Forsythe Saga – Prologue

The story begins in late 2008, at the time of the Banking crisis. Leman Brothers had gone belly up and the financial world was in meltdown.
It is the AGM of a family owned company, Forsythe Brothers. It was being held at the family home that could have come straight from the time of Cadfael. The ancient stone building is even on the outskirts of Shrewsbury close to the River Severn.

Present at the meeting were the four siblings, David, Stephanie, Dorothy and Adrian, that owned the company and the company secretary, a cousin of the family. It is a family owned company after all...

As usual, the main topic for discussion was about the lack of profitability of the business. Adrian as Chairman was addressing the meeting.

“As you all know, Dad put me in control of the company and yet you all seem to think that I’m unconcerned about the profits that the business is generating.”

None of the others said anything so Adrian carried on.

“At least we are still profitable. Do you want to end up like all those bankers on Wall St? Or the poor sods all over the place where they are losing their houses due to foreclosure?”

“I don’t give a toss about Wall St or other people getting thrown out onto the street,” said Dorothy.
“I have a standard of living that I expect to maintain. This level of profits won’t let me do that and it is all your fault Adrian. So, what are you going to do about it then?”

“What about you two? Are you in agreement with your Sister?”

“I am,” said David.
“I’m due to take delivery of a new boat next month. I need that money to pay the final instalment. If I don’t pay it, I stand to lose the lot so, yes I think it is all your fault Adrian.”

Stephanie didn’t need to say anything. All of her siblings knew of her addiction to Blackjack.

“Well, then I guess I have no choice but to resign as chairman of the company,” said Adrian.

“I’ll take those last comments as a vote of no confidence.”

Adrian gathered up the papers in front of him and as he stood up he said,

“I the light of no candidates for chairman I hereby close this meeting.”

“You can’t do that?” said Stephanie.

“Yes, I can. We can’t have an AGM without a Chair. It is in the rules as laid down by our Grandfather, which as officers of the company you should be fully aware of,” said Adrian.

There was a silence in the room.

“Can he do this Sean?” asked Dorothy to her cousin, the company secretary.

“Yes. Adrian is perfectly right. You effectively voted him out of office. As none of you came forward and were seconded, at this point the company has no Chairperson and the AGM can’t continue without a Chair.”

Everyone looked at Adrian.

“There is another way. Well, there are three that come to mind at the moment.”

“Firstly, I buy you all out. You walk away with as they say on the TV Adverts, ‘A Cash lump sum’ and I run the business as now but without you lot on my back all the time.”

“Secondly, I could run the business into the ground. None of us end up with a penny so we all lose out. Well, you do as my part of the share of the profits in past years will allow me to startup again and again, I won’t have you lot on my back.”

“And thirdly, I carry on running the business as best I can in these difficult times and you accept that we are not immune to what is going on in the world at the moment. As you know, the value of shares can go down as well as up.”

There was silence so Adrian carried on.

“Don’t forget that I have at most ten years left. You are the lucky ones. I drew the short straw so at some point you lot are going to have to face reality and do something with your lives whichever option you decide to take. Well which is it to be then?”

“You could get married, have children and then for you it will be business as usual,” remarked Dorothy.

“A bit late for that. Besides, have any of you read the terms of Dad’s will with respect to the business?”

He knew that none of them had so he quoted from it. It was a section that was ingrained in his mind.

“Should my nominated successor get married then in the event of their death, the spouse will take over the business and the 50% of the holdings of my other three children will transfer to that spouse making her the majority shareholder in the company. Should my nominated successor die without having a spouse then the company is to be wound up and all assets given to charity.”

“That can’t be true,” whined Stephanie.

“It is true. Speak to the family lawyer if you don’t believe me.”

“Well, then dear brother, you had better get married and pronto, then hadn’t you?” said David.

Adrian smiled back at his elder brother.

“I’m not seeing anyone at the moment and besides, I’m far too busy trying to keep our heads above water to even think about dating someone.”

“He does not care if we starve,” complained Dorothy.

Adrian smiled.

“I do care that is why I am giving you three the choice on how we go forward. You control seventy-five percent of the company so you decide what you are going to do. I’ve given you the options. Let me know when you have made a decision.”

Adrian left his three elder siblings to decide what was to be done. He was well and truly fed up with their interference in the business when the only thing they wanted from it was their share of the profits for which they contributed precisely zero.

---

An hour later, Dorothy found Adrian in the kitchen. He was fixing himself some lunch.

“We have decided,” she announced.

“Good. I’ll finish my lunch and join you.”

“Why…. Ohhhh!” she proclaimed and stormed off.

Adrian afforded himself a small smile. ‘Let them wait’, he said to himself.

---

Twenty minutes later, Adrian joined his siblings. He sat down and waited for someone to say something.

“So, glad you could join us,” said his brother David.

“Well, what have you decided,” said Adrian deliberately ignoring his brother.

“We,” said David as he looked at his two sisters.

“We have decided to let you run the company as you see fit but for the time being. We are aware of the problems that banks are having and… and we have decided that you were right in that we need to rein in our spending in the short term while the economy is having problems. As I said, this is for the time being only.”

Adrian nearly burst out laughing but he managed to supress the urge.

“Thank you for that David. I do think you are totally underestimating just how bad the situation is with the banking system. It was only last year that there was a run on Northern Rock. A run on a bank is a serious thing. Confidence in the banking system is at an all-time low at the moment. To be honest, I don’t know how long this will last so I hope your ‘for the time being’ is adequate.”

“What are you saying?” asked Stephanie.

“I’m saying that I will run the company but it is only fair to tell you that in one year, I will resign and go my own way. It will be six years since Dad died and handed the control over to me. His will stipulated that I would be free to do this after six whole years have elapsed. That will have happened by the time of the next AGM.”

“You can’t do this!” complained Dorothy for at least the third time that day.

“He can,” said David with a good deal of resignation in his voice.

“It is in the will. I just remembered reading it years ago. I never thought it possible that, that particular clause would ever come into play.”

“Can’t you stop him?” asked Dorothy.

David shook his head.

“Adrian has given us the requisite notice so we can’t unless we sell him our holdings. I am afraid my dear Sisters that our younger brother has out manoeuvred us fairly and squarely.”

The three of them looked at him searching for some explanation.

“I suppose you want to know why?”

No one disagreed.

“Firstly, the three of you have sponged off the estate and the legacy that our Father left us for far too long. I’ve had enough, well to be honest, far more than enough of your demands for money. So, I’ve setup a new company using my share of the profits from the past three years and will run that business free from your interference starting a year from now.”

“Secondly,” he said carrying on,

“I am going to do things differently. I am going to invest in companies that are doing things differently from the mainstream. These are the very companies that are hardest hit by the credit squeeze. I will take a stake in the company and work with the owners to make it a success. A sort of softly-softly approach to making money. As I won’t have the likes of you three on my back always looking for a handout, I can afford to take a longer-term view with regard to making money.”

“How will you make money to live on?” asked David.

“As I said, I have put enough aside from my share of the profits and what Dad left me in his will to last me around five years. You could have been in the same situation but no, you had to spend almost every penny of your dividends on stupid yachts. How much did you lose on that last one? Fifty big ones? Didn’t you do know that the broker you sold it too made a clear thirty grand on it? He only had it on his books for a month. He saw you coming big time.”

Adrian took the opportunity to drive the stake home hard.

“You three have one year to get your act together and start contributing to the business. If you don’t then at the end of the year, I will seek to put the company into administration.”

There was silence in the room.

“Right. No objections so I’ll declare the meeting closed.”

---

[One year later at the next AGM]
[Adrian declared the meeting open and addressed those present]

“I am really sad that it has come to this. As none of you have seen fit to get even remotely involved in the business, so as of Monday next, the company will go into Administration. I have already engaged a firm of Administrators to run the business down. I fully expect that there will be nothing left after they have taken their cut so well done to you all. Dad will probably be turning in his grave. Any questions?” said Adrian to a very subdued brother and both sisters.

None of those present said anything straight away. It was his brother David who spoke up.

“You are really enjoying all this, aren’t you?”

Adrian glared at his brother.

“You will finally get us off your back and whoosh, you will be gone off to do your own thing just as you planned all along.”

Those last words got Adrian angry.

“Planned? Far from it. How many times have I pleaded with all of you to get involved with the business. Did any of you even bother? No, you didn’t. Then last year I gave you a final chance but the song remained the same, no. None of you even bothered to come into the office in the past year other than for our Board meetings. At each of them I implored you to get off your fat backsides and do some work for a change. Still you didn’t do anything and so, here we are today.”

He looked at his siblings before carrying on.

“You lot are just how Dad told me you would be. Well, you asked for it. He wrote a letter to all of us that was only to be opened in the event of the company going into Administration or Liquidation in circumstances like this. I collected that letter from the lawyers earlier today.”

Adrian pulled out an envelope from the folder that was on the desk in front of him.

He gave it to his brother David.

“As you can see, the handwriting is Dad’s and the seal on the back is intact and dated.”

“He’s right,” said David reluctantly.

“Please open it and read it to all of us,” asked Adrian.

David opened the envelope and began to read.

“To my Children,
If this letter is being read, then my prophecy has come true. The company that my grandfather started in 1901 is either about to go bust or is already bust.

I left the company in good health and with proper management it should have been good for another hundred years. By good management I mean putting aside money from the profits to be used in the inevitable rainy days. We survived the Wall St crash and the 1930’s depression by having cash in the bank to carry on operating through those dark days.

I told you all that this was how I wanted the company run but it is entirely probable that Adrian has finally run out of patience. I don’t know how long after my death this unfortunate event is happening but however long it is, well done Son for putting up with your brother and sisters for so long.

All the signs were there before my demise. You all know how many times I pleaded with you to get jobs. I even paid for you to go to University. Even that wasn’t enough to get you involved so that was why I put these plans in place. I left instructions to this effect in my will to give some legal backing to the actions that Adrian is doing, or has done.

It really depresses me that your mother and I failed so miserably with three out of our four children. We might have been rich and to some extent privileged but it carries responsibilities both to ourselves and to our employees. Adrian understood that from an early age but you David, you Stephanie and you Dorothy, clearly did not.

Adrian, you know what is the next move. Please be successful in whatever direction you choose to go.
You ever loving and decidedly displeased Father.“

There was silence in the room for a good ten seconds. Then Dorothy asked.

“What is that next move?”

“According to the terms of his will, I am to sell the house and divide the proceeds amongst us all equally. Consider it a final dividend, a full and final settlement in our divorce.”

“Divorce?” Remarked Stephanie

“What the fuck do you mean by divorce?”

“It means Stephanie, that Adrian is fed up to the back teeth with us and wants nothing more to do with us. Am I right?” asked Dorothy.

“Yes, you are perfectly correct. I don’t want this but I feel that unless you get the message you won’t leave me alone to do whatever it is I want to do with my life. I don’t want to keep having to look over my shoulder to see if one or more of you is behind me and wanting a handout. Well people, that is not going to happen.”

No one said anything for quite a long time.

“If there is nothing else, then I’ll close the meeting,” said Adrian.

There was a stony silence in the room as the reality of the situation struck home to three of the four siblings.

---

Adrian stayed around and helped with the liquidation of the business. The atmosphere at the family home was decidedly frosty especially when finally, an offer was made on the property and accepted. Due to the situation with the Banks and Finance in general and the difficulty in getting loans, the property market was very depressed and the house sold for close to £100,000 less that what it would have made eighteen months earlier.

Adrian moved out of the family home before the sale completed and bought a house in Reigate, Surrey. He bought it at an Auction and he knew that he’d got a bargain. Having to stump up the whole amount of the price within a month put a lot of people off given the difficulty of getting a loan from the banks. Being a cash buyer made sure that he got a good deal.

Reigate was close enough to London but not in London. He’d saved all the dividends that the company had paid out over the years. As a result of this thrift, he was able to buy the place with cash within the 28 day rule that applies for property sold at auction. He intended to use his home as a base for his newly created company, ‘Lorelei Investments and Consulting’.

He got in touch with a number of the people he’d been at University with and put out some feelers in respect to his new venture. One of those people was Sally Jameson. His renewed contact was fortuitous as she needed some investment to expand her business.

The renewed contact between Adrian and Sally proved to be very fortunate for them both. They worked together to close a few deals when businesses were crying out for finance. This provided a firm foundation for them to work closely together in the future should the opportunity rise.

Adrian engaged the services of a close friend of his father. The man Cliff Donaldson, became his assistant, right-hand man and confidant.

Together they made a formidable team and the business model that Adrian was following proved to be very successful. He was also successful in keeping his activities as far away from the attention of the press as they could. His approach to Investments was very different to the run of the mill Bank or Venture Capitalist.

Adrian was always mindful that he needed to find a successor. Cliff declined saying that he was too old which was true but he’d carry on working with Adrian for the time being.

[We will meet Adrian again in ‘The Forsythe Saga - You did what? Part 2’]
[authors note]
This is the same Sally Jameson who will feature in parts 1 and 2 of “The Forsythe Saga - You did what?”

There are two parts to this tale already on Big Closet. These are separate stories but it was them that gave me the idea for a larger piece of work.
These are You Again!
And You Can Do Better Than Him
If you read them then what happens in ‘The Forsythe Saga - You did what? Part 2’ will make more sense.