26 - Chapter 25
The executive from Alsid Mining, entered, shook hands with both of them and took a seat. He was an older man, with grey showing in his perfectly styled hair. Tasha already knew that the man, Daniel bin Yahaya, was the CEO for the group and reported directly to the family that owned his company.
This was a good start, it meant that they were serious about this negotiation.
“Thank you for coming, Daniel, may I call you Daniel?.” Said Tasha. “It is good to see that your company is taking the negotiations seriously.”
Daniel was nonplussed by the fact that Tasha recognised him by sight. His company had not confirmed who they would send to this meeting, not wanting to seem to eager. “You seem to have me at a disadvantage Ms.” he responded.
“I am Tasha Andersen, founder of TA Consulting.” replied Tasha. “Please feel free to call me Tasha.”
Again Daniel was shaken. He had done his research and he had learned that this woman was in control of a fund that had the ability to invest billions. What was more, is that he was told she had the ability to sign off any deal by herself. Even the patriarch of the family that owned the company he ran could not do that.
“My pleasure Tasha.” he replied, trying to effect nonchalance. “Of course, please call me Daniel.”
“As I was saying Daniel.” continued Tasha. “I am very happy that my first meeting of the day is with a company that is taking this so seriously. Have you had a chance to look through our offer for your company?”
“I was surprised that you had already looked into our operations, and had the ability to put together a tailored offer.” said Daniel. “However, don’t you think you are undervaluing us, by a considerable sum.” He had a job to do, and while the family was ready to sell, it was his job to get the best price.
“Of course, based on your last full year accounts, and the information you presented to the shareholders at the AGM 2 years ago, your company should be worth at least ten times our offer.”reponsded Tasha, not taking his stance personally.
“Then why have you started with such a low offer,” asked Daniel. “Is it just a negotiating tactic, or do you think we are so desperate that we will accept any offer. I have to tell you Tasha, that a lot of men would walk out after seeing that offer.”
“And yet you are still here,” responded Tasha.“Just trying to get us to increase our bid, and playing the offended party. Nice touch. Ah, you think we don’t know that two of your mines have just run dry?”
“What, what do you mean?” asked a suddenly nervous Daniel. “We have had no issues with production from any of our mines.”
Tashsa let out a peel of laughter. “Daniel, Daniel, Daniel.” she said, still laughing. “I know that you are just trying to do your best for your employer, but you really need to learn to lie better.”
She opened the folder in front of her and took out a report. “Should we let him see this Mamat?” asked Tasha mischievously. “Or should we let him dig that hole a little deeper?”
“You know he is a good executive,” replied Mamat, “You know he is wasted there, let him get the deal finalised for us then he will be part of our team and we can put him somewhere he can actually make a difference.”
Mamat and Tasha had already discussed how to deal with each company if they agreed to the deal and also made a list of executives that would be suited to run the new organisation. You don’t build out a new business without an idea of who you want to run the show for you.
“Fine, I will stop teasing him.” replied Tasha. “See Daniel, Mamat wants me to behave myself. Take a look at this report, I will also send a digital copy that you can forward to the family. We can discuss the offer after you have taken a quick look.”
Daniel, not knowing what to make of the way they were acting, just decided to look at this report, whatever it was. He took the report, and opened it to start reading.
Each paragraph and page was a shock to him. The report outlined details that had not even been provided in quarterly management accounts to the board. It detailed their man power, expenses, run rate, licences they held, mines they operated, predicted loads, details of machinery, estimates for delivery, as well as anticipated costs to bring the operation up to the standards being pushed by the government. He didn’t think he had access to this level of reporting and he was the CEO. How the hell had they put all this together. They must have spent months digging into the company.
“So you still think our offer was too low?” asked Tasha. “Or do you think our offer is actually generous, and you will be asking the family to approve it?
Daniel couldn’t help himself. He had to know. “How, how long did it take you to put this together.” he stammered. “Not just how long, but how did you even get all this information?”
“We put together deals,” replied Tasha, “If we couldn’t look into a company, we wouldn’t be very good at our jobs, now would we?”
“Yes, your offer is reasonable, even generous,” replied Daniel. “But the family won’t see it that way. They will want to push for more. They always do.”
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“As you can see,” said Tasha, patting the folders sitting next to her. “We are seeing a lot of companies. However, as Mamat said, we do want you, as much as we want your company. So let me tell you what I will do for you.” she took out and placed a contract in front of him. “I will offer them a 10% bonus on our offer, if they sign the deal today. And as a thank you to you for arranging the deal, and ensuring that it is signed off today, I will match the 1% of sale price that you stand to make from the deal personally. It will be paid as a joining bonus, when your company is transferred to our ownership. Don’t worry, my email to you includes this contract with the terms we just discussed.”
Daniel was floored. This woman was too dangerous. The level of knowledge she possessed, along with the way she had played with him. She knew what numbers the family wanted, and how they would react. The family were looking to sell as they knew of the issues and costs that were coming up. The offer was actually fair, adding a 10% bonus for completing today was money the family would not be willing to give up. Just how had she found out about his cut of the sale?
“I take it we have a deal, and you will return a signed copy of the contract this morning?” asked Tasha.
“It’s like I don’t even need to be here.” said Daniel dryly. “You were just playing with me right? You already knew what the family would accept and under what conditions.”
“Like I said, we are good at our jobs.” replied Tasha. “It’s our job to convince people to sell us their businesses. We wouldn’t be any good if we couldn’t even work the basics out.”
“I will speak to the family,” replied a slightly exasperated Daniel. “I am sure the family will accept.”
“Let my secretary have the paperwork when it’s done.” said Mamat, “we look forward to you joining the team.”
After Daniel left, Tasha turned to Mamat, “Do you think we were too hard on Daniel?”
“No, if he wants to join our team he will need to be ok with being more casual” replied Mamat. “Shall we move on to the next one?”
So began their day of meetings. For each meeting they would review the details and prepare the approach that they thought would best fit the business and representative. Tasha noticed that her mind stats were making it incredibly easy for her to memorise all the reports after reading it just once. It also made it much easier for her to process the data into knowledge.
Meeting after meeting flew by. That is not to say their pitch worked every time. They were convincing two businesses out of three that they were speaking too. The fact they had contracts prepared for all of them was a display of confidence bordering on arrogance. Yet their preparations were paying of. A few of the representatives had actually been sent with the power to sign deals, and they completed the agreements in the room itself.
Mamat, was enjoying joking around with Tasha as they conducted their meetings, yet he could see the seriousness underneath when it came time to deliver the final blow. Her knowledge and retention of details astounded her.
They had refreshment being brought in after each meeting. Each meeting was only taking around 25 minutes on average. Given the depth of their preparations, there wasn’t much more to discuss. Nothing that would substantially change the conversation in any case. Finally after four back to back meetings, out of which six had agreed to sell, Mamat really needed to take a break.
“I don;t know how you can continue to function like that,” said Mamat. “But I need to take a break and maybe get a proper lunch.”
“Sure, let's tell your secretary that we are taking a break.” said Tasha. “Then we can go down to the restaurant.”
They stepped out of the meeting room, entrusting the paperwork to Mamat’s secretary, and they made their way down to lunch. They didn’t rush back. Apparently the secretary had actually booked time in the calendar for lunch.
After lunch, they went back up to the office and continued to take meetings. The meetings were so similar by this point, that Tasha could even predict the standard responses of the executives. Whenever they presented their detailed reports, the executives were left shocked and speechless, though one person had threatened to sue them and walked out.
Generally, the meetings were cordial and a little playful, but they were undoubtedly productive. By the early afternoon, they had completed 14 meetings total and signed up 10 companies, that were on a verbal agreement, ready to proceed with the deals they had proposed. In total Tasha had committed to paying over £2Bn for the companies, plus agreed to invest another 500M into the new combined firm.
Mamat had already processed the paperwork to establish a new company they intended to use in Malaysia. Tasha was happy to leave the processing and the paperwork to her team to finalise. They took a quick break after the 14th meeting, just long enough to refresh themselves and arrange for some truly delightful desserts.
After that it was back to the meetings, for the last 7 meetings of the day. They saw Daniel enter. He waved at them, seeing them about to enter the office for their next meeting.
“Signed, sealed and delivered,” said Daniel, handing the signed copy to Mamat. ”The family were eager to avail themselves of the bonus you offered.”
“I am sure they were,” replied Tasha. “Welcome to the team, would you like to join us?”
After they hand entered the office and seated themselves, this time with Daniel on the same side as Mamat and Tasha, Tasha presented Daniel with a contract of his own.
“If you are ready to join us,” said Tasha, “You need to sign your new contract.”
Daniel, after a quick overview of the terms, agreed to it and finally joined the team formally.
The meetings soon resumed and followed the same format as the earlier meetings. Tasha did her best to convince the businesses walking into her little office to sell to her, and surprisingly most agreed. It was interesting to see the dynamic, where 2 companies had been at each other’s throats, if one sold the other would invariably sell. However a few companies just dug their heels in when the reality of their business was pointed out to them. It was like they were unwilling to accept the facts, and would rather bury their heads in the sand.
Still the end was almost in sight, they had seen 19 companies and closed the deal with 15 of them. Tasha had only estimated converting half, so three quarters was a massive win for her already. She wondered if the four companies that had reused her offer would come back to her on their own when they realised what she had created here today.
Finally it was time for the last meeting, the one Tasha was really interested in, but wasn't sure they would attend. When she was told that the representative had arrived very early and had been waiting outside for the last several hours, she felt a jolt of excitement run through her.
Maybe business intrigue wasn't the only thing on the schedule for today.