The Chaebol Who Flies From Space - Chapter 17
Only Noblemtl
17. Toad acquisition
The Toad shareholders’ meeting proceeded smoothly as planned.
The agenda for management change that I proposed after taking the position of major shareholder also passed without a hitch, and the company division plan that was submitted at the same time also passed without much opposition.
Although there was opposition from some minority shareholders, the vote was overwhelmingly won.
All of the bank’s executives who attended the general shareholders’ meeting breathed a sigh of relief when the meeting ended.
“I was worried that the shareholders would come out, but it was handled well.”
“We have to see that the surprise attack that Goldman made while they were not prepared was effective. If they had known our plan, they would not have given in so easily.”
“It looks like the secret is well kept.”
We had a hard time maintaining security thoroughly. We also paid attention to keeping the government and the bank secrets, and it seemed to have worked.
“Now that the company split plan has been passed, we need to officially announce the acquisition.”
The reason why the equity acquisition agreement was not announced publicly even after it was completed was because of concerns about possible interference.
“I greeted a Goldman employee before the general meeting began. He is an employee of Goldman’s Northeast Asia headquarters in Japan, and I was familiar with him because he had attended a previous strategy meeting.”
“What did you say?”
“There was nothing special. Judging from the mood, it seemed like they had no idea what would happen next. They attended out of courtesy because the company that issued the corporate bonds was holding a general shareholders’ meeting.”
A laugh came out of my mouth without me realizing it.
“Well, it’s not uncommon on Wall Street to separate companies and blow up bad companies, but we’re the first in Korea to do so. It’s natural that they don’t know.”
If the information had leaked out, I wouldn’t have just been staring blankly like this.
“I don’t think it’s strange that they split the company into its main business, soju, and other deficit-ridden divisions.”
After all, who would have thought that the company’s main business would go bankrupt?
“But is that okay? If we bankrupt the soju division, production······.”
“Don’t worry about that. We’ve already finished manufacturing the automated equipment and moved into the factory a long time ago. Our in-house soju production experts have also agreed to move the company. There are no problems with production.”
“That’s fortunate. There are concerns from above as well. If there are no problems with production, I hope everything goes according to plan.”
“Please tell them not to worry. There may be a rough reaction when the official division plan is released next week, but the law firm also assured me that there will be no problem if we file a lawsuit. I have received confirmation from M&A experts several times. And with all this noise, how can we possibly worry about Korea?”
The topic of conversation shifted to 9/11. It was a shocking event even in faraway Korea, so what about the United States, where it was involved?
“That’s true. I wonder what the world is going to become like. There’s no chaos like this.”
The world’s attention was focused on 9/11 and the response to it.
The stock market that opened after 9/11 continued to plummet, with KOSPI recording a drop of over 12% in one day.
The decline continued for several days after that. Even though the decline has slowed down a bit now, it is still unsettling.
“Mr. Cho, there won’t be any problems with your investment company, right?”
“We didn’t invest much, so we didn’t suffer any losses.”
“That’s good. That means there were no problems with the takeover process.”
“I guess there are concerns coming from the bank.”
“I guess this is an unprecedented incident. Since it is an investment company, there were concerns that something might go wrong. If what you said is true, then I guess there is no need to worry.”
When I saw Vice President Jin’s face brighten as if he had let go of a great deal of worry, I thought I knew whose voice was worrying.
In fact, the head of the company was hanging on Lee In-soo’s neck.
Thanks to his active participation, it was easy to secure the stake in the toads that the banks had.
Going forward, Vice President Jin will rise to a position where he can exert influence at the bank thanks to the success of this F&B investment.
“Why did you buy some stocks?”
As stock purchases were sluggish, exceeding 60%, I looked into it and found out that bank officials were diligently purchasing stocks.
Deputy Manager Jin looked around in surprise.
“How did you know?”
“I looked into it because the stocks rolling around in the stock market were drying up. I heard that there was someone who bought shares in the Myeongdong area.”
A considerable number of listed companies’ shares are floating around in the private bond market.
“Haha, many people around me asked me to buy it for them.”
I tried to avoid it with an awkward smile… but I had no intention of blaming him at all.
If you see money rolling around, you should give it to him.
“Please tell the shareholders to hold on to it as long as possible. I don’t have much time, so I’ll be going now.”
He quickly moved, leaving behind the flustered Deputy Manager Jin.
There was a ton of work to be done.
After I parted ways with Vice President Jin, I was appointed as the President of F&B at a board meeting.
Until the company got its feet wet, I, with more than a majority stake, had to step up and run the company.
There were concerns that the CEO was too young, but what can be done if the actual owner steps forward?
There was a large-scale replacement of people under the previous CEO Lee Ho-yeon.
Although the people who are subject to change resisted leaving, many of the corruption cases had already been uncovered.
He resigned from the company on the condition that no criminal charges be filed.
$500 million in LBO funds came into the city through Toad F&B and bank loans were taken over at low interest rates.
Thanks to this, the financial structure of the new company was incomparably good. The beer business, which had been recording huge deficits and causing managers to shiver, was no longer a burden as the facility installation, which had required a large investment, was completed, and the debt problem was resolved, and the company was reborn as a golden egg-laying company.
On the other hand, the remaining soju companies were struggling to pay the high interest on corporate bonds.
I went to work and toured the production plant.
Chief Park Seong-gyu, who heard that I was at the factory, followed me.
He had an expression on his face that said he had something to say to me.
I felt like I knew what it was about even without hearing it.
“When are you going to blow it up?”
“The 18th of next month is D-Day. On that day, we will send a notice that we will not be able to pay the corporate bond interest.”
“Oh my! It’s going to be really noisy.”
Chief Park smiled at my words.
“What can we do if they say they are insolvent and cannot repay us? They say they are insolvent because they cannot pay the interest on corporate bonds.”
“No sparks will fly this way, right?”
“I have checked the funds several times. There is no connection between the funds and the soju company.”
On the surface, it looked like the unprofitable part of the soju company had been separated. Since the funds were completely separated, there was no way to reach out to this side and say that the soju company was going to fail.
Chief Park Sung-gyu’s expression was very bright as he reported that he thought the mosquitoes that used to suck blood by sticking straws in people’s backs were disappearing.
What you see: A vibrant, factory interior.
A factory that is running smoothly.
The newly built soju factory was constantly pouring soju into green bottles. It was a typical example of a company that was doing well.
“How about the distribution network? Did you give me a clear answer?”
“I have secretly talked to the wholesalers, so I will not be shaken even if Toad Soju goes bankrupt.”
When the distribution network was shaken, it was a headache.
If they were to leave, there would be a problem with market share. Even though Toad is a nationwide brand, it is not like there are no other competitors.
And the most important new products were lined up, waiting to be released. These were for export, not domestic use.
My eyes landed on the maturing vat that was spewing out the newly created prototype.
Chief Park noticed my gaze and began to speak passionately.
“I tried it once and it was amazing. I didn’t like soju because of its bitter taste, but this was definitely different.”
Director Park’s confession that he did not enjoy drinking soju even though he worked at a soju company because he disliked the bitter taste.
It was a magical drink that even made people fall for it.
This is a drink that contains all of my know-how that I enjoyed whenever I had time. Of course, it couldn’t be bad.
If there’s a problem.
The problem with maturing is that it doesn’t last as long as you might think.
Since it cannot be made with as many materials as desired, it has become a consumable item rather than a permanent function.
The can had to be replaced every six months.
I toured the factory with Director Park and stopped by the CEO’s office. Since taking over the company, I’ve been working half the week at F&B and keeping my job.
It was to straighten out the company that was in disarray during the early stages of the takeover.
“Have you secured the Dantalum meteorite?”
To make the desired quantity, a huge amount of meteorites were needed. If you were lucky, they would contain the necessary metals, but most of them were just ordinary meteorites.
If you buy 10 of them and only one of them is a Dantalum meteorite, it would be considered a success.
The amount of metal contained was also small.
I thought it might be strange if I kept buying meteorites, so I took over the meteorite exchange.
There are several meteorite exchanges in Indonesia, where meteorites are common each year.
The method of extracting only the desired components from meteorites consigned for sale was the know-how of miners.
[Fortunately, I have acquired several. I am reselling the remaining meteorites after extracting the Dantalum, thus erasing any traces. They appear to be completely undamaged, so there is no problem with trading.]
It would be a problem if people found out that I was doing something weird with the meteorite.
Since the extraction of the components was sneakily incorporated into the testing process to determine the authenticity of the meteorite, there was no need to worry about it being revealed.
It is an ingredient that is easily available in space, but not on Earth, so it could only be obtained in this way.
“What about the quantity? How much was extracted?”
[It is burdensome to further increase the size of the maturing tanks that mature the liquor. There is no problem with the current level, but the volume to be exported to China and Russia must be less than 1 billion bottles.]
Of course, there were limits to production.
“There’s nothing we can do about it. They would rather be happy if we produced in limited quantities. If the quantity is reduced, they can raise the price. It’s the same here. If we sell too much, it’s a problem. The government will notice because of taxes, and it could even become an obstacle to selling the toad soju. Even if business is good, it has to be done slowly.”
[Raising export prices is also a method.]
“That’s obvious, but shouldn’t we reduce the domestic demand?”
Because of the liquor tax law, no matter how much volume was released, it was difficult to make a profit of 100 won per bottle.
[There will be chaos. Among the liquors, soju is linked to the cost of living. The degree of direct experience is different, so if there is a shortage of supply, they will immediately contact you to increase the supply.]
“Ugh, this won’t work out. We received a lot of help from the government for this acquisition.”
[Since there is a limit to the production volume right now, if we increase production slowly, there won’t be any major problems. We need to control sales volume by raising the export price as much as possible. Even Russia and China have strict liquor tax laws.]
“Because the liquor tax laws are different in each country. We don’t sell directly to the market, so why bother worrying about tax issues? We just need to worry about the price we sell at.”
As Dugeobi F&B took charge of overseas exports of Dugeobi Soju, profitability increased significantly.
The 100,000 bottles exported for testing sold out like lightning. The additional 10 million bottles ordered for export were also sold out immediately.
Importers who are in a tight spot are calling me every day to ask for export volumes. However, I am not responding due to price negotiations.
“Can I get a dollar or so?”
[It would be okay to receive more than that now, but it would be better to receive an appropriate amount. In order to maintain the market going forward, we need to maintain good relationships with importers.]
“Yeah, that’s about it. It’s like changing a 100 won business to a 1,000 won business.”
Since they were exempt from taxes even though they sold the same alcohol, it was literally a golden business.
On top of that, they are even helping with the exchange rate, so it’s like heaven helping you make a lot of money.
[They say that there are a lot of water vendors left over, and that is true]
“Even water merchants have their own way of doing business! Everything has to go through these golden hands! Hahaha.”
Soju-Bamboo and Soju-Chrysanthemum, which I created from memory, were literally huge hits. Soju-Bamboo (竹), which eliminated the bitterness unique to soju during the aging process and had a strong bamboo flavor, was well-received in the Chinese market, and Soju-Chrysanthemum was a hit in the Russian market.
It was said that sales were booming as it gained a reputation for being a cheap, delicious, and good drink.
The bottles of liquor being packaged before my eyes looked like blue dollars to me.
Just looking at it made me feel good.