Tokyo Barrister: Start the law firm bankruptcy

Chapter 844 Clues

Just as Nippon Steel began negotiating with major banks for interest waivers and additional loans, Kitahara was also investigating Nippon Steel. In the Shinjuku City Hall, Kitahara collected a large amount of business information about Nippon Steel. In a nearby reading room, the lawyer flipped through the past records of Nippon Steel.

A thick stack of materials was piled on the table.

It can almost swallow up the human figure.

Flipping through the materials inside, Kitahara was examining the past of this company.

"And these." A female voice came from behind.

Niwa also walked over with a thick stack of materials in his hands.

Not far away, Miyakawa also came over with another stack of materials in his hands.

"These are compilations of Nippon Steel's past annual reports, listed company announcements, and related major financial news," said Niwa.

Nippon Steel is a huge enterprise, and the relevant materials are of course extremely complex.

In this reading room, three people began to browse the information of Nippon Steel.

This place seemed to have turned into an office, with three police officers tracking down clues in a case.

It is not easy to find some preliminary clues in the mountains of information. Kitahara does not quite understand why the extremist organization behind Eriko and Eto chose Nippon Steel as the next target. What is their intention?

As time passed, the day outside turned into night.

There are still more than 10 minutes left before closing at 40pm.

Kitahara gradually discovered some clues in the messy data. About ten years ago, Nippon Steel's business situation gradually showed a bad trend, mainly due to the company's aggressive expansion. At that time, Nippon Steel proposed the idea that the world's low- and middle-income regions would definitely usher in a wave of urbanization, so it continued to incur debt, expand production capacity, and try to open up steel markets around the world.

However, the world market did not develop as Nippon Steel expected.

The harsh reality is that the vast majority of the world remains in extreme poverty.

There is no sign of economic development, let alone so-called urbanization.

What's worse is that Nippon Steel misappropriated the funds raised from overseas investments.

Since it takes quite a long time from the site selection to the actual start of construction of overseas factories, the funds raised for the construction of factories will also be idle.

However, Nippon Steel boldly used this money to engage in high-risk speculative activities.

In particular, Nippon Steel relied on its familiarity with the building materials industry to invest a large amount of funds in futures of rebar, iron ore, hot-rolled coil, and stainless steel. Futures investment often starts with a leverage of four or five times, but Nippon Steel was not afraid and invested a large amount of money.

At the beginning, Nippon Steel's futures operations department made a lot of money.

But finance can often be a cruel place.

Soon, an unprecedented loss occurred.

That is, during the aggressive expansion activities, Nippon Steel's cash flow gradually dried up.

Poor business operations of a company often do not occur first on the profit side.

Instead, it is gradually reflected in the flow of cash.

When Nippon Steel felt the tightness of cash flow, it had no choice but to start taking various measures to cut costs.

This, in turn, affects the quality of the finished product.

Thus a vicious cycle emerges.

A few years ago, the new cabinet proposed a strategy of harmony between capital and labor, so it took Nippon Steel as a model and established a labor union within Nippon Steel. The establishment of the labor union undoubtedly further raised costs. The labor union has the legal power to allocate jobs and conduct collective bargaining. In one year, the labor union of Nippon Steel went on a 93-day strike, which once pushed this giant enterprise to the point of collapse.

The idea is beautiful, but the reality is cruel.

The so-called capital-labor harmony strategy does not solve any practical problems.

In addition to internal factors, steel companies in other parts of the world are also constantly making breakthroughs in research and development, and their products are becoming more and more competitive. Nippon Steel's products are increasingly at a disadvantage in market competition. In the past, Nippon Steel could "win by quality", but now it can only "win by price".

This leads to vicious competition.

Later, there continued to be factory safety accidents and steel quality problems.

As a result, under the influence of multiple factors, Nippon Steel's sales situation has been deteriorating. Operating income has stagnated for many years and is even declining. The gross profit margin of products has been declining. The production capacity of the newly built factories has not been fully utilized, and huge depreciation costs are incurred every year.

The business information in front of us alone reflects the history of Nippon Steel.

Kitahara knew that the story must be more complicated and not necessarily the same as the story on the surface. At this moment, the three people in the reading room did not know that Nippon Steel was holding a creditors' meeting with major banks at its headquarters today. They did not know that Nippon Steel was facing an imminent life-and-death moment.

Kitahara looked at the materials in front of him and could only sigh that it was a tangled mess that could not be sorted out.

Just as the lawyer was still pondering how to proceed, his cell phone suddenly rang.

But it turned out to be a call from Gu Meimen.

It is not easy to see a call from this lawyer with a 10% winning rate at nearly o'clock in the evening.

Kitahara answered the phone.

"Thanks to you, Eriko was solved." Kumimon's voice came from the other end of the line, "The disturbances suffered by my client Shimadzu Real Estate and some other companies have also been resolved."

Previously, Eriko had used her power in the underground industry to infiltrate the supply chains of many companies, and then used the violations she had learned to make a large number of reports, causing many large companies in Tokyo to suffer. Now, with Eriko's arrest, these actions have naturally stopped.

"You called so late, it must be something important." Kitahara said.

"Have you been investigating Nippon Steel recently?"

"I didn't expect Attorney Gu Meimen to be so well-informed."

"Nippon Steel is in a very tricky situation."

"Yes."

"They may have had a big problem recently. According to my intelligence, Nippon Steel held a creditors' meeting with several major banks today, and it is said that they will waive the interest. I estimate that this news will be spread in a few days.

A creditors' meeting has already been held with the bank?! Kitahara was somewhat shocked to learn of this news.

I didn't expect things to progress so quickly.

It seems that what Eriko said about Nippon Steel possibly facing bankruptcy is indeed true.

"If you want to track down Nippon Steel, I can introduce someone to you," said Gu Meimen.

On this night, this lawyer with a 100% winning rate provided Kitahara with clues...

……

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(End of this chapter)