Lodamun

[imperialpearl]

At a sitdown with the CEOs of Lodamun’s major automakers, President William Stedman alongside Secretary of the Treasury Dr Howard Strickland and Secretary of Commerce and Industry Anthony Harrell stated that for the Lodamese Government to even consider the idea of debt restructuring and financial assistance, the companies themselves would have to agree to a slue of conditions which interestingly includes selling off their non-automotive divisions and underperforming brands to national, regional and international buyers. The sitdown, which was attended by the CEO of the Lodamese Car Company (LCC), Corey Elliott; the CEO of Tyson Motors Scott Spencer; the CEO of Buffalo, Vance Conway; the CEO of Bronson, Isabella Davis and the CEO of Volt Brent Sheppard, was reminiscent of a similar debt restructuring sitdown between Lodamun’s automakers and the federal government under the Danvers Administration. Then-Secretary of the Treasury Dr Henry Martineau and Secretary of Commerce and Industry Kevin Burke negotiated an agreement among the automakers which saw the companies make concrete guarantees to improve the material conditions of employees in exchange for financial assistance, even as the bailout plan had been plastered as being broadly unpopular/controversial. 

Now, the automakers are against meeting to discuss the details of a similarly controversial bailout. According to Secretary Strickland, the administration was not interested in any discussions related to “grants” similar to what was done under the Danvers Administration. “In premising these discussions with the automakers, we made it extremely clear that we were not interested in talks of grants. Any money to be given to these companies will be in the form of loans, which will be subject to numerous conditions,” Strickland explained. Pryor CEO Corey Elliot revealed some of the stipulations the company had agreed to in exchange for an 8 billion LOD loan to restructure the company's operations. “We’ve agreed to abandon the work we’ve been doing to carve out a spot in the traditional combustion engine market alongside guaranteeing protections for workers, increasing investment in our conceptual electric brands and committing to 60% of domestic production,” Elliot explained.

President Stedman confirmed that the conditions as set out by the administration were such that they ensured the companies remained committed to core standards such as investment in research and development, avoiding unnecessary layoffs in order to “rescue the company” and committing to some degree of domestic production. “It can’t be that these companies are asking for the people’s money and should be allowed to do whatever they choose. The Lodamese people are extremely forgiving, but they often do not forget,” President Stedman said. In line with the administration’s broader industrial policy, Secretary Strickland confirmed that the FHIB (Federal Holdings and Investments Board) would be brought in to action one of the many conditions of the loans provided to the automakers. He noted that based on the case of loan, relative the company’s size, the government would in exchange maintain a shareholding equivalent to the loan itself and thus said shareholding would be managed by the federal government through the FHIB. “The nature of these agreements is such that we do not intend for public monies to be spent erroneously by these companies. In the spirit of transparency, accountability and value-for-money, the government established the FHIB, which has managed the government’s investments/holdings in private-sector enterprises for the benefit of the Lodamese people for decades,” Secretary Strickland explained. 

According to leaked documents from the negotiations between the President and the automakers, the shareholding the FHIB maintains in the various automakers was as follows: LCC- 15%, Tyson Motors - 8%, Buffalo - 12%, Bronson - 11%, and Volt - 21%. Without speaking to the percentages, Secretary Strickland stated that as the companies continue to show growth, the FHIB will be instructed by the Department of the Treasury to sell off portions of its shareholdings. “I would think that getting the government off your back and out of your board room, even though throughout these shareholdings we will remain as a non-voting shareholder, should be a perfect motivation for these companies to get their affairs in order.” President Stedman stated that failure to repay the loans by the companies could ultimately land them in serious trouble, as the loan agreements also stipulate that failure to repay loans could result in claims against the company’s assets. “Fail to repay the loans in the future, and I’m sure whoever is occupying Whitehall at the time will have no qualms in seizing company assets and selling them to the first bidder,” he concluded.