14 - Chapter 13
The party went on late into the night, giving the new combined team ample opportunity to get to know each other. The people seemed very happy with the changes proposed, and while there was some scepticism amongst people, they were mostly happy to just go along and see how things progressed.
The next day Tasha left the team to get on with the next round of business purchases. With James and AJ taking the lead with bringing on additional companies. Now that they had completed the preliminary work for regulated businesses, the other companies would be a lot more straightforward, it would just take the directors and shareholders to agree. Also for the rest of the businesses, it wouldn't be a partnership, it would be a full purchase.
Tasha pulled Sunny aside to have a chat about the next two parts that she wanted to finalise.
“I need you to draft the contract for UCL, for us to fund them,” said Tasha, “We are going to offer them £200m towards the development of a new fully integrated satellite swarm. In return we will have the right of first refusal to use the design to launch a swarm”
“OK, we can get on that.” replied Sunny, “When is the meeting?”
“The meeting is tomorrow. Yes I know it's short notice, however we are under a time crunch” replied Tasha. “I can’t give you the details just yet, but we need to move at pace. To that end, start to find locations where we can build our own base, including offices, satellite monitoring and everything else. I really want to have our own, self-sufficient city. Look into these special economic zones that the governments are incentivising. It would give us a lot more control, even if we have to build everything from scratch.”
“Also as I mentioned yesterday, after my interactions with Kevin from the bank, I have a feeling we are exposed.” continued Tasha. “I know it's a publicly listed company and regulated, but I want to initiate moves to buy and privatise the bank. Current market capitalisation is around £30Bn, given that banking shares have been on a downward trajectory, I want to buy it out at £33Bn.”
“We can buy 5% directly, after which we would need to let the regulators know about our intention for a hostile takeover.” replied Sunny, “That would boost the premium.”
“So let's not play fair,” replied Tasha. “Lets get some friends to buy up the limit, with the agreement to sell the shares to us, once we announce, at a 1% markup. We will loan them the cash interest free for 90 days. That way we can get the majority of shares, and only the hold outs will be left. At that point we will have the board seats, and the votes to push through the sale.”
“Very aggressive,” said Sunny, “I like it. Ok I can work on these things and get the rest of the companies on board. I will also work with Hanna to ensure we properly vet everyone coming on board.”
The rest of the day was spent speaking to businesses and arranging deals. By the end of the day they had agreements in place for HR, Recruitment, Gaming and Tech.
They had also agreed to a short term rent of a floor in a fully furnished office in Pall Mall, around a 10 minute walk from the hotel. That made it easy for the senior team to organise.
Tasha decided to take the team out for drinks that evening as thanks for their hard work, again everyone was invited, including new team members. As everyone knew the new working terms and conditions, it wasn't as shocking for people, and it wasn't mandatory, but it was still a surprise to most people that the company was willing to spend on its staff.
The next day, the senior management spent time continuing the meetings with the rest of the businesses they were looking to bring on board. Anita came to the hotel to process the paperwork for the executives to give them access to the relevant bank accounts.
AJ had submitted the paperwork for the TA Foundation, the charity that Ingrid would be heading up. The company was formed, the approval from the charity commission could take up to a month. They would ensure the team and everything else was ready to go once the approvals were finalised. Things were moving along, but there was only so much that could be done to expedite everything.
AJ and Robert were also progressing with the best structure for the group of companies. TA Consulting would be the holding company, it would own all the other entities, and only Tasha would have access to the accounts. The rest of the group would be run by the new executive team, and Tasha would take a hands off approach. She had a feeling she would need her time available for system quests and working out additional investment strategies.
Sally and Sunny had also finalised the loans that Sallys firm had held, and Sunny had asked his team to look at buying out all the loans. That was the major advantage the new company held, they had no reason to look at an financing options, in fact, that was something else they were looking at investing into, buying out and forgiving debt, as part of the foundation, and looking at asset rich, cash poor businesses, where they could convert existing debt into an ownership stake.
*
Tasha, with Sunny and Robert, headed off for the meeting with the deans at UCL. This was going to be the first major investment, and Tasha really wanted to close it out so she could get her quest moving forward. It had been the better part of 4 days since the system offered Tasha hints about what really happened to her family. While outwardly calm, internally she was anxious to get this done so she could see what came next.
Once they arrived at the main campus in Gower Street, they were again directed to the Dean’s office suite.
This time they were not meeting in Professor Chandler’s office, as there would be too many people, but in a large well appointed conference room.
“Good afternoon, Professor Chandler,” said Tasha holding out her hand, “Thanks for organising this on such short notice. Let me introduce Sunny, our head of legal, and Robert, our head of audit.”
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“Good afternoon Ms Andersen,” replied the professor, “ I am happy to accommodate. We are keen to get you onboard, we hope we will have a long and productive relationship. Let me introduce the two deans from Oxford and Cambride. That just leaves our head of commercial.”
Everyone introduced themselves and settled in for the main negotiation.
“If you can go over your requirements to invest in our programme,”said the professor, “I am sure we can get the appropriate paperwork ready.”
“No need,” replied Tasha motioning to Sunny. Sunny withdrew and passed around the proposal and contract and passed a copy to everyone.”As you can see, we have come prepared.”
“We are ready to transfer an investment of £200m, subject to your signing the agreement today.” continued Tasha. “Robert and Sunny will need access to all the records for full due diligence, but that can happen in parallel. The reason I asked you to invite the other two deans is that I think we can turbo charge the programme. I am also happy to look at other investments in suitable programmes, where we see a method to commercialise the results.”
The deans looked a bit bewildered at the speed things seem to be moving. They had thought they were coming here to start the negotiations, and not to get the funding.
“Give us a little time to review the contracts,” asked the professor.
Tasha and her team made small talk, while the professors and their head of commercial reviewed the contracts and proposal.
It took them around 45 minutes to finish the review.
“The contract is more strict than we are used to for a commercial arrangement,” said the professor. “It looks more like the contracts we would sign with the military.”
“Yes, that is by design.” replied Sunny. “We are looking at tech that has potential for military use. If we end up signing a contract with the MOD, we want our contracts to be pre approved. So for consistency all our contracts will be structured to be acceptable on both sides of the isle.”
The dean looked at his colleagues, and with a nod from them continued. “I guess that makes sense. We are ready to go ahead.”
“While you sign the documents with Sunny and Robert,” said Tasha, “Why don't you give me the bank details, I will ensure the transfer can be processed quickly.
After getting the details, and sending off a quick email with the details to provide a written record of the instructions, Tasha called Anita.
“Hey Anita, how are you doing?” said Tasha. “Listen I have sent you an instruction for a transfer of £200M to UCL as part of our first big investment. Can you get it processed? When do you think it will land in their account?”
“We will have to complete due diligence, and will need a copy of the contract, as well as approval from another member of your executive team to ensure compliance. If we can get that today, I can push for it to be approved for tomorrow, if that works for you?” replied Anita.
“Sunny, Anita needs a copy of the contract once signed.” said Tasha, “also she needs secondary authorisation for the transfer.” At a nod from him, she continued on the call to Anita, “He will get that all over to you today, I will let UCL know that the funds will be deposited by tomorrow.”
The deans were again surprised by the speed at which they were moving. Getting such a large amount of funding was hard enough, but then actually getting the cash in the account was another challenge, here the funds were being processed as they finalised the initial paperwork, and the due diligence hadn't even started. They would need to ensure nothing caused a hiccup in the process. They really didn't want to have to return the funds due to unforeseen issues.
Finally, the paperwork was complete. Sunny and Robert made arrangements to get access to the appropriate records to conduct the due diligence, team members would be visiting all three universities to finalise everything. This was the part Tasha liked about having a competent team, you could delegate and they would deal with their tasks.
She noticed a message from the system was waiting for her, so she decided to review it as the guys finished up. She pretended to be looking at her phone so as not to make anyone suspicious. Tasha checked the quest screen first.
Quest: Make your first significant investment
Make your first significant investment with a stated objective.
Reward: Quest points, Quest to find out more about your family
Status: In progress (Initial contract signed, awaiting fund transfer)
Tasha was, once again, shocked by how quickly and accurately the system reflected the situation. Either the system was monitoring all her correspondence, or more likely it was monitoring her to be able to update in real time. It was enough to almost send her spiralling once again and it took her focus to pull herself out. She still didn't have enough information or means to be able to dig deeper. Would she ever?
Hidden quest completed
Quest: Build up an organisation to support your investing efforts.
Reward: 200 QP. Access to Shop
Status: Completed (Bonus 800 QP for completing a quest without it being assigned)
Tasha looked on in shock, so the system wanted her to build out an organisation. Did that mean she would also get quests or hidden quests for what she planned to do?
On the main menu, a new option was now displayed.
1, Status
2, Message History
3, Quests
4, Shop
5, Close
Under the shop option there were 2 options.
Shop
1, Stat enhancements
2, Skills (Locked)
The options under the stat enhancements allowed for the purchase of stat points at a ratio of 10QP per stat point, however when she tried to purchase a single stat as a trial, it charged her 80QP. She felt like an electric shock ran through her body, she only just managed to stop herself from giving herself away. She would need to do this in private in future. She quickly brought up the status screen, having an idea about what just happened.
Name: Tasha Andersen
Race: Human (Tier 0)
Class: Rouge (Tier 2) - Level 0
Profession: Technocrat (Tier 2) - Level 0
Strength: 21
Dexterity: 21
Proprioception: 21
Constitution: 21
Intellect: 21
Will: 21
Charisma: 21
Soul: 21
Luck: Locked
Quest Points: 120
So she could only add all stats together. Now she just needed her first quest to complete, and she could begin to get answers.