. The cunning Hope is naturally good for the company's future development, and a cunning leader can often make the company take a lot of detours.

Similarly, Hope, who is cunning in business, is very responsible in terms of personality, at least in Lai Xiaohu's opinion, and the survey of Hope's past life style that Donald gave to Lai Xiaohu also supports his own views. Hope is smart and cunning, but it is precisely because he is smart that he knows that some things can be touched and some things cannot be touched.

In the past 20 years in the industry, whether before or after founding FGC, Hope has always been very strict with himself, and often he will not do those things that touch the bottom line, because he is smart and knows that as long as he touches the bottom line, then it means that he has lost that life-saving charm in the sinister banker circle.

Lai Xiaohu doesn't value Hope's ability the most, what he values most about people has always been whether a person is duty, in other words, whether a person is loyal. Of course, the word loyalty is a bit inappropriate now, after all, everyone is equal now, and to say loyalty invisibly devalues the identity of the other party. So Lai Xiaohu has always liked to describe it as duty.

To be a man, you must do your duty, and you can't mess with the rules. Every line has its own rules, and most people in the industry will try to maintain them. And if you mess with the rules, you will lose the invisible life talisman in this line.

After the assessment, Hope went back and felt very worried, facing Lai Xiaohu, who was much younger than himself, Hope also felt a completely different pressure for the first time, unlike those scheming guys he had seen before, Lai Xiaohu gave him a feeling of strong self-confidence, as if no matter what kind of thing he did, the other party would not care.

And in fact, no matter what Hope does in the future, Lai Xiaohu will not care. All he lost was money, but he didn't care. On the contrary, Lai Xiaohu can ask for the other party's hope of survival. (To be continued......)