Watching Lin Baijie speak with such conviction, Cai Haiyi couldn't make up his mind for a while.
"Director Cai, this project is just an experiment for our company. If we can't agree on these conditions, I'm afraid we'll have to invest somewhere else." Lin Baijie put on an air of helplessness.
Then he added, "The parent company wasn't too keen on investing here in the first place. The business environment speaks for itself."
Hearing this, Cai Haiyi knew exactly what was going on. He came up with an excuse, saying they needed a few days to discuss it before deciding whether to agree.
The two sides signed a memorandum of cooperation, then took their leave.
As soon as Lin Baijie returned to the company, he reported the negotiations to Huang Xiuyuan.
The current situation was exactly what Huang Xiuyuan had secretly instructed Lin Baijie to create: keep them guessing to gain the upper hand and lay a relatively solid foundation for smooth development down the line.
Lingnan in March was still a little chilly.
Shanmei Passenger Station.
In the drizzle, Huang Xiuyuan waved goodbye to his father and watched the bus pull away.
Today was March 10. Arbor Day was just two days away.
After several days of internal discussion, Cai Haiyi's side had finally relented and invited Lin Baijie over to discuss the details.
The city government had also taken notice. After all, contracting out a city's sanitation was clearly a thankless task. Since Suiren was willing to take it on, they couldn't think of a reason to refuse.
Cai Haiyi wasn't a fool, though. Although he agreed to the partnership and to contract the urban area's garbage collection to Suiren Company, he laid out a series of conditions.
For example, the cleanup area wouldn't just include the urban districts, but also all the towns under their jurisdiction.
They also discussed the number and compensation of sanitation workers, cleaning standards, and public sanitation facilities.
The two sides negotiated each item one by one. Lin Baijie wasn't too concerned about the cleaning standards or sanitation workers.
The key issues were construction waste and public facilities.
He promised that construction waste disposal could be included in the contract, but they would need a plot of cheap industrial land as a condition.
As for public facilities, the responsibilities of each side had to be clearly defined. Suiren Company had no intention of building things like the city's underground sewer system or sewage treatment plants.
Cai Haiyi didn't push too hard on this point. After all, the annual payment was only five million yuan. If Suiren also had to build the sewer pipes and sewage treatment plants, it would be a complete money pit.
After a morning of negotiations, the two sides reached a preliminary consensus. During lunch, Lin Baijie took the opportunity to call Huang Xiuyuan and report the results.
Huang Xiuyuan had expected this and wasn't too worried. After all, Shanmei's urban district was getting the better end of the deal.
The afternoon negotiations went exceptionally smoothly. The first agreement concerned the transfer of 267 sanitation workers.
Next, Suiren could buy a plot of industrial land of up to 500 mu within the urban district over the next three years, at a price of 80,000 yuan per mu.
Finally came the contract for garbage collection in the urban district. After both sides officially signed it, Suiren Company secured the exclusive right to handle the district's garbage for twenty years.
The city's gas operation license was also included and would be approved in the near future.
They paid 36 million yuan for the land, along with fees for temporary construction permits.
Back at the company, Lin Baijie got busy. There was the preparation work for Guizhuling Industrial Park, as well as other arrangements that couldn't be delayed.
The other deputy general manager, Chang Fuguo, was already purchasing garbage-sorting equipment and garbage trucks, as well as heavy-duty trucks, to keep costs down.
Following Huang Xiuyuan's instructions, he went to Hubei Province to purchase garbage trucks and heavy-duty trucks. The large transport trucks would naturally be bought from Dongfeng Motor.
Then he hurried straight to Shandong Province. The main reason for making the trip was that several domestic manufacturers of gas generator sets were based there, making it convenient to purchase from them all at once.
As for gas generator sets, there were Shengli Power and CNPC Jichai. Weichai Power was another option.
Suiren Company had no immediate plans to sell electricity to the grid. The generator sets were intended to supply power to the recycling plant, much like Weiqiao's self-supplied power model.
After all, selling electricity to the grid wasn't profitable in itself. And if they copied Weiqiao's islanded power model and sold directly to nearby factories and residents, the necessary approvals would be impossible to obtain.
Rather than invite trouble, they might as well give up on this unprofitable option and use the electricity themselves.
In the first phase, Suiren Company planned to purchase only ten gas generator sets, each with an installed capacity of 500 kilowatts, forming a gas-powered generating station.
A 500-kilowatt gas generator set consumed about 151 cubic meters of natural gas per hour. Running nonstop for twenty-four hours would use around 3,600 cubic meters.
Normally, they wouldn't run the generators at full capacity or around the clock. At least a third would be kept in reserve in case of maintenance or an accident that caused a shutdown and power outage.
Chang Fuguo had already purchased the transport vehicles. He was currently at Shengli Power inspecting its gas generator sets.
Gas generator sets cost at least twice as much as diesel generator sets of the same capacity.
Shengli Power offered a discounted price of 800,000 yuan per unit, including delivery, installation, commissioning, and future repairs.
Chang Fuguo was somewhat prepared for this. Domestic gas generator sets were indeed inferior to some foreign brands.
The problem was that foreign brands acted like they were doing you a favor. Never mind the repair costs—their response times alone were enough to make anyone groan.
Even if their engineers flew in from overseas, it would probably take four or five days at best. If something urgent happened, that would be a real disaster.
So choosing a domestic product was the better value-for-money option.
Meanwhile, Huang Xiuyuan was keeping an eye on the land purchase contract, garbage collection contract, and gas operating license. At the same time, he was secretly managing two offshore companies, whose combined funds had reached 51.34 million US dollars.
His accounts were margin accounts, allowing him to borrow from the brokerage and use leverage. They typically offered four times leverage intraday and twice overnight, while accounts with good credit could get five or six times.
If he wanted even more leverage, he could only turn to off-market financing, though the interest rates would be relatively high.
Huang Xiuyuan browsed international financial news. The undercurrents of the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis were growing stronger.
Today, March 10, a rumor about Bear Stearns began circulating, claiming that the company was facing a serious liquidity crisis.
The U.S. stock market reacted nervously to the news. As the rumor spread, the market began to turn bearish on Bear Stearns.
Despite holding 18 billion US dollars in cash and highly liquid securities, Bear Stearns was still on edge.
In the financial section of the international news, Huang Xiuyuan saw Bear Stearns' public denial, issued in hopes of restoring market confidence. But the market remained unmoved. By the close of trading today, its liquid cash reserves had fallen to 12.5 billion US dollars.
And that very day, Huang Xiuyuan used dozens of accounts to enter the U.S. stock market with 300 million dollars in funds leveraged six times.
Bear Stearns' stock plunged 11% that day, closing at 62.3 US dollars per share. He closed out his short position, netting a profit of 33 million US dollars.
Then, with 84 million US dollars, he opened a position using two-times leverage and shorted Bear Stearns again just before the market closed.
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