After rebirth, I became a great master

Chapter 244 The Key to Fate
The printing plant that "Sprout" magazine has a long-term partnership with is called Huangpujiang Printing Plant.

Due to outdated equipment and the marketization of "Mengya" magazine, it lost its vitality, and the workers had not been paid for three months. Under the arrangement of relevant leaders, it entered the bankruptcy liquidation process.

This left many long-time factory workers with an indescribable sadness.

The sentiments of the previous generation are clearly not something that today's young people can understand.

Zhou Haoran doesn't need to understand.

Acquiring a state-owned factory was impossible, but that didn't stop him from coming to take a look.

Huangpu River Printing Factory, as the name suggests.

This is near the Huangpu River.

Located in a prime location!

The relevant leaders were eager to get rid of the Huangpu River Printing Factory as soon as possible, hoping to dispose of this non-performing asset and make good use of this prime location.

Zhou Haoran wanted to do real estate business, so naturally he had his eye on this piece of land.

But after walking around with Li Changxing, I realized it was unlikely.

Many distinguished guests visited.

Zhou Haoran listened from a distance for a few minutes. They weren't discussing business matters like factory equipment, orders, or revenue. Instead, they were asking about the factory's size, debts, and number of employees.

There's no need to compete with these people for the pie.

"Let's go."

Zhou Haoran didn't want to get into trouble, so he decided it was safer to stick to making and selling cakes at the market.

Li Changxing also noticed something and whispered, "They've all got their eyes on the land."

"There will be plenty of opportunities."

Zhou Haoran did not intend to linger.

Unexpectedly, he then heard someone calling his name.

"Mr. Zhou!"

"Mr. Zhou, please wait!"

When I turned around, it was someone I knew.

Zhou Haoran walked over with a big smile, extended his right hand, and said with great surprise, "Young Master Lu, you're here too?"

"What a coincidence!"

Young Master Lu shook hands with him very warmly.

The two met at the dance hall that night, and Zhou Haoran even spent more than 4000 yuan to buy him a bottle of foreign liquor.

Lu Shao said meaningfully, "President Zhou's business has been doing quite well lately. Is he planning to acquire the state-owned printing factory? He has quite the appetite!"

Zhou Haoran knew that he was Mai Liangping's pillar of support, and said with a smile, "Yes, we originally intended to promote the acquisition of this place by Changxing Printing Factory, which would also help the country reduce its burden. But if Young Master Lu takes a fancy to it, then I definitely won't participate."

Lu Shao smiled enigmatically, "President Zhou is certainly giving me face."

Zhou Haoran sighed, "It seems that President Mai has some misunderstandings about me."

"It's more than just a misunderstanding, isn't it?"

Young Master Lu wasn't stupid either. His youth couldn't hide the imposing aura emanating from him, and Li Changxing followed him around like a shadow.

"There are people coming and going here..." Zhou Haoran pointed in a direction, "I see a coffee shop over there, Young Master Lu, how about we go grab a coffee?"

Lu Shao wasn't interested. "I still want to take a look around the factory."

Zhou Haoran said, "Young Master Lu, with your status, do you really want to go into the printing business? The printing business is like scraping by in the market. Even if you manage to acquire it at a low price, you won't make much money."

"Hmm?" Young Master Lu gave him a deep look, then smiled casually. "Let's go, let's have a cup of coffee!"

Li Changxing remained silent throughout the entire process.

Standing beside Zhou Haoran, I was once again filled with admiration. The great master truly lived up to his reputation, thriving wherever he went.

They went to a coffee shop and chatted idly for a while.

They talked about women for more than half an hour, exchanging experiences on picking up girls and keeping mistresses, and soon they found they were kindred spirits.

However, when it came to money, Young Master Lu didn't give him a friendly look.

"I have an investment in the Sancai Printing Factory." Lu Shao's lips curled slightly, and he asked in a questioning tone, "Isn't President Zhou's recent behavior a bit inappropriate?"

Zhou Haoran said apologetically, "If I had known that Young Master Lu was also involved, I would never have made a move... Sigh, the main problem is that Boss Mai's side has been cutting off our options. Changxing Printing Factory has poor equipment and few orders. If we don't come up with some tricks, we really won't survive."

"Let bygones be bygones, let's stop."

Lu Shao remained calm and made his request.

Zhou Haoran didn't respond to that, and chuckled, "Young Master Lu, you're not really going to jump into the printing and publishing industry, are you? How much money can you make that way?"

Lu Shao chuckled, "Making money so easy? Mr. Zhou, you're really talking big!"

Zhou Haoran said calmly, "It's hard for others to make money, but with Young Master Lu's status, making money is easy for him. Why bother venturing into the market, working hard to run a printing factory, and getting involved in all that troublesome stuff?"

"Oh? Then tell me, what should we do?"

Young Master Lu is also very young, in his early twenties, and doesn't know much about business operations.

Zhou Haoran laughed and said, "Take the Huangpu River Printing Factory for example. Its equipment is outdated, its workforce is bloated, and it has a debt of 700 million yuan. It has no possibility of continuing production. Its greatest value is just the land."

Young Master Lu hummed in agreement.

Zhou Haoran said in a low voice, "If Young Master Lu wants to make money, he doesn't actually need to do anything, nor does he need to personally run the printing factory. If he doesn't do it well, he'll just get into trouble."

Do you have a good idea?

Young Master Lu was indeed intrigued.

Zhou Haoran said, “It’s very simple. You only need to do three steps. First, find an agent, set up a company, and acquire the Huangpu River Printing Factory. Second, convert the industrial land into real estate land. Third, resell the land. Buy the factory for a few million and sell the land for a few hundred million. You don’t have to do anything, and you’ll have a profit of several hundred million just by reselling.”

Young Master Lu chuckled, "It's not as easy as you make it out to be!"

Zhou Haoran smiled and said, "When you encounter a problem, just solve it."

Lu Shao casually said, "Let's not talk about anything else, just the debt. The printing factory is 700 million yuan in debt. Who's going to pay it off? How can we change the land use designation if we don't clear up the debt?"

"No need to pay it back."

"Ok?"

"Find an agent, set up an asset management company, separate the debt and land, transfer them to this company, and then just leave the debt suspended. Keep delaying repayment until it becomes a bad debt, and then push the burden onto the bank."

Zhou Haoran was indeed quite sincere.

It wasn't exactly a secret operation, because most of the bad debts of state-owned assets were handled in this way, which ultimately led to the bad debt ratios of the four major banks exceeding 30%.

Seeing that he wasn't just making things up, Lu Shao became serious and said, "The most important thing about acquiring state-owned enterprises is actually how to handle the aftermath for the employees. State-owned enterprises are being sold off all over the country, and many people are getting rich. Some people have made a fortune without any problems; others haven't made much money, but they've run into trouble because they failed to handle the employee issues properly, which led to the leak."

Zhou Haoran asked, "Did Lu Shao cultivate General Manager Mai to work at the Sancai Printing Factory so that he could take over this group of printing workers?"

"Caution is the boat!"

Young Master Lu is not the impulsive type.

"Why go through all that trouble?" Zhou Haoran couldn't help but chuckle, pointing to his chest. "Me? If Young Master Lu needs help, just tell me. Why go through all that trouble to open a printing factory?"

"what?"

Young Master Lu was slightly taken aback.

Zhou Haoran said, "Isn't it just about taking in these printing workers to prevent them from causing trouble for you? I... Young Master Lu, this is Li Changxing, the owner of Changxing Publishing House. Let him handle this for you!"

"Young Master Lu, I'll take over these workers!" Li Changxing immediately chimed in.

This was all planned; the goal was to actively recruit state-owned workers to address the issue of insufficient production capacity.

Young Master Lu was somewhat surprised, "More than two hundred workers!"

Zhou Haoran said, "It's about helping each other out. Young Master Lu can trust Mai Liangping, but he can't trust me?"

"Uh……"

Lu Shao looked at him, somewhat lost in thought, unsure of what to do.

Zhou Haoran gave him time to think, then looked at Li Changxing beside him and asked, "Mr. Li, how many workers can you hire at most in your printing factory?"

Li Changxing said, "Fifty people."

"Only fifty people?"

Zhou Haoran frowned, somewhat dissatisfied.

"There's nothing we can do, the temple is too small."

Li Changxing sighed.

Zhou Haoran said in a deep voice, "No, Young Master Lu needs to resolve the burden of more than two hundred state-owned workers, and you must resolve it on your side!"

“If that’s the case…” Li Changxing, having spent a long time by his side, had become quite astute. “If we really have to take over all these state-owned workers, it’s not impossible.”

Zhou Haoran raised an eyebrow. "Oh? How do I do it?"

Li Changxing said, "I'm planning to acquire the Sancai Printing Factory recently. If the transaction goes smoothly, I can reorganize the Sancai Printing Factory into the second factory under Changxing Publishing House, and then everything will be solved."

“Hmm, I think it’s a good idea.” Zhou Haoran nodded repeatedly and said to himself, “Last night, Boss Mai called me and said that Sancai Printing Factory is now in deep crisis. There are no orders, no customers, and its reputation has been ruined by the report in People’s Livelihood Investigation. It may even be shut down by relevant departments.”

Hearing their conversation, Young Master Lu couldn't help but laugh.

At the same time, I also deeply felt the huge gap between Mai Liangping and the young General Manager Zhou in front of me.

Mai Liangping had contacted him previously.

They all asked him to use his connections to resolve some business-related issues.

This will only make him more and more annoyed.

He has no interest in business!
This young CEO Zhou was different; he didn't talk about business at all, but only about topics that interested him most.

Only by finding the key to the problem can we find the right solution.

Seeing that he was silent, Zhou Haoran smiled and said, "Young Master Lu, you must have invested a lot of money in the Sancai Printing Factory, right?"

Lu Shao said, "Two million."

Zhou Haoran turned to Li Changxing and said, "Boss Li, when you acquire Sancai Printing Factory, you must return every penny of Young Master Lu's money to him! We absolutely cannot let Young Master Lu suffer a loss!"

Li Changxing said, "No problem!"

Lu Shao was both annoyed and amused, as if he had already agreed.

Zhou Haoran said, "Young Master Lu, I think we should just leave it at that. You can't count on the Sancai Printing Factory. Boss Mai is barely holding on himself; how could he possibly take in workers from over two hundred countries?"

Lu Shao agreed with this statement, saying, "Mai Liangping is too disappointing."

"Then it's settled! Push forward the acquisition of the Sancai Printing Factory as soon as possible. Once the acquisition is complete, we can take in the state-owned workers here. We will absolutely not cause any trouble for Young Master Lu when dealing with other state-owned assets."

Zhou Haoran put forward his proposal.

It has a semi-compulsive nature.

If we don't do it this way, what can you do, Young Master Lu?
……

That's why they say setbacks can make people mature.

Mai Liangping finally understood.

Fighting with Zhou Haoran and Li Changxing's gang will only lead to a bad end.

Since we can't win, we should avoid their sharp edge.

This time, Mai Liangping genuinely yielded.

He held an emergency meeting with his men to discuss how to deal with the current crisis at the Sancai Printing Factory.

There is always a way when you reach the mountain!
Soon, they came up with a comprehensive strategy.

First, conduct safety public relations rectification.

The company publicly announced its rectification measures and requested positive media coverage to restore its reputation.

Second, debt restructuring.

Actively coordinate with the bank to extend the repayment period or apply for interest reduction to gain some breathing room.

Third, bundled sales to generate revenue.

Offer prepayment discounts or long-term cooperation incentives to attract customers to pay for orders in advance and alleviate cash flow pressure. At the same time, actively contact customers to encourage them to pay their overdue accounts receivable as soon as possible.

Fourth, explore cooperation with state-owned enterprises.

The price quoted by Changxing Printing Factory is too low; it's impossible to compete with them. Fortunately, the current policy is to fully open the printing industry to the private sector, so many state-owned publishing houses no longer have to rely solely on state-owned printing factories for their orders and can cooperate with private printing factories.

We might as well leverage Young Master Lu's connections to secure some orders from state-owned enterprises.

They can't compete with private orders.

Orders from state-owned enterprises are secured through connections!
This could provide a way out for the Sancai Printing Factory!
five……

Unexpectedly, while the meeting was in progress, a commotion broke out outside.

Old Zhang, the gatekeeper, came running over, panting.

"Factory manager! Factory manager, someone's here!"

"Who's coming?"

"The supervisory bureau said that our factory was not operating safely and that, based on reports from the public, they were going to shut it down!"

"hiss!"

Mai Liangping stumbled and quickly grabbed the table for support.

I felt a dull, stabbing pain in my heart.

That's fucking ruthless!
He had previously used his connections with Lu Shao to get the market supervision bureau to take action against Changxing Printing Factory. However, they were too lenient at the time and didn't directly shut them down; they were only ordered to rectify the situation.

Changxing Printing Factory has made the necessary rectifications as required.

However, it did not generate much of a response in the market.

Booksellers are still actively heading there to place orders.

Now, the counterattack has begun.

That's much harsher!
Taking advantage of the public opinion effect of "People's Livelihood Investigation", there was no room for negotiation on rectification; they immediately shut down the operation!
This is like striking right at a person's vital point!
"Mr. Mai..."

His subordinates all looked flustered.

"It's alright, it's alright..." Mai Liangping knew that things couldn't get chaotic at this time, otherwise things would be even worse. "You guys go and cooperate with the relevant department comrades, just do what needs to be done."

"We can't seal it off!"

The bespectacled man next to him is a partner. He also invested 200 million yuan in this factory. Although it's not as much as Mr. Mai's 800 million yuan investment, it's still his entire fortune.

Mai Liangping waved his hand, "It's alright, cooperate with them first! I'll go find someone, and they'll unseal us tomorrow just like they did today! Don't worry, with me here, the Sancai Printing Factory won't collapse!"

(End of this chapter)