The Magician’s Memorial - Chapter 290



Only Noblemtl

290. Give and Take (4)

Mrs. Choo Young-hee, Chairman of Hyunjin Shipping.

She was now in a very serious situation.

After Chairman Cho died, there were moves here and there to usurp management rights, and Hyunjin Shipping’s management difficulties were becoming more serious day by day.

Therefore, the meeting with Chairman Chu proceeded quite quickly.

“Nice to meet you. My name is Minjae Kim from Taewo Group.”

“I really didn’t expect Chairman Kim to ask to see me. It felt like a rope had fallen from the sky.”

Would my grandmother have looked like this if she were alive?

It was Mrs. Chu, who had the appearance of a typical chaebol family hostess.

But am I called Dongajul? I had no intention of becoming a member of Hyunjin Shipping.

“I have heard that the Hyunjin Group is making a lot of noise these days. However, I do not plan to get involved in any dispute over management rights.”

“I also have a conscience, and I didn’t intend to ask Chairman Kim to defend his management rights. Isn’t the reason you asked to see me because you want to take over the assets owned by Hyunjin Shipping?”

It was not for nothing that he remained the chairman of Hyunjin Shipping.

Although he lacked management skills, Chairman Chu’s other abilities were quite outstanding.

“I requested a meeting because I thought it would be better for the national interest to sell Hyunjin Shipping’s assets to a domestic company rather than sell them overseas.”

“I’m embarrassed to say this with my own mouth, but Hyunjin Shipping’s situation is really difficult. My uncle is blatantly targeting Hyunjin Shipping, so we need funds that can be used right now.”

The Hyunjin Group’s family tree was like this.

Chairman Cho Young-ho, the eldest son of the founder of Hyunjin Group and the head of Hyunjin Group.

And the third son and his wife Choo Young-hee, who owned Hyunjin Shipping.

Chairman Cho Young-ho also had sufficient justification.

As the head of Hyunjin Group, what justification can there be better than to take over Hyunjin Shipping, which is in financial trouble?

However, from Mrs. Choo Young-hee’s perspective, it was a situation where her husband’s property was being taken away by her uncle, so she had to do something to prevent it.

“Is it true that you are selling assets, including large ships and real estate, to raise funds?”

“That is the only way to protect Hyunjin Shipping. I cannot allow the company to be taken away by my uncle like this.”

“Then may I make a suggestion?”

“As much as you want! I’ve been waiting.”

As soon as the word ‘proposal’ was mentioned, Chairman Chu’s eyes suddenly changed.

Before, she looked like a tragic heroine, but now she looked like a hyena trying to get a piece of rotten flesh.

“We will provide you with a loan equivalent to 10% of the value of your assets, including large ships and real estate.”

“Is it only 10%?”

“That would be enough money to protect management rights.”

“What should Hyunjin Shipping have to offer in return for a 10% loan?”

“If Hyunjin Shipping fails to overcome management difficulties and goes bankrupt, the condition is that all large ships and assets will be transferred to Taewoo Group.”

It was a condition without conscience.

The pawn shop in front of the gambling hall also lends money equivalent to 30% of the value of the item.

However, offering to give only 10% was a condition that was tantamount to robbery.

“These conditions are too excessive.”

“Do you think Hyunjin Shipping will go bankrupt? The contract expires in 20 years, and we will not charge you a penny of interest during that time. As long as you return the money within 20 years, this is a golden opportunity to borrow a large amount of money without interest.”

Which pawn shop will lend you over hundreds of billions of won?

These days, even banks are not lending to shipping companies.

This was because the shipping company had repeated foolish actions for decades.

When ships are expensive, they buy them, and when ships are cheap, they sell them. How can we trust them to lend money?

“But can you be a little more flexible?”

“Then, we will pay 100% of real estate assets excluding large ships. That amount will be more than enough to defend Hyunjin Shipping’s management rights.”

“Do I really just have to pay it back within 20 years?”

“I promise in the name of Taewoo Group. And I will draw up a contract under the observation of a large law firm. If you wish, you may announce it to the media.”

“Well, I will accept the conditions. Hyunjin Shipping is a company that will never fail.”

Chairman Chu raised his voice with confidence.

The source of confidence was ultimately too big to fail.

The belief that the government will not allow the world’s 7th largest shipping company to fail.

You still think that being too big to fail will work.

During the IMF era, countless large companies failed to receive relief and went bankrupt.

In the case of the United States, a large financial company called Lehman Brothers failed to receive support and disappeared into history.

Is Hyunjin Shipping any different?

There were more than 150 shipping companies in Korea, and as long as the current group’s shipping companies held on, Hyunjin Shipping could never benefit from being too big to fail.

* * *

After meeting with Chairman Chu of Hyunjin Shipping.

As always, I went to Captain Kang’s office, not the company.

And as expected, the owner had already sat down and was waiting for me.

“Chairman, how was your work with Hyunjin Shipping?”

“I guess I heard from the head of the planning office. We decided to lend money using Hyunjin Shipping’s assets as guarantee.”

I continued with a detailed explanation.

He even told me what the detailed conditions were and that unless Hyunjin Shipping went bankrupt, I would not see a single penny of profit.

“Aren’t these conditions too advantageous for Hyunjin Shipping? We are in the era of high oil prices and the economy is not good, so shipping companies are accumulating deficits, but if the economy improves just a little, it may recover quickly.”

“Do you think the Lehman situation will recover that quickly?”

“······That’s not true. We predict it will last at least 5 years and up to 10 years.”

“Isn’t that what’s done? Hyunjin Shipping will go bankrupt within 10 years at the latest.”

The bankruptcy of Hyunjin Shipping was almost a fait accompli.

No matter how well I managed from now on, there was no way to resolve the already accumulated debt.

Since the government could not provide support, Hyunjin Shipping was destined to disappear within five years at the latest.

“If Hyunjin Shipping goes bankrupt, the Korean shipping industry will suffer quite a bit. It is said that there are over 150 shipping companies, but even if there are no shipping companies that will go bankrupt along with Hyunjin Shipping, it seems like more than half.”

“So the assets, including ships, should be absorbed by the Taewoo Group. If the Korean shipping industry fails, wouldn’t the Chinese and Japanese shipping companies be the ones to benefit?”

“Do you also plan to run a shipping company in Taewoo Group?”

“There is nothing we can’t do. There are shipping companies that only operate one or two large ships. If we acquire all of Hyunjin Shipping’s large ships, we can quickly grow into one of the top five shipping companies in Korea.”

From the perspective of an export-oriented company like Taewoo Group, shipping companies were very important.

That is why the current group is running a shipping company.

“I don’t know if this is really helpful for the Taewoo Group. In good times, shipping companies make an operating profit of over 1 trillion won, but on the other hand, in bad times, aren’t they the ones that see huge losses?”

“So, now that we are in a recession, we need to purchase ships at low prices. That way, we can make a lot of profit in the coming boom. And Taewoo Trading Company will soon start producing huge amounts of underground resources. There is a need to create a shipping company to prepare for that. “I’m there.”

Even after explaining this, the CEO still didn’t look good.

Since he was a president who understood everything in numbers, Hyunjin Shipping’s deficit must have been looming before his eyes.

“It’s not like we’re starting a shipping company right now. If Hyunjin Shipping goes bankrupt in five years, we’ll start from there. Hyunjin Shipping will take over the recession cycle for five years, and we’ll enter a boom cycle.”

“After doing the calculation, it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be that much of a loss. The Taewo Group is growing tremendously every year, and in five years, it will export a much larger amount of products than it does now, so the shipping company’s basic sales are guaranteed. Then we won’t have a huge deficit like Hyunjin Shipping.”

President Han has finally relaxed his expression.

This was because it was calculated that, considering Taewo Group’s growth potential, it could sufficiently operate Hyunjin Shipping’s large ships.

But I didn’t end there.

“And sooner or later there will be large ships being auctioned off because the shipyards can’t pay.”

“The ships we currently have are not fully usable, so salvaging new ships would be burdensome.”

“No one will want to acquire such a large ship, so you will be able to acquire a large ship on auction at half the price.”

“Are you planning on acquiring the large ship auctioned off by Taewo Group?”

“Wouldn’t it be okay to acquire it not right now, but in 2-3 years, when the price drops a lot?”

A CEO is lost in thought again.

He even took out his cell phone calculator and played with numbers for a while before answering.

“If the price of large ships falls below 45%, I don’t think we will see any losses.”

“I plan to leave the shipping business entirely to Taewoo Trading Company. Taewoo Securities, please pay more attention to the auction part.”

“We will do that, but even if the shipping industry has a boom cycle again, it is unclear whether it will be able to generate trillions of profits as before.”

“There will be a bigger boom than before.”

Who can expect a golden future under the current circumstances?

However, I witnessed with my own eyes a situation where exports were not possible due to lack of large ships.

I knew that the day would come when we would have to pay two to three times more to purchase a large ship in order to meet the delivery date.

And it didn’t matter if he didn’t come.

If Taewo Group could continue to grow at its current rate, it could at least break even.

* * *

2008 was a year full of accidents.

The long year of 2008 has finally passed and the new year of 2009 has come to mind.

What I was more excited about than the New Year of 2009 was my grandfather finally returning to Korea from Vietnam.

“Are you finally back? I’ve waited too long!”

“Don’t like me too much. I plan on spending the New Year together and going back to Vietnam.”

Grandfather’s blunt tone of voice.

But he couldn’t hide his smile because it had been a while since he met his grandson.

“Could you please stay in Korea a little longer?”

“Do you really want to be with Grandpa like that?”

“······.”

“Why is there no answer? Are you planning to go abroad and leave me in Korea?”

“I think I will have to go on another long business trip to the United States.”

“You stupid bastard! You’re planning to leave Taewoo Group in charge of Taewoo Group again and have fun in America!”

It looked like my grandfather was getting angry.

Seeing that he was still unable to hide his smile, it seemed like he wasn’t particularly angry.

“I received an invitation from the White House to the Presidential Inauguration. And I think I will receive an offer to acquire an American automobile company.”

“Are you really thinking about taking over an American car company?”

“I plan to do so if the conditions I set are met. However, my conditions are so strict that I am not sure whether the U.S. government will be able to meet them. So I think negotiations will take quite a long time.”

Grandfather laughed.

You must be laughing when you hear that your grandson is going to take over not just a Korean car company, but one of the Big 3 US car companies.

“We also acquired AIZ, so there’s nothing we can’t do to acquire an American automobile company. So, give it a try as you wish.”

“So, are you in charge of Taewoo Group?”

“You’ve already set up the system, so shouldn’t I just sit quietly in the president’s office? Don’t worry, just go home.”

Grandfather was still Taesan.

The only one who can make me free.

I hugged my grandfather with open arms and planned a long-term business trip to the United States in my head.