The Chaebol Who Flies From Space - Chapter 55



Only Noblemtl

55. Corporate Acquisition (2)

After meeting with Oh Soo-seok, things progressed quickly. As soon as the due diligence process was completed, the acquisition contract was signed.

As soon as the acquisition was made, the company name was changed to WD Shipbuilding, and Yong-in Jeong was appointed as president, and William McCord, who had been brought in from the United States, was appointed as vice president.

President Jeong Yong-in was a management expert who retired as vice president from Woori Shipbuilding.

William is an expert in drillships and FPSOs, and has a long career at the French shipyard Atlantique. He is in his 60s and has decided to retire, but he responded to my offer because of the blueprints I sent him.

The takeover was carried out without any disturbance as the whole country was in an uproar due to the World Cup fever.

Otherwise, it would have been quite a fuss.

After the inauguration ceremony, we called in the CEO and discussed how to run the company going forward.

“How is it to be back again?”

“I feel regretful and worried, too.”

“As I said before, I will not interfere with management. Please do your best to manage the business during your term.”

Although I am the largest shareholder, I do not interfere or interfere in the selection of managers.

It guarantees management rights.

President Jeong’s face turned red as I reaffirmed the promise I had made before taking office.

Chairman Jeong, the owner of Woo Dae Chosun, was a person who had to take the initiative and do everything himself to feel satisfied.

There was no way to give full authority to professional managers.

“However, we should continue to pursue the current method of building container ships. Competition for orders will become fiercer in the future. It’s not Japanese shipbuilders that are the problem, but domestic shipbuilders that are running around risking their lives. Ship prices will continue to fall.”

President Jeong also readily agreed with my opinion.

“That’s right. We need to increase the proportion of special-purpose ships and reduce low-priced orders. If we continue to manage like we are now, the docks will not be empty, but we will only eat up labor costs and struggle during the recession. Labor costs are also on the rise.”

“You can leave the special ship part to our newly recruited Vice President William. He is a design expert.”

“How did you scout William? I tried scouting him several times before at domestic shipbuilding companies, but he didn’t even give a damn about it.”

Domestic shipbuilders boast that they are number one in the world in terms of ship orders, but the reality is quite bleak.

Due to a lack of design technology, our own capabilities have declined.

William McCord was a world authority on special vessel design and held a patent for the internal structure of LNG tanks.

“I sent you the blueprint. You must have come after seeing it.”

“Haha, I really don’t know what kind of blueprint it is.”

I smiled at his words.

“CEO Jeong will know later when he sees it. We have to build an FPSO and a drill ship right away.”

The reason I hastily acquired Joseon is because I needed an FPSO for the oil fields.

These ships take a long time to build, and WD Shipbuilding has no experience building them, so it took even longer.

“I saw the order details. It’s really incredibly expensive at $1 billion per ship.”

If the design capability was lacking, we would have struggled for a long time. If we could just solve that problem, WD Shipbuilding’s shipbuilding capability would be world-class.

“It’s the first ship, so our capabilities will gradually improve as we build it. If we don’t increase our orders for special-purpose ships, it will be difficult to cover the increasing labor costs in the future. That’s because the prices are high in that area, and there’s a lot of profit to be made.”

“That may be true.”

“The problem is that this is close to a custom order, so if we refuse to take over, we will be treated like a burden.”

If oil prices surge, orders for FPSOs and drill ships will increase, but if they plummet, deliveries of special-purpose vessels already on order will be refused.

“Then I guess I’ll have to collect a large deposit.”

“That’s also the case. We need to have our own technology to prevent such unfortunate incidents in advance. If we mess around once, we won’t be able to order shipbuilding from them. That’s why we need to increase research funding for this technology.”

President Jeong nodded obediently to what I said.

On the way back to Seoul after meeting with President Jeong, Ariel gave me several pieces of advice.

[The steel plates used in ships must be specially processed.]

“Can’t we just use what we have from Ulsan Steel as is?”

[Of course! If you post-process it and increase the tensile strength, the ship’s restoring power will also increase. You also have to develop your own engine.]

Ariel was excited.

It’s been a long time since I’ve jumped into a field that I like.

“You still haven’t given up, Procto Engine?”

It was a monster engine that could travel 1000 km per liter of gasoline, made by Ariel. A dangerous item that put me at risk of assassination.

[That’s given up. Unfortunately, we’ve created a new engine with much lower efficiency. This is called the Irot Engine, and if you use it, the fuel efficiency will be doubled compared to the current ship engine.]

“Double? That should be fine?”

The most commonly used marine fuel is bunker C oil.

The reason I use this is because it’s the cheapest.

It is a cheap fuel that comes from the last step of the asphalt pre-oil distillation process. If the same amount of fuel is consumed and the sailing distance is doubled, ship owners will rush to find it.

This means that even though competition for ship orders is fierce, there is no need to take on low-price orders.

[If you use this engine, you will have to be selective about which orders you receive in the future.]

“Can the drill ship be built as designed?”

[The drill bit technology is the problem. The technology we already have is sufficient. You can use the drill used in the development of the West Sea oil field, and the positioning device is more sophisticated and stable than existing technology.]

“It’s a perfect match. There’s no need to skip over this.”

Technological development should not be too far ahead of competitors.

We had to get ahead by just half a step and then take out the competitors who were following us.

William McCord’s arrival was a little delayed, as he had to finish up some work for the company he was working for.

After the inauguration ceremony of President Jeong, I stayed in Geoje for a day and toured the shipyard. I met with William, who arrived the next day.

“I have carefully reviewed the ship blueprints you sent me. This is a truly cutting-edge ship. I never thought it was possible to build something like this before.”

The position correction device of a drill ship usually uses six fans to fix the ship’s position. It is a system called azimuth thruster, and no matter how strong the wind and rain is, the position should not exceed 1 meter. If it exceeds that, it will be chaos.

Although various technologies are important, the ultimate competitive edge of a drillship is its maximum drilling depth.

“With current technology, drilling up to 10 km is possible.”

“Wow, that’s amazing. It looks like you made a good transition to a new company.”

Existing competitors are still only building 4 km drilling rigs.

It’s not even a competition at all.

It’s foolish to teach others drilling techniques while building these ships.

If you need drilling technology, you have to order a drill ship.

Even if you buy a boat, I don’t know if you can copy it as you wish.

“We need to focus on special-purpose ships in addition to receiving orders for container ships as we do now. We also need to increase orders for LNG ships through our own technology development.”

“The Moss type is being pushed out by the membrane type due to its narrow storage space.

Most of the LNG vessels developed in the early days were of the Moss type, but they were gradually being pushed out by the membrane type, which has a 40% increase in storage space.

All LNG ships built recently are membrane type. The GTT CS method, which is an improved membrane method using the latest technology, is used.

I was thinking of changing this to WD1 style.

It has to be as loaded as possible and safe.

If a ship carrying liquefied LNG has an accident, it will be a major accident.

The double tank we build ourselves is much safer than the conventional method.

William shook his head after hearing what I said.

Each and every technology was a new world.

“How did you develop these technologies? Are you torturing aliens in your company? The development of the West Sea Oil Field has already caused chaos.”

It was a heart-wrenching sound.

“I guess it was noisy overseas too.”

“It was an overwhelmingly deep genetic development. My friend at BP grumbled that it was a technological advancement he could never understand.”

In Korea, there was a lot of noise about genetic development, but overseas, there was a lot of noise about the depth of drilling.

There were many oil fields that had already been discovered that could not be developed due to problems with drilling depth.

“I’m sure this isn’t all the technology I’ve prepared. I look forward to working with you in the future.”

The sight of William looking at me with a smile sent a chill down my spine.

I was captivated by William from the moment I first met him.

On my way up to Seoul from Geoje, I went to my parents’ house.

Even though I had just built a new house, it felt like going up to Seoul to visit my parents.

The newly built building was not a house, but a studio.

The underground structure built for the work was larger and wider than the one above ground.

If you want to have a comfortable life, it’s best to stay at your parents’ house.

“Brother, you’re here again? If it’s going to be like this, just come back in.”

My sister, who was at home, looked at me and grumbled.

“You didn’t go outside?”

“It’s so hot outside, where should I go? I like home the best. After class, I just go home.”

“I guess you don’t have any friends.”

“Do you think I’m like your older brother? I have a lot of friends, but they’re all busy preparing for employment. Do you know how hard it is to get a job these days?”

“How would I not know?”

“Hey, oppa, your company needs to hire more people. I don’t understand why big companies don’t hire enough people.”

“That’s because the world has changed. Since labor costs are rising, they are delaying hiring as much as possible. They can hire interns, but it’s much cheaper to hire contract workers.”

One of the evils that companies have created by using the IMF is interns and contract workers.

“They say you learn bad things really quickly.”

“It’s my last semester, so I have to study hard.”

My younger sister will also graduate from college at the end of this semester. After graduation, she will work at WD Investment.

“I don’t know, I’ve been working so hard that my bones are breaking, so I’d like to rest for a bit.”

“Let’s see where the bone is missing.”

“That’s what they say.”

“Are you the only one at home?”

“Mom went out because she had an appointment. I told you that she’s busier than me these days.”

“It seems like the foundation days are increasing.”

“That’s because my brother keeps increasing the support amount. He said he’s providing additional support this time too.”

“Am I increasing it because I want to? I’m increasing it because my mom keeps nagging me to give her money. I don’t have any money either.”

My sister laughed at what I said.

“Huh, who would believe that if you didn’t have money? You’re the owner of Seohae Oilfield. Hey, are you really the richest person in Korea?”

“The richest? Probably so, even though I don’t know how much Chairman Oh of Samjeong Group has hidden away.”

“Wow! I have to compare my assets with Chairman Oh’s.”

“There’s no comparison in terms of influence, but I probably have more cash.”

He was listed on Forbes just with his stocks in Toad. My wealth has increased several times with the development of the West Sea Oil Field. Every time oil is pumped from the field, my cash assets increase.

My sister shook her head at my words.

“I can’t imagine. How can someone who just sits around in his room all day become so rich?”

“When did I ever roll around?”

“I don’t remember. During vacations, my brother had to wake up at exactly 12 o’clock. My mom and I used to scold him so much for being a night owl.”

“…….”

“I feel uncomfortable these days because there are so many people following me around.”

“Bodyguards?”

“Yeah. It was comfortable before because I could walk around without thinking about anything, but now that two people follow me around, it’s uncomfortable to walk around.”

I felt sorry for my sister.

“I’m sorry, I’m too rich, so there’s nothing I can do.”

It would have been better to secure the fence thoroughly in advance than to lock the barn door after the horse has bolted.

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