America: My Time

Chapter 1127 The Temptation of Profit

Chapter 1117 The Temptation of Profit
Nissan's situation isn't ideal, but it depends on who's in charge. Under John, it's a completely different story. Bentley Motors plans to gradually eliminate the procurement of parts from Japan, switching entirely to Chinese parts. Only the core components will be produced by Nissan itself, followed by assembly. Moreover, at this time, the Japanese workers will be more obedient, which is more conducive to the development of Bentley Motors.

In Bentley Motors' integration plan, the Japanese were the main force. They were willing to work hard, otherwise these guys would all be burdened with debt. If they didn't obey, they would be laid off. They naturally knew what to choose.

Although the time frame is short, Nissan's situation is improving, and Nissan's car sales have also changed. It has a good market share in North America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, thanks to the Bentley Motors Group's strategic layout. As for South America, it is also accelerating its efforts. In short, it is vying for market share.

Nissan's turnaround has prompted some changes in the minds of Japanese officials and conglomerates, who naturally prefer cooperation with Asian Energy. In contrast, South Korea's situation is more serious. After repeated attempts to contact Asian Energy yielded no results, South Korea realized cooperation was impossible; Asian Energy had already reached an agreement with the Japanese.

If those Koreans could have set aside their ignorant arrogance and gone to Tokyo to discuss things with John as soon as possible, and shown a better attitude of admitting their mistakes, perhaps all of this could have been salvaged. But they were too self-righteous and arrogant, always thinking that the Korean market was very important to Asian Energy and that the other party would never give it up. But they were wrong. Asian Energy did give up the Korean market and focused its energy on Japan first, trying to get the benefits it wanted from Japan.

Given John's reputation in Japan, cooperating with them would be easier. Besides, those Koreans always have an inexplicable arrogance, but John doesn't feel that way about Japan. After reaching an agreement, Asia Energy quickly reached a deal with Japan and signed a contract to accelerate cooperation with them.

Is John not tempted by Japan's natural gas retail market? It would be a lie to say he isn't, but John knows now is not the time to get involved. Don't be fooled by the quick reaction and friendly attitude of these Japanese guys; it's all a result of profit-making, and they still control the retail market. If John wanted to intervene, even using women like Naoko and Momoko Kikuchi as shields wouldn't work; he would still face their wrath.

Seeing the reactions of those Koreans, John naturally stopped trying to get close to them and didn't want to focus his energy on them. Relatively speaking, China was easier to cooperate with than them, and Asia Energy had more roots in China. After all, with the split of Western Energy, Asia Energy had received all of China's investments, which was almost half of Western Energy's overseas investments. You can imagine how amazing this asset was.

Despite the apparent generosity and decisiveness of these Japanese companies in this collaboration, John could tell from their reactions that they were constantly wary of him. They were worried that Asian Energy would use its vast resources to overwhelm their chemical industry. If Japan's economy hadn't been in a slump, still struggling to recover, and with unemployment remaining high, these companies would likely already be conducting research on Asian Energy's factories in Japan.

The more John understood these guys from Japan, the more wary he became, because Sumitomo was now trapped. Losses were inevitable, and no matter how much they struggled, it was useless; failure was a foregone conclusion.

John was also making some arrangements in this futures battle. At least Barings Bank was shorting copper futures, but the amount was not large. Hurricane Investment and Standard Chartered Bank were also shorting, but the amount was not large either. After all, this was not just driven by oil capital. If he went too far, it would alert the guys in Japan and damage his plans. Compared to the Asian financial crisis, this amount of profit was nothing!

John's goal was the huge profits from the Asian financial crisis, not the small profits from Sumitomo. After all, Sumitomo was a much larger company, and Yuta Capital was at the forefront. If he were to compete with them for these profits, there would inevitably be fierce competition, and it might even give those guys in Japan some bad ideas. At this time, John didn't want to damage his image in Japan, so he didn't have that much ambition!

With the signing of the cooperation agreement between Asian Energy and Japan, the South Koreans were completely dumbfounded. As the Sakhalin pipeline project was finalized and no further plans were made, the South Koreans realized their calculations had completely failed. They thought their market was large and important, but reality slapped them in the face; Asian Energy abandoned its cooperation with them.

Asia Energy's next focus isn't South Korea, Japan, or Southeast Asia, but rather Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, where it plans to increase investment. This has secured a substantial loan from Japan. Indeed, Japanese banks have given Asia Energy another significant loan. The reason is simple: Asia Energy's aggressive development in Kazakhstan, this time due to the Kashagan oil field. After Asia Energy confirmed its existence, it attracted considerable attention, quickly surprising some who hesitated to participate due to the harsh environment. Even Kazakhstan itself has abandoned any further interest.

Asia Energy's report was very clear, and their own research also made it clear that successful mining would not be an easy task, as there were many problems. However, John had no intention of giving up. Asia Energy had been making arrangements and preparations in this regard, and when they saw that Asia Energy wanted to continue developing the Kashagan oil field, they naturally received strong support from Kazakhstan, after all, this was a matter of profit.

Developing such an oil field is no easy task; it requires a huge amount of capital, which will inevitably put considerable pressure on Asian Energy, especially since Asian Energy itself is already short of funds. So John has set his sights on Japan. Although the Japanese are not optimistic about Asian Energy, this is only a loan, not an investment, so they will naturally not let go of such a 'benefit'.

However, this loan was still a low-interest loan. The reason was simple: Asian Energy wanted to use Japanese products to build offshore mining platforms. As a result, Asian Energy obtained a lot of loans from these Japanese companies, and in Japanese yen, which naturally satisfied them.

Given such lucrative offers, it would be foolish for the Japanese to refuse. Asia Energy even intentionally mentioned that the original plan was to cooperate with South Korea, but those guys were too greedy. The cooperation in Sakhalin alone caused so many problems, so the cooperation had to be canceled, and Japan became Asia Energy's partner.

Driven by both profit and lies, the Japanese guys naturally pushed things forward quickly, accelerating their cooperation. All their loans had to be completed within six months, and all purchases made in Japan would be directly deposited into their accounts. This is why the speed was so astonishing.

In this 'cooperation', are there any risks for Japan? Of course, there are. After all, Asia Energy has taken out a lot of loans, and Japan is bearing a large part of the burden. If something goes wrong, it will naturally pose a certain risk to them. However, these risks are all within a controllable range, given Asia Energy's strength.

However, when this news reached South Korea, those guys were really anxious. What a huge benefit this was! Although they knew that John's shipyard could also build offshore platforms and had such technical reserves, the shipyard's capabilities were limited. Otherwise, such a good thing wouldn't have fallen into Japan's lap.

Because of their arrogance and stupidity, the Koreans have become a laughing stock. At least the Japanese are extremely happy and are mocking them, especially the Japanese companies that have benefited from them. They all think the Koreans are fools. Opportunities were clearly presented to them, but these guys insisted on causing trouble, being arrogant, and incredibly greedy, squandering the benefits that were right in front of them. Such foolishness naturally became the reason for the Japanese to mock them!

At this moment, the Koreans were filled with regret, but unfortunately it was all in vain. Asian Energy ignored them, and John's side ignored them as well. The reason was simple: they had been given a chance, but they were too greedy and did not deserve to continue cooperating with Asian Energy. This reason made the Koreans so angry that they wanted to vomit blood.

Looking at the attitudes of both sides, the Koreans had nothing to say. John had spent quite a bit of time there regarding cooperation with the Koreans, but these guys were incredibly arrogant and conceited, as if Asian energy companies had to cooperate with them, and their market was the best reason. But on the Japanese side, it was completely different. These Japanese guys were very pragmatic, especially given their own economic problems, so they naturally wouldn't let go of such an opportunity.

(End of this chapter)