Chapter 681 The First Night Sale
Right after Viktoria authorized the bidding, Chris Waldeaur was the first to bid.
The Duke of Linn Province had not been able to become a partner with Lothur before, as he was an enemy at the time of the first auction. But today, things were different, and he was focused on getting a slice of his city's vehicle manufacturer.
Like many there for the auction, Chris knew he would not get far alone. So he had already allied with all the local powers that did not already have shares in the Ritter Motor Company aiming for this moment.
"1.2 million!"
But the people there would not allow 1% of the Ritter Motor Company to be taken so easily.
Many were gathered in groups similar to the Duke of this province.
"1.3 million!"
"1.4 million!"
...
"2.8 million!"
In less than 1 minute, the amount more than doubled the initial asking bid, and the number of participants also fell along with it.
Right at the beginning of the auction, in addition to Chris' group, 11 other groups joined the bidding for the first slice of Lothur's company. But slowly, some groups silenced themselves, re-evaluating how far they could go.
But Chris would not give up, as he judged the first sale would be one of the cheapest for anyone who bought this night.
"3 million!" He shouted, upping the bid by 200,000 gold coins in one go.
"3.1 million!" The leader of an alliance of Dukes of Leopoldine bid higher.
"3.2 million."
...
"4.4 million!"
At this point in the auction, most people in the hall of this car factory were silent, watching three groups vying bid by bid for the first 1% being sold today.
None of the groups were from families with Saints. Also, they all were empire forces.
For the moment, the biggest competitors were standing outside the auction, watching how far the people there were willing to go and how much they would need to buy the Ritter Motor Company.
'Apparently, we will have to spend at least 5 million gold coins to be able to win one of the bids.' Young master Jansen thought to himself.
But on another table in that area, a beautiful woman at level 19 thought this amount would be even higher. '6 million... With that amount, we can surely get some purchase.'
The Rios family people were also waiting for their moment to join the auction, while the groups that had already dropped out of that first 1% were reassessing their positions.
"We must contribute at least 5 million gold coins to get anything here." One of the leaders of the groups newly formed the night before said to his allies around a table.
"Then each of us will have to fork out about 1 million gold coins..." One of them muttered, feeling this would be quite a high cost for his family.
He even had those coins since his family had existed for more than 600 years and had been accumulating good results for most of that span. But still, it was a significant amount compared to what his family had saved.
"No, we will need much more. After all, don't forget that half of the amount raised today will become an investment by the Ritter family." A woman recalled that fact.
"So if the average collected today is 5 million gold coins for every 1%, half of that will be invested by the Ritter family.
So for every 1%, we must have another 1.78 million gold coins.
The right thing to do would be to consider that we will need to gather around 1.4 million gold coins each."
Hearing this, the most worried man in this group clenched his fists and asked. "Is it worth it? My family has just over 3 million gold coins available."
"Certainly!" The group leader stated. "But I wouldn't advise those with less than 2 million coins to do that. Is anyone here in that situation?"
"No..."
As they talked, one more person dropped out of the first 1% competition, and only Chris and one more group were vying.
"4.9 million gold coins!" Chris said this a little louder, using a handkerchief to dry the sweat on his forehead.
"5 million!" The other disputing shouted, feeling as pressured or more than Chris.
"My friend, let's stop here. Why don't you try the next auction?" Chris asked before raising his bid a little higher. "5.2 million!"
Viktoria looked at the group of Dukes in one of the messes in the area and said. "Duke Waldeaur bid 5.2 million gold coins. Any higher bids?"
She started counting while the men in that group looked at each other, moving their heads negatively.
For that amount, they would rather wait for the next 1%!
When Viktoria finished counting to 3, she looked at the group of that former enemy and said with a smile. "Very well, the first 1% of the night goes to the patriarch of House Waldeaur for 5.2 million gold coins!"
With those sweet words, the men and women around the table where Chris stood jumped up from their seats, shouting in joy.
Finally, they would be part of the Ritter Motor Company!
"Hahaha, finally! We're finally partners!"
As they celebrated, people in the surrounding area watched them for a moment, seeing their happiness.
This was especially true for Lothur's groups of partners, such as Gomeric's group, Elisabeth, Coroner Klossner, and the others in the area.
For them, this auction was extremely positive.
After all, with just this amount to start, they had already realized their positions had appreciated in value about 100 times!
Some had paid more for their shares in the Ritter Motor Company, but there were people there making almost 12,000% profit!
Some were smiling even more than the people in the Duke group, extremely happy to be on Lothur's side.
Elisabeth commented to her allies. "Folks, you better get your coins ready. We have 2% of the Ritter Motor Company. We will need more than 3 million gold coins very soon."
Gulp!
"3 million?" One of the wealthy Peters City's citizens asked her, feeling this would be an exceedingly high amount for his small family of merchants.
He only profited about 10,000 gold coins a year...
Elisabeth's other two partners didn't profit much more than that either and put their smiles aside to ponder whether they could keep their positions.
"I only have 450,000 gold coins in my family." One of them said before the others talked about what they had.
Unfortunately, the value of their possessions came to only 1.9 million gold coins!
...