‘H
25
One month later
ere you go, whole-wheat toast with peanut butter and honey,’ Neel said and passed me my
breakfast. I gestured him a thanks with a thumbs-up. I was on a conference call. I was now vice
president; my expected promotion had become official two weeks ago. We sat in the Goldman café at
7 a.m. We had a potential buyer for El Casa called Greenwood Hospitality, a US-based company that
owned fifty boutique hotels worldwide. On the call were Maddox Dean, MD in the mergers’
department in New York; Philippe Greenwood, owner of Greenwood; Neel and I.
‘Philippe, the docs are watertight here. I think we should close this soon,’ Neel said.
‘I don’t mind,’ Philippe said, ‘just that your price of fifty million is too high. How about
forty?’
Neel looked at me. I shook my head.
‘Too low,’ Neel said.
‘Let’s lock at forty-five,’ Greenwood said.
Neel looked at me.
I nodded.
‘Done,’ Neel said. ‘Can we close the docs soon, please?’
‘This is fantastic,’ Maddox said. ‘We have a deal.’
‘Super. We’ll go down to the Philippines and close it with El Casa next week,’ Neel said.
The call ended.
‘Congratulations,’ I said.
‘How much is the final profit?’ Neel said.
‘Twenty million, net, to us,’ I said.
Neel and I high-fived each other.
‘How did you guys do it?’ Marcos said, as he flipped through the documents. Even though he tried to
hide it, the smile wouldn’t leave his face. He had a bankrupt business that faced foreclosure and mass
lay-offs. Now he would get five million dollars next week in his account as a settlement fee for his