me, those are empty, because they buy so little nowadays."
"But the amounts claimed are large, more than sufficient justification for ORS to continue. It receives a percentage of what they obtain back. They have the motive to persist. 30 per cent of six million-plus provides quite some incentive."
Luis' eyes flared, which was not easy when they were rheumy with age.
"What did I just tell you, Señora?" His formality warned Marta that she had gone too far. "Simply reply that if they reinstate their cancelled orders in full plus pay a 20 per cent penalty up front I might just consider talking to them. But probably I won't. I had to make over two hundred of my people unemployed. That still hurts me and them even more. Those greedy bastards in Madrid can go stuff themselves. Now I suggest you depart to give them my message."
Tuesday: Alcobendas
Arriving at a tapas place local to the ORS office, Felipe showed Caterina and Emilia the choices organised around a u-shaped food bar. After finding out that they, like him, preferred soft drinks at lunch he ordered a litre bottle of agua con gas before making a selection. He joined them at a table where Caterina was standing whilst Emilia was sitting on a stool. They helped themselves to the food.
"So, Felipe, as it seems Ana is not coming, tell Caterina and me about your three clients."
"As you already know, the three are called Constructores Equilibris, ServiArquitectos and MultiMedia Hisperia, the last of which is normally shortened to MMH. Constructores Equilibris – CE to me – was a giant in the pre-financial crisis building boom that developed in Spain. It won vast numbers of tenders, and not only for building roads, airports and other infrastructure. It even speculated on its own behalf, purchasing land and buildings, or starting to build mini-cities."
"What on earth is a mini-city?" Caterina asked.
"The simplest way to explain is to show you. There are several partially finished ones around the periphery of Madrid. They were designed to house 20,000 to 40,000 people, at least at inception. Not only did the designs include apartments and houses but also the shops, restaurantes , farmacias , etcetera, which residents would need to be self-sufficient. Who was going to live in them, however, was never clear; nor was where the inhabitants would work or how they'd get to work. Yet that didn't stop CE or its competitors losing touch with reality and promising mass housing with profits, all to be delivered from hot, thin, Spanish air.
Felipe stopped, partly to catch his breath and partly to eat another tapas.
"Indeed, one of the reasons that ORS has CE as a client is that its new management, brought in by outside investors to rescue it, suspects that there are lots of old debts and overpayments that were never collected. Initial analysis of the past five years of CE's corporate purchasing, which ran into billions each year, shows this to be potentially true. But, and this is the downside, many of those suppliers that ORS shows as owing money to CE have gone bust themselves, so there's little or nothing left to obtain."
Another tapas interrupted Felipe's flow.
"Worse, the threat not to do further business, as our standard way to encourage repayment, is something of a damp squib because CE is now economically weak as a customer, buying far less than it used to do. In practice it's hanging on by its teeth, and by the grace of its many bankers who do not wish to see it crash and burn because this would oblige those same financiers to recognise huge loan losses, which might then drive their own institutions and themselves into similar bankruptcy.
"ServiArquitectos is very different. It is, as you might imagine from the name, primarily a services business. It started out as a mid-sized architects' practice whose partners expanded into offering anything from cleaning to security to managing projects. Ana tells me it's notorious in Spain for working on both sides of the
"But the amounts claimed are large, more than sufficient justification for ORS to continue. It receives a percentage of what they obtain back. They have the motive to persist. 30 per cent of six million-plus provides quite some incentive."
Luis' eyes flared, which was not easy when they were rheumy with age.
"What did I just tell you, Señora?" His formality warned Marta that she had gone too far. "Simply reply that if they reinstate their cancelled orders in full plus pay a 20 per cent penalty up front I might just consider talking to them. But probably I won't. I had to make over two hundred of my people unemployed. That still hurts me and them even more. Those greedy bastards in Madrid can go stuff themselves. Now I suggest you depart to give them my message."
Tuesday: Alcobendas
Arriving at a tapas place local to the ORS office, Felipe showed Caterina and Emilia the choices organised around a u-shaped food bar. After finding out that they, like him, preferred soft drinks at lunch he ordered a litre bottle of agua con gas before making a selection. He joined them at a table where Caterina was standing whilst Emilia was sitting on a stool. They helped themselves to the food.
"So, Felipe, as it seems Ana is not coming, tell Caterina and me about your three clients."
"As you already know, the three are called Constructores Equilibris, ServiArquitectos and MultiMedia Hisperia, the last of which is normally shortened to MMH. Constructores Equilibris – CE to me – was a giant in the pre-financial crisis building boom that developed in Spain. It won vast numbers of tenders, and not only for building roads, airports and other infrastructure. It even speculated on its own behalf, purchasing land and buildings, or starting to build mini-cities."
"What on earth is a mini-city?" Caterina asked.
"The simplest way to explain is to show you. There are several partially finished ones around the periphery of Madrid. They were designed to house 20,000 to 40,000 people, at least at inception. Not only did the designs include apartments and houses but also the shops, restaurantes , farmacias , etcetera, which residents would need to be self-sufficient. Who was going to live in them, however, was never clear; nor was where the inhabitants would work or how they'd get to work. Yet that didn't stop CE or its competitors losing touch with reality and promising mass housing with profits, all to be delivered from hot, thin, Spanish air.
Felipe stopped, partly to catch his breath and partly to eat another tapas.
"Indeed, one of the reasons that ORS has CE as a client is that its new management, brought in by outside investors to rescue it, suspects that there are lots of old debts and overpayments that were never collected. Initial analysis of the past five years of CE's corporate purchasing, which ran into billions each year, shows this to be potentially true. But, and this is the downside, many of those suppliers that ORS shows as owing money to CE have gone bust themselves, so there's little or nothing left to obtain."
Another tapas interrupted Felipe's flow.
"Worse, the threat not to do further business, as our standard way to encourage repayment, is something of a damp squib because CE is now economically weak as a customer, buying far less than it used to do. In practice it's hanging on by its teeth, and by the grace of its many bankers who do not wish to see it crash and burn because this would oblige those same financiers to recognise huge loan losses, which might then drive their own institutions and themselves into similar bankruptcy.
"ServiArquitectos is very different. It is, as you might imagine from the name, primarily a services business. It started out as a mid-sized architects' practice whose partners expanded into offering anything from cleaning to security to managing projects. Ana tells me it's notorious in Spain for working on both sides of the
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