Cole introduced them to each other. Everyone in the house was a major shareholder of Harry Winston. Most of them were over 50 years old.
Among these people, Li Du"s equity shares were the third highest. The highest was Cole, who owned about half of the equity shares. The second highest was Carlston Fritz, who owned 14 percent of them.
The two of them together with Li Du const.i.tuted the majority of Harry Winston Inc."s equity shares. The other eight people"s only amounted to 20 percent.
In Li Du"s opinion, the person hostile toward himself was Carlston. He appeared a gentle, refined middle age man who wore gla.s.ses. However, Li Du was not overthinking this. He believed that his amount of shares threatened Carlston"s power. Therefore, Carlston did not acknowledge him.
Besides his shareholding power, he was quite popular in the office. This was because he had practically saved Harry Winston Inc., which included everyone"s equity shares.
If Harry Winston Inc. really did collapse, their loss would be tens of millions.
Everyone was enjoying themselves to the fullest, and Carlston was the only exception. He wasn"t really involved in the conversations. However, he didn"t appear to be too cold and detached, occasionally saying a few words.
This was his strong suit. At this level of wealth, no one would jump down someone"s throat unless it was about something unbearable.
All of these people were smart and intelligent. None of them had any issues reading the room or understanding how their peers felt. Consequently, everyone recognized that Carlston was hostile toward Li Du.
Cole was also aware of this. He was worried that Li Du would start a fight with Carlston since Li Du was full of youth and vigor.
Hence, he found an opportunity and explained to Li Du, "Carlston has some misunderstandings about you. Please be magnanimous toward him."
Li Du was initially unbothered by Carlston"s att.i.tude. However, after hearing Cole"s words, he felt puzzled. "Misunderstandings about me? What kind of misunderstandings? I didn"t purchase any of his equity shares, did I?"
In Harry Winston Inc."s perspective, Li Du"s only thoughtless act was that he had used a bottom-fis.h.i.+ng strategy to purchase some of the company"s shares. However, this was very common in the market, and he had bought the shares with the consent of the company. Neither side of the deal should have negative feelings about it.
Cole shook his head. "It"s an issue between neighbors. It"s a coincidence, you see. Carl is from Phoenix. His family has always lived in Phoenix. And two of his sons live at a villa in Green River Valley. "
No further explanation was unnecessary. Li Du suddenly realized the problem and was dumbstruck.
This was really a coincidence!
There had been many coincidences during this visit to New York. There was an old saying: "No novels and plays live without coincidence." Granted, they were random occurrences, but this coincidence seemed unreal.
Cole further explained, "His sons firmly believe that your people kidnapped them. Carl actually wanted to file a lawsuit against you. When I found out about it, I immediately mediated the situation. "
He paused and forced a smile. "I had thought that Carl believed me when I said that it was a misunderstanding. Didn"t think that he still held a grudge against you."
As soon as Cole finished, Li Du understood the situation.
It was no wonder the neighbors stopped the investigation after their conflict even though they were completely capable of continuing it. They had even lost their dogs, yet the grumpy neighbor did not come looking for them and had chosen to leave the villa instead.
According to Cole, Carlston dissuaded his sons and asked them to move out to avoid further conflicts.
This put Li Du at a disadvantage. He could insistently deny it since there was no evidence.
However, while he could continue to insist that, he knew it would not change the truth.
Li Du felt a little distressed. The fact was he had actually done it. However, Brother Wolf and Big Ivan had overdone his orders with how they had dealt with those kids.
The kids had started it. They were the ones at fault to begin with. Their parents did not educate them. The police were unable to properly advise them. In the end, he had to deal with them in order to protect himself. Was there anything wrong with that?
He insisted that he was right in this situation. Even though Carlston was hostile toward him, Li Du decided to just let him be. He couldn"t care less.
In fact, he had an important matter to discuss with Cole. He asked, "Does the group have diamond reserves? If so, with the group"s consent, I can introduce you to a big client."
Cole was very interested in this subject. He asked, "Big client? How many diamonds are we talking about?"
Li Du used an old Chinese saying: "Considering Han Xin will command the troops, the more the better."
He used Mandarin in the first half of his sentence, so Cole could not understand him. It was like a chicken speaking with a duck. But the rest he spoke in English, so Cole understood "the more the better."
"A lot?" Cole was shocked. "Is he setting up a luxury company?"
Li Du shrugged. "Definitely not. But I don"t know about the specifics."
Cole hesitated. "Our group started our business from diamonds. At this point, you should have a general idea of our current predicament. Our diamond reserve has fallen to its lowest quant.i.ty in its history. This is an alarming situation."
Li Du understood the situation. Harry Winston Inc. had no excess diamonds for external sales.
After considering for a while, Cole said, "Go and talk to your friend. If he"s willing to accept some small diamonds, our group will be able to provide them. The international price is approximately 2,000 dollars per carat. That price is set."
That price was actually not too expensive. Li Du asked, "Approximately how many are you able to provide?"
Cole said, "We still have sufficient stocks of this type of diamond. Over ten thousand carats shouldn"t be a problem."
This was considered as a fixed a.s.set purchase. Since this business involved tens of millions of dollars worth of goods, the shareholders needed to know about the sales.
It just so happened that the major shareholders were here. Later, during the coffee session, Cole took this opportunity to inform everyone of the proposed business.
As soon as his voice faded away, Carlston shook his head. "No, Cole. I respect your authority as leader but it"s best to reject this business."
Cole looked at him and smiled. "Carl, my friend, what are your thoughts?"
Carlston responded, "We all know that current international economic conditions are less than ideal. All major diamond mines are now reducing their mining volume and increasing their reserves. We should not reduce the volume of our reserve. Otherwise, it will be more difficult to respond to the global market in the future."
He smilingly shared his opinion to the rest of the shareholders. Everyone understood his concern and nodded repeatedly.
In Li Du"s opinion, it was nonsense. Indeed, Harry Winston Inc."s reserve was insufficient. However, they were in urgent need of financial backing.
These small diamond fragments were of little value for a big player like Harry Winston Inc. They could only be used for the production of some low-end pieces of jewelry. This type of jewelry could not be considered luxury goods.
He believed that Carlston was against this due to the fact that it was his idea. After all, Cole had mentioned that Li Du had proposed this business.
There was nothing much he could do about it. Clearly, these shareholders were more devoted to Carlston. They nodded one after the other as they received the message from his smile.