"Father, the situation is a bit brows-up, the United Group should have embezzled the money that was prepared to be paid to Germany in October, and at the same time adjusted the settlement."

"Settlement adjustments?" Old Agnelli raised his eyebrows, and asked his son with great interest, "How to adjust?" ”

"Due to the visit of President Ziano Jr. in the United States, for the sake of prudence, all finances need to be collectively reviewed and discussed by the management, which will increase the process and operation time, so the settlement of each order will be postponed by 10-15 working days, and all processes will return to normal after the president returns to China."

Old Agnelli tapped the armrest lightly: "Tell me, what does this mean?" ”

"First, the financial situation of the United Group has cash flow problems, and it now needs to delay the payment time; Second, Leo is too young to suppress the management below - he is just an alumnus of little Ziano, so he became an assistant president at a young age, in terms of qualifications, experience, and level, maybe any department manager of the United Group is better than him, right? Third...... "Little Agnelli mused, "it is not excluded that Leo pushed out a move in order to reduce a little loss, the two reloans of 70 million lire in July were not implemented, and the total of 200 million reloans in August was increased by 0.3-0.5 percentage points according to your instructions, and the United Group also accepted it...... If you can defer the payable by 10-15 working days, you can actually reduce the interest payment by 2 weeks, for a total of 52 weeks in a year, and a reduction of 2 weeks will reduce the interest cost by almost 4%, which is equivalent to offsetting 0.3 percentage points at the current interest rate of 7.3-7.5%. ”

Old Agnelli nodded, his son still understands financial management very well!

"Whatever the reason, it shows that the United Group is timid in terms of cash flow." Old Agnelli said happily, "Look, what a contrast...... What do you think the news of Ziano Jr. spending money in New York with Ida and his group delaying settlement under the pretext of his absence will cause repercussions in the banking world? ”

Little Agnelli immediately understood.

So, within two days, the gossip that the United Group's funds encountered problems spread far and wide, and the business community looked at this news with a half-believing attitude: on the one hand, the United Group used to pay much faster than other large groups, and other companies basically had to delay 3 months to settle, and the United Group can usually achieve the next month's settlement, and many times even the last day of the previous month is also settled, for suppliers, the credit is very good, so they instinctively doubt the news; On the other hand, it is also true that the United Group has postponed the payment at present, although the official statement is that the time has been slowed down due to the increase in the process, and the president has promised that he will resume when he returns to his home, but looking at the current situation, it seems that he will not be able to return to China before October - will this be some kind of omen?

The suppliers will be skeptical, but still not wavering, after all, people only say that it will be postponed for 10-15 days, which is still to be considerate, who can be in trouble? If you can't do it, it's not too late to make another difficulty.

But the reaction from the banking community was much stronger, especially the few banks that followed the government's directives and provided loans with credit guarantees were a little anxious – what if the United Group collapsed and others could get the collateral, but they couldn't even get the collateral? Should we recover a few sums of money in a prudent manner, and wait for the United Group to pass the crisis or provide other guarantees before arranging for on-lending?

At this moment, in the headquarters of the United Group, Leo is also angry: "Which fucking bastard made up this gossip?" Wrong with the funds of the United Group? If the United Group can have problems, is there a company in Italy that is not problems? ”

The rest of the subordinates, you look at me, I look at you, I don't know how to take this sentence. In fact, they know the insider: in order to make up for the failure of part of the onloan, Leo, with the consent of the president, embezzled the deposit paid to Germany in October - Contini said that he had raised the money and promised to pay it to Germany on time by October; As for the postponement of the payment of the accounts, it was a suggestion that was not the first and second of Agnelli's analysis, but the third of the cost-saving principle, which Leo accepted.

At the end of the day, Leo, like many of the management, doesn't understand why Contini has to keep the payment period of the United Group so tight, although we are not short of money, maybe a little bit is a little saving......

In the face of such rumors and pressure, Leo, who was in charge, was determined to track down the source of public opinion, and on the other hand, he told Contini, who was still in the United States, the original situation.

After receiving this telegram, Contini sighed: "It seems that someone in the country is playing with our idea. ”

Antonio frowned and said, "Who is so bold? But the timing was good, and it just so happened that we were not there, and they were suddenly in trouble, and Leo alone couldn't hold them down, let alone deal with the old fox outside. ”

"Is it for politics or for economic gain?"

"It's hard to say, maybe both...... However, from the perspective of methods, there is a strong flavor of large conglomerates, and many consortia rely on this hand to defeat competitive small and medium-sized enterprises. Antonio said solemnly, "In Italy, political connections are important, but economic connections should not be underestimated...... It's never been like you, young master, to play like this...... I've lived for more than 60 years, and I haven't seen a single precedent. ”

"Leo hasn't seen it either...... He and the bunch of finance managers were bound by dogma and that little stuff in school! Contini shook his head and said, "Why do I want to develop a good and fast payment system, is to win over upstream and downstream partners, we give them a little financial sweetness, they can help us do a lot of things...... A boycott of the Socialist Party by a cooperative client such as this one is a precedent. It's not that Leo doesn't know how to settle accounts, but they are too shrewd in their calculations, and they want to deduct a piece from customers in the face of high market interest rates - can customers understand? Absolutely! But if we need the cooperation of the customer to do something in the future, should the customer understand the difficulties? In this way, we lose our appeal to customers. ”

Appeal is what Contini values the most, and now at this stage he wants popularity and fame, and it is a trivial matter whether the United Group makes money or not, he has never expected to make money at all, even if he wants to think about it, it will be a matter of the future.

"Of course, we also have a bit of a problem here, we should tell the headquarters about the loan we have obtained, and we can't tell them vaguely not to worry, although ......" Antonio laughed, "Young master, if I didn't know that you had such a big vote in the US stock, I would be the first to oppose you in the country!" ”

"But this news can't be said...... If the news of our scattered holdings of so many American companies is revealed, what if someone snipes at us in the stock market? These Wall Street tycoons are even more powerful than we see......"

"What about the country?"

"Let Leo refute the rumors, just say that there is no financial problem, and at the same time in order to compensate all customers, I will achieve the settlement of the month in the first month after I go back, and settle it as I go," Contini said, "Since Leo has spoken out publicly on behalf ......of the United Group, this face cannot be dismissed, otherwise no one will listen to him in the future, what I want to do is to reduce the bad news to a minimum." ”

On September 21, the United Group held a press conference to refute the problems related to the financial chain, while repeating what Contini had said, and vowed that the president would definitely return to Italy by the end of October.

"Even if the refutation is suppressed? If only things in the world could be so simple, the news is not true or false, but believable...... As long as someone believes, what is false is true; No one believes it, it's really fake......" Old Agnelli smiled disapprehantly, "Greet the two banks we are familiar with, and let them recover the 100 million lira loan again on the grounds of monetary tightening and liquidity difficulties, and I will see how the United Group will cope." ”

"Another 100 million less?" Leo listened to his men's reports with some disbelieving.

"Yes, the other four banks said that they had a loan of 200 million yuan that was originally lent in the form of credit guarantee, and in view of the current situation, they hope to secure the collateral and then arrange for re-lending...... It's best to wait for the president to come back and talk about it! ”

"Bastard!" Leo finally got angry, "Are these bankers finished? ”