I'm in the county town, and you say I'm a big shot?

Chapter 496 A Crowd Appears Out of Nowhere—Someone Is Stealing Business
Seeing Fang Qingye's surprised look, Mu Lan's expression was very natural, as if to say, "That's just how it is."

He Qingfeng, standing next to him, explained with a smile: "The railways in Brazil, and even throughout South America, are mostly steam-powered and diesel-powered, with very few electric ones—because of the power shortage. As for high-speed rail, there is none to this day."

Fortunately, I bought a sleeper berth, so lying in bed or looking at the scenery outside was quite nice. Along the way, I could see hills, coffee plantations, flowing rivers, and forests. Entering Paraná state, where Londrina is located, the scenery changed dramatically. Vast expanses of green plants with pale purple flowers appeared in the fields on both sides of the railway, stretching as far as the eye could see – very beautiful.

"What kind of flower is that? Why are there so many of them?" Mulan asked curiously.

“Soybean curd,” Fang Qingye replied casually.

"Wow, there are so many!" Mulan exclaimed in surprise.

“Parana is Brazil’s main soybean producing region, especially Londrina in the northwest, where there are even more soybeans. My hometown used to grow a lot of soybeans, but now nobody grows them anymore and they’ve switched to rice,” He Qingfeng explained.

"Are you from Northeast China?" Fang Qingye asked.

"Yes, it's from Heilongjiang Province. I remember when I was a child, my hometown was full of scenes like this, but they gradually disappeared later."

As He Qingfeng spoke, he gazed at the scenery outside as if reminiscing about his childhood.

No one said a word.

Soybeans have become a source of pain for many Chinese people.

At 5 p.m. local time, Fang Qingye's journey finally came to an end, and she arrived at the Londrina train station.

Londrina is an important city in northwestern Paraná state, with a population of nearly 56 and a typical subtropical climate.

Fang Qingye arrived here in autumn, and the weather was quite hot, similar to that in Hong Kong.

After exiting the station, someone picked them up in a Toyota seven-seater minivan. After another twenty-minute drive, they finally arrived at a hotel called Princeton Palace Hotel. He Qingfeng helped with the registration and even arranged a suite for Fang Qingye.

The three of them took the elevator to the sixth floor and returned to their respective rooms. Fortunately, the hotel was a five-star hotel, and the rooms were equipped with both Portuguese and English. Fang Qingye took a shower, changed into clean clothes, and prepared to contact Qiao Yongfeng. Suddenly, she heard someone knocking on the door. When she went out, she saw Qiao Yongfeng standing at the door.

He was dressed in a floral shirt, baggy shorts, and flip-flops, looking every bit the Brazilian.

"Brother Qiao, you've only been here a few days and you've already been assimilated?" Fang Qingye joked.

"Just follow local customs, everyone dresses like this. I'll buy you a few sets when we go to the store tomorrow," Qiao Yongfeng replied, then looked at Yue Kai and Mu Lan: "You only brought two people?"

"There's another one, he won't be here for a few days," Fang Qingye briefly explained Ou Anli's situation. She concluded with a smile, "We're negotiating, not fighting."

"The security situation in Brazil isn't very good," Qiao Yongfeng told Fang Qingye. In addition to the four people he brought from China—a translator, an assistant, and two bodyguards—he also transferred five people from the US office, including He Qingfeng, who was there to pick them up at the station.

Fang Qingye regretted it a little; he should have brought a few more people. The problem was, he simply didn't have any extra people!

We can't exactly pull a few people from the bank or Tomorrow Cube, can we?

But it's too late to say all this now.

"Brother Qiao, how's the acquisition going?" Fang Qingye asked, concerned about this.

"It's a long story. Let's eat first, and we can talk while we eat," Qiao Yongfeng said.

The dining area is located inside the hotel, and naturally features Brazilian specialties, such as black bean stew with meat, rich stewed shrimp, okra with shrimp, and of course, Brazilian barbecue.

There weren't many people eating. Besides Fang Qingye's group of three, Qiao Yongfeng only brought his assistant Yan Shi, He Qingfeng, and two bodyguards.

It seems Qiao Yongfeng still values ​​He Qingfeng quite a bit. "Come on, Qingye, have some Brazilian specialty wine, Caprilina." Qiao Yongfeng smiled and picked up a wooden barrel.

"This stuff is made with cassava lemon, white sugar, and crushed ice. Cassa is distilled from sugarcane and has a high alcohol content, but when it's made into cappilla, the alcohol content is only around 20 degrees, which suits you perfectly."

As he spoke, Qiao Yongfeng poured half a glass into Fang Qingye's glass. Fang Qingye picked it up and took a sip. It was icy cold and refreshing, with a taste of Japanese sake.

As everyone ate and chatted, Fang Qingye naturally couldn't forget the topic she had just asked.

Qiao Yongfeng lit a cigar, took a puff, and said, "I oversimplified things."

"Ok?"

Qiao Yongfeng then recounted the whole story.

"The soybean platform in Londrina is called Felgrass, which is one of the largest soybean trading platforms and agricultural production material distribution platforms in Paraná state. It is somewhat similar to a farmers' professional cooperative in China and is managed by professional managers. The region's soybean production accounts for about 9% of the global total. Last year, the reduction in soybean production caused Felgrass to lose 8.5 million Brazilian reais, which is about 1.51 million US dollars."

Fang Qingye was very surprised to hear this.

"No way? This platform company is basically just a middleman, buying soybeans from farmers and then selling them to grain merchants. How could it lose so much money?"

"Because they not only participated in the acquisition, but also in Brazilian soybean futures trading, ostensibly for hedging purposes," Qiao Yongfeng laughed.

"Unfortunately, they couldn't outmaneuver ADMI, a subsidiary of ADM, one of the four major grain traders. As a result, they were liquidated by ADMI in the futures market, resulting in a loss of $1.3 million."

Oh, I see.

"In addition to losses in the futures market, they also owed a large amount of money to farmers for selling soybeans. In order to cover the huge financial deficit, Fairgray had to declare bankruptcy and sell itself to pay off its debts."

How much are they asking for?

"16.5 billion Brazilian reais is equivalent to approximately 2.94 million US dollars."

"Brother Qiao, did you have someone evaluate this price? Is it reasonable?" Fang Qingye asked.

“I contacted KPMG’s branch in São Paulo, and they are currently evaluating it,” Qiao Yongfeng replied.

"Oh," Fang Qingye said after eating a piece of grilled meat, "everything went smoothly."

"It went very smoothly. According to my plan, we conducted an assessment, and once you arrived, we would sit down and talk with both sides. However, yesterday we received a notification from Ferguson that they had raised their asking price; anything below 20 billion Brazilian reais was out of the question!"

"What kind of trick is this? Is there another company interested in acquiring them, so he's trying to sell them off as a bargain?" Fang Qingye asked.

"Indeed, I also have doubts about this. It's not impossible that someone unexpectedly emerges from nowhere."

"What should we do then? Have you sent anyone to inquire?"

"Tomorrow I'll have Yan Shi visit Mr. Fernando, the business director of Londrina, to see if we can get any information," Qiao Yongfeng said.

"Do you know?"

“How could we possibly know each other?” Qiao Yongfeng laughed. “We’ve only been in Brazil for a few days. Let’s try our luck and let him scout things out first.”

It seems that this is the only way.

(End of this chapter)