Hong Kong 1980: The Savage Era

Chapter 97 [Lawsuit]

An office of Haofeng Real Estate Company
Lin Luoxun's face was as gloomy as dripping water. Some office tools, documents and a few personal belongings were scattered on the ground. It was obvious that Lin Luoxun had lost his temper here.

Lin Luoshi sat aside, his face not looking very good either. Facing Lin Luoxun's temper venting, he was still a little uneasy.

"The acquisition of Kunbao Building was indeed Luo Qihong's plan. Otherwise, how could he have reached an agreement with Huaguang Real Estate Company so quickly?" Lin Luoxun said gritting his teeth. He once again fell into the trap designed by Luo Qihong, and he was willing to step into it at the beginning.

Lin Luoshi didn't want to admit the fact that they lost to Luo Qihong. Even if they lost, they lost to Luo Qihong's good luck. He was silent for a while, and then said, "Maybe Luo Qihong happened to run into Huaguang Real Estate Company selling Warwick Building. They had a deal with Sheung Wan Shifeng Building before, so they can settle the matter quickly."

Hearing this, Lin Luoxun's expression eased a little, thinking that there was some luck involved. "Go check the financial situation of Paramount. Paramount was on the verge of bankruptcy a few months ago, but now it has improved. It is impossible for it to have so much money to acquire two commercial buildings. It must be in debt now."

Lin Luoshi thought for a moment and said, "We definitely can't get any real evidence. Since we have doubts, there's no need to investigate. We can just bribe a few newspapers and write a few commentary articles to bring down the share price of Paramount."

Lin Luoxun thought for nearly a minute and responded, "Okay! Then go ahead and do it. I think Luo Qihong is releasing good news with such fanfare because he must be trying to raise funds and issue shares to alleviate the debt situation. So the purpose of our work can be more precise, which is to ruin Luo Qihong's plan of raising funds and issuing shares."

"I'm going to cause big trouble for Luo Qihong this time. If the fundraising and share offering cannot be completed, it will be difficult for Paramount Company to truly expand. Perhaps Luo Qihong will consider selling the two commercial buildings in Sheung Wan again." Lin Luoshi said with a sneer.

Although the Lin brothers' approach is simple, it has a significant effect. Raising funds and issuing shares rely on the impression of the company in the minds of shareholders and their recognition of the company.

If the Lin brothers do this, there is still a chance of success.

The next morning, several newspapers published speculative articles on their newsprint, claiming that Paramount did not actually own the Time Tower and the Warwick Tower. It seemed that they were intentionally or unintentionally disparaging Paramount and trying to force Paramount to disclose its financial information, otherwise it would be as they had speculated.

Such current comments have had a significant impact on Paramount's stock price. The stock price was originally rising slowly, but is now stuck at 3.7 yuan per share.

Luo Qihong threw the newspaper on the table. These reports will certainly affect the subsequent fundraising and share offering. If no measures are taken, it would be tantamount to tacitly accepting the contents of the article.

But what was suspected in the newspaper was true, how could he defend himself?

After careful consideration, he felt that the only way was to divert public attention, so he immediately arranged for Liang Botao to announce to the public that Hehong Real Estate Company would spend 7 million yuan to acquire 49.4% of the shares of Zhaoan Real Estate Company held by Paramount Company.

Of course, the acquisition amount of 7 million yuan is just a number shown to the outside world. In fact, Hehong Real Estate Company and Paramount Company have already signed an agreement. Hehong Real Estate Company only needs to pay the acquisition amount of 24.3% of Zhaoan Real Estate Company's shares, that is, Luo Qihong needs to pay Paramount Company 3 million yuan.

而此时的罗齐鸿手上仅有2千1百万元的现金，所以仍要欠百乐门公司1千5百万元的尾款（1百万要用于周转），加上银行的1千2百万的贷款，罗齐鸿快要负债2千7百万元。

On the afternoon of the third day, Luo Qihong asked Paramount to announce that the company had sold a batch of Cheung Kong Holdings and New World Development Company stocks worth 2 million yuan, and recovered 2 million yuan, with a return rate of up to 2%.

Once the two pieces of favorable news came out, the impact of the newsprint reports was completely eliminated, causing the share price of Paramount to rise to 4 yuan, with a market value of nearly 3.5 million yuan.

Luo Qihong paid all the 2560 million yuan owed by Paramount Company for its acquisition of Wan Chai Kashima Building, as well as the interest incurred, to Santai Industrial Company. At this time, Paramount Company had about 3 million yuan left in its account.

Small meeting room of Citibank International Finance Company
There was a check on the small round table. The amount on it could not be seen clearly, but there were a lot of zeros at the end, so it should not be a small amount.

"Mr. Luo wants Paramount to raise funds for rights issue?! Mr. Luo, you personally owe Paramount 1 million yuan and Citibank 5 million yuan, a total of 1 million yuan. Do you still have the funds needed to pay for the rights issue?" Liang Botao asked seriously. He was a little worried that Luo Qihong would go bankrupt. Li Wendi glanced at Liang Botao and asked, "Can the time for the major shareholder to pay the rights issue funds be delayed?"

"Mr. Liang, you should be very clear about the current financial situation of Paramount. If we don't raise funds and issue shares while the news is hot, it will be difficult for Paramount to get out of its financial difficulties. I will raise the funds as soon as possible, so don't worry."

Liang Botao thought for a moment and said, "I can buy you four months at most, Luo Sheng, and during these four months, Paramount Company cannot raise funds on the stock market."

“好！这次集资供股的方案是以5股供1股，按照目前4元每股进行，集资将近7千万元，我需要支付3千4百万元左右。”罗齐鸿说道。

"Since Mr. Luo has made up his mind, leave the rest to me. The financial company will take care of it for you." Liang Botao responded.

Luo Qihong's pressure was increasing. Including the 3 million yuan in rights issue funds he needed to pay, he was in debt of 4 million yuan.

The two discussed some details of the fundraising and share offering, and more than an hour later Luo Qihong was willing to leave the Wan Guo Bao Tong Financial Company.

Luo Qihong still has 2 million yuan in funds, and with the investment in the stock market, the assets he can mobilize are only around 9 million yuan (excluding the leverage of the stock investment in Jide Real Estate Company), which is far from the debt he owes.

Therefore, Luo Qihong is considering using the 2 million yuan as capital to earn back half of the debt. Of course, this is very difficult, after all, it has to be multiplied 15 times.

When he returned to his home in North Point in the evening, the atmosphere at the dinner table was a little strange. Luo Qihong felt that it seemed to be related to him, so he did not ask directly.

Luo Qixing hesitated for a long time, put down his bowl and chopsticks, and said, "Ah Hong, I have something to tell you about the company."

Hearing this, Luo Qihong felt relieved. It turned out that it was the printing company's business, not his own.

"What's the matter?" Luo Qihong asked calmly.

Luo Qixing glanced at Luo Zegui again and said, "The company has received a lot of orders recently. One of them is a company called Yulang International. This company has a lot of business and most of its products are comics. But the machine had a problem a few days ago and the printing quality was not good, which caused the company's comics to..."

"Now this company wants us to compensate them for their losses. The amount of compensation is 136 million yuan. Our company is not worth 136 million yuan, even if there is any reputation loss involved. How can we afford it? What do you think we should do?"

"Is it because the quantity is too large that the problematic comics were not sampled?" Luo Qihong asked with a frown.

What we need to do now is to understand the whole process and some details.

This amount of compensation is certainly not a big problem, but the compensation must be clear and not just give the other party how much they want. It must be reasonable and compliant.

"Maybe I was just unlucky. I didn't get any of the samples for inspection." Luo Qixing said dejectedly.

"Did the other party inform the company verbally? Or did they send a lawyer's letter?" Luo Qihong continued to ask, already having some guesses in his mind.

(End of this chapter)