Bulgarian Empire

As soon as the ten-year plan started, the Bulgarian government became busy again. The general outline plan has been determined, and there are still a lot of sub-projects in it, which need to be discussed and approved.

What the cabinet is most worried about now is the road construction bidding meeting, which involves tens of billions of levs in capital investment. The number of capable bidders in the world is in single digits. It will be embarrassing if no one comes.

Constantine asked with concern: "What's the matter, how many consortiums have signed up?"

Minister of Transport Beshir Ivanov thought for a while and said: "So far, there are only two consortiums that have signed up!"

Hearing the result, Constantine breathed a sigh of relief, as long as someone signs up. This kind of long-term investment, there are few capable investors.

After all, with more than ten years of pure investment, there is no hope of paying back the capital in the next 20 to 30 years. Capitalists are all profit-seeking, so how could they flock to it?

Constantine asked, "These two consortiums?"

Beshir-Ivanov shook his head and said: "It's not an international consortium. The two are temporary groups formed by our domestic capitalists. The leaders are United Bank and Royal Bank. They came forward to pull a group of people together. , ready to participate in this bidding!"

Hearing that it was a domestic capitalist group, Constantine could basically guess the result. Except for these two banks, other capitalists simply do not have this appeal, let alone such financial resources!

Although the National Bank is also known as one of the three major banks in the country, it is a pity that these two banks have been far behind in terms of financial strength.

Even if the government puts all its financial funds in the National Bank, it still cannot reverse the status quo of their weak ability to absorb savings.

The Royal Bank absorbed a large number of deposits from farmers, nobles, some workers, and capitalists, and the United Bank absorbed most of the deposits from capitalists and workers, while the position of the country was somewhat blurred.

At the beginning, because of the service attitude, it was surpassed by the two nascent private banks. Although the service has been improved later, it has not had much effect!

Especially after the two major banks obtained the right to issue banknotes, this advantage became even more obvious. Although the National Bank has the government's endorsement, these two major banks also have hundreds of tons of gold as deposits, and their safety is unquestionable.

Prior to this, the government has called the National Bank to take the lead and form a joint company to bid. Unfortunately, the investment amount is too large and the rate of return is too low. Few people are willing to participate, and the management of the National Bank is also very resistant to this invest.

This cannot be said that their judgment was wrong. After all, it is difficult to make a profit from this project purely from the perspective of return on investment. Even if it can make money, it will be 30 to 50 years later.

Constantine asked with concern: "Which companies in the country are participating?"

Beshear thought for a while and said: "Basically, they are domestic oil companies and automobile manufacturers, as well as related industries in these fields. I have read the bidding reports submitted by them.

They hope to expand the market and increase the profit of the enterprise by improving the traffic. They don't pay much attention to whether the road itself can be profitable.

Judging from their plans, their expectations for this project are very low. They plan to achieve capital preservation within 20 years and recover their investment within 50 years! "

Constantine rubbed his forehead and said, "Our road project can't be so bad, can it? It will take fifty years to pay back?"

Beshear shook his head and said: "I don't know! Theoretically speaking, the maximum number of motor vehicles in our country can reach 10 million in ten years, of which the number of cars can reach 2 to 3 million. car.

Considering that in order to protect agricultural production and the daily life of residents, the government will limit the oil prices of agricultural vehicles, trucks, and buses. It is almost impossible for them to make money from these two to three million cars!

Even if each car costs up to 2,000 levs a year on fuel, they own half of the windfall profits, and they only have a gross profit of 200 to 3 billion levs.

After deducting road maintenance costs, gas station operating costs, and capital interest costs, they are still at a loss! "

Constantine stopped talking. If this is the case, it is estimated that only these companies that will directly benefit will invest. After all, once the road is built, their market will expand several times. Even if this investment does not make money, but in other The lack of areas can be profitable.

Time passed by in a hurry, and it came to December 12, 1921. The bidding conference organized by the Ministry of Communications was grandly opened, and hundreds of media from home and abroad gathered together.

This bidding is extraordinary, and it is called a "million-kilometer road" big bidding!

That's right, according to the Bulgarian government's plan, within ten years, the total mileage of roads in Bulgaria will exceed one million square kilometers, including 50,000 kilometers of expressways, 150,000 kilometers of secondary roads, and the rest are rural roads. .

At present, the total mileage of roads in Bulgaria is only more than 300,000 kilometers, and most of these roads are dirt roads. There are only more than 10,000 kilometers of expressways, which need extensive reconstruction.

This means that in the future, Bulgaria will start to explode its roads at a rate of 70,000 kilometers per year. Once this plan is completed, the total mileage of roads owned by Bulgaria in ten years will exceed that of the entire European continent.

The media all over the world have set their sights on this place, and they are all waiting to see the results of this bidding. If it succeeds, it is estimated that it will have an intuitive impact on the transportation policies of various countries in the future.

After all, roads are no better than railways. Except for special road sections, most areas do not require much construction technology. Even the current expressways do not have such high standards as later generations, and construction is not difficult.

If the government can use the wealth of the capitalists to improve the country's road system by only providing land and policies without investing a penny, it is estimated that governments around the world will be happy to follow suit!

Out of the importance attached to this bidding meeting, Minister of Transport Beshir Ivanov personally presided over the meeting. The threshold for this bidding meeting is very high. First, a bid deposit of 2 billion levs must be paid. It eliminates most of the investors who have no strength.

If you don't want to win the bid very much, no one will joke about the 2 billion leva, even though it will be refunded after the bid is over, and the capital cost is very high.

Of course, banks are very dominant in this respect, such as the Royal Bank and United Bank, just write a check directly, and the Ministry of Communications does not need to accept cash!

Foreign consortiums are very hurt, they have to transfer the funds, such a large sum of money must first be exchanged internationally, the time cost alone is unacceptable.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Kennedy brought bad news: "Basher's big event is not good. The three British consortiums and two French consortiums that signed up in advance announced their withdrawal from the bidding, and now there are only two bidding companies left!"

Transport Minister Besir Ivanov said in disbelief: "What? Why did they withdraw suddenly? Don't they want the bid bond?"

Kennedy said with a livid face: "Until now, our Ministry of Finance has not received a deposit from them. Before they signed up, they asked for an extension of the deposit payment on the grounds of international exchange. Considering their strength, we agreed.

We learned from the bank that these consortiums had indeed conducted exchange business with them, but they suddenly canceled the bidding plan yesterday! "

Besir's face suddenly became gloomy. As long as the two companies participate in the bidding, this bidding will undoubtedly embarrass the Bulgarian government.

...

On the other hand, Dougal Transportation Company is rejoicing. It is true that they are the bidding company temporarily formed by the British Rothschild Consortium, and the company's senior management is concurrently held by the senior management of the consortium.

Three days ago, they completed a comprehensive survey of the planned route of the Bulgarian highway, which is not considered a survey, but just a preliminary assessment of the terrain, construction difficulty, and construction cost.

Then combined with Bulgaria's domestic economic development, a comprehensive assessment was made, and finally everyone came to a conclusion that this is a huge pit!

The information released by the Bulgarian government did not lie, it just ignored many things.

For example: Asia Minor Peninsula, Syria, Iraq and other areas, many areas are now no-man's land, all materials procurement, transportation will cost a lot, and this alone will increase the cost of billions of levs.

In addition, some areas with harsh geological conditions and harsh climate conditions were ignored by the government during the assessment. The pavement in these areas is definitely not suitable for ordinary construction methods and requires special treatment. It is still unknown how much these problems will increase the cost.

In the end, the construction cost given by the experts of Dougal Company was not more than 60 billion levs estimated by the Bulgarian government, but a huge sum of nearly 100 billion levs.

As for the evaluation of Bulgaria's economic development, the data obtained by everyone are similar. The same income data, different cost forecasts, and the final conclusions are naturally different!

After a comprehensive evaluation, the consortium under Ferdinand finally believes that the cost can be recovered within 50 years at the latest, and the most optimistic estimate is that the cost can be recovered within 35 years. With the benefits in other fields, this business can be done well. .

The conclusion drawn by the Rothschild consortium is a huge loss, which increases the construction cost by two-thirds, and the interest cost of the capital alone cannot be recovered. Once it falls into it, it will never get up again!

Several other consortiums have also come to similar conclusions. It is estimated that they are watching a joke now to see which fool will jump into the pit!

As a coward, no one knows Bulgaria's road planning better than Ferdinand. The main cost of road construction is labor, sand and gravel, and cement. In some areas, bridges and steel are needed, so the earthwork can be ignored. The Bulgarian government will designate an earth yard for free.

If it is an outsider, of course the raw materials can only be purchased at market prices. As a monopoly consortium, these raw materials and mechanical equipment are all produced in-house, and it is nothing more than a matter of left-handed and right-handed.

If you lose money on highway projects and make money on other projects, you can show the public the loss list and raise the price of gasoline reasonably and legally.

Even in terms of labor, there are very obvious advantages. The big deal is to cooperate with the military and let them be responsible for some cheap labor. Don't doubt their influence. They don't need Ferdinand to end, and the people below can easily handle it.

These favorable conditions are accounted for, and the increased costs are offset. With the advantages of local banks alone, the cost of international exchange is one or two points lower than that of foreign capital, which is one or two billion levs.

For the future gas station project, as long as he can afford the bank interest, Ferdinand will already be making money, and ordinary people don't know that this project has already achieved profit!

...

No matter how many people participate in the bidding, it has come to this point anyway, even if there is only one bidding unit, the bid must be opened, and the credibility of the government cannot be lost no matter what!

Considering the large number of media, this time the bidding site was placed in the Congress Hall. Although there were fewer bidding companies, there were quite a few people present.

The two bidders cooperated tacitly and brought a large group of people. The major media were frantically taking pictures, and some people wanted to go forward for interviews, but they were stopped by the security personnel.

Minister of Transport Beshir Ivanov stepped onto the rostrum and said directly: "This time, there were seven applicants for the Bulgarian road construction bidding, only two submitted bid deposits, and the other five chose to give up.

Now that they have given up, we don't care about them. The two companies participating in the bidding are: Bulgarian Road Group Company and Bulgarian Road Construction Group Company.

This project includes 700,000 kilometers of new road construction and 300,000 kilometers of road maintenance and renovation projects. The detailed list has been sent to the two representatives, and the Bulgarian government has also made a public announcement. It is believed that both bidding companies have carried out detailed Research.

Now that the bidding meeting is starting, because there are less than three bidding companies, according to the Bulgarian bidding law, this bidding will be changed to a commercial negotiation model, but the requirements announced by the government will not change.

May I ask the representatives of the two companies, do you have any objections? "

"No!"

"No!"

Besir has already breathed a sigh of relief, there is no best, and what he fears most is that these two companies have also withdrawn now, and the Bulgarian government's bidding activity will fail!

"Well, now we are entering the formal bidding stage. After the Bulgarian government organized experts to carry out in-depth field surveys, the total mileage of this highway project is 1,003,400 kilometers, and the total construction investment is 62.618 billion levs.

The details have been listed in the list. Do you have any comments? "

Howell, the representative of the Bulgarian Road Group Company, said: "Our company believes that the list provided by the government is not accurate enough, and it is inconsistent with the results of our on-site survey. Here are the survey data provided by us, please review by the expert group!"

Without waiting for Besir to speak, Smith, the representative of the Bulgarian Highway Construction Group, also said: "Agreed, our company also has the same question. Here are the materials of our engineer's on-site investigation, please review by the expert group!"

Beshir-Ivanov knew he was in serious trouble. Once it was found that the bidding list was seriously inconsistent with the actual situation on the site, the Bulgarian government needed to bear full responsibility. Even if these two companies withdrew from the bidding on this ground, it is reasonable and legal!

However, Beshear remained unchanged and said: "The proposal is valid, and the expert group will conduct on-site deliberations!"

Due to too much information, the expert group could only look at a general idea, but at first everyone's face was gloomy. The total cost given by the two companies was far from the total cost announced by the government.

They don't think these data are falsified, and the results will be known after the on-the-spot investigation is organized later. Topography, landform, climate conditions, these natural factors cannot be falsified!

More than two hours later, the expert group exchanged opinions, and the chief expert Lancelot said: "Due to the large gap between the data provided by the bidder and the bidder for this bidding, on-site surveys are needed to confirm it!

Now the total project cost given by the Bulgarian Road Group Company is 126.284 billion levs; the total project cost given by the Bulgarian Highway Construction Group is 126.328 billion levs; the project cost given by the Ministry of Communications is 62.618 billion levs.

The cost budget gap between the two parties is too large, and the project cost needs to be re-approved after the on-site survey. However, this bidding is different from previous ones. The bidder needs to bear the full investment and realize the return on investment in the model of a gas station.

The results of this accounting will not affect the final bidding results. The two bidders can still continue to bid, or they can choose to give up. If it is finally confirmed that the data provided by you is true and valid, you can file an administrative claim with the Ministry of Communications! "

Obviously, this is what Ferdinand learned from later generations, deliberately increasing the cost. Like this kind of project where the bidder fully funds and is responsible for its own profits and losses, everyone is not too strict on the investment amount.

The advantage is that on the surface, the cost may not be recovered for a long time in the future, and projects that are losing money will naturally not arouse people's jealousy.

If the profit is realized quickly, and the profit is still huge, then the investors who undertook the construction will soon become the target of public criticism, especially these projects that involve the national economy and the people's livelihood.

In order to avoid these unnecessary troubles, Ferdinand prepared to make an astronomical investment from the very beginning, and it is very simple to control this.

For example: rising labor costs, rising material costs, rising capital interest costs, rising transportation costs, and poor geological conditions have increased costs...

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