Chapter 163: Morning in Philadelphia (7)

FMS headquarters in the Philadelphia port district. The time was well past eleven at night. The conference room was still bright.

Outside the window, the dim surface of the Delaware River sparkled faintly, and occasionally the crane lights of the pier repeated a red blinking.

Inside the conference room was quiet, but the atmosphere was not peaceful at all. The tight tension lingering in the air was pulling at the nerves like a thin thread.

On the large screen filling the wall, Sinoa Marine’s financial data was spread out densely.

Financial statements, liquidity analysis, credit rating related matters, etc. Dozens of pages of data repeatedly appeared and disappeared on the screen in turn, but they were rather stimulating anxiety.

Representative William Brady was staring at the screen with his arms crossed. His expression, with his chin slightly lifted, seemed to be reflecting on something. His gaze was looking at the screen, but in fact, his head was filled with the face of a man he met a few hours ago.

Lim Hyunjun, who came from Korea.

He showed a neat attitude on the outside, but something hard and sharp was hidden in his eyes. Every single word he threw at William did not leave his mind.

“Sinoa Marine will soon collapse.”

That word was not a simple prediction. He said it as if he were certain. What did he see to speak like that?

William slowly opened his mouth. His voice became even lower and heavier.

“I am saying it once more, but I need certainty. Certainly that what Representative Lim Hyunjun said is not true.”

Matthew Dillon, sitting on the opposite side of the conference room, nodded carefully. He is the Financial Director of FMS, a person who is strong with numbers and quite logical. But now his face was full of confusion.

“I have reviewed all the materials as you said.”

Matthew continued speaking while lightly tapping the laptop keyboard.

“According to the data we secured, Sinoa Marine’s financial status is stable. Debt ratio 130%, sales growth rate compared to the previous year also 12%, and the credit rating is also being maintained at A- as it was. They are also receiving guarantees from Chinese state-owned banks, and there seems to be no major problem with liquidity.”

William’s eyebrows twitched minutely.

“You mean there is no singularity?”

“Yes. You know it too, Representative. How meticulously we checked it.”

William uncrossed his arms and slowly leaned his body against the back of the chair. He closed his eyes and then took a deep breath. He felt as if his body, which had been full of tension, could finally breathe a little.

Silence settled in the conference room for a moment, and Richard Brannan, the technical senior sitting in the seat next to him, spoke carefully. He was a veteran who had worked at this company for decades and was a person with excellent field sense.

“I honestly wonder if that Korean representative said excessive words.”

Richard spoke while moving the pen placed on the table here and there.

“Is there anyone who doesn’t know that Sinoa Marine is the very company that the Chinese government supports wholeheartedly? They are in a state of having won three LNG infrastructure projects at the national level, and if they even received government credit guarantees, that says it all. There is no way such a company would collapse easily.”

That point also made sense. Sinoa Marine was not a simple private company. It is a core company even among national strategic industries closely connected with the Chinese government.

That such a company collapses meant that the Chinese government would abandon it. In reality, that was something hard to imagine.

William nodded slowly. However, his expression was still not refreshed.

“Yes, Richard’s words are also right. But something is unpleasant. The back of my head feels chilly... I don’t think that person spoke as if it were just nonsense either.”

William picked up the water glass and swallowed a sip. Charring water flowed down his throat, but his inside was still stifling. He said without taking his eyes off the screen.

“Did you see that person’s eyes? No matter how I look at it, they are eyes full of conviction.”

Richard did not speak further. Since he had also met Lim Hyunjun directly, he remembered the strangely calm attitude.

The clock hanging on one wall of the conference room was already pointing to midnight. The night deepened and fatigue was slowly seeping in.

At the moment William was about to let out a sigh while rubbing his temples.

Ding.

A mail notification sound rang from Matthew’s laptop. That sound, which rang in the quiet conference room, was enough to feel like a gunshot.

The gazes of the three people headed toward the laptop screen all at once. Matthew said while moving the mouse.

“The mail has arrived.”

He checked the sender and then narrowed his brows. William leaned his body forward and looked into the screen.

“There is no sender?”

“Yes. The sender’s address is not displayed.”

The title was written like this.

[SinoaMarine_Internal_Risk_Report]

The gazes of the three people met each other. Everyone did not open their mouths, but they were all thinking the same thing. Richard voiced his suspicion first.

“Is someone playing a joke? Or is it something like hacking.”

William stared at the screen for a long time and then said resolutely.

“Try opening it.”

Matthew hesitated for a moment but clicked the mouse.

The mail window opened and there was an attached file. Matthew’s fingertips trembled minutely. He swallowed his saliva and clicked the file.

What appeared on the laptop screen were dozens of charts and financial reports. However, it was different from any materials they had seen until now.

Matthew unconsciously bit his lip. Feeling that the inside of his mouth was parched, he slowly lifted his head and looked at William.

“This is an internal document that must not be leaked to the outside.”

His voice lost its usual calmness and trembled minutely. The chill felt at his fingertips climbed up his spine.

William was silent for a moment. He merely lifted his chin slightly and nodded. There was no hesitation in his eyes.

“Keep showing it.”

Matthew did not hesitate. As he turned the mouse wheel, numbers and graphs poured down over the screen like a waterfall. Complexly entangled financial data and subsidiary structure diagrams, debt ratio trend graphs.

And the moment he read the first sentence, the color completely drained from Matthew’s face.

“This is the financial disclosure material of Sinoa Marine’s parent company.”

His voice became lower and lower. A chilly tension seeped into the conference room air.

“As of the second quarter of last year, the debt ratio exceeded 280%. The officially disclosed figure was 130%, but... .”

He stopped speaking for a moment and took a breath.

“Based on the actual internal calculation, it is double that.”

William’s brow slowly narrowed. He stared at the screen quietly with his arms crossed. The lights of the city flowing from the other side of the Delaware River wavered beyond the window.

“Why is it different from the official materials?”

Matthew stopped his fingers on the keyboard and answered slowly.

“It is written like this here. It is because government subsidies and asset reappraisal portions were accounted for as equity. In other words, it looks like a surplus on the books... but the cash flow is already minus. To be exact, they are on the verge of bankruptcy.”

Richard flinched and wiped his glasses with his hand after taking them off while groaning quietly. Matthew caught his breath and opened the next page. A complex diagram appeared on the screen along with a list of subsidiaries.

In the center of the corporate structure diagram, which was entangled like a giant spider web, the name of a subsidiary was marked in red.

“This part is the core.”

Matthew’s voice lowered again. He moved the mouse cursor over a specific item.

“One of the subsidiaries has been on the repayment delinquency list since three months ago. However, it has been confirmed that the parent company, Sinoa Marine, jointly guaranteed 70% of this subsidiary’s debt.”

Richard suddenly leaned his body forward from his seat and shouted.

“What! You say 70%?!”

“Yes. If the subsidiary collapses, Sinoa Marine will also be hit sequentially.”

As Matthew finished speaking, the inside of the conference room was swept up in a heavy silence. Outside the window, the river wind blew and the glass pane trembled faintly. Richard bit his lip and muttered lowly.

“This is not a simple liquidity problem.”

William slowly put his hand on the table while uncrossing his arms. His gaze moved slowly along the red line graph on the screen.

-Debt ratio 280%

-Short-term borrowings proportion 61%

-Maturity within 1 year 47%

Matthew scrolled down again. Even more shocking content was waiting on the next page.

A policy-related report marked in red letters. The moment they read those sentences, the faces of the three people stiffened.

[Commencement of Phase 2 of Restructuring of Local State-Owned Shipyards]

-Reduction of targets for central government guarantees.

-Restriction of new borrowings for local state-owned companies.

-Suspension of financial support for companies with a debt ratio of over 200%.

-Assets including joint guarantees are excluded from support targets.

Matthew closed his lips tight. His voice was already trembling, but the analysis was clear.

“If this is true, Sinoa Marine is already excluded from the support targets.”

Richard shook his head as if he could not believe it. He tapped the table with his palm and questioned roughly.

“Wait a moment. Was Sinoa Marine not directly under the Chinese Ministry of Shipping? It is a company classified as a national strategic industry. Such a place is excluded from support?”

Matthew nodded slowly. An umbilical shadow formed in his eyes.

“That is why it is more dangerous. This is a survival competition being carried out under the name of restructuring. It is a signal that the central government will no longer shoulder the local state-owned companies. It means they will save some and abandon some.”

William closed his eyes for a moment. After that, he slowly picked up the water glass on the table and swallowed a sip. Cold water flowed down his throat, but the stifling feeling in his chest did not go away at all. He slowly spat out a name.

“Lim Hyunjun... that man already knew this.”

Matthew and Richard lifted their heads at the same time. William spoke while looking at the red letters on the screen.

“To think we missed this. If the Chinese government starts restructuring, companies like Sinoa Marine will be the first targets for reorganization.”

Richard let out a small breath. His voice trembled a little.

“What are you going to do now?”

Sharp words poured out from William’s mouth.

“What do you mean, what? Of course, it is the end.”

He slowly rose from his seat. The red lights on the other side of the Delaware River wavered beyond the window and brushed his face. A shadow was cast over his eyes and a solid expression appeared.

“Matthew, do not share this material externally for now. You must not show it to anyone. And first, let’s confirm if this material is correct. Since we don’t know for sure.”

William’s gaze slowly turned toward Matthew. Matthew nodded calmly and said.

“I will contact KPMG Shanghai.”

Matthew’s voice was full of conviction.

“There is a team that was in charge of Sinoa Marine’s audit line. Of course, a formal request route is difficult realistically.”

Matthew stopped speaking for a moment and stared at the laptop screen.

“However, there is a sufficient possibility that a draft copy remains in the internal database.”

He slightly raised the corners of his mouth meaningfully.

“The portal account for review before the audit will probably not have been closed yet.”