Third-Party Allocation Capital Increase (4)
“That’s only if the thing they built actually works.”
Given the Thomas Motors disaster, there were plenty of people who were suspicious, and that was exactly why everyone was having such a hard time raising money.
“It does work. It hasn’t been announced publicly yet, but they’re set to begin full-scale production in the first half of the year, and we’re currently negotiating supply contracts with GM and Ford. Once the logistics truck platform is on track, we’re planning to develop a platform for pickup trucks as well.”
“That’s still just a plan, isn’t it? Thomas Motors’ plan was perfect too.”
“Nextrogen is completely different from Thomas Motors. I’ll vouch for it.”
“And how exactly are you going to vouch for it?”
“Because Continue Capital bought the company.”
Heo Min-woong stared at me, stunned.
“I heard Shark Management pulled out and someone else stepped in, but you’re telling me it was Continue Capital? When the hell did that happen?”
“Right after the Thomas Motors scandal blew up.”
A moment later, he was actually clapping, his face full of admiration.
“Damn! You wiped out the entire hydrogen truck industry and then scooped up a company on the cheap. That’s insane.”
“Thanks for the compliment.”
From the look on his face, Chairman Heo Seonghun seemed just as surprised.
It wasn’t easy, not by a long shot, to leap into the middle of the market just as everyone else was running for the exits. It took real insight and the nerve to act on it.
For reference, I didn’t have any of that. I’d simply regressed.
Chairman Heo Seonghun wore a thoughtful expression.
Family ties weren’t really the issue here. What he was worried about was the precedent of a top-ten conglomerate having its management control taken away.
I looked at him and, while he was still thinking it over, said, “How long do you think the top ten conglomerates will stay the top ten?”
“What are you talking about?”
“More specifically, how long do you think Hwaan Group can remain among the top ten?”
Heo Min-woong looked flustered. “What the hell are you saying all of a sudden? Are you still drunk?”
It was a provocative question, all right.
Chairman Heo’s voice turned hard. “Are you saying Hwaan Group will fall out of the top ten?”
“Rankings don’t stay where they are just because people sit still. If someone else climbs higher, everyone below them gets pushed down one slot at a time.”
In my first life, Hwaan Group had sold off its hydrogen energy business to China because of the Thomas Motors scandal, and that was what pushed it out of the top ten.
“People think conglomerates last forever, but that’s not always true. How many chaebols disappeared during the IMF crisis or the financial crisis?”
“That was then, wasn’t it?”
I shook my head.
“This is a far more important moment than that was. If you can’t keep up with the changes when the industrial structure shifts, you get left behind. And that applies even to giant conglomerates. Wouldn’t it be better to stop wasting time doing favors for each other and make sure you’re getting your own share first?”
Chairman Heo had led the group for more than thirty years, since he was a young man.
If he wasn’t a fool, he would have been feeling the scale of the upheaval currently under way in his bones.
* * *
Chairman Heo Seonghun looked at the young man in front of him.
How long do you think Hwaan Group can remain in the top ten?
No one had ever dared say something like that to his face. If anyone else had, he would have thrown them out on the spot.
But this man had earned the right to speak that way. Because of his advice, Hwaan Energy had survived.
So what about the advice he was giving now?
Reorganize the group with hydrogen at the center?
Money and labor were not resources that sprang up without limit.
If he wanted to concentrate the group’s capacity on hydrogen energy, other businesses would have to be sacrificed to some extent.
It would be wonderful if things went well, but what if they failed?
Then it wouldn’t just be one or two affiliates going down. The whole group would start to wobble.
Han Miru looked at him as though he could read his thoughts and asked, “Chairman, do you expect hydrogen energy to grow in the future?”
“Of course.”
“Then your prediction is wrong.”
“What...?”
“It’ll grow much faster and on a much larger scale than you expect. Multiply what you’re imagining by ten or a hundred and you’ll be somewhere close.”
“...”
For an instant, Chairman Heo felt a violent jolt run through him.
Then just how large is the hydrogen industry supposed to become?
“Can you promise that?”
“Before long, a company with more than ten times Hwaan Group’s capital will enter the hydrogen industry.”
“Which company are you talking about?”
Han Miru named a company no one there had expected.
“Aramco.”
Aramco was Saudi Arabia’s state-owned company, and the largest oil company in the world.
It was already known that Continue Capital was connected to Saudi capital. That was also why the Financial Supervisory Service and the prosecutors had given up on investigating and indicting us.
But none of them had imagined that Aramco would have any interest in hydrogen energy.
Han Miru explained, “Aramco is going to acquire HJ PureCell. Through A-Oil.”
Heo Min-woong asked urgently, “Is that really true?”
“It’s not set in stone, but that’s definitely how it’ll turn out.”
“No, if it’s not set in stone, what do you mean definitely?”
Han Miru only smiled in response.
He wore the look of a man so confident in his own words that it was as good as a promise.
How far ahead is he seeing?
At first, I’d thought his only aim was to drive up the stock price through a management control battle and then cash out.
But he was drawing a picture far bigger than that.
Can I really believe this?
When you tried to understand someone, the important thing was to strip away your preconceptions. Once every assumption was gone, only one thing remained.
The result.
Chairman Heo Seonghun felt as if sparks were crackling across his entire body.
He had become chairman at just twenty-eight.
Hwaan Group, suddenly robbed of its founder, had been badly shaken, and people had even begun whispering that the group itself might be broken apart.
He knew almost nothing about management, and the executives handling the actual work were at least twice his age.
If he was careless, he could end up as nothing more than a figurehead wearing the title of chairman.
But he had thrown himself into meetings and fieldwork, learned the business side piece by piece, and brought the older executives over to his side.
In his youth, he had built the group by staking everything he had on it.
People around him had warned that one wrong move could bring the whole thing down, but he’d risked it all to pioneer new industries.
He had, in fact, endured more than one serious crisis, and in the end he had grown Hwaan Group into the seventh-largest conglomerate in the nation.
But at some point, he had become busy just trying to protect what he already had. Even when he entered new industries, he only moved to the extent that it wouldn’t burden the existing ones.
And yet...
Was that really enough?
Was it all right to settle for being number seven and call that satisfaction?
Why had I stopped looking higher all this time?
It felt as though the passion of his younger years had come roaring back to life.
“Let me ask you one thing.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I heard Chairman Yoo Jae-ho introduced you here. Did you happen to give him similar advice about the Yuseong Group?”
“I did.”
That much was true.
After finishing his thoughts, Chairman Heo spoke again.
“Did you ask him to get involved in the Daejun Construction acquisition?”
“Yes.”
“And if the government applies pressure?”
“Just hold out until the general meeting ends.”
“If we do that, we’ll be making enemies in the government.”
“Political power changes anyway. If you’re willing to take the risk, you’ll get more than enough in return.”
For now, it was only words.
But sometimes a single person’s words were worth more than dozens of signed contracts.
After thinking it over, Chairman Heo nodded.
“I heard Hwaan Energy owed you one last time, so let’s call this the company paying that debt back.”
At that, Han Miru smiled.
“That’s a wise decision.”
“It’s late today, so what do you say we have dinner after the general meeting?”
“Do you have a restaurant you’d recommend?”
“There’s a kimchi stew place I go to often.”
Han Miru answered without hesitation.
“That works out nicely. I like kimchi stew.”
* * *
By the time the conversation ended and I got to my feet, it was already three in the morning.
When I said I was heading home, Heo Min-woong followed me out.
“I didn’t know you could really convince my father. What were you going to do if it hadn’t worked?”
“Well.”
At that point, I’d planned to ask Chairman Yoo Jae-ho for help, or talk to Sara and have one of Aramco’s overseas construction firms step in.
There were always ways to find a solution if you looked for them.
“But what you said just now—was that really true?”
“What was?”
“That Aramco’s going to enter the hydrogen industry.”
“It’s just a matter of timing.”
Aramco was the world’s largest oil company.
But the value of oil had fallen sharply from what it used to be, and crude prices were trending downward. That was why they were now looking to expand into new energy industries, using the enormous profits they had made from oil as a springboard.
Hydrogen was one of them.
Originally, their entry into that market wouldn’t have come for another three years or so. In other words, it would have been after Prince Rashid staged his coup and seized power.
But since things had already changed, the timing could easily be brought forward depending on the circumstances.
“So that’s how it is? If things go well, we might even end up partnering with Aramco.”
He looked like he believed every word I said without a shred of doubt.
“Aren’t you going back home, Mr. Heo Min-woong?”
“Ah! It’s late, so I’m just going to sleep here tonight.”
He said it like that, but his face looked as though all sleep had fled from it. I figured he and his father had plenty to talk about now.
“Then I’ll be going.”
* * *
The next day.
Since I’d gotten home late, I went to work late as well.
Senior Dong-ho was staring at his monitor when he said, “Still quiet today.”
For several days, Hanjeong Mulsan’s stock price had barely moved.
I was just killing time and thinking about heading home when Sara said to me, “What are you going to do now?”
“I don’t really have anything to do.”
“Then do you want to grab a drink?”
“Sure.”
I followed her to a bar she said she visited often.
It turned out to be a craft beer pub. Inside, behind the glass wall, there was a brewery where they were making and aging beer on-site.
“A beer place, huh.”
“What, did you think I’d take you to some fancy wine bar?”
“...”
I should’ve known.
Sara laughed. “The one with all the money is Rashid, not me. When I was in college in the U.S., I was just an ordinary student.”
“Still, if you’re a director at A-Oil, your salary can’t be bad.”
“It’s not.”
We clinked our glasses together.
“I’m glad things went well with Hwaan Group.”
“Me too.”
“But do you really think Hanjeong Mulsan will move to acquire Daejun Construction?”
“If it happens, it happens. And if it does, it’ll become a great opportunity for us.”
This wasn’t something that had happened in my first life.
There was a very real chance it wouldn’t happen at all. But judging by the nature of this administration, it was more than capable of pulling it off.
Sara took a sip of her beer and asked, “What’s Continue Capital’s goal?”
“Honestly? Nothing especially grand.”
“And yet you’ve been causing massive trouble all over the place. Thanks to you, South Korea’s been buzzing nonstop.”
I told her what was on my mind.
“Because I don’t want to regret things later.”
In my previous life, I had regretted too much.
If I had kept trying even after the company collapsed, maybe I could have accomplished something. But at that point, I gave up on everything and collapsed to the floor.
Because my spirit had broken.
After my report had led to so many people dying, and with Senior Dong-ho so badly injured that he couldn’t work, living hard by myself had started to feel meaningless.
But this time was different.
I was going to throw everything I had into it and fight with everything I’d got. That way, whether things turned out well or badly, I wouldn’t have any regrets.
Sara nodded.
“I think I understand what you mean. You only get one life, so you should try whatever you can.”
“Right.”
Mine was technically the second one, though.
There probably wouldn’t be a third, so this time I really had to make it count.
“I’m curious about one more thing.”
“What is it?”
“Did you invest in Hanjeong Mulsan just because of the money, or was there another reason too?”
She was pretty perceptive.
Originally, my goal had just been to trigger a management control battle and make as much profit as possible in the meantime.
But after meeting Prince Rashid and Sara, my plan had shifted a little.
Saudi Arabia had enormous capital, and I had the ability to handle it. This management battle was a good chance to prove what I could do.
“Let’s just say it was for more than one reason.”
Actually, there was one other reason too.
I thought of Ju Hyeon-jin.
It would be best to wipe away that bad blood cleanly while I had the chance.