"Impossible, it's not the time to go public at all. It's been little over a month since our company was established, and you want me to go public to raise money. How is that possible? Even if I'm willing, the Securities and Exchange Commission wouldn't agree!" After receiving the financial solution from Goldman Sachs, Bezos exploded.
Goldman Sachs' solution for him was to have the Ten Thousand Immortals Pavilion go public to raise funds.
"Mr. President, I don't think what the solution is matters. What you need is capital. As long as you can get the funds, why bother with how they are obtained?" the Vice President said with a smile.
"I'm not against going public, but the commission is unlikely to approve this listing plan. We haven't even turned a profit yet, and we don't meet the most basic requirements for listing!" Bezos stated.
"You don't need to worry about that. Profitability is very simple for us at Goldman Sachs. With us, even a country can easily become profitable, let alone such a small company like yours!" the Vice President said confidently. "Don't forget, Goldman Sachs is the world's strongest financial management institution. We've helped countless companies successfully go public. Any company that Goldman Sachs takes on is always successfully packaged and listed!"
"As you know, Greece is such a terrible country, but with our management, adding and subtracting, it successfully joined the European Union. Isn't that much more difficult than listing?"
"Anyway, rest assured, as long as you agree to go public, the Ten Thousand Immortals Pavilion will receive funding support! You also know that running a company is all about making money. We don't do things that don't make money!"
"And our shareholders at Goldman Sachs Group are very diverse, including major financial groups and many government departments. If we want to use tens of billions of dollars, it's not something our President can decide alone. All shareholders must agree, and that's the truly difficult part!"
"Instead, going public allows us to earn money directly from retail investors and institutions, without using Goldman Sachs' funds. Isn't that a win-win situation?" the Vice President chuckled.
"Yes, you Goldman Sachs can also earn hundreds of millions in agency fees by acting as an underwriter. You make even more money!" Bezos scoffed.
"Yes, we earn more, but the Ten Thousand Immortals Pavilion will also get its money. And as a shareholder, you can also cash out some of your shares. Isn't this beneficial for everyone?"
"But I need the money very urgently!" Bezos said after a moment of silence. "We are about to sign contracts with major supermarkets, and all the outlets need to be established. This requires a lot of money, but the funds in the Ten Thousand Immortals Pavilion's account are no longer enough for us to expand so many outlets."
"That's simple, we can lend you the money first!" the Vice President said with a smile. "How much money do you need now? Goldman Sachs will lend it to you first. After successfully going public, you can use the funds raised from the listing to repay this loan."
"So I'll have to pay some interest, won't I?" Bezos asked with a cold smile after being silent for a long time.
"Yes, you will. But don't worry, we're on the same side. The interest is just symbolic. We'll just pay the minimum commercial loan interest rate of 7% per year!" the Vice President said with a chuckle.
"Get lost, get out of here!" Bezos was so angry he almost laughed. "You Goldman Sachs can come up with such a solution? Have you forgotten that the largest shareholder of this company is actually Goldman Sachs itself?"
"Of course, we haven't forgotten that. That's precisely why we have to do what's most beneficial for Goldman Sachs!" the Vice President said, completely unfazed by Bezos' anger, still wearing a smile. This made Bezos feel a deep sense of fear.
"Then can't you do something that benefits the Ten Thousand Immortals Pavilion? The Ten Thousand Immortals Pavilion is also an asset of Goldman Sachs, and your stake in Goldman Sachs is even larger than mine!" Bezos rebuked.
"That's not necessarily true. In this upcoming listing, the Ten Thousand Immortals Pavilion will offer 50% of its shares for circulation, and all of these 50% shares will be provided by Goldman Sachs Group. This means that after the company goes public, the largest shareholder of the Ten Thousand Immortals Pavilion will once again be you, not us at Goldman Sachs! Thus, the Ten Thousand Immortals Pavilion will no longer be considered our asset," the Vice President said with a smile.
"You Goldman Sachs are using this opportunity to retreat from the company!" Bezos' eyes widened in disbelief. After the listing is successful and they get huge capital returns from the stock market, Goldman Sachs will directly take the money and run. Goldman Sachs is indeed making a massive profit in advance!
"Heh, it's business, these are business tactics. You don't need to be angry. Focus on how to continue developing the Ten Thousand Immortals Pavilion and defeat Oriental Amazon!" The Vice President's words left Bezos utterly speechless.
Bezos didn't want to agree to these predatory terms, but after careful consideration, he realized he had no choice but to agree, as he had no room to refuse.
The supermarkets' stalls had already been set up, and cooperation agreements had been signed with major supermarkets. If the Ten Thousand Immortals Pavilion couldn't expand its outlets on time, it would face massive breach of contract penalties, which would be enough to bring the company to its knees.
The only way was to obtain a large amount of cash support in a short period, and apart from borrowing money from Goldman Sachs, there was no other option.
"Then let's borrow!" Bezos said stiffly. "We, the Ten Thousand Immortals Pavilion, wish to borrow 6 billion US dollars from Goldman Sachs for the company's development. Can you lend it?"
"Are you kidding? 6 billion US dollars is certainly impossible. Our actuaries have calculated your expenses and believe that you only need about 1 billion US dollars in initial seed funding to sustain operations for about half a year!"
"And after half a year, the Ten Thousand Immortals Pavilion will successfully go public, and the company can absorb a large amount of capital support from the stock market, so we won't need to continue lending support!"
"Moreover, if President Bezos' capabilities are strong enough, we might have already defeated Oriental Amazon, become the industry leader, and started making a profit!"
"Our actuaries have also calculated that if the price of online shopping is about 5% higher than the price in supermarkets, and the delivery fee increases by about two dollars, consumers should not experience much difference in their experience, but our operating revenue can triple. It's very normal for the Ten Thousand Immortals Pavilion to achieve profitability as a result. President Bezos, please don't disappoint us!" the Vice President said with a smile.
"If you do this, aren't you afraid that I won't have enough funds to fight Oriental Amazon, and the company will go bankrupt, with the billions you've invested all going down the drain?" Bezos gritted his teeth and asked.
Bezos expected the other party to give a long string of reasons to prove that their actions wouldn't lead to the bankruptcy of the Ten Thousand Immortals Pavilion. But to his surprise, the Vice President replied quite bluntly, "That has nothing to do with me!"
"Nothing to do with you?" Bezos was shocked again.
"Yes, if the Ten Thousand Immortals Pavilion eventually goes bankrupt, the responsibility will fall on the person who made the investment decision and the entire investment department. That's their problem, what does it have to do with our operations department!" the Vice President said very seriously, and he was actually telling the truth.
"You are one company!" Bezos couldn't help but say.
"The United States is also one country, but don't all states in the US charge tolls on their highways?" The Vice President's words left Bezos speechless, and he could only applaud.
Once upon a time, many internet trolls liked to bring up foreign highways. They would say things like US highways are completely free, with no tolls whatsoever, but how about domestic highways!
First of all, it must be acknowledged that this is true. Apart from a small number of newly built highways, 90% of US highways are free.
But these trolls wouldn't tell you that this 90% of free highways were actually built during the Great Depression. At that time, President Roosevelt, in order to save the US economy, built a large number of national projects, national factories, and national enterprises.
To put it bluntly, even in the present-day United States, over 60% of its infrastructure was completed within the last ten years, which is nearly 90 years ago.
And when these infrastructure projects, including highways, were first completed, they also charged tolls.
It wasn't until the 1970s, after more than 40 years of toll collection, that many state-owned highways gradually became free. However, some highways continuously delayed this transition through various means, causing some highways to only become completely free after 70 years.
Are there any modern highways in China that are over 40 years old?
In addition, after becoming free, highways are generally not repaired extensively, and the road surfaces have become completely potholed, worse than China's national roads, and China's national roads are completely free.
Finally, although the highways themselves do not charge money, any state entered through a highway requires a tax to pass. This tax, in ancient China, was called a toll or a li jin, a fee that was only collected by the Qing Dynasty.
This also led to another situation: many internet trolls liked to say that the US aviation industry was very developed, and flying was even cheaper than traveling by car or train, and there were over 20,000 airports nationwide, which proved the superiority of the US system.
Excuse me, if the train tracks and roads for cars are still from 70 years ago, and you have to pay a toll for every state you pass through, then it's no wonder the aviation industry is cheap! At least they don't have to pay tolls anymore!