Chapter 9

Becca threw herself into the job of pulling the proposal together. Carl greased a few wheels and got her in touch with the many French government agencies that she needed to convince to guarantee the construction loan for the factory building complex. She immediately ran into a brick wall. The French refused to back the loan. She went to the start-up, which was to be called FMI for France Micro International, and got the number of French jobs the chip factory would employ and went back to the French. When they balked, she threatened to go to Forbes magazine and expose the fact that the French government was anti-business and anti-French jobs. After three months of meetings she had a commitment that she would receive a government insured construction loan and three years of reduced property taxes deferred to the fourth, fifth and six years and an additional seven years of reduced taxes. Problems started to threaten the deal. The start-up couldn't raise any additional funds for the chip making machinery. The deal looked like it might fall through.

She went to a park and sat on a bench until dark and went back to the office to talk to Carl. He was working on a problem at one of his companies in America. She sat down and waited until he looked up.

"Carl, we have a problem. FMI can't get financing for the chip making machinery. I have the financing for the real estate. If the financing for the outfitting of the factory can't be found the deal is dead.

Carl smiled, "I don't know how you got this far. Do you have any ideas?"

"Yes. If I can talk the French into backing a loan for the machinery we still might be able to close this deal. What if you finance fifty percent of the capital needed for the machinery and the French back a loan for the additional fifty percent. If the FMI folds, you will be owner of a chip plant complete with machinery and we could either run the business or sell it. I put a few feelers out and I have some contacts in Asia that are interested in used chip machinery. FMI will be making payments, including interest, on the machinery, so if they do go belly up you will have the machinery for something less than fifty percent of it's value. If you sell the machinery you'll have a large factory that you will have for other uses."

He thought for several minutes, "Go with it. I'll set up a French company to provide the money. The French will insist that you have French money in the deal. If they buy the deal we'll have to start construction right away. Have you made sure that the roads and utilities are adequate?"

She had not even thought about roads and utilities. She shook her head and assured him that she would have everything in place before she committed them to a deal.

The next day she went to the local authorities with the plans for the factory and the plan for the business. The locals were enthusiastic that jobs were coming to their area and they made a verbal commitment to immediately started planning to provide the infrastructure that would be needed. Becca warned them of the time restraints and she was surprised to find that the local government had been trying to get industry into the area and most of the planning was done. They assured her that construction of the roads and utilities would be completed before the factory was.

She had a much harder time convincing the French to guarantee the loan for fifty percent of the machinery. When they realized that the deal hinged on the financing they reluctantly agree on the condition that the money was French money. She assured them that it was.

All parties accepted the proposal and FMI started the process to get the plant constructed, machinery installed and the employees hired. Becca made sure that all of the politicians had photo ops and that the newspaper printed the photos with high praise for the hard work of the politicians in securing jobs for French citizens.

Twelve months after the proposal was first presented to Carl the chip plant produced is first product. This was a record for new chip plant construction. She had put a trailer on site to oversee construction and to solve problems, hopefully before they arose. The politicians were out in force for the opening and several political careers were insured. Becca and Carl made sure that their names never came up. The newspapers lauded the government for taking France into the twenty-first century with French know-how and French money.