After Ding Yun finished her direct and lengthy speech, those who were privy to the situation twitched their eyes, while those in the dark struggled to piece together what was happening.
They exchanged bewildered glances, at a loss for what to do.
Meanwhile, some were already contemplating whether to quickly find a way to sell their shares, even at a loss, to avoid them becoming worthless.
And those without shares were already considering jumping ship.
It was akin to the end of an ancient dynasty. If the imperial court was on the verge of collapse, most ministers were merely laborers; changing bosses was still working, and following the former employer to their doom was foolish.
Regardless, the financial manager, performing their duty until the end, stood up and said, "Perhaps I should start with the overdue accounts!"
"There are overdue accounts? That's fine, go ahead and talk..."
Many companies were bullies who preyed on the weak. They paid their debts to banks if they could, but they dragged their feet on payments to small contractors, small businesses, and small suppliers, often without interest. It was a blessing if they paid anything at all.
Countless small suppliers, small contractors, and even small businesses had been dragged to ruin.
The original owner's family was no exception. While they hadn't defaulted on bank loans yet, they owed significant amounts to raw material suppliers and small construction companies, with many debts lingering due to unfinished projects.
Any available funds were prioritized for the banks, not them.
Therefore, these could all be considered overdue debts.
"Currently, we owe a total of 170 million yuan in goods to six material suppliers, and another 280 million yuan in project payments to thirteen construction companies.
This is the amount we directly manage.
There are over 300 million yuan in outsourced debts.
Altogether, this amounts to approximately 800 million yuan."
"What I've just mentioned are the overdue debts. Additionally, nearing their due dates are a 30 billion yuan loan from a certain bank and 12 billion yuan in commercial bonds. These are the major ones.
The secondary concern is employee salaries.
Today is payday.
To cover employee salaries, bonuses, and social security contributions, we need around 100 million yuan."
"Furthermore, in the next three months, three bank loans will mature: 12 billion yuan, 53 billion yuan, and 9.7 billion yuan, respectively.
Within the next year, there are 160 billion yuan in loans and 4.6 billion yuan in commercial bonds due.
And I haven't even included the interest on these amounts.
With interest, the total is far, far higher."
At this point, the financial manager stopped. Further discussion seemed pointless. If they couldn't overcome the immediate hurdle, what was the use of talking about the future? It would only add to their troubles.
The senior management present, most of them hearing such a staggering amount of debt for the first time, felt that the group would certainly be unable to repay it. If it weren't for the unwillingness to openly confront each other, some would have walked out then and there.
After all, they were helpless in this situation.
"So, that's the situation. Anyone with ears can hear it. I never managed the company's affairs before, and now I'm reluctantly stepping in to clean up this mess. I'll do my best.
There's no need for any reservations.
Don't worry about how much we'll lose.
If you have any drastic measures, speak up.
As long as we can recover funds, anything is negotiable!"
Ding Yun had spent only three hours understanding the group's situation. Even with careful examination, it was impossible to foresee every aspect.
Not to mention, she was unfamiliar with some matters.
So, she could only begin by listening to everyone's suggestions.
"Young President Shi, I'm not trying to be a pessimist.
In the current predicament of our group, even the Jade Emperor couldn't save us. The company's cash flow could have lasted a while longer, but a couple of days ago, your father, the former President Shi, took all that cash flow and likely fled overseas with the money.
Now, while the accounts aren't exactly empty, there's very little left. We can't even pay salaries.
Even the most resourceful cook can't cook without ingredients!"
"Actually, if we can sell our houses and land, we can definitely repay the loans. But the key issue now is that our houses aren't selling, or rather, they're not selling fast enough to keep up with the maturing bank loans and interest.
The money from houses sold yesterday
isn't even enough to cover the daily interest payments of our group.
So, there's truly no solution, unless there's a sudden positive development in the housing market, causing prices to surge again. Otherwise, there's no hope.
Therefore, Young President Shi, you should give up."
"In fact, if the authorities allowed us to sell houses at a 40-50% discount, we might be able to hold on for a while longer. Unfortunately, they don't allow it, stating that doing so would completely disrupt the market.
Most importantly, if prices were truly lowered, those who bought previously would surely protest. So, we're in a Catch-22.
Houses won't sell, and prices can't be lowered.
We're completely stuck."
"In the past, when land was scarce, we had opportunities to sell the undeveloped land we acquired, perhaps at a slight loss, to at least repay the loans taken to acquire them and ease some pressure.
But former President Shi missed that opportunity. Now, numerous plots of land are going to auction without buyers, and no one dares to purchase them. Our land is also tied up, unsellable.
Houses priced in the millions are easier to sell.
Land worth billions is truly difficult to sell...
Not to mention the mortgages on the land. Ordinary people can be deceived, but not our competitors."
"Young President Shi, unless we embrace failure,
there's almost no other option..."
Good heavens, almost none of the group's senior management present held any hope for the future. They were all advising Ding Yun to give up, to stop making futile efforts, and to instead hope that the authorities would be willing to mediate. If they were,
then everything would be fine, and they could extend their survival for a few more years.
If not, then bankruptcy was the only outcome.
Ding Yun, based on the financial manager's description and the suggestions from those present, deduced that her "Multi-Wealth Golden Finger" could temporarily extend the group's life for another month. However, if funds couldn't be rapidly recovered within a month, then it would truly be hopeless.
The only way to rapidly recover funds now was to sell houses and assets as much as possible.
But this seemed simple in theory,
yet extremely difficult in practice.
The group's houses currently fell into two categories.
One was housing in first-tier cities, which sold well, and there was almost no inventory left. The other was housing in second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh-tier cities.
Properties in good locations weren't easy to sell,
while those in bad locations were essentially unsellable.
Not to mention the unfinished and unbuilt properties.
The ones that were easy to sell had already been sold.
The ones that were difficult to sell were truly difficult.
While Ding Yun was contemplating, the people present continued to talk, but unfortunately, they offered no life-saving suggestions. The atmosphere of the meeting grew increasingly somber as they spoke more.
Most felt there was no hope.
They were just waiting to die.
After half an hour, Ding Yun finally came up with a few less-than-ideal solutions and decided to try them:
"Enough, enough, please quiet down.
To the finance department, I'll transfer ten billion yuan to you shortly. Use it to settle all our overdue accounts and pay salaries to stabilize morale.
Don't ask where this money comes from. It's not from the group, nor from my parents. It's funds I've transferred from overseas.
This money will be considered a debt owed by the group to me.
My funds can last for a while longer.
But not for too long.
So, we still need to hurry and recover funds."
"I don't know if what I'm doing will succeed in turning the tide, but I have to try.
Let's treat a dead horse as if it were alive!
Bankruptcy is acceptable, but we cannot lose our conscience!"
"First of all, send some employees to negotiate with the buyers of properties that have been sold but are unfinished or haven't started construction yet.
Ask them if they are willing to consider a property exchange.
We have properties in various locations across the country that haven't been sold yet. If the prices are similar, we'll exchange directly. If the price is lower, we'll offer more area. For higher prices, we'll give a 30% discount on the excess portion.
Note, we are not selling houses here.
We are doing this out of necessity to compensate the buyers as much as possible. Because our company is at fault, a lower price is reasonable."
"This should allow us to clear some inventory without spending money. As for those who absolutely refuse, if the number is very small, we'll buy them a house in a nearby small community to compensate them. If there are many, we'll build a bit less and complete delivery as soon as possible.
In short, resolve these issues quickly!"
"Wait, President Shi, this won't work.
By doing this, besides losing some inventory and expending energy, we'll hardly recover any funds!"
Du Hui had initially expected Ding Yun to propose a good solution, but the more he listened, the more useless Ding Yun's suggestions seemed. Buyers who had purchased houses but hadn't received them posed less of a threat than banks.
Wasting energy and money on them
was a waste of time for self-rescue.
"I know, stop talking nonsense.
I'm not an idiot. I understand that the suggestions I've just made won't recover funds and might even cost money. But this must be done.
I've heard all your suggestions and considered them. Therefore, I've decided that regardless of whether the company goes bankrupt, we must resolve the outstanding issues.
The debts owed to banks can be put aside for now. Banks have collateral, and if they sell those collateral at market price, they won't lose money.
People who bought our houses have been paying mortgages for years and still haven't received their homes. Isn't this our fault? My idea is that even if we go bankrupt later, we shouldn't be cursed by everyone after bankruptcy. I still have some money, and the group can continue to operate for a while longer. So, let's resolve the outstanding issues first, and ideally, after bankruptcy, no one will curse us except the banks!"
"Ten billion yuan might not be enough to repay one bank's first-phase loan, but it's enough to fix the problems of ten thousand families we've wronged. This must be done.
After all, we still have many unsellable houses, so we should try to satisfy those families through methods that don't cost money. If it's truly impossible, then we'll spend money."
"We will establish a dedicated department to handle this matter later. If money is needed, I will allocate funds as much as possible.
This is the first thing I have to say."
"The second matter is selling land. We need to find ways to sell all the undeveloped land. As long as it's not at a loss, that's fine. In this case, if anyone can sell a plot of land without losing money, we won't pay cash due to cash flow constraints.
Instead, we'll give them houses. The unsold houses of the company.
Any house under ten million yuan can be chosen.
If it's profitable, we'll give a 3% commission on the profit.
We need to minimize the mess we've created.
This will make bankruptcy liquidation easier later!"
"The third point is selling houses.
For this, the original commission remains unchanged. A new commission will be added. The original commission was a percentage of the sales revenue, from 0.3% to 0.5%?
In some places, it might be even lower.
Now, it's changed. An additional 1% commission will be added, but this 1% will not be paid in cash. It will also be given in the form of houses. Our group has plenty of something right now, and that's unsellable houses.
In other words, if a salesperson sells a hundred houses in the same complex, their sales commission will be rewarded with one house in that complex.
If they want houses in other complexes, that's fine too.
They can be exchanged proportionally at market price.
For example, if a salesperson sells a thousand houses worth one million yuan each, and they don't want a one-million-yuan house,
then they can be rewarded with a ten-million-yuan house.
As long as it's a house owned by our group, any house is fine!
This will not only increase motivation but also indirectly help clear inventory. Most importantly, no one can say we're selling houses at a low price, right? We're not selling houses; we're directly rewarding our employees."
"Sellers of air conditioners reward employees with air conditioners, sellers of mobile phones reward employees with mobile phones. What's wrong with us, sellers of houses, rewarding employees with houses? It's reasonable and fair!"
"Of course, if anyone is unwilling, we won't force them. They can still receive their original cash commission."
"For now, let's proceed like this. If you have any good house-selling plans that can quickly recover funds, you can email them to me directly."
"Oh, and there's something else I almost forgot.
For material suppliers and construction companies, if they are willing to accept houses as debt repayment,
we can offer them some discounts.
From now on, the core of our group's economy will be to use houses to offset debts whenever possible, and we will not use cash.
That's all for now.
The ten billion yuan will be in your account shortly..."
After finishing all her thoughts, Ding Yun took out her Multi-Wealth Card and began to transfer funds, then headed directly to the company's finance department.
She planned to check the accounts and perform an asset and debt breakdown.