The setbacks of Wall Street, Quantum Fund, and Tiger Fund have been very painful for them. Many investment banks were involved in this matter, and their handling of it has put them in a very passive position when facing Europe.
The top leadership does not want to appear subservient to Europe and hopes that Wall Street will resolve the issue on its own.
Inside the high-level meeting room, prominent figures from Wall Street were present, with a man in his fifties sitting at the head of the table. The discussion about this matter was particularly heated.
"I still believe we should talk to them. This whole thing was illegal from the start; they're suspected of insider trading!"
"This is about controlling resources. Britain has an unshirkable historical responsibility to South Africa, and now it is extending its reach into Africa. We absolutely cannot allow this. We should analyze the problem from this perspective."
"No, now we should find their weakness. It's obvious that they've set a trap. South Africa is their weakness, and we should continue to put pressure on them."
The scene was chaotic. The man sitting in the main seat looked at the crowd and said, "I hope everyone can have a broader perspective. We should focus on appeasement rather than a hard response towards Europe."
“I suggest that the easiest point of breakthrough in this matter is Jiafeng Group. This company is not very big. As long as we show a little goodwill, I believe the matter can be resolved quickly,” one person said.
Soros pondered for a moment before speaking, "I agree with this idea. Starting with Jiafeng Group and getting the tungsten mine back to production will allow us to ease up our efforts to crack down on this company."
Many people at the scene agreed to relax the restrictions on Jiafeng, and some even suggested returning the lithography machine that had been seized to seek leniency for Jiafeng in tungsten futures trading.
The leader's face was grim. Looking at these people, who would sell anything for a loss, he sternly rebuked them, "Do you know what this means? Relaxing the restrictions on Jiafeng? Do you know what's happening in that sea area? What signal does this send?"
Some people whispered among themselves, and many of them were unaware of what was happening at sea thousands of miles away. They only cared about finance and money.
Soros and Robertson exchanged a glance, both knowing that they were doomed to lose the money.
"I'll say it again: we can talk, but we must talk with Britain. Losses are losses, but we must not cause any other problems at this time."
As the meeting concluded and everyone left the conference room, they all lamented that the urgent matter at sea, thousands of miles away, was the priority. They hadn't chosen the right time, and there was no room for maneuver in this matter.
Upon returning to Wall Street, Soros immediately called Robertson. They had to acknowledge the losses and contact Schroders as soon as possible to close out the borrowed short-selling options.
John was already waiting for them.
When John made the call, he explained the terms he had prepared: if they were willing to acquire Schroders Group's stake in Jiafeng for four billion US dollars, the tungsten futures trade between the two parties would be void.
“Four billion? It’s not worth that much. Four billion can buy two Jiafengs. That’s its value in my eyes.” Soros said into the phone, “Otherwise, Robert would have invested directly back then.”
“That was the price back then. Jiafeng has been developing over the past few years, and they have also invested heavily in chip research and development. Besides, dragging this out will only make things worse for you,” John said without any fear.
"This price still needs further discussion. We need to consider Jiafeng's growth potential and value from multiple perspectives..."
June 15, 1996. In the years that followed, people would recall this year as a magnificent one, but Lu Feng felt it was rather uneventful. He inspected the headquarters building and then went to Tianjin to see the newly assembled lithography production line, cleanroom, wafer workshop, and so on.
Two months have passed since April, but the incident is still being brought up on the streets, with people expressing their indignation and cursing, "Damn Americans!"
Compared to the national struggles that ordinary people see, Lu Feng is more concerned about state-owned enterprises. He visited several companies and found that with increasing external restrictions, export-oriented enterprises have suffered heavy blows, and the problem of redundant personnel in state-owned enterprises has become more prominent.
Many places have noticed this problem, some people dare to expose it, while others continue to postpone it.
During his investigation, Lu Feng pondered a question: he knew what would happen in the next few years, but he was powerless to stop it. What followed was a large number of workers losing their jobs. The initial stage of radical reform was extremely painful, but nowhere else could so many jobs be created.
Lu Feng sometimes felt he was bearing the responsibility of history, but he also felt a deep sense of powerlessness, even though Jiafeng now had hundreds of thousands of employees in its several large factories.
However, with the increase in personnel, the expenses were too high. Since last year, the wages of ordinary workers in the factory have been cut. This was the result of discussions by the board of directors. John believed that profits must be increased, so the only option was to cut back on spending.
Jiafeng's semi-annual report has been released. Net profit in the first half of the year exceeded 500 million yuan. With the continued strong sales in the domestic home appliance market, there is still room for growth in the second half of the year.
The interim report provided a detailed account of chip production. Lu Feng flipped through the thick report in his office; in the end, they were still making a profit.
Lu Feng picked up the phone on the table and made a call, asking them to send the report to the board members for review. The report showed that the company had exceeded its targets for the first half of the year and that major projects were progressing steadily.
A few minutes later, Goodley knocked on Lu Feng's office door and came in, saying, "Mr. Lu, there is a mid-year board meeting initiated by the Schroder Group in an hour. We hope you can attend."
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