RPAGF Chapter 245 A Minor External Injury
Chapter 245 A Minor External Injury
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(Two extra chapters today~)
Early May. Tokyo.
The chairman's office on the top floor of the Seibu Group headquarters building.
Outside the thick, bulletproof glass curtain wall, leaden-gray cumulus clouds hung low over the Tokyo skyline.
The lingering chill of spring made the city appear somewhat bleak, and the pale sunlight barely penetrated the spacious interior, casting large, dark shadows on the expensive Persian carpets.
Yoshiaki Tsutsumi sat upright behind a large black walnut wood desk.
He was wearing a well-tailored dark gray flannel suit, and an unlit Cuban Cohiba cigar was held between the fingers of his left hand.
On the table in front of me lay a thick financial statement, more than thirty pages long.
"Hokkaido Gokurakukan Spring Operation Financial Final Accounts".
Yoshiaki Tsutsumi frowned slightly, his gaze slowly shifting between the rows of dense black lead characters and numbers.
After the stock market index fell below the 30,000-point mark, the consumption trend in Japanese society shifted slightly. Those who became rich overnight in the past few years by taking advantage of soaring stock and land prices are seeing their paper assets shrink dramatically.
This reduction is directly reflected in the visitor flow curve of the Paradise Pavilion.
Yoshiaki Tsutsumi turned to a page of the report.
The daily chip turnover at the ground floor roulette casino plummeted by nearly 40% compared to the first month of operation. While the Michelin-starred restaurants on the middle floor remained fully booked, the rate at which premium vintage wines were being opened when customers ordered was noticeably lower.
Last week, the top floor of Sotheby's auction house witnessed the rare occurrence of an Impressionist masterpiece failing to sell. Those nouveau riche who once spent lavishly to flaunt their class have become extremely cautious in their bidding.
The decline in high-end customers directly led to a significant drop in the overall operating revenue of the Paradise House.
However, what truly made Yoshiaki Tsutsumi feel a bit stuck was another set of data at the bottom of the report.
Springtime in Hokkaido remains bitterly cold. Nighttime temperatures in Niseko often hover around zero degrees Celsius.
To maintain the tropical rainforest climate of 28 degrees Celsius inside that massive glass dome, the heavy industrial boilers in the basement have never stopped running for a second. The daily consumption of tons of special heavy oil, the staggering power consumption of the de-icing system, and the enormous salaries of thousands of service personnel and special plant maintenance teams have not been reduced in the slightest.
Revenue has plummeted, while rigid physical costs remain stubbornly high.
These two diverging curves, resembling a scissor shape, eventually converge into a glaring deficit on the last page of the report.
Gokurakukan, the money-printing machine that created a myth of 50 billion yen in revenue in its first month of operation, is showing signs of book losses for the first time.
Yoshiaki Tsutsumi placed the cigar in his hand on the edge of the crystal ashtray.
He picked up the black coffee beside him and took a sip. The bitter liquid slid down his throat.
A mere few billion yen in operating deficit is hardly a crippling blow to the Seibu Empire, whose size spans trillions of yen. He owns one-sixth of all the land in Japan; he could easily fill the hole by selling one or two marginal plots or securing a tiny personal loan from a bank.
This is just the growing pain caused by the overall market correction.
The Ministry of Finance cannot allow the market to continue falling. As long as they get through this phase and the stock market rebounds, those newly rich will still return to the Elysium Palace with large sums of money to squander.
What truly annoyed him was the payment reminder slip at the very bottom of the report.
A few months ago, in order to acquire Gokurakukan and Akasaka Pink Building outright from the conservative elders of the Saionji family, he instructed the finance department to apply for a bridge loan of 150 billion yen from the First Kangyo Bank.
The principal and interest of this huge short-term loan will officially mature this Friday.
"Knock, knock."
A dull knock on the door interrupted Yoshiaki Tsutsumi's thoughts.
"Enter."
The heavy oak double doors were pushed open. The finance director of the Seibu Group walked in.
The finance executive, who usually oversees the group's massive cash flow, looked unusually serious at this moment. Holding a document stamped with the bank's seal, he walked steadily to his desk and gave a slight bow.
"President."
Yoshiaki Tsutsumi leaned back in his leather chair.
"Has everything been settled with the First Industrial Bank?" Tsutsumi Yoshiaki asked calmly. "Have them stamp the extension papers for the 150 billion yen as soon as possible. Gokurakukan's recent cash flow needs to be used to settle the heavy oil bills, so this principal will be held in the account and rolled over."
The finance minister placed the documents he was holding flat on the marble table and pushed them toward Yoshiaki Tsutsumi.
"Chairman. The president of the First Industrial Bank has rejected our extension application." The finance minister's tone was very solemn.
Yoshiaki Tsutsumi paused slightly.
He raised his head and stared sharply at the finance minister.
"Refuse?" Yoshiaki Tsutsumi's brows furrowed deeply. "Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank has been a core partner of ours for many years. I'm using my prime land in Shinagawa Ward as collateral to apply for a standard bridge loan extension. What reason could they possibly have to refuse Seibu?"
The finance minister bowed slightly.
"I went to the head office in person and met with their president."
"The bank president and his senior management team apologized to me repeatedly. But he just wouldn't sign the extension agreement."
The finance minister pointed to the document on the table.
"At the end of last month, the Ministry of Finance suddenly issued an administrative order on 'total quantity regulation,' strictly ordering all financial institutions that the growth rate of their loans to the real estate sector must not exceed the growth rate of their total loan balance."
"The bank manager said that a special inspector from the Banking Bureau of the Ministry of Finance is currently sitting in their head office auditing all the loan accounts. Under this high-pressure policy, they can't even approve a new real estate loan of 10,000 yen."
"Once this 150 billion yuan bridge loan matures, according to the red line requirements of the 'Total Loan Regulation,' they will not only be unable to grant us an extension to refinance the loan, but they will also have to require us to repay the entire principal on schedule, as stipulated in the contract."
A brief silence fell over the office.
A muffled rumble of spring thunder faintly rolled across the deep, leaden clouds outside the window.
Yoshiaki Tsutsumi sat upright in his leather swivel chair. He looked at the rejection notice on the table.
A principal of 150 billion.
It must be repaid in pure cash within a few days.
He did indeed own one-sixth of all the land in Japan, and the Seibu Group's total assets were terrifyingly vast. But faced with the Ministry of Finance's ruthless, one-size-fits-all policy, the banks' credit valves were forcibly shut shut.
Those prime plots of land valued at trillions of dollars instantly turned into piles of unrealizable, dead cement after losing their collateral function as financial leverage.
This is an utterly absurd experience.
As the absolute tycoon of the Japanese real estate industry, this man, known as "Emperor Seibu," experienced for the first time in his life the suffocating feeling of having a major artery severed.
"absurd."
Yoshiaki Tsutsumi snorted coldly.
The Ministry of Finance's "total quantity regulation" came without warning and was a completely indiscriminate policy mishap.
"These fools who sit in Xiaguan and talk about war on paper."
"They thought that by forcibly shutting down the banks, they could suppress land prices. They simply don't understand that if you cut off land financing, the entire market's cash flow will immediately become stagnant."
He leaned back in his chair, a mocking glint in his eyes.
"Even a group the size of Seibu can't borrow a single penny of bridge financing to keep things afloat in the face of the 'total volume regulation.' Those small and medium-sized real estate developers at the bottom are probably already lining up on the rooftops."
Yoshiaki Tsutsumi pictured the giant deep-sea pit under construction in Daiba.
With this move by the Ministry of Finance, the Saionji family's "Saionji Pagoda" project, which cost hundreds of billions of yen, must now have its external financing channels completely cut off.
Although Elysium is currently experiencing a slight operating deficit, the casino and hotel at the bottom are still generating a large amount of current cash flow every day.
Yoshiaki Tsutsumi's lips twitched upwards.
But Saionji Temple was a complete waste of money; it was pure investment. Now that the banks aren't providing financial support, it'll probably go bankrupt and shut down soon.
He snapped out of his thoughts.
Now that the Ministry of Finance's policy has been implemented, complaining about bureaucrats is pointless. The immediate liquidity crisis must be resolved.
"Notify all subsidiaries within the group," Yoshiaki Tsutsumi instructed the finance director. "Suspend all acquisitions and expansion plans for non-core businesses. Transfer all available cash from the accounts of each branch office to the headquarters account."
"First, we need to weather this current policy downturn. We need to secure the 150 billion yen principal of First Kangyo Bank."
He picked up his slightly cooled coffee and took a sip.
"Once the bureaucrats at the Ministry of Finance realize that this one-size-fits-all policy will destroy the Japanese economy and they are forced to reopen the floodgates, we can then use the abundant funds to buy up prime land from real estate developers who have been driven to bankruptcy by the policy at bargain prices."
"Go and do it."
The finance officer bowed deeply.
"Yes, Chairman. I will allocate funds immediately."
The minister backed away from the office. The heavy oak door closed behind him.
Yoshiaki Tsutsumi sat alone behind his desk.
He turned his head and looked out the window at the bustling city shrouded in dark clouds.
Although it was just a minor injury, the feeling of holding trillions of assets but not being able to produce cash still lingered in his mind like a persistent ailment.