musicians of old

Chapter 748 Iron Curtain

On that first day, when Roy read the announcement, he couldn't believe his eyes!

After glancing at the signature at the end of the painting, she almost rushed to the telephone in the other room, spun the wheel rapidly, and dialed the Turner Museum headquarters.

"Lou Adair! Ask him to come over and answer the phone!"

The operator answered yes repeatedly, and then Roy stood still and waited.

I thought it would take some time for Lu to get to the phone after receiving the news, but I didn't expect that Lu, the son of the new Speaker of the Empire, the second-in-command of the Theolian Railway Company, and a part-time executive of Turner Cinemas, has been very "dedicated" recently and is still in the deputy director's office, right next to the phone.

In response to Roy's series of questions about the announcement and the signature, Lu on the other end of the phone was silent for a while, and then gave the following reply:

"Ms. Roy, you guessed right. The military order with Lydia was a great help to my father's successful election as Speaker. But do you think that such a text can be written by a mere House of Commons?"

".You're right." Roy let out a long breath, "Maybe I just wanted to confirm this."

No new official would dare to start a fire of this magnitude after taking office.

Unless you want to burn yourself until nothing is left of your bones.

Perhaps the general public's understanding of this announcement is at most "the big factory owners have completely taken control of the power of the House of Commons, and the middle class and workers may face a difficult time in the future." and so on.

But any official with knowledge of the matter, or anyone with connections in the upper class, would quickly be able to make the connection after reading it.

Guidance School, I'm afraid something went wrong!!

Lu almost guessed what question Roy would ask next.

"Olga has arranged for someone to recalculate it." Lu's voice continued to come from the other end of the phone, "Only calculating the equity structure of Turner Art Theaters in various places in Theolien, the assets directly under or protected by the Guidance School account for 61.5%."

"Another 13.4% is the Capron Art Fund, 4% is a few random investments by the Bologna School, about 10% is scattered private companies or investors, and the proportion of the Turner Hall headquarters alone is less than 11.1%."

This structure is healthy and reasonable.

Fanning has made a lot of money in the past three or four years, but that is only exclusive to the Turner Hall and its art gallery. If he wants to expand the cinema chain in a short period of time, financing cooperation is the inevitable way.

In Theolaine, what Fanning had envisioned and promoted was the path of "the Guidance School investing + the Bologna School providing personnel". As for the Western Continent, the cooperation with the church forces was different. All the money invested here would be diluted with the church at a ratio of "45%:55%", and the proportion of investment from the headquarters would be even lower.

And now, the School of Guidance is over.

So this 61.5% part.

Not just 61.5%.

If the authorities really target Turner Cinemas first, the other parts, especially the diversified investments and others, will also be able to make use of the intricate connections.

"My first suggestion is," Lu continued, "the performance has soared in recent years, and the headquarters should still have a large amount of revenue cash flow that is outside the theater structure. Take it out first, spend it, invest in it, buy back part of it, and try to dilute the proportion of the Guidance School to 50%. It is probably difficult to do this alone, but we still need to quickly obtain Master Fanning's consent to do so."

"Mr. Fanning may have been taken away by the authorities last night." "What's going on!?"

With an uneasy mood, Roy roughly recounted some of the circumstances before and after the premiere of "Tristan and Isolde" last night, as well as some of his own speculations.

But then, she was more pragmatic and put the main content of the current communication back to emergency response. Both of them had strong family backgrounds and were very familiar with the ins and outs of the capital game. Roy naturally understood the intention of Lu's proposal and immediately thought of another point that could be used -

“Paintings.”

"Don't underestimate this. Mr. Fanning's art museum has accumulated a collection of assets in recent years that is still jaw-dropping! Last time, when I commissioned Montgomery to audit its theaters, I asked them to evaluate this part of the assets. The three-year return on investment was 110 to 130 times! Now that we need cash flow, we can fully mobilize part of it. Even if we don't sell it, mortgaging it will be useful. Deputy Director Crowd knows the details of the art museum business. Mr. Fanning is not here, so I will make the above decisions on his behalf. If there is any responsibility afterwards, let him pursue me."

"We have just discussed similar ideas in several small groups, but the authorities may be well prepared." Lu poured cold water on her.

"Come prepared?"

"As the heir to the family, one of the only advantages is that I can predict the next move of Congress in advance." Lu smiled self-deprecatingly, but spoke very quickly.

"At least I have heard that there are three regulations that will be issued in the next one or two days - the Culture and Media Committee's "Important Art Assets Risk Control Act" will require that artworks with great historical or market value must pass a "cultural heritage risk assessment" before being traded. The famous paintings collected by the Turner Art Museum undoubtedly fall into this category."

"In addition, the Special Tax Law for the Performing Arts Industry, drafted by the Culture and Media Committee, the General Treasury, and the General Taxation Administration, will soon be passed. This law will impose a 1% retroactive tax on commercial performances with historical profits exceeding 65 pounds, with a retroactive period of 3 years!"

"And... three major banks in the empire are about to announce the Cultural Industry Credit Structure Optimization Act, which will raise the risk rating of small-scale theater assets by two levels! I inquired about some of the core terms and asked Olga to make a rough estimate. By then, the interest rates of operating mortgage loans for more than 3% of our theater chain's grassroots venues will soar from an average of 5.7% to 7.5%-10.3%!"

“Perhaps each of these can only be considered as an adjustment to some local rules of the game, which is not enough to have a subversive impact on the operation of cinema chains. However, I have a hunch that the formation of a certain policy iron curtain is showing its precursor! When cinema chains deal with the asset restructuring of the Guidance School, the various operations related to cash flow that they can involve will probably be subject to unprecedented restrictions!”

There is no business in this world that is not related to gold pounds, even if it is the spokesperson of the evil god, or even the "great cause" mentioned by the esoteric organization.

The bigger the plate, the more so.

Roy pondered over the countermeasures for a long time, and later he could only consider his own family's personal level and see if he could allocate some resources as much as possible.

"I'm just letting you know about this. I suggest that you in San Pereto focus on putting on a good performance!" Lu emphasized at last.

He also said that this was the message entrusted to him by all the executives who remained at the theater headquarters.

"To be honest, ever since my father won the election, our family has been immersed in a sense of complacency and accomplishment. But after what happened this morning, I suddenly felt that the past was a little ridiculous! Sometimes you stare at something high up for too long, and one day when you climb up, you don't know whether you have become it, or it has become you!"

"I can't tell now. The first thing I did after becoming the speaker's father was to sign such a notice. Does it mean that he fulfilled his will or his will fulfilled him? But on the other hand, maybe it's a good thing for me to change myself. I now find that sitting in the office of an art theater, I feel more like I have left a mark on this world than sitting in the office of a railway company! A certain competitive spirit that resists the established "game path" has been aroused."

"That's just a side topic. Anyway, the current situation is that I, Olga, Congreve, Clawed and others will use all the means we can to hold our ground with all our strength! But the final outcome of the event will probably depend on the outcome of the ceremony and the impact of this outcome on the discussion group and people all over the world! I believe it will not be that easy for the authorities to take action against Master Fanning! Say hello to Miss Sheeran, Director Walter, Deputy Director Marley and others for me."