The Outsider (Outsider #1) ✔️

Chapter 124 : Cartier Fruit Problem

While Catherine and Dawn were on their shopping spree, Rosemary, Scarlet and Susco managed to calm Dusk down. She knew that she would now have to take responsibility for her sister. She could not ever send her back to Longburn. She doubted whether Dawn would be willing to go back anyway. She earned enough, so money would not be a problem. The question was whether she could provide the time and emotional support of a parent too.

When she managed to calm down, Susco made her get cleaned up and took her to the conference room where the rest of the girls were waiting.

The President of Banko-Corp Romana had just come in. He cautiously greeted the girls. He had met Susco earlier, but he was meeting Dusk and Rosemary for the first time. He was not even aware of Scarlet till she was introduced. There were rumours in the market that she was to be the new governor of the Desert Province of Bravadia.

In general, he lived in an environment where all large business leaders were men, so his interaction with women leaders was very less. Now suddenly he was faced with the most powerful group of females probably on the planet. He knew he had to keep his biases away. At the slightest hint of it, they would throw him out. The last time Susco had brushed him off, the company's shares had fallen...

"What do we owe this visit to, Mr. President?" Susco asked.

"Director Susco, you see, we have an exposure of $1 billion in a line of credit to Cartier Fruit Master Inc. The company was under immense pressure and the market indication was that it will collapse and go bankrupt. Since the ownership has changed, we know that the company will survive. However, they need to take some corrective actions immediately. And they are just doing nothing." He replied.

"And you are here to be a good Samaritan and inform us that we are stupid not to take any corrective action and just let the company rot?" Rosemary asked with a blank look.

The President started sweating slightly as he realised that has words could be misunderstood. "No, Princess Rosemary, I am here on a purely business mission. We are trying to protect our exposure, which is a billion directly to the company and another 5-6 billion in loans we have given to companies and persons who sell to or buy from Cartier Fruit. If something happens to the company the bank loses a lot of money.

"The fact is that the business is still sliding. You are the owners now, naturally, you would rescue it."

"I see, you want that we should put in the money so that the bank can save its own? The company has taken the loan, not me. Why should I pay it back to you?" Rosemary asked.

He sighed. He did not know why the Princess was making life difficult. She was reported to be exceedingly sharp and therefore it was not that she did not know about business.

"I am not asking you to pay the money to the bank, Princess! We do not want to call back our loan. I have myself reviewed the files and we are ready to lend another billion to the company. We know it desperately needs working capital to turn around, which we can give. The so-called boycott is over. Customers want to buy from it, but it does not have money to buy from the vendors and supply. If it does not sell, how will it make a profit and wipe out the losses? Their business and profitability can be easily restored in a few months."

"So, what is the problem?" Dusk asked.

The Presidents face lit up. Dusk Hale was the brains behind the entire operation. She had identified an undervalued company, invested $1.2 billion and now it was worth over $5 billion. Surely, she would take interest and action everything.

"Director Hale, no one on the board is bothered to take any action. Staff is running it routinely. We have been following up trying to get them to increase the working capital, but they are not even responding. The former Chairman has resigned and now there is no one to take the decision. The MD is scared of what the new owners will say. And when the managers want to buy stocks to fulfil orders, they find there is no money."