Chapter 38
Translator: Dreamscribe
“.......”
This was the seat he had always dreamed of.
The only Chairman’s Office in LK Group.
This brown leather chair.
So this is what this soft texture felt like.
He had heard that because of his father's meticulous nature, the chair would be replaced with a new one every month, and perhaps because of that, a pleasant scent of leather lingered at the tip of his nose.
Moreover, the ceiling was high, and the dragon painting on it looked as if it were handing the wish-fulfilling jewel to Oh Jae-hyun.
"Chairman-nim."
A smile was spreading across the face of Chief Secretary Choi, who was no longer a director, but now the Chief Secretary.
One might ask if becoming Chief Secretary after being a director was a demotion, but the Chairman’s Chief Secretary carried a completely different weight.
In essence, he was the Chairman’s closest aide, and all instructions passed through the Chief Secretary.
He was also the person the Chairman trusted the most.
In other words, he was the one with the greatest power after the Chairman.
“As expected, Chairman-nim suits that position.”
“It’s a position I obtained with difficulty, so I must protect it with all I have.”
“Ah, and here is the detailed information about Kwangwoon Securities that you mentioned last time.”
It was the matter he had been most curious about.
The place Chairman Oh Jae-hyun gritted his teeth about the most, Kwangwoon Securities.
Know your enemy and you will win every battle.
“They released their earnings this time, didn’t they?”
“Yes. Typically, securities firms do report their earnings quarterly.”
Earnings.
Rumors had already spread in the financial world that Kwangwoon Securities had hit the jackpot amid the LK management rights battle.
There had even been ridicule that LK only helped others get rich.
“Their earnings must be quite good this time. They turned 300 billion won into 900 billion won.”
“Yes. But as you’ll see, that’s not all.”
“Hm?”
Chairman Oh Jae-hyun soon doubted his own eyes.
“Wait a minute. Their base capital tripled? Is this a realistic number?”
Compared to the previous quarter, their capital had increased by nearly three times.
It meant they had earned trillions of won in just a few months.
“It’s an earnings surprise. In fact, this quarter, all financial sectors were hit hard, yet Kwangwoon Securities made a fortune on its own.”
Even at a glance, the indicators looked like they had been fabricated.
Even in a financial boom, no firm could triple its capital in a single quarter.
But how was such a return possible in a quarter that had seen the China Shock and what was called an all-time record bear market?
“There’s a rumor going around.”
“A rumor?”
“Since the China Shock, an unidentified force has been making money consistently. That same force apparently entered during the recent Stummwagen Dieselgate incident and raked in profits from the German market.”
Chairman Oh Jae-hyun had also heard that rumor in passing.
However, since even Bafin had given up on tracking it, it had remained just that, a rumor.
“Recklessly raiding the German market, of all places, Kwangwoon did that?”
“Yes. Based on the current earnings, it's a highly plausible story.”
At first, when he heard that a company called Kwangwoon held as much as a 5% stake, he wasn’t particularly wary.
After all, they weren’t even in the top three financial groups.
But the more he learned, the more mysterious it became.
They were skilled in psychological warfare that turned 300 billion into 900 billion, and if that rumor was true, their ability to predict the future was extraordinary.
‘But the one actually moving the company wasn’t Hwang Dae-woon.’
He realized that after meeting Hwang Dae-woon that day.
He was taking orders from someone.
In other words, there was someone behind Kwangwoon Securities.
Someone who was shaking up the board both domestically and abroad!
“Chief Secretary. About our France project.”
“Ah, yes.”
“We need to move up the timeline as much as possible.”
“Pardon? But there are still some areas that need to be improved......”
“That won’t do. We need to open the hotel starting with France as soon as possible to secure capital inflow. That’s the only way to escape from Kwangwoon Securities' grasp.”
Kwangwoon Securities.
The fact that they were in debt to those bastards was starting to become increasingly unsettling.
Not knowing what those guys might do next, he intended to resolve the debt issue quickly and sever ties with them completely.
“Inform the Business Division. Tell them to move the schedule up as much as they possibly can.”
***
After the quarterly earnings report was released.
The ones most surprised by this earnings surprise were none other than the employees of Kwangwoon Securities themselves.
“No way. We made this much money?”
“That’s impossible. Our entire department was in the red this time, wasn’t it?”
“Then where did all this money come from?”
An earnings surprise even the employees of Kwangwoon Securities didn’t know about.
“Well, that makes sense. Most of the profits came from the Prime Department.”
“Even before the Prime Department was established, Department Head was making huge profits from the Prop Trading Team.”
“Rumors started spreading little by little, and with this earnings surprise, everyone found out about the Prime Department’s profitability, so now the HR Team is in chaos. Everyone’s inquiring about transferring to this department.”
However, this isn’t a place just anyone can enter.
Only those chosen by my intuition can come in.
“But don’t you feel a bit disappointed that our capital went from 1 trillion won suddenly back down to 700 billion?”
“What are you talking about? That 900 billion is over on the LK Group side.”
“It’s not like we can suddenly pull it out and use it. Of course, we are receiving interest steadily, but still.”
“Well, 900 billion is a lot of money, but for a conglomerate, it’s not an unmanageable amount. Right now, they may be a bit short on cash due to the management rights battle and LK Tower construction, but starting with the European hotel venture, LK Group is stacking up nothing but favorable developments, right?”
Chairman Oh Jae-hyun was busy making money.
There was indeed a reason why LK Orient sided with Oh Jae-hyun, stabbing the founding chairman in the back.
With a good sense of business and exceptional acumen, he was rapidly normalizing the company.
Especially now that he was pushing the hotel business into Europe, with the France opening just around the corner.
Word was, their service evaluations were very good.
“That’s kind of our country’s thing, isn’t it? Service and quality are trash domestically, but weirdly enough, they do well overseas.”
“They think they’ve already caught the fish. Haven’t you experienced domestic discrimination a few times yourself?”
Conglomerates always shout there’s no domestic discrimination, but everyone already knows the truth. Even games developed domestically show a miraculous 180-degree change in service once they go overseas.
“This European business will be a big success, right?”
“Europe too, but once LK Tower opens next year, it’ll be huge. I heard its value already jumped to 7 trillion won.”
“Such a pity. I didn’t think LK Group would stabilize this quickly. I thought they’d wobble a bit, and we’d get a chance. I heard the acceleration clause was included, too.”
“Even so, that’s not very realistic. A conglomerate is still a conglomerate, isn’t it?”
If LK Group were to falter, could we really snatch LK Tower, which we received as collateral?
Honestly, it’s not an easy thing.
Just because you have collateral doesn’t mean you can take it unconditionally.
It all depends on the contract terms.
Especially when securities firms secure collateral and make contracts, there’s one clause they always include.
That’s the acceleration clause.
To put it simply, it’s like a security deposit.
It’s not an actual security deposit, but if LK Group exceeds a pre-agreed debt ratio with us, or if their credit rating drops, we can trigger the acceleration clause.
Then we can issue a margin call to demand additional collateral, or even pressure them to repay their debt immediately, regardless of the loan’s maturity.
Sometimes when a company stumbles, a flood of promissory notes comes in, and it’s because of this acceleration clause.
It’s a clause extremely favorable to securities firms.
If you don’t like it, then don’t take out the loan.
But Chairman Oh Jae-hyun signed that contract.
Because he was in a hurry.
“Sure, he was in a hurry, but he must have calculated that he could repay the 900 billion no matter what. And since we don’t know the exact contract terms, I can’t speak carelessly either.”
The team members didn’t know the detailed contract terms.
Of course, I do.
The contract was so intricately tangled that it was hard to fully understand, but just knowing the key points, like a three-line summary, was enough.
“As far as I know, CEO-nim included both a payment-in-kind clause and a call option clause.”
“Wow. Even a call option? That’s pretty vicious.”
“Looks like Chairman Oh Jae-hyun was really desperate. I mean, using LK Tower for that kind of contract, of all things.”
There was a reason the team members were surprised.
Normally, when a loan is secured with collateral and the borrower fails to repay, the lender cannot simply take over the collateral.
By law, the collateral must go through a mandatory auction process.
But even that can be altered depending on the contract clauses.
By including a payment-in-kind clause and a call option clause, if the borrower fails to repay, the lender can exercise the call option and obtain the right to purchase the collateral first at the pre-agreed price.
“But even if it’s called a call option, do you think that’ll actually work? LK will fight tooth and nail to stop that from happening.”
“Well, yeah. It’s a contract that’s incredibly favorable to us, but honestly, it’s just a matter of time before LK pays off the debt. That’s probably why the other shareholders also approved the contract.”
In other words, it wasn’t something they could realistically eat up, it was just a delicious-looking but unreachable rice cake.
It seemed like hyung probably thought, “If we can’t eat it anyway, might as well stuff in every clause we can.”
“We just have to keep doing our job. If they pay it back quickly, we gain an additional 900 billion in capital, which means we can make even bigger investments. And even if they don’t repay right away, we’re still collecting a pretty high interest rate.”
Still, it was a bit disappointing that the capital, which had been 1 trillion won, had dropped back to 700 billion.
Sure, they were owed 900 billion by LK Group, but a loss still felt like a loss.
“Shall we begin the meeting now?”
“Ah, yes. We did go on a bit today. Thanks to the U.S. finally ending its zero interest rate policy, the value of the dollar is gradually rising. In contrast, the euro has dropped a bit.”
The U.S. had finally ended its long-standing zero interest rate policy.
Ever since the subprime mortgage crisis that erupted in 2008, they had maintained it to keep the collapsing economy afloat.
But now that the economy was showing signs of recovery, they had decided to raise interest rates again.
“.......”
I casually moved my pen toward the U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen listed in the materials.
As expected, I feel it again.
But one thing I’ve learned from using this ability is that the intensity of the feeling varies.
Just as pain has degrees, so does this.
Of course, judging the intensity of that feeling depended solely on my own senses.
‘I’m getting a feeling from the dollar and yen, but it’s not an extremely strong one.’
Still, I could tell that buying them would definitely be beneficial.
“Ah, and Department Head. I also brought the research materials related to Europe that you requested.”
I quickly looked over the documents.
Last time, while having a talk with hyung, I had felt an unpleasant sensation the moment France was mentioned.
So I had been gathering information on European issues.
“At the moment, Europe is a bit noisy because of the UK. It’s not a major problem yet, but economically they’re facing increasing difficulties.”
The UK was experiencing friction regarding the EU.
But what I was focusing on right now wasn’t the UK.
‘Despite controversy over its involvement in the Syrian civil war, it is currently generating the highest tourism revenue in Europe and is actively attracting overseas investments to boost tourism income.’
France was currently one of the most thriving countries in Europe.
The key to its success was its aggressive acceptance of foreign investment and expansion of its tourism sector.
This was why LK Group was focusing on France.
With the French government welcoming them with open arms and providing policy-level support, LK had no reason not to enter.
“Ugh.”
But why was this?
Every time I looked at the France-related materials, I felt nauseous.
The same unpleasant feeling as before.
“Department Head, are you all right?”
“Ah, yes. Could you also give me the other documents? The research covering various sectors.”
I didn’t know why I was feeling this way, but in the end, I closed the report halfway through.
I should avoid looking at anything related to France for the time being.
“Much like France, Europe is pushing its tourism industry hard these days, and East Asian countries are also expanding their tourism sectors, so there are many projections that stocks related to that sector will rise.”
However, the feeling flowing into me was faint.
Maybe I should just ignore everything else and stick with investing in the dollar and yen.
While I was reviewing various sectors like that.
“......?”
My eyes fixated on one particular sector.
It was none other than the defense industry.
“France’s involvement in the Syrian civil war this time, and Saudi Arabia declaring war on IS as well, it's natural for defense stocks to rise when war breaks out. It’s just that the scale has been small, so the increase hasn’t been significant. Plus, there don’t seem to be any signs of escalation.”
Overall, the defense sector had been slightly rising and then falling again, repeating the pattern.
But right at that moment, the intensity of the sensation surged sharply upward.
“.......”
Just in case, I moved my pen one by one over the listed companies.
“!?”
The intensity varied slightly for each, but they all gave me consistently strong feedback.
For some, the pen shook violently and nearly tore through the paper.
‘Why is this acting up like this? It’s making me uneasy.’
This wasn’t just anything, it was the defense industry.
What does it mean when the defense sector rises?
War.
There’s no other reason.
I swallowed dryly.
Is there really going to be a large-scale war somewhere?
Please, let it not be a war between North and South Korea.
***
Friday evening.
The most vibrant time when everyone is out enjoying dinner or cultural activities in anticipation of the weekend.
It was the same in Paris, France.
A romantic city, the top tourist destination in Europe.
None of the people enjoying the beautiful night scenery could have predicted it.
Kwaaaang–!!
That what was supposed to be a happy Friday night would turn into a battlefield stained with bombs and bullets.
***
“R-Report! W-What’s the damage situation?”
Chairman Oh Jae-hyun’s hands were trembling so much he couldn’t even take a proper sip of water.
“Over 1,000 casualties reported. France has already deployed the military throughout Paris and declared a state of emergency, closing its borders. All flights are being turned around as we speak.”
“Ah... what the hell...”
A massive terrorist attack had occurred, and not just anywhere, right in Paris, France.
IS, who had been condemning France’s involvement in the Syrian civil war, turned Paris into a warzone with suicide bombings and mass shootings.
It was a globally shocking event.
In terms of severity, it was no different from the U.S. 9/11 attacks.
A major European power like France had been hit by a massive terrorist attack.
“IS has officially claimed responsibility for the attack, so the French President has declared full-scale war and requested troop support from other EU countries. Other nations are now declaring that they’ll actively support France.”
This was a horrific year.
From the beginning of the year, there had been occasional terrorist attacks, and now, even a developed country known for its strict security had suffered a large-scale attack.
With this incident, IS had turned all of Europe into its enemy.
Europe could no longer sit back and do nothing.
If France could be attacked, so could they, this fear had now been etched into their minds.
The problem was, with France closing its borders, LK Group had been thrown into a crisis.
“What about our hotel? The opening is tomorrow!”
“......That will probably be difficult. With the borders closed, there’s no way in or out at the moment.”
Suddenly, everything felt dizzy.
LK Group had already run dry of funds and had been forcefully pushing the France hotel business forward just to keep the cash flow alive.
All they needed was to open and secure liquidity.
But unbelievably, this happened just one day before the opening.
“This... the border closure... it’ll be lifted soon, right?”
“They won’t reopen it until they’ve captured all the terrorists inside France. They’ll need to investigate who cooperated in the attack and who brought in the weapons. Still, they’ll probably try to lift it as soon as possible.”
However, just lifting the border closure wouldn’t solve the problem.
This wasn’t just anywhere, Paris, France had been attacked.
*****
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