Chapter 500: Explosive Buying Mode
Although the Bank of Japan's first interest rate adjustment did not achieve the desired effect, the outside world only discussed it briefly and then stopped paying attention.
However, after learning that the Bank of Japan had raised interest rates, Shirakawa Kaede suddenly became nervous.
Many people in later generations knew about the neon bubble, but how the bubble burst, or the process from the beginning to the collapse, is not very clear.
The same was true for Baichuan Feng. He only remembered that the approximate time should be the beginning of next year, but he couldn't remember the exact date.
But there is one thing he knows, that is, the collapse of the Japanese bubble began with the Bank of Japan's continuous interest rate hikes.
It is now the end of May 1989, and there is only half a year left until the beginning of 1990.
So if the calculation is correct, this interest rate hike should be a prelude to bursting the bubble.
"Arai-san, from now on, Kitato Bank will completely withdraw its personal land loan business."
"Eh?" Arai Yu, who had just been called, was stunned when he heard Shirakawa Feng's order.
"Shirakawa-san, have you heard any news?"
Seeing Shirakawa Kaede's serious expression, Arai Yuya became serious.
He knew that Shirakawa Kaede often obtained some internal top-secret information, such as when the consumption tax would be implemented and which piece of land the Tokyo Metropolitan Government was planning to develop.
Subaru took advantage of the inside information to sell its cars. Or Shirakawa Real Estate bought a piece of land at a high price and then sold it to the government at an even higher price.
It can be said that information is wealth, and of course information can also be a warning for avoiding risks.
Shirakawa Kaede was not prepared to explain too much about Arai Yu's question, but some speculations could be discussed.
“The Bank of Japan’s rate hike is not a good sign, as it is the first rate hike since 1986, when the bank cut rates consecutively.
Although the stock market and property market are not affected at present, their future direction is uncertain.
In addition, according to rumors, the next president of the Bank of Japan will be Yasushi Mieno-san, and I believe that Arai-san knows his governing style better than I do. "
The news that Yasushi Mieno will soon become the President of the Bank of Japan has not yet been announced to the public.
But once when chatting with Uno Sosuke, Shirakawa Kaede had already received a hint from the other party.
If nothing unexpected happens, Yasushi Mieno will take office as the President of the Bank of Japan in December.
These news may seem insignificant to ordinary people, but to large consortiums like Shirakawa Feng, the value is different.
For example, by understanding the background, political views, and personal preferences of the candidate in advance, one can roughly infer whether the candidate's appointment will affect the future plans of the foundation through this information.
As for Mieno Yasushi, Arai Yu does know him better than Shirakawa Kaede.
As a fellow financial industry insider, Arai Yu is well aware that Mieno Yasushi has always adhered to his austerity policy.
Even though the Bank of Japan has only raised the interest rate to 3.25% now, if Yasushi Mieno takes office, the interest rate will definitely continue to rise.
How high has it risen? Arai Yu's face changed a few times, and he looked up at Shirakawa Kaede.
"President Shirakawa, should we also stop lending to companies?"
Upon learning that Yasushi Mieno was going to lead the Bank of Japan, Hiroshi Arai's ideas became even more radical than Kaede Shirakawa's.
There's nothing you can do about it, a person's reputation is like the shadow of a tree.
It now seems that the Bank of Japan has started raising interest rates before the other party has even taken office, which is indeed not a good sign.
What will happen when he takes office?
"Let's raise the review threshold for corporate loans. If the land in a remote area is used as collateral, the loan amount will be cut by 60% from the original amount.
For loans that are not secured by land, they will be disbursed as normal after verification.”
Whether it is a personal loan or a corporate loan, as long as the business is secured by land, a contraction policy will be adopted.
At the very least, the procedure must be lengthened to extend the loan period as much as possible.
These lands will soon no longer be worth the price. If you continue to take out loans based on the current land prices, won’t you definitely lose money in the end?
However, as a bank, it is impossible not to do loan business. Doing so will only lead to complaints from users and even lose old customers.
So after weighing the pros and cons, we can only raise the review threshold and lower the loan amount.
Although land prices will collapse, there will be no shortage of buyers for land in some popular areas of Tokyo.
Therefore, Beidu Bank will still recognize the mortgage of this part of the assets, of course, the price needs to be carefully negotiated.
However, the valuation of those lands in remote areas will be cut by 60% first, as it is still another matter whether Beidu Bank will lend money or not.
There is no shortage of people buying land in Tokyo, but it is hard to say about other places.
“In addition, we will re-evaluate all the current loan businesses of Beidu Bank for those customers who use land as collateral.
Tell them that if they can pay off the loan early, the interest rate will be reduced by half from the original amount. "
Although Kitato Bank has always been cautious about land loans, with so many branches in Japan, there will always be some employees who boldly lend money in order to get performance.
Therefore, it is necessary to re-evaluate the existing loan business. At the very least, any amount of money that can be recovered will help to recover some of the losses.
Japan is still in a period of economic prosperity now, so it is not impossible to recover the loan ahead of schedule. However, it would be hard to say if it were two years later.
All of Shirakawa Kaede's instructions were written down by Arai Yu.
Although he didn't know what would happen if the Bank of Japan continued to raise interest rates, a bad premonition always lingered in his mind.
“President Shirakawa, except for the Beidu Bank.
Shirakawa Real Estate has also acquired a lot of land before. Should we take advantage of this opportunity and sell it as soon as possible?"
Real estate is not the main business of Baichuan Holdings. Since the feeling is not good, should they cash out in advance and run away?
In response to Arai Yu's suggestion, Shirakawa Feng thought about it for a while and then shook his head.
“Many of these properties are located in prosperous neighborhoods, and if they are sold now, there will be a considerable profit.
But once these high-quality land resources are sold, it will be difficult to get them back later.”
Baichuan Feng is not short of the money from selling the land now, and he didn't intend to get rich from hoarding the land in the first place.
These are purely high-quality real estate resources, and it makes people feel at ease to have them in their own hands.
There is certainly no shortage of buyers for the property now, but other consortiums are not fools either.
Even if high-quality real estate resources plummet due to the bursting of the bubble, those consortiums will not sell their high-quality assets.
Because they know that the price reduction is only temporary and that high-quality land will sooner or later return to its original value.
Therefore, Shirakawa Real Estate should not move the land that it had hoarded in the past, otherwise those discerning buyers will most likely not sell it again in the short term after getting it.
If this is the case, then it would be a loss for Baichuan Feng, after all, he didn't spend much money to buy these lands.
In addition to real estate, Shirakawa Holdings will also slowly sell off the stocks of other companies that it had previously purchased.
It is expected that all these stocks purchased for investment purposes will be sold .
The rumbling sound of thunder in the clouds has already reached my ears. If I don’t run now, when will I run?
Baichuan Feng is very open-minded. He would rather earn less than wait until the last moment of collapse to run away in a hurry.
While Baichuan Holdings is carefully carrying out asset liquidation, its peers outside are becoming more and more arrogant.
I don't know if it was stimulated by Shirakawa Holdings' acquisition of Paramount for US$90 billion, but major companies in Japan have also started a mode of overseas buying spree.
The first was Sony, which acquired CBS Records for $2 billion in 1987.
In September this year, Sony once again acquired Hollywood's Columbia Pictures for US$3.4 billion and assumed the latter's US$1.6 billion debt.
In just half a year, two Hollywood giants were bought by Japanese companies, and the sensitive nerves of the Western media were once again aroused.
"The Japanese are stealing the entire United States!", "This is the second time the Pearl Harbor attack has occurred!", "The evil Japan has once again stretched out its claws to the United States~"
These sensational headlines flooded the headlines of Western media for a while, first it was Paramount, then Columbia, so who would be next?
Faced with the overwhelming coverage by Western media, not to mention Norio Ohga, even the founder, Akio Morita, began to speak out.
Sony's acquisition of Columbia was not an invasion of neon culture.
In the subsequent business integration, the characteristics of Japanese companies will not be highlighted, and the acquired companies will be guaranteed to maintain American characteristics.
Hey, why does this set of rhetoric sound so familiar?
Before the Western media could react, Sony announced the next day that it would acquire Gubbel-Peters Entertainment for $200 million.
And hired two partners of the company, famous film producers Peter Guber and Jon Peters, as co-chairmen of the acquired Columbia Pictures.
In addition, the original Columbia Company was renamed Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Wow, after this set of actions, the Western media finally realized what was familiar.
Didn’t Shirakawa Group say the same thing when it acquired Paramount?
Also on the next day, the Baichuan Group acquired Jaffe-Lansing Pictures for $200 million and hired their founder to serve as the general manager and executive officer of Baichuan Paramount.
With this comparison, it seems that Sony is copying the homework of Shirakawa Group?
Faced with this familiar scene, the Western media went wild.
"Shameless imitator and invader!", "Insincere acquisition statement", "The American people have lost Columbia forever~", "Half of the torch in the hand of the Statue of Liberty has been bought by Japan"
A barrage of accusations poured down on Sony, and both Ohga Norio and Morita Akio were a little confused.
It was clearly my fault first, why are you all blaming Sony?
In November last year, Sony had already started negotiating the acquisition with Columbia Pictures. After going through many difficulties, they finally reached an agreement today.
Shirakawa Holdings only started contacting Paramount at the beginning of the year, so Sony was indeed one step ahead.
However, the public is not concerned about who negotiates first, they only care about the results reported now.
Sony's series of measures are too similar to those of the Shirakawa Group, so it's no wonder that everyone has such an idea.
As for why they are so similar? Ahem~ Shirakawa Kaede said it was indeed a coincidence.
How could he know that the Shirakawa Group was following the same path as Sony in its previous life, and that the present Sony was following it again?
But no matter what, for the West, the successive change of hands of two Hollywood giants has indeed irritated their nerves.
Hollywood has always been the pride of Americans. Now that it has been taken over by Japanese companies, it is like letting pigs eat the cabbages in one's own garden.
But do they think this is the end? No, this is just the beginning.
