Anna walked over one by one, stretched out her hand to shake hands with every magazine shareholder.
"Well... Anyway, I would like to thank your family for their contribution to the development of "Oil Painting" magazine..."
Some experts came out with embarrassed expressions on their faces.
But shopping malls are like battlefields.
The reaction of more shareholders at this time cannot be called a gentleman.
Their faces were cold, and they even spoke sarcastically, and the words they said were very unpleasant.
"It's useless to flatter me. I will not change my decision to support the chairman."
"The little girl is ignorant, Miss Elena, don't blame me for speaking poorly. If your board seat still belongs to your aunt, you will definitely make smarter decisions than young people like you who don't know how to adapt... …”
"..."
After listening to a few words of ridicule from those people, secretary Elliot's face turned blue with anger, but Anna still didn't hear it.
No matter how dazzling the sneers on the shareholders' faces are.
She greeted everyone very politely and praised each other's academic achievements one by one.
Even the attorney in the corner, Anna, asked him to convey her greetings to Mr. Signac on her behalf.
"It's a little too late to start a relationship now. At this age, the little girl can study for a few more years and have a lot of social experience. Being locked up in an ivory tower all day long will not be good for you."
The fat old man Al-Khelaifi simply turned his head away clearly.
He crossed his arms and completely ignored Anna's outstretched hand.
At this point in time, I still want to play the emotional card.
Do you think she is innocent?
Or do you think she is stupid?
Asking for trouble!
"Idiots! These Yankees are just uneducated."
Sir Brown looked at the scene in front of him, his mouth twitched, and he cursed secretly in his heart.
Many of these old guys who sit in the office doing research all day long are not as good as a little girl in terms of emotional intelligence.
After the initial shock.
Jazz has now figured out why Anna insists on having such a hot face but a cold butt.
This is not for these people to see, and it is not at all an attempt to change the results of shareholder voting with just a few greetings.
Miss Irina's face is showing off to all the readers of "Oil Painting"!
"If nothing else, she's really smart. She has the air of a female politician."
When it comes to running a media, public image is really important.
It is really disgraceful for a bunch of old men to make things difficult for a beautiful and polite little girl.
Brown's program sent meeting minutes to every reader of Oil Painting magazine. In addition to arranging a clerk, there was also an audio and video recording of the entire process. It had only two purposes.
Tie all the shareholders aboard their warships.
And separate the Irina family from the magazine, and even separate the young girl Anna from the contributions made by the entire Irina family in the past.
The vote on whether to approve Kruger Bank's shareholding was just one item in the meeting diary.
What other proposals are on the agenda to remove Ms. Irina from her seat on the board of directors on the grounds of dereliction of duty, making expressions that harmed the public image of the magazine in an online video interview, and not being qualified for management positions? Waiting.
Sir Brown has prepared a lot of things to prove in the public eye that the current Irina family is no longer suitable to rule this magazine.
And a young girl like Anna is not worthy of being equated with the contributions of her elders.
This is just great.
The main theme of the plot was that everyone united to resist the power of the Elena family and fight for the independence of the magazine.
The scene before them was watched by the public.
It must be more like a lot of old men working together to bully a little girl who I feel sorry for.
It’s so ugly!
Sir Brown dug a hole for Anna.
As a result, she immediately began to show her weak and helpless side in the public eye to gain sympathy.
Find the loopholes.
Counterattack quickly.
What kind of weak little girl is this?
She is clearly a strong woman who is extremely adaptable!
"Ahem, Ms. Elena, please go back to your seat. Personally, I am grateful for your recognition of my academic achievements. As the chairman of the magazine, I have the obligation to lead this... A media with a long and illustrious history is on the right track."
Sir Brown could only think about his words slightly: "As the shareholders of Al-Khelaifi just said, this is not a personal grudge. We just want to make "Oil Painting" better."
“Is it better to make art magazines more commercial and speculative?”
The girl turned her head and looked at the camera in the conference room.
"I prefer to call it making the magazine more youthful and in line with modern trends. And, let me say it again, now is not the time to discuss this matter."
The chairman impatiently interrupted Anna's speech: "What is important now is to vote whether to agree to introduce Kruger Brothers Bank as a major shareholder. Director Elena, you have the right to vote against. At the same time, we also have the right to suspend The Ileana family continues to rule with one word.”
"If it was really true, would there be such a takeover vote? Under the new shareholding structure, the combined shareholdings represented by Kruger Bank and Chairman Brown alone exceed 100% of all shares. Sixty points. On the contrary, that is the real one-word statement."
Anna turned her head and faced the shareholders in front of her.
"Gentlemen, many of you were invited by my elders to join the Oil Painting magazine. You have great academic achievements and are my personal seniors and teachers."
"My elders trust you, and I respect you."
"At this moment, the 136-year history and destiny of "Oil Painting" magazine is in your hands. I don't want to say that the ancestors of the Irina family are watching here from heaven. As a respected person Scholars, I believe our predecessors know better than me what the true soul of this magazine is. Do we really want to abandon our persistence over the past many years for the sake of temporary financial gain?"
Anna put her hands on her knees and bowed deeply to the shareholders next to the table.
"I beg you elders, please help me."
"Stop selling pity here, moral kidnapping..." Al-Khelaifi curled his lips.
Anna shook her head: "If you are really unwilling to continue to hold part of the equity of Oil Painting Magazine, I am listing two ranches in Australia and North America for sale, plus all my current assets that can be liquidated in the short term. In Within two months, we can raise approximately 120 million to 130 million euros in cash flow. You can consider selling your shares to me."
"I know that there is still a funding gap of tens of millions of euros between this and the acquisition proposed by Kruger Bank, but this is already more than a hundred times higher than the price you paid to buy the shares from my aunt."
When the elders of the Elena family sold more than half of the magazine's shares, they considered the possibility of being taken over by outsiders.
Under the same quotation,
Anna holds the right of first refusal on the shares.
But they could not have imagined that a few decades later, with the continuous expansion of the scale of "Oil Painting" magazine, the valuation of "Oil Painting" magazine had soared from a magazine worth one million Austrian crowns to hundreds of millions of euros.
Miss Elena really can't afford so much money.
She may be one of the richest landowners in Austria, and in terms of pure amount, she is richer than the Kruger family.
But financial markets and individual behavior are different.
Bankers and landlords are also different.
Mr. Krueger controls Europe's oldest private bank and various private equity funds. He can easily use large cash flows of more than billions of euros to forcibly acquire the companies he wants.
And even among the richest people on the Forbes list, only a few can afford hundreds of millions of euros.
at the same time.
This happened too suddenly.
Even with the dilution of various inheritance taxes, the total assets of the Elena family passed to Anna should definitely be more than 170 million euros.
Maybe it's more than 500 million euros.
However, if you want to sell real estate in the short term, it will be difficult even if it is significantly discounted, and it will also involve a series of issues such as tax calculation and cross-border fund transfers.
There was only so much money Anna could raise.
"The Bible says, 'If there were ten righteous people in the land, the city of Sodom would not have been destroyed.' Today, as long as any two or three seniors are willing to uphold the faith in their hearts and stand behind me. Then" The belief that "Oil Painting" magazine was born at the beginning - to let every beautiful work of art speak for itself and every beautiful soul to have a voice will never be extinguished."
"I, Anna Irina, member of the Board of Directors of Oil Painting Magazine, voted against the proposed acquisition of the magazine by Kruger Brothers Bank."
Miss Elena can no longer see any softness on her body.
With a look of determination in her eyes, she raised her left hand high.
As the girl's words fell to the ground.
The conference room became so quiet that you could hear a pin drop, only the sound of wind coming from the window became clearer and clearer.
No one spoke.
Many people were stunned by Miss Anna's powerful speech.
"A truly persistent hero, even if his wax wings are destined to be dissolved by the sun, will fly far away like Icarus without hesitation."
Chairman Brown looked at Anna.
The old jazz inexplicably recalled a sentence in Nietzsche's collection of essays that he read in college that praised the hero Icarus.
Icarus is the son of Tydalus, the great inventor in ancient Greek mythology. With a dream of flying in his heart, he flew into the sky with wings made of wax, but eventually fell to his death because the wax was baked by the sun.
Sir Brown, the ambitious banker who personally led and manipulated the acquisition plan, was also moved by the persistent belief that flashed across Miss Elena's face at this moment.
What an excellent girl.
"Should I say that she is worthy of being a girl raised by a noble family?"
The rich second generation in the world is gone.
This kind of decisiveness and calmness in handling things is not something that ordinary upstarts can match.
Whether it's morality or money, Anna has given a solution that is tempting enough within her own capabilities.
If it were Sir Brown, he couldn't do better than the girl in front of him at this moment.
From the perspective of an elder, Sir Brown simply wanted to applaud Anna for such a wonderful speech.
He sincerely envied and admired the deceased Aunt Anna for being able to teach his girl to be so good.
Put yourself in the enemy's shoes.
The silver-haired gentleman glanced at the shareholders who had hesitant and entangled expressions on their faces, but in the end no one actually raised their hands in response.
He shook his head and sneered.
"Even if she is really Icarus, in the end it is just an effort that is bound to fail."
One second, two seconds... ten seconds passed... half a minute passed.
Except Anna raised her arms.
There is no second shareholder to echo.
One vote against and twelve votes in favor.
On March 19, 2023, at 9:17 am Vienna time, the proposal of Kruger Brothers Bank to acquire "Oil Painting" magazine was approved!
These are among the top three acquisitions of a single independent magazine publication this century.
Everyone in the venue felt like history was being written.
Everyone clearly understood that the Irina family's dominance of the magazine for a century had officially ended at this moment.
It's a new era for the mighty Kruger Bank.
When the results of the vote came out from the mouth of Sir Brown, who presided over the meeting.
The female secretary Elliot couldn't bear to look at the expression on the young lady's face and turned her head to look at the floating curtains by the window.
Anna actually didn't show much emotion on her face.
Everyone knows that she must be in a lot of pain right now.
But there was no hysterical crying.
She just pursed her lips, signed her name on the shareholder resolution letter one by one with a pen, and turned into a silent ice sculpture.
This made many people think that this young girl was so strong that it was heartbreaking.
"Tch, what else do I think it is? It seems that someone's speech is not as useful as she thought. By relying on a few minutes of speech to change everything, what does she think of herself, Kennedy or a mustache?"
Al-Khelaifi is rather hard-hearted.
He is also one of the few shareholders who can benefit the most from the acquisition.
At a certain moment just now, he was really afraid that some soft-eared guys around him would be persuaded by Miss Anna.
Now that the overall situation is settled, the fat old man also has a huge stone in his heart.
"It seems that the surname Irina is not worth tens of millions of euros in real money, as Miss Anna imagined..."
"Okay, Al-Khelaifi shareholders, you should stop."
Al-Khelaifi originally planned to say a few harsher words of sarcasm, but was interrupted by the people around him.
"I'm sorry, Anna."
Riki Sakurai silently signed his name in the column for agreeing to the proposal.
Then he raised his head and looked directly into the girl's eyes, "The Elena family is very great, but this is really not just a matter of tens of millions of euros. Your philosophy is respectable, but it is no longer suitable for this era."
Choosing the Irina family or Crook Bank is not a question of valuation at all.
Essentially, you are choosing how to play the game with different rules.
Whether to continue to stand on the shore of the sea of money and be a lonely bystander, or to make up one's mind to become a member of the sidelines of this gambling table - this is a choice of political stance.
Kluger Bank's investment in the stock is only the first sail raised on the mast of Oil Painting Magazine's huge plan to sail to the golden sea.
What followed was a drastic step to strengthen in-depth cooperation with leading galleries, and the establishment of the first art fund named after "Oil Painting" magazine, a series of complex financial operations.
Its economic value will also continue to be blown up by the "hot money" in the investment market like an inflating hot air balloon during the deepening of commercial transformation.
Everyone present will be a beneficiary of its take-off process.
The world's ultra-high-net-worth households hold approximately US$2.34 trillion in art collections, an amount between the GDPs of France and Russia in the Five Permanent Countries.
There are many art funds in Europe and the United States with a scale of more than one billion US dollars.
There is no reason why the "Oil Painting" Fund cannot become the next wealth myth.
Just like what Professor Rikiya Sakurai said.
It’s not that everyone is unwilling to give face to the Elena family, but it’s really not a difference of tens of millions of euros.
To put it more realistically and cruelly.
Uncle Osborne's letter can be full of sympathy, because he is not a shareholder of "Oil Painting" magazine, so he can naturally speak without backache.
If he were in the position of these shareholders, it would be difficult to make a different choice.
At today's shareholders' meeting, so many shareholders are on the opposite side of Miss Anna. Even if there is no Kruger Brothers Bank, the next investment institution will take its place.
All Miss Elena's efforts are like Sisyphus pushing the stone.
The ending has already been written.
"alright."
Sir Brown picked up the tea cup with a smile, scratched the wall of the cup with the bone china tea lid, took a sip of tea and said with a smile: "Then let's move on to the next topic, remove Director Anna Elena from her seat on the board of directors."
——
The shareholders' meeting lasted until afternoon.
Except for Sir Brown's initial proposal, there was never a scene where all shareholders could reach agreement on any meeting topic.
There are no dramatic plot twists and turns.
Twelve shareholders were in favor and one was against, with the same result on every issue.
Make a proposal,
Everyone voted by a show of hands to reject Ms. Elena's objection.
Shareholders signed the new resolution.
It's like a film movie with a bug in the projector, repeating the cycle over and over again.
Even so, because it involved a huge acquisition plan and share changes involving hundreds of millions of euros, the meeting lasted several hours before it came to an end.
"Gentlemen, the staff of the magazine have sent us a cold working lunch. However, I think it is better to deal with this last issue. Let's go out to have a meal together. Maybe we can open a bottle of champagne. I know there is a good one nearby. Italian restaurant where I still have an unfinished bottle of 2003 Romanée-Conti.”
Sir Brown turned to the last page of the agenda in his hand.
"For the following topic, the initiator of this proposal is Director Anna Elena. Sorry, it may be more appropriate to say it is Anna Elena shareholder."
The chairman smiled.
Although the voting results were not much different from what was expected, today's shareholders' meeting still did not meet Sir Brown's expectations 100%.
Current law does not require directors to commit fault. As long as the shareholders' meeting can reach a majority of the shares, any director on the board of directors can be removed.
This is how Steve Jobs was driven out of Apple.
Sir Brown nevertheless carefully compiled a list of what he believed were "mistakes made by young Lady Elena in the discharge of her duties as a director."
It turned out that this would be a good opportunity for one of the group to attack Anna.
It’s not easy to use a magnifying glass to find someone’s fault.
However, it is probably Anna's previous declaration that still caused some shareholders to feel guilty.
Regardless of Sir Brown's wink, the enthusiasm for the discussion was not high.
Except for a few words from Al-Khelaifi, the entire fault-finding process was over.
"never mind."
The trend has been achieved,
Sir Brown doesn't care too much either.
The European Art Annual Meeting next month will be a bigger public stage, and the joint speech he prepared is quite "wonderful" anyway.
His eyes fell back to the last page of the meeting schedule.
Brown raised his eyebrows when he saw the name "Detective Cat".
before this shareholders meeting.
Anna submitted only one topic, and he originally thought it would be about a reverse acquisition of equity.
Legal provisions - When any company undergoes restructuring, major mergers and acquisitions, business investments, etc., shareholders who vote against it can execute the exit clause.
The entire board of directors is required to acquire all the shares owned by the shareholder at a reasonable price.
This can be regarded as giving the loser of the high-level struggle a dignified exit.
When Jobs was expelled from Apple's board of directors, he sold all of his Apple stock, leaving only a commemorative share, and used the money to found the famous Pixar Animation Studio.
The chairman thought Anna would demand the implementation of this clause.
He had discussed with Mr. Kruger that he was willing to make an additional investment to absorb all the shares held by Miss Irina at a price of no more than 40 million euros.
The money is neither too much nor too little.
Miss Elena will probably sell it.
A major shareholder who is expelled from the board of directors can easily become a lamb to be slaughtered, and his property can be misappropriated by all kinds of dirty tricks.
Sir Brown also wanted to spend money to save trouble.
Anna is not as weak and bully as she appears.
Come on, they also have their own legal team, with such a large share floating outside, they will find various excuses for you to report to the financial regulatory authorities.
The actual effect may not be great, but it is really disgusting.
Unexpectedly, Anna did not mention any relevant conditions from beginning to end.
"Could it be that this little girl still has some unrealistic illusions about her ownership of this magazine?"
The issue is,
A major shareholder who was voted out of his seat on the board of directors.
Even if she has this intention, what kind of evil can she do?
At this shareholders' meeting, the only proposal initiated by her also made Sir Brown confused as to what the approach was.
"Ms. Irina requested that Oil Painting magazine resume recommending stars in the buyer's guide for the online illustrator Ms. Detective Cat (FiverrID: THE Detective Cat). She also proposed that the management of Oil Painting magazine remove Ms. Detective Cat from the job without reason. I have made a public apology at the top of the magazine’s official website for the mistake I made in blocking and deleting the Buyer’s Guide column.”
Sir Brown read the proposal in the meeting log word by word.
The shareholders all around also showed extremely confused facial expressions.
Detective cat?
Who is Detective Cat?
(End of chapter)
