Reborn Tokyo Golden Age

Chapter 542 Shirakawa Naganobu Bank
The new business model of horizontal division of labor will have a fundamental impact on the production methods of the manufacturing industry.

It is the opposite of vertical division of labor, in that not all processes for a product are completed by one company.

Instead, multiple companies are responsible for different processes, but overall they perform production activities like one enterprise.

Shirakawa Electric is trying to split its computers or LCD TVs into countless small units and entrust them to different domestic and even foreign parts processors.

And it only retains the supply of core components such as chips and LCD production. Of course, the final assembly will also be performed at the Shirakawa Electric Factory.

The advantage of this is that the manufacturing system can be further integrated to save more costs.

To sum it up in one sentence, it is how the global system is made.

However, this process will not happen overnight and should take several years.

The final goal is that Shirakawa Electric will only focus on front-end and back-end work such as product development, design, and sales.

Then based on Shirakawa Electric's design, companies around the world would produce parts, and then assemble them in China.

This new processing model will be the mainstream in the future, and Shirakawa Electric has already taken the first step.

When people were still intoxicated in the bubble and when companies were still struggling with reduced operating profits, Shirakawa Electric was already quietly making changes.

In fact, this is not only the case with Shirakawa Electric, but also with many manufacturing companies under Shirakawa Holdings.

On the contrary, software clubs represented by HAL and SMM have further increased their R&D expenditures.

Even in order to prevent themselves from falling behind the trend, professional software companies such as SMM have established a R&D center directly in Silicon Valley.

While attracting talents, we are also preparing for the development of social software and communities.

The conservative Neon is really not a good place for the development of the Internet. There are not even many professional talents here.

Therefore, if Baichuan Holdings does not want to miss out on the information revolution, it can only go to Silicon Valley.

In addition to the software industry, another industry that is increasing development funds is communications and entertainment.

When it comes to which industries can achieve sustained growth after the bubble, communications and entertainment must be one of them.

Communication is because mobile technology has just started, and mobile phones, a new thing, have taken advantage of the opportunity of entering the 2G era to shine.

The latest generation of Shirakawa Electric mobile phones already supports Internet access, although the speed may be only about 10kb/s.

But for many people, this is shocking.

Even in order to increase the fun, Shirakawa Electric also moved Snake and Pac-Man into the mobile phone.

These simple and easy-to-play games quickly became popular all over the world.

Yes, Shirakawa Electric’s mobile phones have been sold all over the world.

Because the 2G standard adopted by United Communications is the GSM format, it is also unimpeded in Ouzhou, Latin America and other regions.

If nothing else happens, in another year or two, mobile phones will be the most profitable business of Shirakawa Electric.

The so-called following the trend and not being abandoned by the world means embracing every change.

At this point, what Baichuan Electric has done is more than one step faster than Neon's peers.

The entertainment industry is another direction in which Baichuan Holdings has invested heavily. When the bubble comes and the "lipstick effect" appears, people's consumption of this part of content will increase significantly.

Therefore, as one of the few industries that can generate profits in Neon in the future, Baichuan Interactive Entertainment certainly has no reason to let it go.

Moreover, as Shirakawa Paramount has released several blockbuster movies in North America, Shirakawa Interactive Entertainment has gained a firm foothold internationally.

As for SIC, it is very powerful now.With the support of BeiMi's local capital, it is inextricably linked to Intel.

After several years of fighting, the processor chip businesses of Motorola and TI are almost dead.

There are only two giants that attract the most attention on the market now, one is Intel and the other is SIC.

The confrontation between the two sides is also called the "East-West hegemony" by the media, because the competition between the two is similar in strength and may last for a long time.

As for a small transparent AMD that was just established, it can only tremble under the confrontation between the two giants.

Of course, in the final analysis, neon is Shirakawa Kaede’s basic plan.

Before the bubble impact and major changes in the financial industry have settled, his eyes will still be focused here.

In mid-93, as land prices fell further, Neon's real estate did not bottom out as many people expected.

Seeing that the economy is gradually declining, the 12 trillion funds allocated previously have not had the desired effect.

As a last resort, Congress once again discussed preparations to increase aid to the financial industry. However, at this moment, "Modern Foreign Journal" suddenly published detailed revelations about Changyin's bad debts.

In addition to Changyin itself, the bad debts of its 38 subsidiaries were also exposed one by one.

Obviously, the detailed data must come from within Changyin. It no longer matters who made such top-secret data public.

Because the stock price of Changyin has dropped to 89 yen with the release of "Modern Foreign Journal".

Everyone knows that Changyin is finished.

At this time, the government was still arguing over the issue of Changyin. The opposition party wanted to directly make Changyin afraid of bankruptcy, the party in power wanted to rescue it again, and people without party affiliation wanted to nationalize Changyin.

By August amid endless disputes, Changyin's stock price had reached 8 yen, and delisting was imminent.Miyazawa Kiichi, who was finally coming to the end of his term, made the last decision during his term, which was to formally approve Hokuto Bank's business plan to acquire Changyin.

He knew that if Changyin was left to the opposition party, the only path waiting for it would be bankruptcy.

Nationalization by non-partisans is only a short-term plan, and the neon government cannot afford to keep sucking blood and long-term silver.

So after careful consideration, Beidu Bank’s business plan was the most reliable.

The final result of Changyin's sale to Beidu Bank is unknown to Miyazawa, but it is more reliable to leave it to the market than to politicians.

So on August 8th, Shirakawa Kaede brought Arai Yu, Yashiro, and Tabuchi to the meeting hall of the Ministry of Finance again.

"Lord Shouchou, Haneda-san, thank you for your kindness." Shirakawa Kaede politely saluted the two leaders of Neon's highest authority.

The outcome has been decided. He came here today just to express his concern to them personally.

"Brother Baichuan, Changyin will be handed over to you from now on, please be sure to treat it well."

Both Miyazawa Kiichi and Haneda bowed formally to Shirakawa Kaede, and their solemn tone was quite a bit apologetic.

"Please rest assured, Changyin will be reborn!" Bai Chuanfeng has prepared a series of reforms for Changyin.

This will be a brand new way of operating a bank. The goal is to adapt to Neon's future economic situation and turn it into a profit within three years.

After receiving his assurance, Miyazawa nodded, "Please~"

So under the witness of the cabinet, high-ranking officials Yin and Shirakawa Kaede, Yashiro Masaki signed his name on the agreement on behalf of Hokuto Bank.

So far, it has been struggling after the bubble burst, and the long-term credit bank in the past two years has officially become history.

Beidu Bank purchased Changyin in its entirety for US$10 billion and will inject another US$10 billion in accordance with the agreement.

Nearly half of Changyin’s original 26.6 trillion loans were non-performing assets.

After going through the Ministry of Finance several times, almost 4 trillion has been written off.

For the disposal of the remaining nearly 6 trillion non-performing assets, part of them will be sold to government recycling agencies after negotiation between the two parties.

This matter is led by the Ministry of Finance, and Hokuto Bank is responsible for screening.

The so-called non-performing assets include a large number of land mortgages, some of which are not considered "non-performing assets" in Shirakawa Kaede's opinion.

For example, the Minato Toranomon Building and the Shiba Park Building are landmark buildings that have been impacted by the property market and have been severely undervalued.

Bai Chuanfeng took a rough look at their valuations and found that they were more than three times lower than those of later generations.

These properties are earned as soon as he gets them, so how could he put them in the trash?

So I picked and picked, and after Bai Chuanfeng personally looked at it, 5 trillion non-performing assets were packaged and sold to the government recycling agency.

Most of them are financial credit products. After evaluation, Arai Yu and others recommended abandoning them.

In this case, there is nothing less to say, sell what should be sold, and kick when it should be played.

But even so, Hokuto Bank is equivalent to taking over more than 1 trillion yen of bad debts originally carried by Changyin.

Otherwise, how could such a big Changyin be worth only US$20 billion.

This risk of more than 1 trillion yen in bad debts is the bulk of the problem. Counting the cash taken out, Hokuto Bank will take over Changyin at a price of roughly 1.3 trillion.

Of course, how to deal with bad debts is also a science. If you do it well, you may not be able to turn waste into treasure.

In addition, the remaining 11 trillion loans of Changyin, despite the Ministry of Finance’s assurance, are all healthy businesses.

However, Bai Chuanfeng did not believe in the integrity of Neon officials, so at his request, the two parties also signed a "sell option" clause.

That is, if Changyin encounters bad debts in subsequent loans, it has the right to require the Neon government to repurchase the loans.

This is just an added layer of insurance for himself. Although he has taken advantage of it, business is business.

After all of these were completed and the division of non-performing assets was initially completed, the news of the merger of Changyin and Beidu Bank was officially announced.

In September, Long-term Credit Bank and Beidu Bank officially issued public announcements.

The former Japan Long-term Credit Bank will be merged into Hokuto Bank as a whole, and the new bank will be renamed Shirakawa Naganobu Bank.

In fact, Shirakawa Kaede originally planned to call Shirakawa Bank directly, but at the request of the Ministry of Finance, he still retained the word "Chang Xin".

This is the last stubbornness of the Ministry of Finance, after adding these two words.

At least it can be a signal to the outside world that Changyin has only merged, not collapsed.

Bai Chuanfeng didn't object too much to this kind of self-consolation, just think of it as giving the Ministry of Finance the last dignity.

The reason why it is called "Changxin" is not the more recognizable title of "Credit".

That's because the merged Shirakawa Naganobu Bank is no longer a special type of bank and no longer assumes its special responsibilities.

Shirakawa Naganobu Bank will continue to operate as an ordinary bank, that is, a city bank.

But now that it has just swallowed Changyin, a series of internal reforms are also on the agenda.

(End of this chapter)