Chapter 476: Let’s not talk about money, everything else is easy to talk about
When passengers exit the subway at Shinjuku West Station, the first thing they see is a uniquely shaped commercial building diagonally opposite the intersection.
Judging from its appearance alone, it is very similar to the "L" in the "Block Game" in Shirakawa Electric's handheld game console, except that the "L" in this building is slightly rotated at an angle.
As a result, tens of thousands of passengers coming out of Shinjuku subway station every day, whenever they see the building in front of them, they will jokingly say "We have arrived at the Cube Building."
But don't get me wrong, it has nothing to do with Shirakawa Electric. The words "Fuji Heavy Industries" on the top of the building are trying to show the world that its name is "Fuji" instead of "Cube Building".
At this moment, in a conference room on the top floor of this bustling building, the atmosphere is not relaxed at all.
"So Nissan is preparing to sell our shares?" A bald middle-aged man in his fifties wearing black-framed glasses frowned.
"To be precise, it is a transfer of shareholding, not a sale of stocks." Toshihiro Tajima had to correct his statement again.
Although in his heart Toshihiro Tajima looked down on Gentaro Nakajima, his family was one of the founding shareholders of Fuji Heavy Industries.
"If all 20% of the shares are transferred, what's the difference between this and selling off? Will the stock market really not crash?"
Pushing his black-framed glasses on the bridge of his nose, Gentaro Nakajima gave an impassioned speech.
If I didn't know, I would have thought that he really cared about the management issues of Fuji Heavy Industries.
However, everyone in the conference room knew his purpose, so everyone's expression was very calm.
Nakajima Gentaro couldn't help feeling angry and embarrassed that his speech was not taken seriously.
"Baga! We must convince Nissan to cancel this deal. Otherwise, the market will lose confidence in Fuji Heavy Industries, which will definitely have disastrous consequences!"
Disastrous consequences? Toshihiro Tajima curled his lips in disdain. Are you worried that your political career will have disastrous consequences?
The reason why Gentaro Nakajima was so excited was not because he really cared about the management problems of Fuji Heavy Industries.
What he really cares about is the retention of the aircraft division under Fuji Heavy Industries.
Fuji Heavy Industries has more than just the automotive business; it also has an aircraft division and an environmental technology division.
In the past, the aircraft division manufactured aircraft, and they were not civilian aircraft.
Later, after splitting and reorganization, special-purpose aircraft were no longer manufactured, but were transformed into small multi-purpose civil aviation aircraft.
However, due to the opportunity of the revival of the chaebol, Fuji Heavy Industries is still cooperating with the Ministry of Defense, and the main models it produces are trainer aircraft and helicopters.
These businesses are the legacy of the former Nakajima Aircraft Machinery Institute, whose founder, Tomohisa Nakajima, is the father of Gentaro Nakajima.
Before founding Nakajima Aircraft Machinery Research Institute, Tomohisa Nakajima was a government official, but he retired midway and switched to manufacturing, which led to the current Fuji Heavy Industries.
But after all, he had been an official, so he held a high position. So in the 1950s, Nakajima Tomohisa re-entered politics and served as Minister of Railways, Minister of Commerce and Industry, and other powerful positions.
One of his sons, Nakajima Gentaro, has inherited his father's political legacy and now serves as Minister of Education in the Takeshita Cabinet.
From the name, we can tell that this is a civilian official in charge of education, academics, sports, culture, etc., and he is far less powerful than his father.
This is how political families work. If their descendants do not live up to expectations, the political inheritance they will receive will become less and less.
However, despite this, Gentaro Nakajima is still very concerned about the aircraft business unit under Fuji Heavy Industries.
Because of its cooperative relationship with the Ministry of Defense, the Aircraft Business Division is considered a political asset for Gentaro Nakajima to gain benefits.
He doesn't really care whether Fuji Heavy Industries makes a loss or not, as long as he doesn't have to pay for it out of his own pocket.
However, the Aircraft Division must remain safe and secure and have sufficient annual budget to maintain its partnership with the Ministry of Defense.
However, he had heard that this nouveau riche Mr. Shirakawa was only interested in cars.
Just look at the private runway being built on the Shonan coast and you will know that if you are not an enthusiast, you would never do such a thing.
Gentaro Nakajima was very worried that after Shirakawa Kaede took over Fuji Heavy Industries, he would favor some companies over others and only invest the budget in automobile research and development, while eventually destroying his own aircraft business unit.
He always felt that Baichuan Feng was too young and young people were unreliable.
Facing Nakajima Gentaro's excited expression, Tajima Toshihiro straightened his sitting posture slightly.
"Mr. Nakajima, the company that took over Nissan's shares is Shirakawa Holdings. It's not some unknown small company, it's the famous Shirakawa Zaibatsu.
Do you know how much the Forbes Rich List values Shirakawa Kaede-san’s assets? $25 billion! This number has risen by 13% this year!
This is just his personal wealth. The financial power of the chaebols represented by Shirakawa Holdings is even more astonishing.”
"So what? Fuji Heavy Industries is the oldest machinery manufacturer in Japan, its glory cannot be tarnished!"
Gentaro Nakajima was not scared by the 25 billion US dollars. It was not his money and he could neither see nor touch it.
Ultimately, it is more practical to keep one's own aircraft division.
My term of office is coming to an end, and whether I can get a good retirement position depends on the political contribution of the aircraft division.
After all, everyone knows that Fuji Heavy Industries' achievements in the aircraft industry are all inherited from the Nakajima family's legacy.
The cabinet will never treat me unfairly because of my past contributions.
But at this critical juncture, if there are any twists and turns in the aircraft division, wouldn’t the future of his political career be unpredictable?
Therefore, Nakajima Gentaro's attitude was very tough, and he didn't even give Tajima Toshihiro a chance to explain.
After finally waiting for him to calm down, Toshihiro Tajima slowly sat up straight.
"Please don't get excited, Nakajima-san, I haven't finished what I want to say.
We have communicated with Nissan and Mr. Shirakawa before, and Mr. Shirakawa promised to continue to retain the aircraft business unit.
And within the scope of implementation, we will appropriately increase the R&D budget, which can be written into the contract.”
As soon as Toshihiro Tajima finished speaking, Nakajima Gentaro's originally angry expression suddenly became subtle.
Hmm, Mr. Shirakawa's actions seem to be somewhat inconsistent with the information I obtained?
But these are not important. What is important is that we can keep our own aircraft business unit.
Thinking of this, Nakajima Gentaro coughed lightly and said, "As long as all the businesses of Fuji Heavy Industries can be properly settled.
As for Nissan's equity transfer, I think we can discuss it a little bit."
Nakajima Gentaro, who was known for his Sichuan Opera face-changing skills, has now returned to his serious appearance as a politician.
“Since Mr. Tajima has already communicated with Shirakawa Holdings and Nissan, why not give us more details?
Oh, by the way, regarding the equity change, do you have any opinion, Mr. Tan Tian?"
After saying that, Nakajima Gentaro looked at a middle-aged man on the other side of the conference table. He was the head of Fuji Bank, Taizo Hashida.
The Fuji Bank he represents today is also one of the shareholders of Fuji Heavy Industries.
Taizo Hata, who was already a little impatient, frowned subconsciously when he heard Gentaro Nakajima call on him.
“Fuji Bank will not be directly involved in Fuji Heavy Industries’ management issues.
However, the urgent issue that needs to be resolved at the moment is not whether the shares should be changed or not, but the loss problem of Fuji Heavy Industries.
The huge loss of nearly 100 billion yen cannot be explained in any way.
Nearly half of this huge fiscal deficit is borne by Fuji Bank.
But as you can see from the current real estate market, Fuji Bank no longer has the capacity to provide financial support to Fuji Heavy Industries."
Taizo Hashida's meaning is very clear, that is, Fuji Bank does not care about the equity changes of Fuji Heavy Industries.
But if Fuji Heavy Industries wants to borrow money from Fuji Bank again? Sorry, no!
Nissan is already within the Fuji Group, and the relatively small Fuji Heavy Industries has long been neglected within the group.
Coupled with continuous losses, even the wealthy Fuji Bank became increasingly dissatisfied with it.
These traditional conglomerates are not harmonious at all. Their internal interests are complicated and their factions are intricate.
Fuji Heavy Industries, which already had a weak presence, has now almost been marginalized.
So, actually, Taizo Hashida didn't want to attend today's so-called shareholders' meeting at all.
When Taizo Hashida heard that they were going to make a series of equity changes in Fuji Heavy Industries, his first reaction was to ask them not to borrow money from him.
It’s not that Fuji Bank really can’t squeeze out the money, but at this time Fuji Bank is having a great time fighting with Sumitomo Bank in the outside world.
Since the bubble era, Sumitomo Bank has been actively expanding its business while also absorbing and merging other small banks.
They took the Tokyo metropolitan area as their offensive and began to slowly erode the market share of other commercial banks.
The most anxious among them is Fuji Bank. Market loss is one of the factors, and its position as the second largest urban bank is about to be lost.
Yes, Fuji Bank is currently ranked second in size in Japan, with Dai-ichi Kangyo Bank being the first.
Before the establishment of Dai-ichi Kangyo Bank in the 1970s, Fuji Bank had the most branches in Japan's banking industry, with nearly 200 branches nationwide.
Later, this position was given to Dai-ichi Kangyo Bank, and Fuji Bank ranked second.
But now Sumitomo Bank has challenged it and started to strive for the second place.
Therefore, the anxious Fuji Bank has now started a hand-to-hand fight with Sumitomo Bank.
The sales teams of the two banks often appeared in the president's office of the same company and engaged in close combat.
In order to compete for the loan business, the fierce competition between the two companies can be described as a duel.
In order to win more loan business, Fuji Bank has now started the "living-living loan" model.
It uses the home as collateral and allows users to freely use credit card loans for any purpose.
This not only relaxes the review process, but also expands the loan amount.
In addition, Fuji Bank is even preparing to further develop a new business of "painting mortgage loans".
The so-called painting mortgage loan is a type of art mortgage loan .
However, painting art itself is difficult to monetize.
If there is no buyer to approve it, it is no different from a piece of waste paper.
But Fuji Bank dared to do this, all for the purpose of lending more money and handling more loan business.
Think again about the scene that Shirakawa Kaede and Kamachi Sachiko had seen in the Minato Gallery before.
A worthless painting can be sold for several million yen.
So are there any unknown painters who go to Fuji Bank to get a mortgage loan for their paintings with the gallery's opening receipt?
Haha, there is a big pit here.
All these magical operations are tricks that Fuji Bank came up with to compete with Sumitomo Bank for the market.
Now the newspapers outside are still reporting on the "FS War (Fuji, Sumitomo)".
Therefore, in order to keep enough ammunition, we will focus on dealing with Sumitomo Bank.
The first thing Taizo Hashida said at the shareholders' meeting was to spread his hands and say, "We have no money!"
