Translator: Dreamscribe
“Aigoo. I know you’re all busy people, and I’m sorry for arranging this eting so suddenly.”
The executives from various financial companies.
The reason they had all gathered in one place was none other than CEO Hwang Dae-woon.
If it had been the Kwangwoon Securities of the past, they wouldn’t even have heard his na.
Even if they had, they would’ve made all sorts of excuses to turn down his invitation.
But now, things were different.
Kwangwoon Securities, and its representative Hwang Dae-woon, were on a whole new level.
“If CEO Hwang calls, of course we co. You’re the hottest na in finance these days, aren’t you? Haha.”
“It’s not easy to beco a hero while running a securities firm. You’ve made so truly admirable decisions.”
“Co now, you’re all well aware of what’s going on. It’s just that thanks to those Neriet bastards wrecking everything, I’ve ended up wearing clothes that don’t even fit .”
They were also curious why Hwang Dae-woon had called them all together.
“Now that things have turned out like this, I’m going to try and properly revive Hanjong Shipping. That’s why I changed the na to Kwangwoon. I figured I shouldn’t be flipping decisions like turning over one’s palm. But the thing is… the company has too many debts piled up.”
Ah. There are too many debts, so that’s why he called us.
“All of you here are mbers of the Hanjong Shipping syndicate loan, aren’t you?”
Syndicate.
When lending large-scale assets, a single financial institution taking on the full amount would be too risky, so a syndicate loan is ford.
Multiple financial companies co together and divide the shares, forming a massive group of creditors.
The mbers here had all lent large sums of money to Hanjong Shipping as part of that syndicate.
“…….”
They straightened their backs.
They were waiting to see how much Hwang Dae-woon would flatter them and plead.
“But you see, there are just too many strange things. Don’t you think it’s odd, lending 5 trillion won to a company like Hanjong Shipping? It’s not even a big company. Isn’t it strange to have loaned out that much?”
“Well, that’s…”
“So I went through the contracts thoroughly. And I found a very unusual clause. I’m sure you’re all familiar with it. The Debt Transfer Agreent.”
Hwang Dae-woon closely watched the real-ti changes in the financial company executives’ expressions.
Most of them looked shocked.
“Wait. Debt Transfer Agreent? That clause was in there?”
“Yes. And what’s more, there’s even a chanism in place that nullifies the contract if Hanjong Shipping goes bankrupt.”
“What, what kind of!”
It was understandable they were shocked.
Because these were not contracts they had signed themselves, but ones their predecessors had drawn up.
“It makes sense for you all to be surprised. You’ve probably never even heard of these contracts. From what I found, all the forr executives who made those deals with Hanjong Shipping resigned right before the whole thing blew up. It’s sothing we see all the ti, isn’t it?”
South Korea has a very peculiar system.
It’s called preferential treatnt for forr officials.
After soone does the dirty work, a company hires them under the respectable-sounding na of ‘preferential treatnt for forr officials’.
It’s a cultural practice unique to Korea that you won’t find abroad.
“If this contract gets exposed in the dia, all the responsibility will fall squarely on you.”
“!?”
They weren’t idiots.
Having spent years in this industry, their sense of timing and reading the room was impeccable.
They quickly realized the real reason behind the Hanjong Shipping fiasco.
All the bad funds were dumped into Hanjong Shipping and sunk.
And the responsibility now falls on the successors.
A trap set up by the previous executives.
“We’ve been wronged, CEO Hwang.”
“That’s right. Looks like the forr executives were trying to cash out big ti. And now we’re supposed to take the fall?”
“Exactly. That kind of thing should never be allowed to happen.”
Hwang Dae-woon gently consoled the executives who were sweating nervously.
“I’m really too soft-hearted. Especially when it cos to people in the sa industry. It wasn’t even you who backstabbed , so should you really be the ones to suffer the punishnt?”
Their eyes changed.
“What would you like us to do, CEO-nim?”
Now, it seed like a real conversation could begin.
“There are only two things I need you to do. First, just say you didn’t know. You truly didn’t, right? It was sothing your predecessors arranged. And second, carry out the contract as quickly as possible.”
“You an to shift all the debt responsibility onto the Hanjong Group?”
“That’s right. As I said earlier, as quickly as possible. Before this leaks to the dia and before an investigation begins, you need to create a way out for yourselves.”
The executives exchanged glances, then began standing up one by one.
“Looks like we won’t be able to have lunch today.”
“I should get going quickly too…”
“That’s fine. Once things are taken care of, we can have a proper al together.”
“Sorry about this. Then-”
They left the room in a rush.
They didn’t have ti to sit around.
Their feet were practically on fire.
In fact, anticipating this, CEO Hwang hadn’t even ordered food, just paid for the table in advance.
“Whew.”
Only after everyone had left did Hwang Dae-woon finally relax.
He had tried hard not to show it, but it felt like his entire body was soaked in sweat.
“How did I end up swimming in such deep waters?”
***
[It is truly a heartbreaking matter. Hanjong Group used Hanjong Shipping as a ans to create slush funds, causing enormous damage to shareholders, and shalessly tried to nullify all the money borrowed from banks by orchestrating a planned bankruptcy. Their audacity is frightening.]
The representative of the Hanjong Shipping syndicate loan held a press conference and revealed to the world what kind of devious plans the Hanjong Group had been plotting.
The reason the announcent ca from their side and not from Kwangwoon was to strongly emphasize that these were actions taken by their predecessors, not themselves.
“I heard Hanjong Group is in total chaos now.”
“Of course they are. If this blows up, the current Vice Chairman, who just completed the succession process, might end up in jail.”
Hanjong Group had only one option left.
To claim it was all a misunderstanding and hurry up to pay back the 5 trillion won.
“Even for Hanjong Group, losing 5 trillion won must be a huge blow, no?”
“They must’ve already spent a lot of money on the succession process.”
But honestly, that wasn’t our concern.
They were the ones who spent the money, so of course, they should pay it back.
“So we’ve now acquired Hanjong Shipping with zero debt?”
The massive burden attached to Hanjong Shipping had been removed.
In fact, when acquiring a company, the biggest issue is usually its existing debt.
But not only had we acquired Hanjong Shipping for 1 trillion won, we had also offloaded the debt onto Hanjong Group.
Hanjong Group had fallen into the very trap they had set for others, and thanks to that, we were able to take over Hanjong Shipping without lifting a finger.
“This ti Hanjong… no, it’s Kwangwoon Shipping now, right? They’re issuing about 500 billion won in bonds?”
“Yeah. CEO Kim Doo-young said in his inauguration speech that he’d normalize operations through active investnt and by personally getting involved.”
The new captain of Kwangwoon Shipping was CEO Kim Doo-young.
Using the know-how and networks he had built over ti, he promised that Kwangwoon Shipping would once again beco the number one dostic shipping company and a world-class shipping firm.
However, since operational capital was needed to do that, they had decided to issue bonds totaling 500 billion won.
“Those bonds. About 300 billion won of them will be bought by Kwangwoon.”
“Departnt Head, does that an our investnt capital is going into it?”
“No. We’ve already put in around 1 trillion won, haven’t we? Adding more on top of that would be difficult. The investnt is being made not through our departnt, but through Kwangwoon Securities’ own assets, according to CEO-nim.”
Kwangwoon now had its own affiliated company.
And usually, when providing funds to an affiliate company, the best thod is to issue new bonds and purchase them.
One reason we were injecting 300 billion won was also to show that Kwangwoon was genuinely committed to the shipping business.
“The problem is that the outlook for the shipping industry is really bad.”
“That’s right. The main reason our country’s shipping industry went from thriving to struggling is mostly due to China’s influence. China operates at much lower costs than other countries, so it’s only natural that we fall behind in competitiveness.”
The decline of the shipping industry began when China aggressively entered the market. Naturally, from a business perspective, companies preferred the cheaper shipping costs offered by China, and as a result, our country took the hit.
“On top of that, cheap oil prices played a part too.”
Since about 50% of shipping operation costs go into fuel, oil prices have a massive impact on the shipping business.
“How is it that even with a war going on, oil prices don’t go up but just keep dropping? It’s weird.”
“When I was younger, people made a fuss saying we’d run out of oil, but now they’re saying they discovered another huge deposit, right?”
There was a ti when everyone panicked, saying we needed to develop alternative energy to replace oil.
But once it beca clear that there’s far more oil on Earth than expected, all that panic disappeared.
“Anyway, since oil is so cheap, China can offer even lower transportation costs. That’s why everyone says our shipping industry can’t possibly compete with China.”
Kwangwoon Shipping had cleared its debt and replaced all its executives to make a fresh start.
However, the outlook wasn’t very promising.
That was because too many companies, including China, were dragging the market down by continuing operations at a loss just to offer cheaper prices.
“It’s basically a ga of chicken. And China’s counting on it. They’re deliberately operating at a loss for now, and once all the other companies go bankrupt, they plan to take everything for themselves.”
It was a brutal ga.
Cutting into their own flesh and bone until only one company survives.
And the market’s judgnt was that it would be impossible to beat the Chinese companies.
‘That can’t happen.’
Kwangwoon Shipping was a company we had invested our hard-earned money into.
It was also the first affiliate company my hyung and I had acquired, so we couldn’t be satisfied with just barely extending its lifespan.
‘There has to be sothing that can help…’
So I started reviewing all the data related to shipping.
But no matter how much I read, nothing stood out to .
‘That doesn’t make sense.’
Even after searching through materials all night, the result was the sa.
Nothing hit sharply. No shifts in intuition or flashes of colors or insight.
Nothing.
And yet, I had clearly followed my instincts when I invested in shipping.
But now, was I really saying there was nothing I could do?
Or was I supposed to wait for sothing?
“Departnt Head. Aren’t you going ho?”
“Ah, yeah. I think I need to look through so more shipping-related materials. You should go ahead and head ho.”
“Okay. Then I’ll get going first.”
Deputy manager Lee bowed and seed to leave for the day.
But not long after, she ca back to the departnt head’s Office.
“Hmm? I thought you left?”
“Ah. I was going to, but I figured you probably hadn’t eaten anything, Departnt Head. I thought you should eat sothing, so I brought so kimbap. Is that okay?”
As expected, the only one who takes care of is Hye-rin ssi.
A wave of deep emotion surged in my chest.
“Of course it’s okay. Thank you.”
“You’re welco. I’ll just put it here… Oh no!”
While placing the wrapped kimbap on the table, Hye-rin accidentally bumped into the pile of docunts on top of it, sending papers scattering across the floor.
“S-sorry!”
“It’s fine.”
“I can clean it up myself. You can keep working, Departnt Head.”
“It’s alright. This is nothing.”
As we began gathering the papers from the floor together…
“……?”
I saw golden powder slowly leaking out from one of the docunts Hye-rin picked up.
“Wait a second.”
“Yes?”
At first, I thought it was just dust falling, but it wasn’t.
It was glittering powder that only I could see.
‘Don’t tell …’
As expected.
As soon as I touched that docunt, the strong feeling that hadn’t co for so long spread through my entire body via my fingertips.
[OPEC Oil Production Cut Scenario]
***
CEO Kim Doo-young had been trying everything to save the company.
Even before he beca an executive.
And even after becoming one.
His dedication to reviving the collapsing company had never changed, and that remained true even after he beca CEO.
He was working hard with the sole determination to save the company, but the wall of reality was not easy to overco.
“It looks like all the contracts have gone to China. It’s not just us, Daekwang as well, and even Maersk, which is currently the number one in the industry, is losing all their business to China.”
China was clearly intent on choking out the shipping companies this ti.
Their low transportation costs were so competitive that even Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company, was practically screaming.
“So the only option is to lower our costs, even if we take a loss…”
But that would make it no different from what happened with Hanjong Shipping.
The only difference now was that they had raised funds by selling bonds worth 500 billion won.
Perhaps impressed by Kwangwoon’s strong commitnt to reviving the shipping business and its aggressive investnts, the market responded favorably, and the bonds sold out in an instant.
But now, it looked like all that money was going to be wasted for nothing.
“But how should I take this?”
On top of that, there was another concern.
After securing the 500 billion won, a ssage ca from the securities firm.
More precisely, it was a ssage from Departnt Head Jung Jin-ho.
“Buy oil with the entire 500 billion won?”
Originally, this 500 billion was supposed to be used to repair the faltering company.
And the initial plan was to temporarily maintain operations by forcibly lowering costs, but now he was being told to use all that money to buy oil?
“Stockpiling oil is fine, but isn’t 500 billion a bit too much?”
“With that much oil, the storage facilities will be full.”
“And besides, buying that much oil would be a loss.”
Currently, oil prices were fluctuating between $38 and $40.
Experts were even predicting it would drop to $35 due to oversupply.
“Is there any chance oil prices will rise…?”
“Unless a major war breaks out, there’s no way.”
“Even if one does break out, who knows. There’s already an active war in the Middle East, right?”
Even Europe was loudly proclaiming the eradication of terrorism and actively participating in the conflict.
And yet, oil prices were still falling.
“…….”
To buy oil in a situation like this?
And in the billions?
No matter how he thought about it, it seed insane.
But then CEO Kim Doo-young suddenly recalled a conversation he’d had with CEO Hwang Dae-woon before his inauguration.
‘There are two rules in our company.’
‘Two rules?’
‘Yeah. First, follow Departnt Head Jung Jin-ho’s investnt opinions unconditionally.’
Follow the advice of a departnt head who wasn’t even an executive?
‘Then what’s the second rule?’
‘Rember the first rule.’
‘……?’
It was an undeniably strange conversation.
But at that mont, CEO Hwang Dae-woon’s eyes had been completely serious.
‘It might sound like a weird rule, but trust . If you follow what Jung says, you’ll make money in your sleep. Hahaha.’
In other words, even the CEO followed Departnt Head Jung Jin-ho’s advice without question.
CEO Kim Doo-young closed his eyes for a mont in thought.
But that mont didn’t last long.
“…Check if we have enough storage capacity if we purchase a large volu of oil.”
“Huh? C-CEO-nim, are you really going to buy it?”
“Yes. Not just with the 500 billion, we’ll mobilize all the remaining funds the company has and buy it.”
No matter how much his brain told him otherwise, it didn’t make sense.
But as the saying goes:
When in Ro, do as the Romans do.
*****
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