The Chaebol Who Flies From Space - Chapter 46



Only Noblemtl

46. ​​You want me to invest in North Korea? (1)

I bought him food and coaxed him here and there. He wants to work so badly, so I should give him a job.

We had a quick meal together and rented a conference room in the business center of the hotel we were staying at.

Outside the conference room window, tall skyscrapers could be seen standing in a row.

“This is my first time here, but doesn’t Shenzhen seem like other Chinese cities?”

“Isn’t it the city right next to Hong Kong? Shenzhen is like a black hole that sucks in foreign capital from overseas. In 1999, the city’s GDP reached 140 billion yuan, and since the reform and opening up, it has continued to grow at a high rate of over 40% every year. I heard that the speed of foreign capital inflow slowed down with the development of Shanghai Pudong Special Economic Zone, but the city is still dynamic.”

“It will slow down because we have to share the incoming capital.”

We had a light conversation while drinking the coffee I had prepared for a while.

“Have the equity negotiations for investing in Tencent been finalized?”

“We have decided to invest 150 million dollars for a 30% stake. We have not yet signed a distribution contract for the game IP.”

“I’ll take care of that.”

Deputy Director Jeong Gi-ha’s face brightened, perhaps because he finally had something to do.

“It’s good if you don’t have work. Why are you so anxious about not being able to work?”

The station master looked embarrassed at my words.

“As the size of the funds being sold grows, the M&A department within the company is gradually being pushed out. The number of employees is rapidly increasing, but we are not receiving any additional personnel.”

From the company’s perspective, it tends to focus on work that makes money.

“I guess fund sales have increased a lot?”

“The amount of funds sold has exceeded 4 trillion won. There are many complaints that all the money in the market is being sucked up by our company.”

“It grew that much?”

I hadn’t paid attention to it for a while and it had grown incredibly large.

“I can feel how little the CEO cares about WD Investment Company.”

Even though I had a mouth, I had nothing to say.

“By the way, it’s been a really long time since I’ve been here. I used to come here often for work.”

“I guess you’ve been here a lot.”

“Before joining WD Investment, I worked at Peregrine Securities.”

“Peregrine Securities? Was there such a securities firm?”

“I guess you haven’t heard of it, sir. It’s a Hong Kong-based securities firm that failed during the IMF crisis after making a bad investment in Indonesia. It also supported Shindongbang’s acquisition of Mido. It failed, though.”

“Oh, that securities firm. Did that securities firm go bankrupt?”

Only then did I recall the Hong Kong securities firm that had supported Midopa’s hostile takeover. It was the first hostile takeover attempt in Korea.

Although the result was a failure, I heard that the business world was in an uproar for a while due to the shock that a hostile takeover, which was considered someone else’s business, could be attempted in Korea as well.

Ironically, all the companies involved during the IMF crisis went bankrupt.

“Holadang went bankrupt because of the bond issue of an Indonesian company. Safety acquired the bonds of an Indonesian taxi company, but the rupee plummeted, causing the securities firm to fail. I moved to Dongbang Peregrine Securities, a joint venture with Shindongbang, but that also failed, leaving me helpless and unemployed.”

“okay.”

“At Peregrine Securities, I worked on evaluating corporate bonds for Hong Kong companies. Many Hong Kong companies built factories in Shenzhen, so I often came here to conduct due diligence.”

“The city has changed a lot, hasn’t it?”

“What can I say? Originally, this was a small rural area with a population of less than 30,000. Now, the population is over 7 million. When the Tiananmen Square incident occurred in 1989, foreign capital flowing out like a low tide flowed out, so Deng Xiaoping personally visited to appease foreign investors.”

It was a pretty specific memory.

“Were you working in Hong Kong at that time? Didn’t the Tiananmen Square incident happen in 1989?”

“I graduated from the University of Hong Kong. I went to graduate school there.”

“The station manager graduated from Hong Kong University?”

It was unexpected. It was the first time I saw someone who graduated from Hong Kong University.

“In Korea, people would think it was strange that I graduated from Hong Kong University, but surprisingly, many Koreans attend the university. I went to a university that was familiar to me because I spent my childhood in Hong Kong.”

“Why did you live in Hong Kong as a child?”

“When I was young, my father was in trade. He had a lot of work to do in Hong Kong, so he ended up living there. Now he has returned to Korea and lives on Ganghwa Island, farming.”

As I was busy with the company, I didn’t really know the specific details of my employees. This is especially true these days as the number of employees has increased.

This was something I had to reflect on as a manager.

“For various reasons, I have visited Shenzhen frequently since the early days of reform and opening up. I have seen the city change every day since the Sakou Industrial Park was established in the area. When I went to Zhongying Street, which is a bustling area, there were so many people on weekends that it was unbelievable. There are still many people there now, but at that time, there was no other place to go, so all the young people living in Shenzhen flocked to Zhongying Street.”

“I guess you go to Jungyeongga often.”

“Hehe, it’s a little different now, but back then, there were a lot of young girls in Shenzhen. There are a lot of girls who came here to visit and fell in love with me and became friends.”

It was a face I missed back then. As I go through my social life, most people miss their college days.

“You invested in Tencent. What is the company’s background? Is it a company with ties to the Communist Party?”

“I can’t tell you exactly who it is, but I have a connection to the Shanghai branch.”

The regular stopper nodded at my words.

“Then it won’t fail. Shenzhen is a test bed for the Chinese market. The city itself is a testing ground. Here, a paid transaction of land with a limited use period was piloted and then brought to Shanghai to be used for the development of the Pudong district. The same goes for venture companies. If they succeed in Shenzhen, they will succeed throughout China. If the support is solid, success is certain.”

“The manager there is very smart.”

In my opinion, he was no ordinary person. He may seem immature now because he lacks experience, but he was someone who would do big business as time went by.

“If the boss sees it that way, then he is not an ordinary person. I personally want to invest in him as well.”

“Is my evaluation that important?”

“Of course, in Korea, the CEO is praised everywhere as the Warren Buffett of Korea. Why do you think the company’s fund sales suddenly increased so much?”

“Warren Buffett! I’m not happy when you say that.”

Warren was treated as an old man with dementia in the 90s because he did not invest in IT. It was only after the IT bubble burst that he was praised as a wise man again.

“There is talk that Warren Buffett, who acquired a textile company and transformed it into a global investment company, and the other who acquired a toad and created a huge cash cow and invested it overseas are similar in their actions.”

Whatever it is, it comes down to this.

“When you get tired of talking, you’ll become quiet.”

“These days, the price of toad stocks is going crazy.”

A wrinkle appeared on my forehead by itself.

“Has the stock price been volatile recently?”

“The Forbes article came out, and since our food and toad F&B were tied together as theme stocks, the stock price has gone up significantly. As of yesterday, it exceeded 500,000 won per share in the over-the-counter market. The stock price, which was not even at par value, has gone up like crazy. As if that weren’t enough, there’s a lot of noise saying that if it’s properly listed on the stock market, it will go up twice.”

“······.It has gone up tremendously.”

“As the stock price rose, Toad entered the top 10 companies in terms of market capitalization.”

This is also not welcome news.

“The presidents will be cursing at them. They worked hard in manufacturing, but a young man made a drink and got on their heads.”

“That’s correct. I heard that the Federation of Korean Industries also said something like that a lot.”

“Old people should get together and relieve stress by badmouthing young people.”

I was told to join the Federation of Korean Industries, but when I didn’t, there was a lot of gossip.

The Federation of Korean Industries is a place where old people gather and stand in line to show off their talents. Why do I go there?

Our food company, which is not a conglomerate, is obviously not a member of the Federation of Korean Industries, and I did not join either.

You never know later.

“It would be great if the station chief graduated from college here. How about taking charge of the branch here for a while?”

“Me?”

The response I got back was not as good as I expected.

“Why? You said you’re not busy with work in Korea. Isn’t it great that you have a lot to do here?”

“It’s good to have a lot of work, but my older child is old enough to start school now.”

“Are you going to elementary school? There are a lot of international schools here. You can send them there.”

“I tried it myself and found that living abroad as a child wasn’t all that great. I wanted to send my child to elementary school in Korea.”

“So are you going to do it or not?”

“Hey, how can an employee refuse when the boss tells him to do it?”

“Okay, I understand. I understand that the station manager is in charge of this branch.”

Even though the station manager showed a lukewarm reaction, I just ignored him. How can you run a company when you tolerate all this and that?

“Then, the thing that needs to be done the fastest while creating a branch is to bring in the Fire Strike game IP and distribute it through Tencent.”

“Another one is to go to Hangzhou and invest in Alibaba.”

“What kind of company is that? I’ve never heard of that name before.”

“It’s an IT company that does e-commerce.”

“Okay, so if I say I want to invest in equity, that’s fine?”

“For your information, it won’t be easy to invest since we received equity investment before. Please show us your ability, Mr. Jeong.”

“……Why are you doing this to me?”

“You said you were having a hard time because you weren’t given much work. Please wait. I’ll give you a ton of work. Oh, by the way, I almost forgot. Emma Brown is going to set up a branch in Shanghai. I’ll have to get involved and decide whether it’ll be a joint venture or not. What the equity relationship will be.”

There’s no need to hesitate when he says he’ll go on his own.

Now it was a stop where I felt like crying after I passed the work bomb.

[What an interesting person.]

“The reaction is so immediate that it makes me want to tease you.”

I said that, but there wasn’t much to do. I created a branch here, set up a game company, and asked Alibaba to invest. There wasn’t much to do. Isn’t that something that a working person should do?

[That’s a work bomb, you evil employer.]

“What about the evil employer? Anyway, I didn’t want to play games, so this is good.”

[Isn’t the game I made fun?]

“You made it! It’s a game you hacked and modified.”

[This is a game that has been changed so much that anyone who looks at it can’t tell it’s from the original. Doesn’t everyone who plays it get completely absorbed in it?]

I couldn’t help but laugh at Ariel’s words.

“That’s because you’ve never played a real virtual reality online game before. If you were me, would you enjoy playing an old retro game after playing a virtual reality game that was more realistic than real life? I ended up getting sleepy while playing the game.”

[You really don’t know what retro feels like.]

“I don’t even want to know.”

[Please respect my hobbies.]

“Who said anything? You’re telling me not to involve myself in your hobbies.”

[Don’t you respect your Master’s hobby? Master, please respect my hobby.]

“I said no. Then you master it.”

It was also quite fun to play around with artificial intelligence AI.

My plan to slowly return to Korea was shattered by a phone call from home.

“You want to see me? Why?”

It was a call from the blue house looking for me.

– I think they will tell you to invest in the Kaesong Industrial Complex. There was a request to invest in the Kaesong Industrial Complex before, but I didn’t participate because I thought it wouldn’t be profitable. I guess your position is different.

Are you crazy? Why would I invest in that?

“How is my position different from yours?”

– Didn’t you get any help from the government when you acquired the toad?

“Was that helping? Wasn’t it just turning a blind eye? If I took over a failing company and helped the government, what help did the government give?”

– The problem is that the government thinks it helped.

“Ugh, I don’t want to go.”

It was no use complaining.

– Then you should meet him in person and refuse him.

“Can I refuse?”

– If you are accused of treason and undergo a tax investigation and prosecution investigation all together, you will change your mind.

“…….”

Isn’t this a threat?

– You’re applying voluntarily because it sounds good. It’s the same as being forced. If you really don’t like it, just fill in the blanks. I found out that the North specifically asked for you.

I wanted to cry.

“How do they know me?”

– If you’re being treated unfairly, why don’t you become famous? You’re already in Forbes, so they have no choice but to know who you are.

I wanted to kill my past self who did an interview with Forbes.

– My son, you are so great. I got to visit Pyongyang, a place I have never been to before.

“Why am I going there?”

I absolutely did not want to go.

– I heard that North Korea asked you to visit Pyongyang. Congratulations.