Tokyo Barrister: Start the law firm bankruptcy

Chapter 840 Creditors' Meeting

The creditors' meeting held at the Nippon Steel headquarters today was mainly for the major credit banks of Nippon Steel. This large steel company accounts for more than half of Toyo Steel's output and can be said to be an absolute giant. Many banks in Toyo have dealings with Nippon Steel.

For an asset-heavy industry like steel, the introduction of a new plant or new equipment is an astronomical investment. At the same time, the expenditures for steel smelting companies such as purchasing raw materials and hedging are also extremely large and require a huge amount of funds.

Therefore, the major lending banks all provided large amounts of financing to Nippon Steel.

Often the scale of a single financing exceeds tens of billions of yen.

It is precisely because of such a large amount of credit that banks are extremely concerned about Nippon Steel's every move.

The participants of today's creditors' meeting are all major banks. Before this meeting, these banks had received a rumor that Nippon Steel might suspend interest payments from next month. This was a bolt from the blue. You know, Nippon Steel is the largest steel company in Japan!

In the conference room, representatives from various banks, all dressed in suits and leather shoes, sat upright in their chairs. These bank representatives arrived at the conference room early. They were not in the mood to socialize before the meeting.

The banks in this conference room mainly include: Shohei Itabashi, representative of Mitsubishi Tokyo UFJ Bank, Takayuki Mizushima, representative of Mizuho Bank, Yoshiharu Akiyama, representative of Tokyo Central Bank, Ikumi Morita, representative of Sumitomo Mitsui Bank, Takuji Momose, representative of Shinsei Bank, and Kyoji Iwasaki, representative of Chiba Bank.

A total of six major bank creditors.

Needless to say, just by listening to the names, you can tell that they are all large banks in Japan.

However, even for large banks, if Nippon Steel's loan debt becomes a bad debt, it would probably be an unprecedented earthquake.

Sitting in the conference room was Masato Nagai, the financial director of Nippon Steel. Nagai wore glasses, was thin and even a little hunched, and the white hair on his temples showed that this financial helmsman of the steel group had been working hard for this huge enterprise.

"Everyone, the meeting may have to be delayed a little bit." Nagai said, "The chairman has some things to deal with. He will come with the Minister of General Affairs Terada in a moment."

As soon as these words were spoken, the bank representatives present became even more dissatisfied.

They were already nervous enough today.

Now, at this important moment, the chairman of Nippon Steel is actually late?!

At this time, Mitsubishi Tokyo UFJ Bank's representative Itabashi took the lead in speaking out, "Director Nagai, such a big thing has happened, why is your chairman still so slow? Now that Nippon Steel is so sudden, you suddenly said that the interest payment for next month will be postponed. Our bank has no time to react at all."

"Now, what on earth is wrong with Nippon Steel's business?!"

"This..." Nagai stuttered, "When everyone is gathered for the meeting, we will explain to everyone the special situation that Nippon Steel is currently facing."

"Just an explanation?" the bank representative Banqiao asked, "Since your company has arbitrarily notified us that the interest payment will be suspended, don't you have a follow-up plan? When will the interest payment resume? Can the loan be repaid on time? Is additional guarantee required? Don't you need to explain this series of things to the bank?"

"Yes! Yes!" a bank representative echoed.

Nagai spread his hands helplessly. Mizushima of Mizuho Bank also questioned: "Moreover, we got the latest news this morning. Your company's sixth and seventh steel plants have stopped operating, right? But weren't these two steel plants put into operation recently? Isn't your company's new operating income next year mainly from these two steel plants?! If they are closed, can your company's revenue growth plan still be realized?"

"And if these two steel mills stop operating, can they complete the orders on hand? Or has Nippon Steel encountered 'order cancellation'?!"

The representative of Mizuho Bank also asked relentlessly.

"Regarding the allocation of production capacity of each steel mill, we mainly make decisions based on local conditions." Nagai could only continue to beat around the bush and reply, "But, I really ask all bank representatives to rest assured that our current operating conditions at Nippon Steel are still very stable."

"I heard that the union of Nippon Steel may take action." Akiyama Yoshiharu, a representative of the Tokyo Central Bank, said, "It is said that because of the shutdown of the sixth and seventh steel plants, the union of Nippon Steel may take strike action. According to past records, the strike of the union of Nippon Steel has lasted for 93 days. Does this mean that your company may be at risk of stopping work for more than a month this year?"

Upon hearing about the risk of a strike, the bank representatives present looked even more worried.

The sudden shutdown of the sixth and seventh steel mills can only mean that the order volume was lower than expected.

If the Nippon Steel Workers' Union continues its strike, this year's operating revenue is likely to shrink by more than a quarter.

Not to mention net profit, even operating profit may be halved.

This would be an extremely dire consequence.

Especially for a behemoth like Nippon Steel.

If this really happens, it will result in extremely huge losses.

For Nippon Steel, which already has tight cash flow, such a huge loss is likely to swallow up all the funds on hand at once and push the company into an abyss of no return.

At this time, Ikumi Morita, a representative of Sumitomo Mitsui Bank, also spoke up: "We have also noticed the summary of the latest financial documents sent by your company. We noticed that in this period, your company had such a large amount of inventory impairment provision. This is far beyond our imagination."

"According to your previous estimates, this year's overseas steel exports will increase by more than one-third, and domestic exports will increase by more than one-tenth. To this end, your company has also introduced new production lines and recruited more industrial workers to complete the increased orders. However, does the abnormally high amount of inventory impairment provision now mean that your company's steel sales are seriously below expectations?"

The bank representatives' questions were more pointed than each other.

It's simply impossible to answer.

Nagai could only smile and say, "The inventory impairment provision is mainly due to the poor storage of steel. As you know, the East Ocean was hit by a typhoon recently. The steel stored in our warehouse near the bay was corroded by the sea water. This is a natural disaster. We...we really have no choice..."

"Director Nagai! If you continue to avoid the question like this, our bank will not be able to accept it!" Mitsubishi Tokyo UFJ Bank representative Itabashi pointed out directly.

(End of this chapter)