It seems that the five major companies have actually started to prepare for a retreat, perhaps after grasping the message Li Pan conveyed during the meeting.
Dawn and Terra weren't too troubled, as they started in space anyway. Their main manufacturing plants are in the Star Domain, and what they have on Earth are just business divisions, sales departments, etc. The local asset scale of 0791 is not large either. It quickly shut down temporarily, dismissing temporary and dispatched workers, arranging overseas business trips for the regular staff, and rapidly evacuated from Earth.
But for Celestial Petrochemical, OFEC, and Gully Industries, it was a disaster. These three giants had sizable real estate holdings on Earth, from mines to oil fields to farms, all hard-won territories from Takamanohara. How could they simply withdraw so easily?