Edward stood up and moved around to lean on the front corner of the table. “I confess that we had a difficult conversation yesterday but reached no firm conclusion. I had to move out because I‘d rather keep an open mind than feel like my reasoning is clouded or biased.”
“Just don‘t make any rushed judgments. Sometime ago, I started an affair with a widow, and it is a mistake I‘m still paying for. I am stuck and it is now too burdensome to manage two households, particularly with several children in foreign universities. My finances are quite stretched right now.”
“You don‘t have to explain any further; your earlier apology is accepted. The only condition is that you will not be part of the takeover team I will constitute after this meeting.”
“You don‘t trust me anymore then. Believe me…”
“No, you don‘t understand. I think at least one senior executive should not take part. No one knows how long this takeover process will last or the outcome. If we‘re all distracted by it then our operations could suffer and company results deteriorate.”
“Of course, I agree we have to be judicious in how we traverse this new development, but one would have thought that as the CFO, I would be in the team.”
“I‘ll sometimes call on you, or borrow your assistant director of finance and operations. But otherwise, I‘ll prefer you keep an eye on the business of the company. Apart from me, you know about it more than any other person. This has nothing to do with the shares.”
“This time, I‘ll make sure we‘re always on the same page.”
Edward went back to his chair settled himself. “So tell me what you think is the way forward from the current situation.”
“I called this a growth curve earlier and I mean it. We previously only valued Bestman based on net asset backing per share and sometimes on net after-tax profit. We did not consider the extra value to acquirers or assess our strategic position in the marketplace.”
“But it‘s just been three years. I thought we could start the analysis of the progressive value of the company, in terms of how outsiders saw us, after about five years of control.”
“I see your point. But with the plans to boost operations and earnings we should‘ve been aware of that too. Luckily, this takeover is only boosting our share value now.”