Chapter 424: Take the bait!
Qin Xin originally planned to return to China after dealing with the matter in Victorville. However, the matter of Bombardier was not planned. After talking to Xu Cang, Qin Xin temporarily changed her itinerary, delayed her flight back to China, and went to Montreal, Quebec, Canada first.
Montreal, Quebec, Canada is the headquarters of Bombardier. Xu Cang had anticipated that he would have to make a trip to Canada in the near future, and had asked relevant personnel of the company to apply for Canadian visas in advance. It was very convenient for Qin Xin to change her itinerary to go to Canada.
Qin Xin did not go to Bombardier to sign a contract. Bombardier's divestiture of its large commercial aircraft business and part of its business jet business involved major transactions, and it would take a long time to draft an agreement. Qin Xin only went there to finalize the general framework, and the remaining details needed to be slowly negotiated by the teams on both sides, and finally Xu Cang would have to make the final decision.
Bombardier's trip was completely beyond Xu Cang's expectations. He knew that Bombardier would not be able to hold on, but he did not expect him to surrender so quickly. Therefore, even though Qin Xin considered many possible unexpected situations, when she really went to Canada, she still found that she did not have enough manpower.
Previously, the legal team led by Qin Xin needed to stay in the United States to discuss the introduction of the remaining 757 production lines with Boeing, and another part of them had to follow Xiao Lingyun to acquire certain assets, so they really couldn't squeeze out any manpower.
Qin Xin originally planned to transfer some personnel from China. However, Xu Cang thought it was too much trouble after learning about it. He would have to go to the ICAO headquarters in Montreal later anyway, and he had also applied for a Canadian visa in advance, so he simply flew from Japan to Canada and negotiated the acquisition agreement directly with Bombardier.
Xu Cang did not understand the specific legal rules for signing agreements, and he did not go there to discuss legal matters. Instead, he set a few standards and determined the framework first, and the rest of the content could be filled in by the people below.
Xu Cang will be very busy during this period, but after these two months, things will not be so busy.
So Xu Cang booked a flight to Montreal and flew there that night.
The next day, Air Canada publicly announced its fleet reform plan and began to expand the diversification of its domestic routes in Japan.
Previously, most of Jiasu Airlines' routes were between second- and third-tier airports. However, with the domestic route upgrade plan, the main routes began to move upward as a whole, and more and more route applications involving first-tier airports were submitted to JCAB.
In the past, it was one thing for Jiasu Airlines to submit a route application, and whether JCAB would approve it was another matter. But now, JCAB is extremely afraid of Xu Cang, and these routes are not particularly important international routes, so in the end it will only approve most of them.
Recently, the reputation of Jiasu Airlines has begun to recover. As a former national airline, it has begun to flourish with the help of Xu Cang.
As Air Canada began to advance into first-tier airports, its impact on the domestic markets of airlines such as ANA began to become increasingly evident.
However, as ANA's bad reputation continues to grow, Goodspeed Airlines has gradually eroded ANA's market share. However, due to Goodspeed Airlines' fleet factors, this change in market share is not too obvious. When Goodspeed Airlines' fleet begins to transform and its capacity increases significantly, the situation of changing from offensive to defensive will become more obvious.
ANA was well aware of this, but they still chose to accept Xu Cang's conditions.
However, Xu Cang has already left Japan. After finishing his business in Canada, he will not return to Japan, but will return directly to China. All subsequent agreement contents will be completed by Xu Cang's client Yue Sheng.
Yue Sheng is under a lot of pressure. In addition to presiding over the fleet transformation of Air Canada, he also has to sign an agreement with All Nippon Airways and negotiate a merger with Japan Airlines to maximize his benefits.
Of course, these are not what Xu Cang needs to worry about.
If his body can hold on, Xu Cang also plans to go to the United States again after resolving the issues in Canada to discuss the follow-up cooperation matters with Pratt & Whitney.
Originally, he was going to participate in Pratt & Whitney's test aircraft flight test in the near future, but now his health does not allow it, so this matter will naturally have to be put on hold, and it may take quite a long time.
In addition, after understanding the level of domestic engines, he was not so enthusiastic about Pratt & Whitney's planetary gear technology. Anyway, he had to wait for that mysterious company to complete the research and development of the engine gearbox before there would be any possibility of a breakthrough in the variable speed engine.
Xu Cang took too big steps before, but now he thinks he should slow down a bit.
Of course, the most important thing is that he feels that Pratt & Whitney's PW8000 engine test will not yield any other benefits except danger. Isn't this just asking for trouble?
After a few months of delay, when he had finished buying the bottom of the assets in the United States and everything was settled, he considered terminating the cooperation with Pratt & Whitney. Of course, due to some transactions with Pratt & Whitney before, Xu Cang might suffer losses, but compared with his own body, some losses were acceptable.
He can't always play life-threatening games. If you walk by the river often, your feet will get wet.
Fortunately, as long as we buy the bottom of this wave of assets in the United States and then rely on low-interest loans from the United States, we can see if we can get more funds. Part of it will be used to repay the money to the banks in Europe, and the other part will see if we can take over the reinsurance company in Munich, Germany.
The insurance industry was hit extremely hard by the 9/11 incident. In just a few days, the share price of Munich Reinsurance Company has fallen by one-third. This is before the actual amount of compensation it will pay is revealed. When investors see the final amount of compensation paid by Munich Reinsurance Company, their blood pressure will probably explode. By then, the share price will fall further. At least it is not difficult to halve it in the short term.
Even if Munich Reinsurance Company of Germany survives this time, it will definitely need a lot of financing. Before this, there was a threshold for entering the insurance industry, and you couldn't just invest money and enter.
The types of insurance are calculated by actuaries. As long as the sample is large enough, the insurance company will make a profit over a long period of time.
According to Xu Cang's prediction, Munich Reinsurance Company will suffer a heavy blow this time, but it will not die out directly. When it is weak, it will be forced to increase its acceptance of external funds. However, after the 9/11 incident, facing the horrific losses in the insurance industry, external capital will be very cautious about investing in this industry, which will result in not many competitors to Xu Cang.
When there was no competitive pressure and Germany's Munich Reinsurance Company was in crisis and in urgent need of money, Xu Cang's investment became even more valuable.
In Xu Cang's opinion, even if Munich Reinsurance Company of Germany fell into a trough, its huge size was still not something Xu Cang could swallow even in its weak period. However, if Xu Cang could be given more than two years of accumulation, it would be hard to say.
However, the insurance industry's weak period only lasted less than a year. After that, it not only emerged from the trough, but even ushered in explosive growth.
The underlying principle is that after people have recovered from the 9/11 incident, they will increasingly feel the necessity of insurance, which will prompt people to buy more insurance, which in turn will lead to the rapid growth of the insurance industry.
Once it breaks free from the industry-wide downturn, Munich Re will also be able to overcome its difficulties.
By then, the cost of investment will rise sharply as the situation of Munich Re improves.
At that time, the value of investing in Munich Re was much lower.
Anyway, Xu Cang did not want to control Munich Reinsurance of Germany, he just regarded it as his own blood bag.
…
When Xu Cang went to Canada, Luo Tianrong also welcomed an unexpected guest in Tianrong Aviation Materials Office, Qiao Lin, the aviation materials inspection supervisor of Spring Airlines.
Before, Qiao Lin was just an ordinary quality inspector. If he got promoted and became a small leader, he would be very proud. Moreover, he made a lot of money from dealing some counterfeit aviation materials with Tianrong Aviation Materials, and he was in a very good mood.
In the past, a monthly salary of four or five thousand was a way to live. I thought that if I could make eight thousand a month, I would have nothing to desire in my life.
Now, by dealing in aviation materials, Qiao Lin can earn nearly 20,000 yuan in dirty money on average every month. Logically, this money should be enough for Qiao Lin to spend, but this is not the case.
With more money, Qiao Lin gradually felt that his life was the same as before when he was earning four or five thousand yuan. He was always tight on money. The only difference was that he had a mistress.
Living a tight life with only 4,000 or 5,000 yuan a month, and still living a tight life with more than 20,000 yuan a month, isn't it all in vain?
Coincidentally, Qiao Lin recently received a piece of news, and an idea that had been hidden for a long time gradually occupied his mind.
However, Luo Tianrong was not very interested in Qiao Lin's arrival.
He could see that Qiao Lin was the kind of guy who valued money over his life. He would rush forward when he saw an opportunity to make money, without even checking if there were any pitfalls ahead. He was a complete fool. Therefore, he was very cautious in supplying goods to Qiao Lin.
In fact, Qiao Lin had said a long time ago that Spring Airlines had increased its purchases. However, Luo Tianrong refused to increase the supply for safety reasons, which made Qiao Lin very angry.
Luo Tianrong didn't need to think about it. With Qiao Lin's stupid brain, he was probably urging him to increase the supply again.
In fact, Luo Tianrong did make some profit in the transaction with Qiao Lin, but it was not exaggerated.
This time he would definitely refuse like before. If Qiao Lin continued to bother him like this in the future, Luo Tianrong would consider whether to terminate the cooperation. It was not worth having a fly buzzing in his ear all day for that little money.
In the past, when Qiao Lin came over, Luo Tianrong would ask someone to make a pot of tea, but now, there is not even any tea.
Luo Tianrong lay down on the sofa, crossed his legs, and asked impatiently, "What's the matter?"
Qiao Lin also knew that Luo Tianrong was a little annoyed with him, but he was thick-skinned enough that he didn't care about his face as long as he could make money.
Qiao Lin rubbed his hands and said, "Boss Luo, this time Spring Airlines wants to increase the purchase volume of aviation materials to more than three times the previous amount. This is a big business."
"Big business, big business. Didn't I tell you before that the supply is limited? Don't you understand?" Luo Tianrong rolled his eyes and thought Qiao Lin was really stupid. He pointed at his nose and cursed: "Three times? Didn't Spring Airlines increase its aircraft by three times? No! Then why do they have so many more aviation material needs? Can you use your brain to think about it? What if it's a scam? Once my factory starts operation, I need to bear risks."
Qiao Lin knew about Luo Tianrong's shadow factory. Tianrong Aviation Materials' production capacity was limited, and Qiao Lin couldn't produce more counterfeit aviation materials unless Luo Tianrong could get the shadow factory started. But once the factory started, it would be a huge target. If he was caught in the act, Luo Tianrong would be in big trouble.
Therefore, Luo Tianrong would only start the shadow factory when it was necessary to trade with old customers. Qiao Lin was completely tactless. He was sold out and helped others count the money, but he still took risks.
Of course, the most important reason is still that.
Spring Airlines' fleet has not expanded significantly, so why does it need so many more aviation materials all of a sudden? This is almost like saying "there is something fishy going on". Don't you understand?
However, Qiao Lin seemed to be confident this time and became excited: "Boss Luo, this is really not a trap. I figured out what's going on."
"Hmm?" Luo Tianrong was startled: "What's going on?"
"That's why the demand for aviation materials has increased sharply in spring and summer."
Luo Tianrong looked at Qiao Lin suspiciously: "Tell me about it."
"Not long ago, I heard that Gong Yue's Xianchi branch will allocate 17 aircraft to us. This is much more than the total number of aircraft in Spring Airlines' fleet. Naturally, the demand for aviation materials has increased a lot."
"Gong Yue is willing to give the plane to Xu Cang?" Luo Tianrong frowned. He immediately thought that this matter was nonsense.
There must be some grudge between Gong Yue and Xu Cang. Gong Yue has done his best by not causing trouble for Xu Cang and he can even help. Are you kidding?
However, Qiao Lin said the second half of the sentence mysteriously: "Boss Luo, do you know? Xu Cang applied for a quota for Gong Yue at Northwest Airlines. Xu Cang did what Gong Yue had always wanted. Moreover, I heard that Xu Cang will not control Gong Yue much. Isn't this equivalent to delegating power? Except that he still belongs to Spring Airlines in name, Gong Yue is actually independent. This is a great favor, and it is reasonable for Gong Yue to allocate some planes to Xu Cang."
This news almost made Luo Tianrong jump up.
"What did you say? If Xu Cang really does this, doesn't this mean that he wants Gong Yue to be the governor? Doesn't he want to be Li Longji?" Luo Tianrong couldn't believe his ears.
Logically speaking, this kind of thing should be verifiable if checked, so Qiao Lin is most likely not lying to him. However, this matter is indeed a bit strange. Isn't Xu Cang afraid that Gong Yue will set up his own kingdom?
"Mr. Luo, Gong Yue's branch was the former foundation of Northwest Airlines. Before his death, Mr. Si threw this hidden danger to Xu Cang, hoping that Xu Cang could come up with a brilliant idea to tame Gong Yue. But now it seems that Xu Cang is not a god, and it was only by compromise that Gong Yue was made to behave himself?" Qiao Lin chuckled.
Luo Tianrong did not respond. Logically speaking, what Qiao Lin said was indeed very convincing and actually in line with Luo Tianrong's ideas.
Gong Yue's family background is very rich, and he has maintained great independence after being incorporated into Muhua Airlines for so many years. How can Xu Cang deal with this troublemaker?
Therefore, what Xu Cang has to do now is to compromise with Gong Yue.
Give him more power and secure a quota for him in Northwest Airlines in exchange for Gong Yue no longer pretending to obey you but actually disobeying you, and at the same time give him appropriate help.
The allocation of 17 planes to Spring Airlines can be regarded as Gong Yue's return of favor.
From any perspective, this explanation makes sense.
Otherwise, unless Xu Cang was crazy, it would be impossible for him to give Gong Yue such great independence.
This is a... compromise.
So, this time it’s not really a trap, but does Spring Airlines really have such a huge demand?
The business with Qiao Lin used to be a small business, but after expanding three times, it became a big business that Luo Tianrong could not underestimate.
At this moment, Luo Tianrong was a little moved.
