CH 34

It seems that the investors’ meeting held at the international hotel in Tokyo was bigger news than Hiroki had expected, as despite restrictions on media coverage, it was still covered by the economic TV news.

He caught a glimpse of himself giving a presentation from a distance, but the media seemed to be more interested in the fact that famous big-name investors were in Japan, and 90% of the news coverage was about those investors, making Hiroki sad.

He felt sad to see that they focused more on the people who have money than those who are actually working.

So this is capitalism huh, or so Hiroki thought.

Incidentally, the attempted kidnapping in Tokyo wasn’t reported at all.

That’s just how things are.

This news was featured in the papers as well.

Even though the Keizai Shimbun only wrote a small article about this, a business magazine ran a several-page feature about the company as a “unicorn company from the countryside”.

(T/N: Unicorn companies are those that reach a valuation of $1 billion without being listed on the stock market.)

However, it seemed that someone in the PR department was in charge of that story, writing what looked like fiction that 1000% beautifully incorporates the “company philosophy” and “motive for starting a business”.

Who the heck is this flawless superhuman overflowing with willpower?

[I see…… the President started this business because you couldn’t tolerate the global pollution huh…… I didn’t know that.]

Looking at this article, Hiroki thought that this young President, Gomi Hiroki, is amazing. He really wanna get to know him.

[We’ve hired an excellent writer.]

Ishida shrugged his shoulders.

Perhaps, because he had talked to so many foreigners in Tokyo, even Ishida’s mannerisms feel somewhat like a foreigner’s.

[Well then, I’d like to report what happened back in Tokyo……]

[Let’s hear it then.]

[First of all, we received 743 investment applications. Here’s the breakdown.]

Ishida’s report, which lasted for about an hour, could be roughly summarized as follows: investment companies are genuinely interested in investing, business companies that are looking for synergy with their business, security companies and consulting firms that are in the market for advisory services for fundraising, and some being combinations of these businesses.

[A local regional back did offer us a loan, but both the amount and the terms were out of the question so……]

[What were the terms?]

Hiroki asked out of curiosity.

He was curious to know how much effort the local bank exerted for a local company.

When Hiroki used to be in the recycling business, they were the ones who took care of him.

They didn’t lend him much though.

[The line of credit was 10 billion yen. The interest rate will be 8%. The loan was secured by cash and deposits. I heard that the person in charge of the loan was willing to take responsibility for that but……]

[But they just can’t huh.]

The person in charge certainly did their best, but it’s a heavy burden for a regional bank that can’t do due diligence properly when it comes to investment competition with foreign firms.

[The amount of investment in the fund is like 100 billion yen at the starting point after all……]

Capitalism is a game that favors the rich, so there’s little room for human sentimentality.

It’s not unusual for a global fund to have several trillion yen in assets under management.

Poor local banks aren’t eligible to play in the game.

[From the global fund’s point of view, what our business is doing is alchemy in itself. There were even some pretty overbearing investment offers among them.]

[Heehhh. What do you mean by overbearing?]

[They wanted to buy all, or at least one-third of our shares, and they wanted their staff in the company.]

[That’s a very hostile offer.]

Hearing how some gave overbearing offers, Hiroki thought they would be more subtle with their approach, such as hiding their fangs a bit, holding on to a tenth of the shares and gradually increasing their say in the management.

[In exchange for that, they came in with a huge pile of money. Their tactics is literally trying to slap us with a wad of bills.]

[How much is this huge pile of money?]

[In terms of Major Leagues Baseball teams, even though you can’t buy the Yankees, you can become the owner of any of the other teams. You can also buy all the Japanese teams with it.]

[That’s too large of a money that I don’t really understand it.]

[That’s how serious they are about it. It’s predicted that green taxation and carbon pricing will be promoted all over the world in the future, so our zero-cost waste disposal business is something they would love to have.]

Green taxation and carbon pricing are, in essence, a system whereby businesses can receive tax benefits if they use environmentally friendly methods and, conversely, those with business activities that are bad for the environment, such as emitting large amounts of carbon dioxide, will be taxed more heavily.

The scrutiny on companies, especially in Europe and the US, is getting tighter, and there’s no foreseeable future of that loosening.

This is the reason why many companies are making fierce efforts to invest in the development of environment-related technologies.

The amount of investment is said to be several trillion yen or even tens of trillion yen when all the companies are added together.

However, the existence of our company that makes all those investments nil has quite an impact.

[In any case, just by doing business with us, they could have their company have that shining “green company” title on it. Polluting companies with a bad reputation in developing countries can even turn into honorable green companies simply by doing business with us. And they wouldn’t need any investment to achieve that.]

[Hearing you describe it like that certainly makes the company quite attractive.]

I activate the SSR card MCTBH on this Eco-Polluting Company! It nullifies the Debuff Card: Environmental Pollution and upgrading it to Green Company!

Thinking of it as such a card, Hiroki wants to have one like that too.

Well, they still have to do their best to prevent air pollution, but as for the liquid waste, if they bring them to the company in drums, they can dispose of it with zero pollution.

[In addition, they can expect tax benefits under the green tax system and an improvement in their operating profit margin due to lower waste disposal costs. For example, if there’s a 10% improvement in the former and 10% improvement in the latter, the operating profit margin would be improved by 20%. For a company with an original operating profit margin of about 10%, their profits would become triple.]

[That’s amazing.]

If you compare this to a father whose salary is 300,000 yen and monthly allowance is 30,000 yen, his monthly allowance would be 90,000 yen. That’s amazing!

[Well, it really is amazing.]

With a monthly allowance of 90,000 yen, Dad here will be happy.

[That’s right! That’s because it applies to all of the companies in which the funds invest. A fund investing trillions of yen in assets can achieve an increase in the business value of several hundred billion yen or more per fiscal year without any effort. It’s no wonder they see that we are worth more than several trillion yen.]

[Haha……]

I activate the SSR card MCTBH on this Air-Polluting Company! It nullifies the Debuff Card: Air Pollution and upgrading it to Green Company! Not just that, the Buff card: Green also applies to all companies in hand, upgrading all Polluting Companies to  Green Companies!

This SSR card sure is game-breaking…… It’s too much of a cheat.

With all these hundreds of billions or trillions of yen talk, Hiroki doesn’t really feel all that’s happening is real, but at any rate, what he understood is that the hole looked like a fountain of gold to the fund.

[And that’s why they tried kidnapping me huh……]

[What are you talking about?]

Hearing the words Hiroki reflexively muttered, Ishida asked.

Realizing his blunder, Hiroki thought it would be better to just talk about this matter.

Ishida might be targeted as well after all.

[No, actually, I was almost kidnapped by some rather pleasant people on my way back from Tokyo. They were foreigners.]

[What!?]

Hiroki tried to rein Ishida, who stood up, seemingly unable to control his emotions.

[Well, it was nothing serious. Ah, the Lexus in front of the company was something I bought. It’s a nice car, so you can use it.]

[Yes, I’ll gratefully use it, but, I see……]

Looking like she had realized something, Ishida seemed to be pondering.

[Did hearing that make you think of something?]

[Actually……]

Thereupon, Ishida began to talk about the time when he was working on fund-related matters in Tokyo.