Tokyo Barrister: Start the law firm bankruptcy

Chapter 855 Approaching

It had been five days since Terada locked the bank representatives in the Nippon Steel headquarters. On the sixteenth floor of the Nippon Steel headquarters building, an area was set aside for these bank representatives to work.

Minister of General Affairs Terada took the toughest stance, and the banks were forced to take action. The major banks also needed to take some real money action. After all, the network behind Terada also involved the Financial Services Agency's future regulatory attitude towards the banks.

Of course, the banks did not take action just because of Terada's simple threat.

They are also stakeholders.

As the main creditors, banks do not want Nippon Steel to collapse.

Terada demanded that the new financing plan must be a package agreement.

That is, the arrangements for interest waiver and future new loans will be determined at one time.

The banks understood that aid to Nippon Steel was a request that could not be refused.

Therefore, they all determined internally what the final size of the new loan to be provided to Nippon Steel would be. The main correspondent banks obviously had their own agenda. They all wanted the other party to pay more so that they could pay less. This was a typical free-rider situation.

If Nippon Steel's operating difficulties can be improved, it will benefit all creditors, regardless of whether the creditor has contributed. Therefore, naturally, the banks want to be lazy.

But the problem is that -

Providing additional financing would inevitably require Nippon Steel to provide new collateral.

Steel is certainly a so-called sunset industry.

However, those huge blast furnaces, roaring workshops, and sparking production lines are all real assets. Holding more valuable assets of Japanese steel companies means that if the difficulties are really irreversible in the future, there are still collaterals in hand to recover some losses.

Major banks including Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho Bank, Bank of Tokyo Central, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Shinsei Bank representative Takuji Momose, and Chiba Bank all sent their respective teams of lawyers and auditing teams to conduct a partial inventory of Nippon Steel's assets.

The purpose is to find valuable assets of Nippon Steel as soon as possible and use them as collateral for the loan.

The bank acted very quickly.

Once they decide to do something, these large financial institutions will immediately start operating.

In just five days, many lawyers and accountants immediately entered the market.

Of course, the identities of these people are kept confidential.

The entire process is carried out in a strictly confidential manner.

After all, the bank's assistance to Nippon Steel in relieving its difficulties must be kept confidential in the early stages, otherwise once the news leaks out, it will cause a major blow to Nippon Steel's market reputation. Once everything is ready and the bank's funds are in place, it will be announced at this time, which will instead become a beautiful story of the company's rebirth from the ashes.

Same plot.

But if it happens one minute earlier or one minute later, the result will be completely different.

In this specially designated office area, personnel from Nippon Steel and the bank are busy with the inventory and accounting of assets.

From time to time, you can hear the phone ringing.

"Is the production line for No. 4 blast furnace the one that was installed just last year? We need to determine the amount of depreciation."

"We have to check this."

"As soon as possible, please."

"Also, we purchased two plots of suburban land the year before last. Our bank needs to process mortgage procedures for these two plots of land."

"These two plots of land were specially approved by the local municipal hall. We have received subsidies, but we still need to negotiate with the municipal hall whether we can go through the mortgage procedures smoothly."

"For steel stored in warehouses that can be used for futures delivery, we also need to mark it with the bank's specific mark to apply for guarantee."

In the intense mobilization, banks are targeting almost all assets that can be used as collateral.

Some banks even want to use the so-called floating mortgage.

That is, they simply bundled a large number of Nippon Steel's production equipment and mortgaged them. However, because it is difficult to accurately determine the amount of floating mortgages and divide the responsibilities, they eventually took the traditional path of setting mortgages.

In addition to the continuous negotiations and confirmations between Nippon Steel and the bank.

Several major correspondent banks are also in the process of negotiating with each other.

To know--

The mortgage right can certainly be paid first.

However, in the case of repeated mortgages, the order of repayment is also different.

Several major banks are also discussing the order in which everyone will be compensated.

Different lawyers and accounting firms from each bank were arguing fiercely for their respective employers.

Although the scene looks lively.

But when it comes to the issue of order of compensation, whoever has the bigger fist has the final say.

In other words, the bank that pays the most money will be ranked first in the order of repayment.

Even if the contract is thousands of pages long and filled with complicated legal terms and contract clauses.

However, the original logic has not changed.

The one with the strongest power has the final say.

In the midst of the busy process, Nippon Steel's financial director Nagai was naturally also in this office area. The burden of the negotiations between Nippon Steel and the bank this time mainly fell on this financial director.

As a financial expert, Nagai used all his skills to promote the implementation of this financing plan.

Including the financing structure plan at that time.

Compliance of guarantees.

Progress of due diligence.

All aspects, no matter how big or small, are under the coordination of Nagai.

Time is extremely tight.

Both Terada of the Cabinet and Shibata, the chairman of Nippon Steel, demanded that all transaction documents for this financing plan be finalized and signed within one month.

Even Nagai, a financial expert, felt tremendous pressure.

This time, Nagai has almost figured out the financing framework.

Basically it's about setting up a new steel company.

At that time, the strategic investors found by Cabinet Minister Terada will also invest.

The bank's new loans will mainly be allocated to this new company.

At the same time, Nippon Steel provided another guarantee to the company.

The new company will then invest the raised funds back into Nippon Steel.

In this way, some of the bank debts will at least be outside the balance sheet of Nippon Steel, which will not look so bad. At the same time, it can also be publicized as a new strategic investment move by Nippon Steel. This sounds much better than the banks collectively bailing out Nippon Steel.

Just as Nagai was working at his desk, busy with the complicated details of this huge financing plan -

Suddenly, a subordinate came running over in a hurry.

"Nagai... Director Nagai! Hundreds of workshop contractors want to see you. They want Nippon Steel to repay their debts immediately. There are quite a lot of people. Are you going to deal with them?

(End of this chapter)