Chapter 30
I’m translating the chapter now and preserving the chapter formatting rules: narrative in `
` tags, special in-universe text in styled `
` blocks, with the title line first.CHAPTER_TITLE: The 30th Chairman Who Runs It All Alone
"Proceed as is."
The contents of the documents that would surprise Kim Museong concerned the Yeonhui Credit Union he operated.
Before I took over the Baekho Faction, which had the Red Dog Faction under it as a subordinate organization, I had set up a loan company called Happy Credit Union with Shin Gilwoo as its representative director.
If I had followed the original plan, Happy Credit Union would have been turned into a savings bank under the restructured savings bank act of the future, while Yeonhui Credit Union would have remained a loan company. But once I considered the takeover of WH Entertainment and my stock investments, there was no longer any need to run two financial companies.
In other words, the documents were for an M&A in which Happy Credit Union would become the parent company and absorb Yeonhui Credit Union. Fifty-one percent of Yeonhui Credit Union's shares would go to Kim Museong, my capital stake would be set at forty-nine percent, and Shin Gilwoo's shares would be sold off in full.
And taking into account that it would later be restructured into a savings bank, the paperwork also stated that, in consideration of Happy Credit Union's BIS ratio, I would set its capital at 10 billion won.
So if the papers were to be believed, Kim Museong would instantly become both the largest shareholder and the representative director of the country's biggest loan company with 10 billion won in capital. It would have been stranger if he hadn't been shocked.
"Chairman."
"Yeah?"
"How are you going to raise 10 billion won in capital...?"
"I'll put it in from my personal assets."
"Chairman, that's an incredibly generous offer, but..."
Kim Museong went on, as if forcing himself to look away from the sweet temptation of that 10 billion won with his eyes squeezed shut.
"I don't want to create friction with Director Shin Gilwoo."
"Why would there be friction?"
"No matter how much Director Shin Gilwoo follows you, Chairman, people’s hearts don't work that way."
He wasn't wrong.
No matter how much Gilwoo trusted and followed me, if I handled things like this, he would naturally feel slighted, and the distance between Shin Gilwoo and Kim Museong would grow.
In the past, I had deliberately created tension between executives this way, stirred up conflict, forced competition, and weeded out the incapable.
Of course, I had never cruelly cast aside key men like Shin Gilwoo or Kim Museong, but there had been quite a few people who left after becoming disappointed in the way I slowly changed.
Gilwoo had been one of them.
-Hyung Jaehyun, the man I knew died a long time ago. What's left now is just Chairman Do Jaehyun, that miser.
And because of the way I had changed, even Gilwoo left my side.
But this time, things were different.
"There are several pages here. Aren't you being too hasty after reading just the first page or two, Mr. Kim?"
"Ah..."
At my words, Kim Museong hurriedly flipped through the rest of the pages.
"I'm planning to hand WH Entertainment over to Gilwoo. Take care of that properly too. I'll transfer the capital before 2 p.m. today."
In the past, I had placed Shin Gilwoo in the position of representative director of Happy Credit Union.
Kim Museong had remained in the shadows until the day I died, always dreaming of the light but never reaching it. This time, things would be different.
I had promised Kim Museong the light, not underworld finance or loan-sharking.
"Yes, Chairman."
* * *
Ilseong Securities Yeongdeungpo Branch.
"Ha..."
Before I realized it, a hollow laugh slipped out of me. It was because of the huge banner mounted on the exterior wall of Ilseong Securities on the second floor.
-Congratulations to Ilseong Securities Yeongdeungpo Branch. Average client investment return reaches 450 percent.
Even in 2024, the average investment return at a securities firm would have been less than 5 percent. My mind was filled with the thought that this made no sense at all.
But when I thought about it properly, it wasn't entirely nonsense.
In the late 1990s.
Back then, at the end of the century, there weren't nearly as many stock investors as there were now, and even though the IMF crisis had hit, I remembered corporate stock prices actually rising instead.
More than anything, securities firm stocks had generally risen by a factor of two or three. Add to that the enormous return on the product I had recently bought through the put option, and that banner didn't seem quite as absurd as it first looked.
Well, this was also a time when people could get away with wildly exaggerated ads and, even if they were caught later, a few words of apology would smooth everything over...
Ah, no.
Looking closer, I found a very striking fact written on the banner.
-Congratulations to Ilseong Securities Yeongdeungpo Branch. Average client investment return (put option products) reaches 450 percent. Ilseong Securities branch ranked first nationwide in investment return!
The tiny phrase "put option products" had been printed so small that you had to open your eyes wide to catch it.
Ding-dong~!
"Oh? Mr. Do Jaehyun, could you please wait just a moment? I'll bring Manager Oh Handong and the branch manager over."
The door to Ilseong Securities Yeongdeungpo Branch, which opened and closed hundreds of times a day, had barely moved, and the female employee standing by the entrance was already making a fuss.
Before I could stop her, she clutched her short skirt and ran toward the branch manager's office, and the door to that office was flung open with a bang.
"Oh, Mr. Do Jaehyun. Welcome."
The first person to greet me with a smile as the branch manager's office door opened was Branch Manager Lee Jeongrok. Behind him, five or six men and women spilled out in a rush.
"Team leaders, get back to work. We'll finish the meeting later. Nothing urgent right now, is there?"
From their expressions, it looked like a fairly important meeting, but no one objected.
"Yes, sir."
"All right, disperse."
With a clap of his hands, Branch Manager Lee Jeongrok sent the team leaders back to their seats. What mattered here was that he had greeted me first before dispersing them.
And although it would have been easy, as a matter of courtesy, to briefly introduce me to the team leaders or have them offer a greeting, he sent them right back without bothering.
"It feels like I interrupted something..."
"Interrupted? Not at all. If anything, we're disappointed."
A genuine smile spread across Branch Manager Lee Jeongrok's lips.
"You haven't come by much lately. I was starting to wonder if you'd switched to another branch."
Just as I thought.
Did branch managers naturally have sales embedded in their bones?
"Not a chance. I have no reason to move to another branch."
"Haha, thank you for saying so. Please, come in and have a cup of coffee. I'll make it myself."
Branch Manager Lee Jeongrok naturally opened the office door and guided me inside.
"Still, I'm curious. Of course we'll always do our best to take care of our clients, but what brings you here?"
"There he is. The reason I can't switch branches."
"Pardon?"
As Branch Manager Lee Jeongrok was about to sit and, out of habit, offered me the top seat on the office sofa, his gaze followed mine.
"Ah."
With a grin, Branch Manager Lee Jeongrok nodded.
Through the small window, where my gaze had landed, a man was approaching the office.
Manager Oh Handong, dressed in a neat gray suit, white shirt, and blue tie pulled tight, was walking toward the branch manager's office.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Do Jaehyun."
Manager Oh Handong opened the door and came in, confirmed that I was there with the branch manager, and naturally greeted me first. Under normal circumstances, he would of course have greeted the branch manager before me, but his choice had clearly been influenced by Branch Manager Lee Jeongrok, who was staring hard with a slight shake of his head.
"Long time no see, Manager Oh."
"Assistant Manager Oh, sit here too. You'll have coffee, won't you?"
"I'll make it."
"No, sit still. It's not like Mr. Do Jaehyun came to see me. He came to see Assistant Manager Oh."
"I only stopped by because the banner caught my eye while passing by."
"Ah... all thanks to the client, then. Now, you two talk. I'll make the coffee very nicely."
Perhaps feeling a little apologetic, Branch Manager Lee Jeongrok scratched the back of his head and stood up.
"You're busy, right?"
"Well... we're in the middle of core hours, but I'm fine."
Manager Oh Handong answered with an ambiguous smile.
"Could you spare a moment for an investment consultation?"
"Of course. Is there a stock you're interested in?"
Manager Oh Handong drew himself slightly closer to my side. Then, at an angle where the branch manager wouldn't see him making coffee, he gave me a meaningful look.
As if asking whether I was really about to tell him what stock I wanted to invest in here.
"No. Like you said last time, I don't plan to invest in high-risk products anymore."
"I see. Should I recommend a few?"
"Anything good?"
"Opinions may differ a little depending on the investor or the manager, but the fallout from the IMF crisis isn't as severe as expected. Ah, of course, I don't mean to say that the Korean economy is now rosy or that everything has recovered."
"Then from what perspective are you looking at it?"
"As an investment consultant."
"Haha."
He was entertaining.
In the distant future, he would become one of only three master PBs at Ilseong Securities, then an anchor on Securities TV, then a regular panelist, and whenever the economy looked like it might so much as wobble, he would appear on terrestrial broadcasts too. Even then, when Manager Oh Handong introduced himself, he always said the same thing.
-This is Ilseong Securities investment consultant Oh Handong.
There was one thing securities company employees all had in common.
It was especially noticeable among new hires: whether or not they openly showed it, they believed they had some sense for investing, and they carried a quiet confidence about it.
That was why the way they introduced themselves was different. If they worked for a major securities firm, they tended to present themselves like this:
-I'm employee Hong Gil-dong from XX Securities, XX Branch.
When they felt their company was a little lacking, they emphasized something other than the firm.
-Hello. I'm fund manager Hong Gil-dong.
Or,
-Hello. I'm investment specialist Hong Gil-dong.
Something like that.
"You're modest."
That was my evaluation of Manager Oh Handong. It had been the same in my previous life and it was the same now.
More than anything, hearing the same words from his lips in his younger years, introducing himself as an investment solicitor, made my trust in him all the deeper.
In my previous life, I had fallen out with Manager Oh Handong over one incident.
It would happen much later, but in this life, I intended to make sure it never repeated.
"Then, Mr. Oh Handong the investment solicitor. Is there an investment product you can recommend to me? Ah, I naturally accept loss of principal. I don't mind if it goes all the way to zero."
"Isn't that too high-risk?"
"No matter how safe a product looks, it can be delisted at any time."
"You're not wrong, sir. But I think now is the time to take a breath and observe, rather than simply trying to keep expanding your capital. So I'd like to recommend this."
Manager Oh Handong took three or four sheets of A4 paper out of his briefcase and spread them on the table.
"This is the product I'd like to recommend."