Chapter 642 It’s broken!
Ni Runfeng's eyes immediately locked onto the reporter who asked the question, and anyone who was not blind could see the anger in his eyes.
The reporter was a manly man. Facing Ni Runfeng's gaze, he looked back at him without flinching, with an awe-inspiring look.
The reason why Ni Runfeng was so angry was, of course, because the reporter's question touched his sore spot.
In order to compete with the Color TV Export Association, he accepted an extremely harsh cooperation agreement, which was a shame for a person in such a high position. Of course, he wanted to hide this shame, the deeper the better, and not let outsiders know about it. When he made a lot of money, who would remember the humiliation? Even if someone remembered it, they would praise Ni Runfeng for enduring humiliation for the development of the company.
But now, the reporter in front of him revealed Ni Runfeng suddenly felt terrified that his dirty and shameful thing was being exposed.
He tried his best to keep his inner calm, but he was furious when he spoke: "Bullshit! What do I have to worry about? APEX is a trading company founded in the United States, and I have also met the founder, Mr. Ji. He is undoubtedly a successful businessman with a clean resume and his achievements are obvious to all. How could such a person be a liar? I tell you, it's impossible, absolutely impossible!"
"Today I want to clarify the fallacies currently circulating in the market. First of all, the cooperation between our Rainbow Group and APEX was negotiated on the basis of equality and mutual benefit, and the results of the negotiations were highly recognized by both parties. We do not accept outside doubts about the fairness of the cooperation."
Ni Runfeng's words were very firm, which immediately dispelled many people's thoughts. After all, Rainbow Group is not an ordinary enterprise, and there is still a halo behind it. Such a large company can't choose a fraudulent company as a partner, nor can it take the initiative to sign an unequal treaty with anyone - do you still want to save face?
Many people present have experienced the arrogance of this kind of company.
Of course, there are also people who choose to believe Lu Yiming. After all, Lu Yiming, the richest man in China, is a legendary figure in many people's minds. He has escaped danger many times and even the stock market can be manipulated by him. Even the United States can't do anything to him. Naturally, he has a lot of information that others don't know.
Mr. Lu, the richest man in China, said that there is something wrong with APEX, so this APEX is most likely not a good product!
Bihailongting Community.
In the villa, Lu Yiming was drinking tea and eating snacks with relish, curled up on the sofa and watching TV.
Suddenly, the doorbell rang outside. Lu Yiming looked through the peephole surveillance camera and found that it was Li Yiwen, so he opened the door.
As soon as Li Yiwen entered the living room, he saw the coffee table piled with snacks and immediately shouted, "I was wondering why I couldn't find you anywhere and you didn't answer my calls. So you're here. How can you be so free so early in the morning?"
Lu Yiming muttered, "It's summer vacation now, can't I just take a good rest?"
"rest?"
Li Yiwen couldn't help but complain : "You are the boss after all. Is it appropriate for you to take a day off at home instead of going to work on Monday?"
Lu Yiming said confidently, "Why not? As a boss, should I clock in at the company every day? Besides, I have so many companies, which one should I clock in at? If I clock in at one, will the employees in other companies have any ideas? I have to treat everyone equally. So I don't go to any of them. This is the wisdom of a boss, don't you understand?"
"Bah!"
Li Yiwen sneered at Lu Yiming's heresy.
He sat on the sofa opposite Lu Yiming, poured himself a cup of tea, and said, " Have ?"
Lu Yiming stared at the TV program intently and said nonchalantly, "What's so good about it?"
Li Yiwen asked, "Aren't you curious about what he said? He held this press conference because of your interviews."
Lu Yiming said: "Not interested."
Li Yiwen said with some depression: "Nowadays, these news writers have less and less moral integrity. They quote out of context and deliberately mislead, just for traffic, they would even dig up their ancestors' graves. If they hadn't deliberately misinterpreted, there wouldn't have been so many things. But then again, Ni Runfeng scolded you really harshly at the press conference."
Lu Yiming said: "It doesn't matter. Anyway, the number of people who have cursed me in the past few years can be lined up from here to the mouth of the Pearl River. One more person won't make a difference. It's not a big deal. In the final analysis, they just feel that I have touched their interests. Besides, they don't have many days left to live, so there's no need to bother with them."
The reason why Ni Runfeng can still speak loudly now is that Rainbow Group is still in his hands.
But even he, a great contributor, could not withstand the waves of the times. Rainbow Group was not a one-man show led by Ni Runfeng.
No matter how great his achievements are, after his consecutive decision-making failures, the only result is that he will step down and let others take over.
Lu Yiming naturally doesn't need to take such a person seriously.
Seeing Lu Yiming's decision, Li Yiwen immediately became interested and said, "Could it be that Ji Longfen is really a liar? Ji Longfen, this name is really weird and sounds not serious!"
Lu Yiming said: "It's a bit too much to say that Ji Longfen is a liar. In fact, he has good ability and vision. He is a business genius who dares to fight and fight. It's just that his vision and experience are insufficient, so he thinks that doing business is simply buying and selling, and lacks a sufficient overall perspective."
"Oh? Pattern? What do you mean?"
Lu Yiming said: "The entry of color TV products into the North American market may seem like normal trade, but in fact it is a clash between two industrialized countries in the manufacturing sector. How did World War I and World War II start? To put it bluntly, it was a fight between emerging industrial powers and established industrial powers for product markets. It was a naked struggle for interests."
A conflict of interests, if it is large enough, can lead to a war.
However, today's human civilization has entered a new century and a new era. Peace is the main theme and direct armed conflict is no longer the mainstream, but the nature of the struggle for interests will not change.
Lu Yiming continued, "APEX's operating model has a huge impact on the manufacturing industry in Europe and the United States. In addition, it already has problems, so there will definitely be problems. It's just a matter of who will do it."
Li Yiwen smiled and said, "It seems that I will never get back the payment from Rainbow Group in this lifetime. I hope Mr. Ni can have a strong heart by then."
In July, the whole country of Xia was still immersed in the joy of the successful bid for the Olympic Games, but some people were not in such a good mood.
At the Rainbow Group headquarters, Ni Runfeng felt increasingly uneasy.
Even though he scolded Lu Yiming in front of the media and swore that Ji Longfan was not a liar, he was actually the one who was most panicked and afraid of accidents.
Sitting in the office, after drinking three pots of tea in a row, Ni Runfeng still couldn't calm himself down, so he picked up the phone on the table and called in Xiao Heng, who was in charge of collecting payments in the company.
"Boss Ni, are you looking for me?"
Ni Runfeng couldn't wait to ask, "Old Xiao, has the second payment from APEX not been paid yet?"
Xiao Heng said: " Not yet. President Ji said that the settlement will be made in a week."
After hearing this, Ni Runfeng could no longer suppress his worry and anger. He stood up and slammed his desk, shouting, "Week after week, how many weeks has it been!"
The cooperation with APEX enabled Rainbow Group to directly sell an astonishing number of four million color TV sets. If all these profits could be pocketed, it would indeed be cause for celebration, but the truth is not so.
As of July, Rainbow Group's total accounts receivable reached 5.2 billion yuan, an increase of more than 2.3 billion yuan from the previous year, and nearly half of it was accounts receivable.
Although this number is very beautiful, it is useless. If the money cannot be recovered, the capital chain of Rainbow Group will be at risk of being broken!
The most important thing is that because of Lu Yiming's remarks and Ni Runfeng's war of words, this matter has attracted the attention of many people. Now, countless eyes are watching whether Rainbow Group can recover the payment for the goods.
In this matter, Ni Runfeng couldn't be an ostrich even if he wanted to.
If the Rainbow Group really cannot collect the money in the end, Ni Runfeng will definitely be laughed at wildly, and the Rainbow Group will also be labeled as stupid.
This is absolutely unacceptable for such a large company! In the end, of course, Ni Runfeng will have to bear the blame.
So, Ni Runfeng is now stuck like this. If he can get the money back, everything will be fine. Not only can he save face, but he can also get a promotion and a pay rise. But if he can't get the money back, losing his job is the most basic possibility. It's not impossible that he will be charged with some crime and thrown into prison.
"Lu Yiming! Ji Long fan! No one can make me worry-free. Why is my road so difficult?"
Ni Runfeng felt more and more sad and angry. Sitting in the position of the CEO of Rainbow Group, he was not only trembling with fear, but also treading on thin ice. In order to get the company out of the predicament, he worked hard day and night and did not dare to slack off at all.
However, it seemed as if the whole world was against him. Every decision he made never achieved the results he expected. Instead, the Rainbow Group was stuck in a quagmire and unable to extricate itself.
He scratched his head and couldn't figure out what went wrong.
In fact, whether it is the Rainbow Group itself, the government department responsible for managing the Rainbow Group, or the Rainbow Group’s competitors and partners, they are all paying attention to the issue of Rainbow Group’s export payment collection.
With such impressive export performance, domestic counterparts will definitely follow suit if they can actually get money. No matter how harsh or unequal a treaty is, it is not worth mentioning in front of money. Even if they have to kneel on the ground and call the other party daddy, there are still many people who are willing to do so - making money is not shameful.
And if you don’t get the money, that would be a lot of fun.
Therefore, countless pairs of eyes are watching.
As time went by, this problem was not solved, and the argument that APEX was a fraudulent company, Rainbow Group was a big injustice, and Ni Runfeng was a big fool became rampant. Many tabloid media relied on writing articles on this issue to gain a lot of attention.
At this time, Ni Runfeng was no longer as high-spirited as before. Not to mention holding a press conference to clarify the matter, he even wanted to hold an altar to the gods to erase the public's memory of these days and let people know about it.
Whenever he was smoking and feeling worried in the office, he wanted to slap himself a few times.
You said that Mr. Lu was just talking nonsense, so why don't you just let him talk nonsense? It won't cost you anything, why do you bother to provoke him?
However, something even more frightening happened to Ni Runfeng.
APEX was sued by Su Province Science and Technology Electronics Group!
This is not the end yet. Xiaguo Hardware Products Import and Export Company also submitted a lawyer’s letter!
APEX, which had already attracted much attention due to the war of words between Lu Yiming and Ni Runfeng, immediately became the focus of everyone's attention and attracted a lot of onlookers.
However, as I ate it, I found that the melon was indeed quite large.
It turned out that as early as the end of July 2000, the above two companies reached an agreement with APEX, with Xiaguo Hardware Products Import and Export Company acting as an intermediary agent to export DVD players to APEX on behalf of Jiangsu New Technology Electronics Group Co., Ltd.
The export value of the first and second batches of goods were both more than 300,000 US dollars. After APEX received the goods, it used letter of credit as the settlement method. The delivery of goods and settlement of payment were normal. The strange thing was that from the third batch, APEX began to purchase large quantities of goods from China Hardware Products Import and Export Corporation.
From August to November of the same year, Xiaguo Hardware Products Import and Export Company exported a total of more than 36 million US dollars worth of DVD players. Unlike in the past, this batch of goods abandoned the previously used letter of credit payment and adopted the credit sales method, that is, delivery first and payment later, and the collection time for each payment was extended to 75 days.
The long collection time is already a cause for worry, not to mention that the relevant persons in charge of the two companies directly told reporters at this moment that during the transaction period, APEX has been returning large quantities of goods. According to the original contract, as long as the consumer is dissatisfied and returns the goods, the cost will be borne by Xiaguo Hardware Products Import and Export Company.
If it was a normal product quality issue, there would be nothing to say, but to everyone's surprise, as many as 84% of the returns were unopened, with a total value of US$7.5 million.
They are all doing business, and the person in charge of Xiaguo Hardware Products Import and Export Company is no fool. He knows that APEX has a large amount of inventory and is trying to retain customers through this extremely inappropriate method.
Because once visiting customers see the mountains of goods, they will have confidence in APEX and the chances of purchasing goods will increase significantly.
Now that we have entered the 21st century, the economic prospects of the world are very good and everyone wants to make a fortune in the market. In order to seize market share in advance, APEX has adopted an extremely aggressive price reduction strategy.
By doing so, APEX's corporate scale will appear to be getting bigger in a short period of time, but in the final analysis it is just taking a step back and sacrificing corporate profits in advance, while it itself is short of funds, so its reputation will naturally fall into the abyss.
Xiaguo Hardware Products Import and Export Company originally had illusions about Ji Longfen. Although it did not receive the payment for the goods in time, it was still waiting and watching, and had no intention of going directly to court.
However, Lu Yiming publicly questioned APEX's operating model in front of reporters, and the Rainbow Group's accounts receivable had not been received for a long time, so the person in charge of Xiaguo Hardware Products Import and Export Company became completely panicked.
Four million televisions, nearly 5.2 billion in payment, and APEX dares to hold back on paying 4 billion of it. If something really goes wrong, can I get back this "small amount" of more than 100 million?
Xiaguo Hardware Products Import and Export Company did not dare to take the risk, so it directly found Su Province Science and Technology Electronics Group. The two victims jointly submitted a lawyer's letter to APEX, intending to use legal means to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests.
You know, because of APEX's unilateral breach of contract, in addition to the 14 million US dollars that have been paid, the remaining overdue and unpaid payment is as high as more than 22 million US dollars!
In fact, more than 100 million yuan of funds is not a fatal problem for APEX at this time.
What is really fatal is the collapse of business credit!
Just like dominoes, it doesn’t take much force to push down the first domino, often just a flick of the fingers, but the chain reaction it triggers is enough to overwhelm even a Fortune 500 company with a deep foundation.
As soon as the news came out, domestic companies that had cooperated with APEX immediately panicked and called Ji Long fans one after another, asking him to pay back the money.
In the financial world, this is a typical run on the bank. In essence, any financial institution relies on over-issuance to make money, and its transactions with depositors adopt a strategy of "taking money from Peter to pay Paul", maintaining the funds that can repay some people, and using the rest to engage in profitable businesses, using the money earned to pay depositors' interest and earn the difference.
This is how Lu Yiming operated his previous Tongxin Internet Cafe. He relied on a large number of member recharges to obtain a large amount of funds in a short period of time to conduct business and make money, and then used part of the money earned to pay for the free part of the members.
And if at this time, all the members - or a large part of the members - demand repayment, and the amount demanded exceeds the total amount of funds on the books of Tongxin Internet Café, then Tongxin Internet Café will be finished.
The current Ji Long fans are facing such a problem. If one of them asks for payment, he will not panic at all, because the money in his hand is enough to pay for any of them. But with so many people coming together, where can Ji Long fans get the money?
In order to stabilize the situation, Ji Longfen, who was negotiating business with many companies in China, had to stand up and stated in a tough attitude that the outside world's speculation about APEX's financial situation was not true, and that APEX had sufficient payment capabilities in order to appease a number of partners.
The business world has been through many ups and downs, and Ji Long fans have seen many storms, so they are not panicked at all.
In addition, APEX is low-key and secretive, and its financial statements are difficult to obtain, and its financial strength is unknown to outsiders. On the contrary, with its American capital background and generous spending, Ji Long fans successfully fooled domestic suppliers.
However, just when the matter was about to be settled by Ji Long's fans, a piece of news crossed the ocean and came back to China, completely destroying all Xia country companies that had cooperated with APEX.
