After hearing these loud words, Antonio and Leo stopped ringing. They now understand Contini's mentality: he would rather spend $100 million on oil guards and support for Algerian tribes than bow to the French. This is not the rational behavior of a truly mature entrepreneur, but the pillar of a politician's foothold in politics.

You can lose money, you can lose money, but you can't lose! Should French politicians take the risk of losing public support to try it?

3.5 billion lira investment, 800 million lira loss was bet like this!

"Okay, I understand what you mean." Leo sighed, "If this is the case, then the credit budget can be adjusted - with the 1.1 billion lira as the basis, our loan can be reduced by 1 billion (100 million is to deal with Dante's expenses), and then the net assets can be increased by 1.1 billion at the end of the year - so the total assets are 19 billion, the net assets are 5.1 billion, and the debt ratio is more than 73%. Although it is considered to be relatively high, it is basically within the controllable range..."

Leo quickly handed Contini the adjusted debt and credit structure for a review: it is expected that United Group will add 7 billion new loans in 1926, of which 2 billion lira will issue $100 million in 5-year corporate bonds through Wall Street, with an annual interest of 5%; another 3 billion lira will provide debt financing to the US banking system, with an annual interest of 4.8-4.9%, with a maturity of 3 years, and another 2 billion lira will issue corporate bonds in China, with a lira standard and a coupon rate of 6%.

In this way, in the overall debt structure of United Group, the Italian banking system issued about 5.5 billion liras, the US banking system issued about 3.4 billion liras, domestic bonds were 3 billion liras, and foreign bonds were 2 billion liras, forming a total of 13.9 billion debt structure. Due to the different investment progress, the overall debt will show an upward trend of low at first and high at the end. The only positive news is that the high-interest loans from loans in the past few years will gradually be replaced with bonds with relatively low interest rates - United Group's annual debt interest, and the preferred stock dividend expenditure is about 800 million yuan. Every 0.1 percentage point reduction in the overall credit cost can involve expenditures of tens of million liras.

"The funds available next year are about 10.3 billion yuan, and the military is allocated 1.6 billion yuan, and the construction project is expected to be 5.6-7 billion yuan - 6.3 billion yuan is discounted, interest expenses are 800 million yuan, and the president's mobile fee is 200 million yuan..."

Contini waved his hand: "Project expenditure is calculated based on the highest level, and maybe additional additional funds will be added. Military affairs will have to leave a flexible budget of 200 million lira alone, so don't touch the president's mobile fee."

"In this way, the capital plate will use 9.8 billion, and there will be 500 million space...there is little room for maneuver." Leo sighed, "Unless you find a new source of funds or save expenses, even if you can survive next year, you will inevitably face a contraction the year afterwards."

"You don't have to be so pessimistic and disappointed next year." Contini turned his head and said, "Uncle Antonio, after the British (Iran) company acquired a stake, is the negotiations on Shell still going on?"

"It's still going on, but Shell seems to be waiting for the struggle between us and the French government. They want to buy it at a low price. I offer $55 million to 10 shares, and they are only willing to pay 45 million."

"Since I lack sincerity, then suspend negotiations. I will tell them after I announce the oil pipeline plan. The price will be raised to 65 million, and I will not be able to get it!" Contini smiled. "You are still a little conservative. The credit will increase by another 2 billion lira next year. But don't raise funds in China. Issuing bonds in the United States and expanding US$100 million to 200 million!"

"This...the collateral is probably not enough."

"Why isn't it enough? You forgot two things when you are estimating the budget. One is my stock rise in the stock market, and the other is the Libyan oilfield."

"Libyan oil fields?" Leo was startled, "You mean?"

"Do you really believe that Libya has only such a little oil? If so, you will be fooled." Contini laughed. "I can tell you that the reserves buried in the Libyan oil fields will be more than Algeria! The reason why I chose to lower the price at the beginning was because I was worried that too many reserves would cause the British to covet. Now the two divisions of the army have already been in place, and the oil guards will release them after the spring, so I can raise the above, for example, double the exploitable reserves from 500 million barrels to 1 billion barrels, so it would be natural to issue bonds."

"But this will cause a market oversupply, which in turn will suppress Algerian oil's valuation."

"Then you need to take some other measures." Contini thought for a while, "the additional 2 billion lira is allocated to build a petroleum reserve base: Genoa, Venice, Milan, Parma, Bologna, Naples, Livona and other seven regions, each requiring no less than 10 million barrels of reserves; if possible, go to Austria and Germany to acquire some land to build a new storage base, and strive to build 7-8 libraries."

"What are Germany's warehouse building?"

Of course, Contini would not tell the real purpose together, and shirked: "The German refinery can allow German refineries to be refined nearby and sold back to China - I found that Germany often has land prices, transportation prices and even labor prices lower than us, which should be profitable. Regarding oil reserves, it is a big gimmick. We plan to store oil that needs 90 days for Italian industrial consumption in the first phase, the second phase is 180 days, the third phase is 1 year, and the fourth phase is 2 years - after the overall completion, Italy's oil cutoff can also be supported. Germany's consumption is higher than ours, so we only prepare for one year, and the construction period will be put into the fourth phase, which will only start after 1933."

If there are time travelers, you can see at a glance that this is clearly the situation of preparing for war - how can the country be prepared to store oil for two years? The money is too much to burn? In addition, the German storage base will start construction after 1933, and this is deliberately preparing to make political achievements for the head of state. At that time, employment for newly built facilities can increase tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands! It is definitely a favor!

"The second supporting measure is to consider establishing a petroleum level fund. The United Group will take the lead in organizing domestic and American syndicates to coordinate. Based on Genoa's FOB price, we will openly acquire the oil price below $1, and sell it when it is higher than $1.25 to prevent oil prices from rising and falling..." Contini smiled, "At the same time, you can also go to the spot market to harvest a wave, announce that the discovery of the Libyan oil field will definitely suppress the price. Then we can establish long positions, build positions, and then release good news! - This time we do it the other way around, do it long! At least we must earn the price of Dante!"

Leo smiled bitterly and shook his head: "You are now very skilled in using the capital market to speculate... To be precise, you have begun to manipulate prices."

"Test it, test it, no matter how hard it is, you won't lose much money..." Contini thought to himself: I'm just starting to experiment for future speculation.

After working for more than half a day, the budget table was finally adjusted to total assets of 21 billion lira, net assets of 5.9 billion lira, debt ratio remained at 70-72%, annual expenditures rose to 10.7 billion, and there were 1.6 billion mobile funds, which was relatively abundant.

After the financial accounts are balanced, the economic work meeting will be easy.

On the first day of the work meeting on January 29, His Excellency the President made a enthusiastic report and said with great optimism: "...We lost 1.24 billion lira this year, which is a big number. I don't deny it, but I want to mention the achievements:

With this loss of 1.24 billion, we have completed three city special lines in Genoa, Milan and Rome, and are currently building an extension line from Milan to Genoa;

We have started the rapid railway line of the major industrial belts in northern Italy, North African highways, railway construction lines, and launched the port dredging and expansion projects in Tripoli and Benghazi;

We have completed the infrastructure of United Steel and United Chemical, and will start to follow the equipment next year and strive to complete the trial operation in October;

Joint Construction has achieved the construction of 17 major cities across the country, together with two overseas sea and air bases in Tripoli and Benghazi, opened up 7 civil aviation routes and achieved the task of safe transportation of 200 people;

United Real Estate has built more than 3.8 million square meters of housing and commercial housing construction, including 40,000 units of housing and 3 commercial complexes;

We have basically completed the first phase of the construction of the workers' new village in Milan and Rome. More than 15,000 employees of the United Group live happily in it, enjoying modern facilities such as tap water, pipelines, gas, electricity, and telephones. The community has business, entertainment, cultural and educational facilities, and meticulous security and protection. Every employee of the United Group yearns for living in this kind of workers' new village;

We have completed the rectification of the small and medium-sized financial industries in the country, and United Bank has become the third largest bank in Italy;

We discovered Libyan oil fields and Algerian oil fields. Italy suddenly jumped from a poor oil country that everyone laughed at ascended to become a strong competitor in the European oil market;

We have completed the review of the national defense system, and Joint Defense has become the third largest defense supplier in the country;

We helped the government solve the arms baggage and made great contributions to the Corfu incident;

We have also achieved remarkable results in other fields such as culture, education, scientific research, and services...

These investments and losses are shocking to see the numbers alone, but if you look at the actual results, it is very encouraging. In my eyes, how can there be any losses? It is clearly a reflection of the rising strength of the United Group and the comprehensive improvement of the Italian country's strength! All are high-quality assets! All are projects that benefit the people! All are key foundations for future development!”

Applause! Warm applause!

Contini paused and continued: "The achievements of all these achievements are the result of the conscientious work of the company's management, the result of the joint efforts of 300,000 employees of the United Group, and a vivid portrayal and annotation of the speed of the United Group! It fully demonstrates that under the leadership of the wise leader, the group has united with the three flags and fascist strategic thinking, fortunately united, forge ahead, and struggled tenaciously, and wrote a brilliant mark on the road to the comprehensive realization of the great rejuvenation of the Roman Empire. I believe that history will remember the contributions we have made, and future generations will be proud of our efforts today!

In the face of 1926, the core management has decided to increase its investment by 40% this year! I only have one sentence to tell you: Don’t be afraid, continue to go forward, the dream of chasing victory is endless!”

Everyone stood up and raised their right hand to salute: "Long live the victory!"
Chapter completed!