The Chaebol Who Flies From Space - Chapter 18
Only Noblemtl
18. Chinese Market (1)
As we enter late autumn, the weather is getting colder and the performance of investment companies is heating up.
As the company was established, the performance of Toad F&B, which was acquired, is improving day by day, and the stock and derivatives investments that the company began actively investing in are recording huge profits.
I stopped by the office after a long time and a smile came to my face as I looked at the investment performance.
“Good, very good.”
[What good is it? Just look at the company’s performance. It’s just a drop in the bucket compared to the profits I’m making from my investment.]
“Your investment is different from my profit.”
[What’s the difference? The profits are all the same.]
I pondered for a moment over what lesson I should teach this foolish artificial lifeform.
“To put it simply, I can’t do everything myself. That’s why I have subordinates.
The fact that the better my subordinates do, the more comfortable my body becomes.
[What is that? If you give them money, they can hire as many employees as they want.]
Artificial life has a long way to go before it can understand humans.
“Tsk tsk, that stupid AI still has a long way to go before it can study humans.”
Ariel’s voice was no longer audible, perhaps because she was annoyed by my teasing. Whatever.
The stock market opened after 9/11 and continued to plummet. When everyone was afraid of panic, this person did not spare bold investments.
Since I made my investment, the US stock market has become surprisingly lively.
In fact, the stock price was already at the bottom, and the incident occurred just as the adjustment was coming to an end, giving wings to the stock market that was supposed to rise.
Anyway, the return on the stocks I aggressively bought went up every day. Then I remembered something I had forgotten for a moment. It’s time for Ariel.
“What happened to the Enron short sale?”
It was a large-scale investment, shorting Enron, that was left to Ariel.
[I shorted at $38 and bought at $24 to settle the account. The stock price is rising again these days, and if it goes up to $40, I will short sell again.]
“Then how much is the settlement profit?”
[It came out to 540 million dollars. I will increase the investment amount the next time I short sell.]
“It’s not much, but it’s okay. It’ll be bigger next time. Okay, let’s do that. Why does the economic secretary keep asking to meet me?”
[They will talk about acquiring the bankrupt Toad Soju division. It seems that Goldman is putting a lot of pressure on the Blue House. In addition, there is talk of Toad F&B going public, so they will probably check it out.]
“Let’s just ignore Goldman’s story. What are you talking about when you suddenly go public?”
The one listed on the stock market is Dugeobi Soju, and it was under court receivership after going bankrupt. Speculators who held corporate bonds are in a desperate situation as there is no sign of recovery.
They harassed F&B, which was spun off to prevent the company from being reorganized and to pay off the corporate bonds.
But I didn’t even fart.
Just ignore it.
They were threatening to take the illegality of the corporate spin-off to court, but the court with jurisdiction was Korea. This means that the conclusion was already decided.
The story of F&B’s listing was something I, as the company owner, had heard for the first time.
[They are being greedy because exports to the Chinese and Russian markets are huge.]
Well, that could have been the case.
When exports go out, the company’s monthly profit exceeds 200 billion won. This means that it will continue to come in, and there will be no decrease in the amount.
Naturally, the stock price of our food company, which owns a 15% stake in Toad F&B, skyrocketed.
Our food company was the only company that could invest in place of Toad F&B, which was unlisted.
Until last year, the stock price of our food, which had risen to 80,000 won due to the popularity of ramen, soared to 260,000 won as the company succeeded in acquiring Ddoojabi and soju exports boomed.
The reason the stock price went up so much was partly because I steadily increased my holdings whenever stocks came out.
The meeting with the Blue House economic secretary who showed up at the meeting was more pleasant than expected.
There wasn’t much friction because the exchange was already clear. After listening to the story, I could tell that the secretary had no reason to think badly of me.
“The VIP was very satisfied with the handling of the matter. He asked me to review the toad method when dealing with the treatment issue.”
He saved a company that was on the verge of collapse by feeding it to speculative capital in a short period of time.
It was only natural that the government, whose biggest issue is unemployment, welcomed the move, as it hired many additional workers, including those who had been unemployed from bankrupt soju companies, in F&B.
“It wouldn’t be a bad way. Daewoo’s debt is often exaggerated in the media, but most of its affiliates are companies that would survive if they just cut out the bad parts.”
The media is talking about the scale of the bankruptcy being 60 or 70 trillion won, but if you look inside, it is because the debt is inflated and the assets are underestimated.
“Then, would you like to come out and see the toad too?”
Unlike other businessmen, I didn’t say anything bad about the treatment, so my secretary was delighted and suggested that I take over, but I refused.
It looked delicious, but I wasn’t really hungry.
Just because the current government was very cooperative with WD Investment’s acquisition of Toad, it is highly likely that the next government will target and attack it.
If you try to eat more here, you’ll end up with a headache.
Despite repeated urging, I didn’t jump in.
“The next government will definitely raise the issue of toads. This will be the case even if the government does not change.”
“Is that how it should be? The government did provide some help, but it wasn’t much help.”
“The big thing is that they didn’t step forward. Isn’t the company that was going through hard times making huge profits after being acquired? If you push for special treatment, it’s possible.”
The public doesn’t care how bad the toad was and how I saved the company after I took it over.
I just pay attention to the wording that it is a special privilege to have acquired a company that was making a huge profit at a cheap price.
The secretary seemed half-believing what I said, but reluctantly gave in.
It turned out that he wanted to meet me for a reason.
“Are you thinking of listing F&B? If you are interested, we will do our best to push it through the fast track as quickly as possible.”
I frowned.
“We will have to go public. But if we have to, we have to do it normally. It is difficult to push it through the fast track.”
Why would I leave room for gossip?
The market is currently at the bottom and the timing for listing is not good.
When I refused the request, the secretary lowered his voice. It sounded like he was very uncomfortable.
“I am in a difficult position as I can’t do this or that.”
Even though we had moved away from government-controlled finance to some extent, the government’s power was still strong.
It was difficult to stand up to the economic secretary of the Blue House.
I thought I knew why the secretary was talking about the award. I picked up the glass in front of me and emptied it in one gulp.
“Let’s do this. I will distribute as much of the profits from F&B as possible. Then, the people behind the secretary will be satisfied. There will be another big election in 2003, right?”
The secretary’s eyes wavered. The request for listing and the revitalization of the stock market were all just external reasons. The real reason was to quickly recover the political funds invested in F&B.
“……”
I said this while looking at my secretary calculating various things in her head.
“The dividends will be more than you can imagine. Just wait and see.”
Cash dividends were something I had hoped for too.
As the financial structure improves, huge profits are generated from F&B, but these must be stored for the time being.
All I’m going to invest in is increasing our food stock.
But across the sea, it was a different story.
According to Ariel’s analysis, the U.S. stock market will be a mix of high and low in the future.
It was literally a bull market where it was easy to get full.
I was hesitating to invest overseas after receiving cash dividends but had no reason to do so, and then my secretary helped me.
The government wants cash dividends, so what can we do? We have to do it.
***
The Chinese liquor market is centered around beer and baijiu. In absolute terms, beer is the leader, but in terms of price, baijiu is overwhelmingly dominant.
Among them, strong liquors with an alcohol content of over 50 degrees are popular. The popular Maotai liquor is 53 degrees and the Wuliang liquor is 52 degrees, both of which are over 50 degrees.
In short, Korean soju was a popular alcoholic beverage for Chinese people who enjoyed eating oily food.
What fueled its popularity was the soju-bamboo launched by Dugeobi F&B.
Soju with an alcohol content of 30 is out of stock and cannot be sold.
I was invited by Jang Myeong-guk, the president of Dongbang Liquor, which specializes in importing soju from Shanghai.
I was secretly annoyed, but I had to show my face once.
The first thing he asked for when we met at the hotel, which was the meeting place, was exclusive sales rights for the Chinese market.
Instead, what he proposed was a price increase.
This means raising the export price, which has been 1 dollar so far, to 1.5 dollars.
The amount of soju exported to China so far is 300 million bottles. If the price is increased by 50%, the additional profit is not small, so I was confident, but when I saw my indifferent reaction, I was bewildered.
“Did you know that we are exporting to Russia as well? We asked them to give us exclusive sales rights and raise the price, but they refused. The same goes for quantity. We don’t have enough right now.”
The manager continued speaking with a look of incomprehension.
“Can’t we meet the quantity as much as we want? Since the automation process is complete, we can create additional production processes.”
“Well, it’s hard to produce that quantity. We’re currently operating in three shifts, but the quantity is not coming in. The quantity.”
“Oh, you’re not making any sense. I’m an old detective, so do as I say. What’s so hard about increasing the quantity? Of course, you should give me the exclusive rights.”
I really hated this whenever this happened in business. It was as if everything could be solved by using threats and force, let alone logic. He was someone I couldn’t communicate with.
The CEO, who had a rounded appearance and was a typical Chinese person, probably wanted to call me to Shanghai when I was young and make me soft before receiving the amount of work, but it was something he absolutely could not accept.
The manager shouted at me as he saw me repeatedly waving my hands and refusing.
He raised his voice and showed off his back.
“Let’s pretend I didn’t hear the word ‘no.’ Do you know who’s behind me?”
Since they have a monopoly on the Shanghai area, it is only natural that the Shanghai branch will back them.
“I know that the mayor is behind it.”
Shanghai Mayor Huang Ju is a key figure in the Shanghai faction and is expected to advance to central politics.
“And yet you say it’s not possible? Even Wu Wenzhi, the president of Beijing Liquor, would be blown away with just one breath of my breath!”
His words were confident, but I shook my head.
“The sales outlet in Beijing is Beijing Liquor. On the surface, it is owned by President Wu Wenqi, but the person behind it is Li Xun. Can you handle it?”