I See through Everything

The other executives’ eyes also lit up with greed.

Clearly, Jiang Anye’s 40% share of the profits had already sparked their avarice. After all, this was a business that could earn at least a hundred million US dollars a year.

"It’s worth considering. When their people show up, we’ll just stall and let them sue us," Jin Yuanji said with a cold smile. For a conglomerate like theirs, the advantage in a domestic lawsuit was obvious. Unless their opponent was a corporate power from America, it would be nearly impossible to defeat the West Faraway Group in court.

Then, Jin Yuanji looked at his son. "Haorui, go to Europe and America as soon as possible and find suitable companies to partner with. We can lower the price a bit, somewhere around 3,100 to 3,200 US dollars per kilogram. That should attract a lot of clients."

The gloomy-looking young man who had just proposed seizing Jiang Anye’s share was his son, Jin Haorui. He wore a confident expression and said, "Rest assured, Chairman. I will definitely secure enough clients for the group."

West Yuan Group continued with their original plan.

However, they had no idea that the more orders they signed now, the greater their losses would be later.

After all, their target clients this time were European and American companies. If they failed to supply the glass eels on time, or if the hormone residue in the glass eels was discovered, the European and American companies that had signed contracts would definitely not let the matter rest.

Given South Korea’s subservient position in relation to Europe and America, West Yuan Group would inevitably have to pay a hefty compensation to resolve the issue.

West Yuan Group’s total assets were as high as 6.7 billion US dollars, but after subtracting fixed assets, their liquid capital was only 2 billion US dollars. Their annual net profit was even lower, at just 140 million US dollars.

Jin Yuanji’s plan involved using their previous investment of 500 mu of mature eels, plus 500 mu of semi-mature eels as a backup. They estimated they could produce 200 million glass eels per month for the first half of the year, with production increasing to 400 million glass eels per month after that.

At 200 million units a month, and an average price of 3,150 US dollars per 10,000 units, that would be 63 million US dollars.

Since they were trying to attract clients, they wouldn’t let them order just a small amount. These kinds of contracts usually started with a six-month supply agreement.

In other words, West Yuan Group planned to sell its entire production capacity for the next six months through pre-sales.

This amounted to 1.2 billion units, with a total value of 378 million US dollars.

If Jin Haorui was overly ambitious and eager for success, he might even sign for a larger pre-sale volume.

According to international trade practices in Europe and America, the penalty for breaching this type of fixed-price procurement contract is typically around 30% of the value of the undelivered goods.

This meant that West Yuan Group would have to pay at least 113.4 million US dollars in penalties alone.

Moreover, this didn’t even account for the mature eels dying after spawning. The investment cost for these 1,000 mu of eels was about 10,000 US dollars per mu.

Additionally, cultivating the eel fry required an investment of about 1,700 US dollars for every 10,000 glass eels.

On top of that, Jin Yuanji had expanded the scale of their aquaculture operations, adding a full 5,000 mu of open-air fish ponds and 300 mu of indoor breeding facilities, which required an investment of around 80 million US dollars.

All told, they stood to lose at least 428 million US dollars.

And these were just the direct losses. There were also many indirect losses to consider, such as legal fees, the impact of negative news on subsidiary stocks, and interest on unpaid compensation.

While it wouldn’t crush West Yuan Group instantly, for a company with an annual profit of only 140 million US dollars, a sudden loss of five or six hundred million US dollars would be a devastating blow.

Therefore, the more clients Jin Haorui secured now, the more catastrophic their losses would be later.

As for whether they could get away with selling the problematic glass eels to European and American enterprises, Jiang Miao had already secretly informed the Rokkaido Eel Company and the Brown Company. If West Yuan Group and their new clients dared to take the risk, he had instructed his partners to report West Yuan Group’s glass eels at an opportune moment.

At that point, it would no longer be a matter of contract violation, but of deliberately dumping products with excessive hormone levels. Fines would be unavoidable.

Even West Yuan Group’s other products would be subject to heightened scrutiny.

This was one of the benefits of having international partners.

Dealing with other up-and-coming competitors was an instinctive reaction for the Rokkaido Eel Company and the Brown Company. After all, when faced with someone who might threaten their profits, they would naturally kick them while they were down to deter other companies from trying to enter the eel breeding industry.

To coordinate with Hailufeng Company, the Rokkaido Eel Company and the Brown Company had, over the past few days, successively released announcements that they would be adjusting the price of glass eels in three months.

This further cemented the rumors that Hailufeng Company’s technology had been leaked.

In any case, many domestic farmers had already bought into the story.

They just didn’t know that this was all a setup. When West Yuan Group’s business imploded, the three major eel fry producers would collectively raise their prices, driving up the market price for eel fry once again.

Although they wouldn’t raise it too high, an increase of two thousand yuan per kilogram would already boost their monthly profits by tens of millions.

However, not all domestic farmers were taking a wait-and-see approach.

For example, Seaview Company, also in the Shanmei Region, had recently expanded their open-air fish ponds by 1,000 mu for eel farming and were continuing to purchase as usual.

This was mainly because Gu Haijing had noticed something wasn’t right. As one of the local bigwigs, he hadn’t seen any sign of Hailufeng Company halting its expansion. On the contrary, they had just invested in a 500-mu strawberry plantation and a strawberry processing plant in Red Grass Town, right next to Magong Town.

All signs indicated that Hailufeng Company was completely unfazed.

This was the kind of information that only local bigwigs could learn in a timely manner. West Yuan Group, far away in South Korea, would find it very difficult to figure out Hailufeng Company’s internal situation in such a short time.

Therefore, Gu Haijing felt that someone was probably about to have a very bad time.