Cape Town took the initiative to choose to compromise, which was a good thing for Ernst. Now he can get away from South Africa and focus on a more important thing.
In October, Ernst did not return to First Town, but came directly to Nairobi.
The factory that Hechingen invested in Nairobi city has been fully constructed and put into production. At the same time, the Hechingen Bank headquarters has also been moved here, allowing Nairobi to open a new location to house the Hechingen Bank headquarters and a set of luxurious infrastructure configurations.
"How is the current investment situation in North America?" This was the first question Ernst asked after coming to Hechingen Bank's headquarters.
"Your Highness, we have now begun the eleventh round of selling assets, and we still have 30% of fixed high-quality investments in hand. This has allowed us to withdraw a large amount of funds and make a huge profit. However, according to the current economic conditions in North America, we are still essentially losing money. The assets we lost are still continuing to increase in value, and the entire market is hot."
Ernst nodded and said, "Bite off more than we can chew. After all, we can't let us take all the good things. How is the situation in Europe?"
"According to your instructions, we did not sell as many assets in Europe as in North America, but we made more money than in North America. Because of the good impression created by Hohenzollern Conglomerate's many brands, many people are willing to take over the deal at a high price. For example, supermarkets are popular even in locations with poor geographical locations and difficult to make profits. However, Your Highness, many of these takeovers hope that we will authorize them to continue to use their previous names."
Ernst shook his head and said, "This is not possible. We can continue to provide supply channels, and we do not even take a commission from it, but we cannot let them use our registered brand name. This is a credibility issue. Of course, if it is a franchised brand, we can introduce it to them."
Supply channels are the most important support for the survival of various supermarket brands under Hohenzollern Conglomerate. As an all-round player, Hohenzollern Conglomerate operates extensively in the fields of light industry and electric power industry. It is a unique super giant in the entire Germany. Heavy industry has just started, but the majority of investment in heavy industry is deployed in East Africa. As for Europe and North America, Hohenzollern Conglomerate cannot squeeze in.
The rich industrial chain enables Hohenzollern Conglomerate's supermarkets to obtain a wide variety of product supplies. The most important thing is that agricultural products from East Africa can also be sold through supermarket channels.
I don't know how many businesses and companies are going bankrupt during this economic crisis, and Hohenzollern Conglomerate cannot have anything to do with them.
Ernst continued, "Also, we are now starting to clean up the bank's bad debts and sell off all risky assets while the market is hot. Next, we will raise our loan threshold and exclude all companies with operational problems and unrealistic projects. All branches will begin to withdraw funds to ensure that there will be no problems with the reserve funds."
"Your Highness, our bank will probably lose a lot of money this way."
"Just do as I say. Any company that wants to operate for a long time cannot turn a blind eye to its own problems. Blindly pursuing short-term profits and choosing to ignore risks will not be strong. It will damage the long-term health of the company, and the reputation accumulated in the past will have to be rebuilt. This is also a huge waste."
Under the operation of Ernst, Hohenzollern Conglomerate sold everything that could be sold and continued to slim down. However, this also brought some negative effects, because many industries were sold, and some investors and savers believed that Hechingen Bank was operating The risk is most likely that there is a problem with the capital chain. Otherwise, why would so many "excellent" assets be sold? The current market has brought unprecedented confidence to the world. Even if you sell air, you can make a lot of money as long as you blow it well. However, this reverse operation of Hohenzollern Conglomerate is completely contrary to the mainstream.
Therefore, many investors and depositors turned their money to other banks or the currently hottest railway industry. Hechingen Bank ushered in a wave of small runs, but it came and went quickly. Hechingen Bank already had abundant cash flow, and sold a large number of assets and withdrawn a large amount of funds, so it was basically confident.
Hechingen Bank then refuted these baseless slanders: The bank is currently optimizing the investment industry structure and there is no so-called operational risk.
However, the effect of refuting rumors is not satisfactory (praise). In Germany, relying on the credibility accumulated over the years and the media and newspapers controlled by the consortium, it has stabilized the confidence of depositors, but it is not so good in other areas.
In particular, Hechingen Bank's competitors used every possible means to smear Hechingen Bank. Many financial institutions in London rated Hechingen Bank as a high-risk enterprise.
"The Sun", which is fully controlled by Hechingen Bank, spoke out to refute the rumors. As a result, London residents believed it even more. Everyone still doesn't know what the ingredients of "The Sun" are? It's okay to play around with colors and edges, and you can also talk about finance.
However, as the center of the financial empire, London has numerous banks and financial institutions, and Hohenzollern Conglomerate does not have much market share here.
Some depositors who blindly followed the trend saw that their money was exchanged, and the theory of the capital chain being broken disappeared and they deposited their money again. This is good, because some time deposits are redeemed, Hechingen Bank can pay a lot less interest.
This minor turmoil did not affect Ernst at all. After giving instructions to Hechingen Bank, Ernst visited many textile factories of Nairobi city.
"Your Highness, the current textile production capacity we have invested in Nairobi can meet approximately 70% of East Africa's demand. The remaining 30% is provided by the Far East factory. The German territories factory has changed hands, but the Far East factory accounts for the majority of exports to Europe, and labor costs play a big role. If we had not split up the textile factories in the Far East before, we would definitely gain more profits."
Generally speaking, the textile factory invested by Hohenzollern Conglomerate in Far East Jiaozhou was split into three parts. One part was sold to Shanxi Merchants and Anhui Merchants, some continued to operate and exported to East Africa and Germany with the help of cost advantages, and some were moved to Nairobi.
The Far East market is indeed very popular. First, it is large in scale and has high demand, but the profits are not as good as those in Europe. The second is that the cost of survival is extremely low, its human resources are too abundant, and the raw materials are quite abundant. The third is that there are few things to do. As a foreign-funded enterprise, Jiaozhou Textile Factory does not need to be affected by bureaucracy. This aspect can be seen from Shanxi Merchants and Anhui Merchants. In addition to the tax revenue when they operate, local officials also have to take a commission from it. As for Jiaozhou Textile Factory, these issues are entrusted to the consulate, and no one dares to go to the East African consulate to cause trouble.
By the way, the business environment of Huaihai Economic Zone and Zhuhai Trade Zone has been improved. For example, Jichanglong Silk Reeling Factory, a famous modern national enterprise in the Far East in previous textbooks, has been rebuilt in Zhuhai Trade Zone from Nanhai County.
Chen Qiyuan, the owner of the Jichanglong Silk Reeling Factory, originally built a factory in his hometown of Nanhai County. However, he died before the start of the mission. He was jointly strangled by the local people, bureaucrats, and gentry. Fortunately, Chen Qiyuan had outstanding abilities and was able to operate the Jichanglong Silk Reeling Factory in such a difficult environment and be able to compete with foreign companies.
This life is different. Most of the economic say in Zhuhai Trade Zone is in the hands of Xiangshan Consulate. The local squires and bureaucrats have been beaten once by East Africa. Guangzhou Prefecture is also keeping a close eye on the local bureaucrats, not wanting the last conflict to happen again.
At the same time, you can also get Kingdom of East Africa's preferential policies by settling in Zhuhai Trade Zone, mainly because loans are more convenient. The Far East market is a region that Hechingen Bank attaches great importance to, ranking only after East Africa and Europe, and at the same level as North America.
Ernst is not afraid of thunderstorms. The Far East is a traditional agricultural country. The benefits of this economic crisis outweigh the disadvantages, and more investment will not cause losses.
This has also caused the current Hechingen Bank to shrink around the world, with only East Africa and the Far East being the only regions with additional investment.