A Castle Estate on the Outskirts of London!
In the conference room, all team members affiliated with Star Investment and the Far East Association had gathered.
With the successful completion of the acquisition of Sheffield Steel, the final 10-million-ton futures contract had been offset by internal company debt, marking the imminent conclusion of their investment journey in London.
Therefore, this morning, Li Yi had Pang Feiyan, Zhang Qiusheng, and others head to the exchange to finalize the settlement of this investment’s results.
Now that the settlement results were in, everyone had gathered to review the achievements of their London trip.
Seated at the head of the conference room, Li Yi felt a sense of satisfaction as he observed the excited and eager expressions on everyone’s faces.
Clearing his throat, he said, “I know everyone wants to know how much we made in total, so I won’t waste any time. Feiyan, why don’t you share the final figures with everyone?”
“Yes, Boss!”
Pang Feiyan then forced herself to calm her excitement before taking out a document and reading aloud: “During this trip to London, we invested a total of 57 billion Hong Kong dollars, equivalent to 3.56 billion pounds. After more than three months of trading, we made a profit of 786 million pounds from copper futures and 954 million pounds from aluminum futures!”
“In addition, our paper profits from steel futures amount to 6.8 billion pounds, and we’ve made 1.8 billion pounds from physical steel investments. Therefore, the total paper profit from this investment is approximately 10.3 billion pounds…”
Whoa!
No sooner had the words left his mouth than everyone in the conference room couldn’t help but gasp in shock.
Everyone was stunned by this staggering figure—10.3 billion… and it’s in pounds, for crying out loud!
If converted to Hong Kong dollars, that’s over a hundred billion—more money than you’d ever see in a funeral offering!
Just as everyone was reeling from the shock, Li Yi spoke up: “Feiyan was only referring to the book profit. In reality, our net profit is nowhere near that high. The main reason is that when we invested in steel futures, although we made a 6.8 billion profit, we were left holding 10 million tons of physical steel and 10 million tons of futures contracts that we hadn’t sold. As a result, when settling with the institutions, we actually had to pay them 400 million pounds in cash.”
“Furthermore, when we acquired Sheffield Steel Banbanhaobang, we not only put in 3.1 billion pounds in cash but also assumed most of the company’s debt, effectively offsetting those 10 million tons of futures contracts.”
“Then there’s the spot market: the 10 million tons of steel we acquired earlier still hasn’t been sold. So right now, all we have is 400 million pounds in cash, plus 20 million tons of steel, and a company on its last legs!”
Hearing this outcome, everyone was stunned once again!
What happened to the promised 10 billion in profits? How did things turn out this way—no money in sight, and our 3.5 billion in principal has dwindled to just 400 million?
In an instant, everyone’s gaze turned to Li Yi!
Li Yi, of course, knew exactly what everyone was thinking.
He smiled and said, “Although this outcome may come as a surprise to everyone, we have 20 million tons of steel in stock. At market prices, that’s worth at least 7.2 billion pounds!”
No sooner had he finished speaking than Zhou Xinghua interjected, “Mr. Li, while steel is indeed in short supply on the market right now, not just anyone can handle the 20 million tons of steel we have on hand!”
Zhang Qiusheng chimed in, “If all that steel were to flood the market at once, it would inevitably affect market prices…”
Before he could finish, Li Yi interjected with a laugh, “Who said we’re going to flood the market with these 20 million tons of steel?”
“Mr. Li, how are we supposed to cash out if it doesn’t go into the market?” Zhou Xinghua frowned.
“What about the futures market?” Li Yi said casually.
“The futures market?”
Soon, everyone thought of Sheffield Steel!
Now that they had acquired the company, they could certainly hand over their steel to Sheffield Steel and have them sell it on the futures market.
Compared to the spot market, the futures market recoups funds much faster!
“Mr. Li, we haven’t officially taken over the company yet. I hear things are in complete disarray over at Sheffield Steel right now. They…”
Before Zhou Xinghua could finish, a series of urgent knocks suddenly rang out from outside the conference room door.
Immediately afterward, Li Yi’s personal bodyguard, Zhang Ziqiang, pushed the door open, walked over to Li Yi, and whispered a few words in his ear.
After exchanging a few words with Zhang Ziqiang, Li Yi immediately stood up with a smile and said, “The Henry family has arrived. Let’s go out and meet them!”
With that, Li Yi strode out toward the lobby!
When Li Yi arrived at the downstairs lounge with Li Yunbao, Zhou Xinghua, and the others, Zhang Ziqiang also walked in, accompanied by three men dressed like gentlemen.
The man in the middle was an elderly gentleman in his sixties, flanked by two middle-aged men in their forties. Li Yi recognized one of them—he was the general manager of Sheffield United Steel Company.
For the past five years, he had been in charge of Sheffield Steel.
Seeing Li Yi being fawned over by everyone in the living room, Sandy’s feelings were extremely complicated.
The first time he’d heard the name Li Yi, he hadn’t given the young man a second thought—just an Eastern upstart who didn’t know his place, incapable of making any real waves.
But what he never could have imagined was that this very young man, in just a few short months, had snatched Sheffield Steel away from the Sassoon family as if plucking a tooth from a tiger’s mouth.
What was most unimaginable was that this young man had achieved all this with just 3.1 billion pounds and 10 million tons of steel futures contracts.
As the company’s general manager, no one understood the value of Sheffield Steel better than Sandy—it was only the idiotic Sassoon family who insisted on treating the empire’s largest steel company as a financial instrument.
If the company could restore its former productivity, its market value would triple or even quintuple as the market recovered.
Unfortunately…
Before Sandy had time to dwell on it, Li Yi, seated at the head of the table, stood up and addressed him directly: “Mr. Sandy, we meet again!”
Sandy sighed and said, “Li, we’ve lost!”
He then gestured toward the elderly man beside him and said, “This is my father. You can call him Old Henry. We came here today…”
Before he could finish, Li Yi cut him off, saying, “I know. You’re here to sell me your shares, but unfortunately, I won’t be buying any shares from your family!”
At that moment, Old Henry hurriedly said, “Mr. Li, we know Sandy offended you before, so we’ve brought him here to apologize. As you say in your great Eastern nation, this is called… bearing a wooden staff to atone for one’s sins…”
“It’s ‘bearing a bundle of thorns to atone for one’s sins’!”
Li Yi’s lips twitched involuntarily. What the hell is “apologizing with a log on one’s back”?!
“Yes, exactly—‘carrying a bundle of thorns to atone for one’s sins.’ Moreover, our family has decided to send Sandy to the Americas tomorrow as a gesture of our sincere apology. We humbly ask for your forgiveness regarding his previous misconduct!” Old Henry said.
Hearing this, a meaningful smile suddenly appeared on Li Yi’s lips, and he said, “Mr. Henry, do you think I’m refusing your family’s shares as revenge for what Mr. Sandy did earlier?”
“Isn’t that the case?”
“Haha, of course not. If I truly wanted revenge, I wouldn’t be coming after you—I’d be going after the Sassoon family!” Li Yi said calmly.
“Then why, exactly, are you refusing to take shares in our company?” Sandy asked in a low voice.
“Because I want to partner with your Henry family—or, to be more precise, I want to partner with Mr. Sandy!” Li Yi said.
“Collaborate… Mr. Li Yi, what exactly do you mean by ‘collaborate’?”
Li Yi replied immediately, “The Henry family retains all 5% of the shares, and you, Mr. Sandy, continue to serve as the general manager of Sheffield United Steel Company. How does that sound?”
At those words, everyone in the living room was stunned…
……….