Kingmaker (5)
Go Hyeon-ji was in a bad mood.
The reason was the man who had come with Sung Yoon-ah.
He had annoyed her by saying something ridiculous, and then, as if that weren’t enough, he’d gone on spouting nonsense about submitting materials if they wanted to get supplies from Byungjin Industries.
Up until then, she’d assumed he was just some lunatic.
The people gathered here were the children of some of the country’s most powerful chaebol families. If they wanted to, they could make a midsize company wither and die without breaking a sweat.
She’d been wondering what in the world he was relying on to say something like that, and then—
Han Miru of Continue Capital?
If you were asked to name the most shocking event in the Korean business world in recent years, everyone would point to the collapse of Hanjeong Group.
After the Private Equity Fund Act was introduced in 2004, private equity firms sprang up all over Korea, and foreign funds also began to operate here.
More than a decade later, the funds that had survived the competition had now emerged as formidable rivals to the chaebols.
In actual takeover battles, it had become increasingly common for conglomerates to lose out to private equity firms, and activist funds that bought up a certain threshold of shares and demanded management reforms had also begun to appear.
And yet no one had ever really believed a chaebol group’s control could actually be taken away by a private equity fund.
And then it had happened.
KSGI and Elliott, having seized control of Hanjeong Mulsan, sold off every share of the affiliates held by the holding company and recovered their investment through dividends.
There were still subsidiaries using the Hanjeong name, but the “Hanjeong Group” itself no longer existed.
Plenty of groups had gone under because they were poorly run, but this was the first time a conglomerate had ever had its management rights taken away by a private equity fund.
And not just any conglomerate, either—it had been one of the country’s top ten.
The shock of it had been so great that almost every group had rushed to review its own control structure, and the Federation of Korean Industries had bluntly asked politicians to pass laws protecting management rights.
They called it a three-party alliance, but everyone knew Continue Capital had been the one leading the attack on Hanjeong Group’s control.
And the person who had shown up at the shareholder meeting at the last possible moment with Ju Cheol-jin’s proxy authorization was Han Miru.
That was why everyone in the business world remembered his name so clearly.
And now that same man had appeared at a party full of chaebol heirs and heiresses.
Everyone around him started whispering.
“What’s his connection to Yoon-ah?”
“I heard he used to work at DA Securities.”
“Oh, right. He was the guy who took out Executive Director Yang Jeong-uk and left DA Securities.”
“And then he went to Continue Capital?”
“Does that make him just some salaried employee?”
“A private equity fund doesn’t just pay salaries, though.”
For a successful private equity firm, the bonus was far larger than the salary.
Continue Capital had bought shares in Hanjeong Mulsan, driven Vice Chairman Ju Cheol-jin out of management, and then sold the shares off in full to KSGI.
The profit from that single deal alone was said to be over two trillion won.
At the time, Han Miru’s title had been Korean representative. So on top of everything else, he had probably walked away with performance fees worth at least tens of billions of won.
And if you considered the other deals Continue Capital had pulled off, it wouldn’t have been strange if he’d made a hundred billion won. If he had invested his own money separately, the number would have been several times larger still.
His notorious exploits had already spread throughout the business world, so everyone in the party was now focused on Han Miru and Sung Yoon-ah, who had come with him.
Go Hyeon-ji bit her lip slightly.
This was her birthday party. She was supposed to be the star of the night. But the mood had been completely ruined, and no one was paying her any attention anymore.
She pulled Sung Yoon-ah aside and demanded, “What exactly are you trying to do?”
“What do you mean?”
“Are you doing this to me on purpose?”
“Doing what?”
“That guy is Han Miru from Continue Capital, isn’t he? Why did you lie to me?”
“I didn’t lie.”
“You said he was the son of the Byungjin Industries president.”
“You asked Miru what his parents did for a living, and that’s what he answered. If you wanted to know his own job, you should have asked that first.”
“……”
By her own standards, it was only natural for a child to follow in a parent’s footsteps. So she had never even thought to ask about his actual profession.
“Then why did you bring him here?”
“Did Miru do anything that made him unwelcome?”
“Everyone’s uncomfortable.”
“I don’t know. From where I’m standing, it looks like you’re the only one who’s uncomfortable.”
“What?”
Sung Yoon-ah found Go Hyeon-ji’s indignant outrage strangely amusing.
“And let’s be clear here. Miru didn’t come out here and announce that he worked for Continue Capital. You were the one who picked a fight with a man who was minding his own business, weren’t you?”
“……”
She had a point.
Han Miru had clearly said he didn’t want to mention it because he was worried it would ruin the atmosphere. She had been the one who insisted that he say it.
With nothing left to say, Go Hyeon-ji stubbornly snapped, “Fine. Then get him out of here right now.”
“What did you say?”
Just then, Min Ah-reum, who had been listening to their conversation, cut in.
“Hmm, are you sure about that? Miru’s close with my brother. In fact, they’ve been doing business together lately and see each other often.”
The brother she meant was Chairman Yoo Jae-ho.
It was already well known that Yuseong Electronics was working on a large-scale collaboration with Snow Crash, which was owned by Continue Capital.
“And even putting that aside, kicking someone out of a party is rude, isn’t it? Don’t you think so, Hyeon-ji?”
Go Hyeon-ji looked as though she might explode, but she couldn’t argue with Min Ah-reum’s words.
What the hell is this?
* * *
Once my identity was revealed, the way people looked at me changed.
Not in a good way.
I could feel the distance between us not just physically, but psychologically too.
It felt like deals were being thrown at me from every direction.
Sung Yoon-ah returned after talking with Go Hyeon-ji for a bit and asked me, “What did you talk about?”
“Nothing much. But are you all right, Miru? If you’re uncomfortable, should we head back?”
I shook my head.
“I’m fine. I’m more worried about causing trouble for you.”
However powerful the chaebols gathered here might be, they were no threat to me—not even a little. If anything, Continue Capital was the threat to them.
If we decided to go on the offensive, we could shake up any group we wanted.
This was why people needed money.
Sung Yoon-ah glanced at Go Hyeon-ji and said, “No. Don’t mind me. You can do whatever you want, Miru.”
Korean chaebols sometimes competed, but for the most part they helped each other and took each other’s side. That was why they tried to keep things amicable with one another.
But DA Group was a financial group.
Since they were in the business of lending money, they didn’t really need to worry about reading the room with other chaebol groups.
I wondered how I looked to them.
There were probably plenty of people here who had some sort of connection with the Hanjeong family. And yet I had taken their control away and broken up the group.
Of course they weren’t going to think well of me.
I saw Go Hyeon-ji talking with Jang Yu-seon over there.
I pointed at the two of them and asked Sung Yoon-ah, “Don’t those two look good together?”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
Now that I thought about it, they would get married in the future.
Jang Yu-seon was the third son of Chairman Jang of Daeyeon Motor Group. Since GL Group was doing both automotive electronics and battery business, it was a strategically pretty solid match as well.
As I was thinking that, Jang Yu-seon walked over to me and spoke.
“I never expected to see Han Miru in a place like this. Continue Capital’s reputation has been all over the place lately.”
I replied humbly, “We’ve been doing pretty well for ourselves.”
The ripest grain lowers its head. So although we were doing extremely well, I toned it down to “pretty well.”
Once the conversation started, the people around us fell silent and listened in.
“I heard you were the one who led the breakup of Hanjeong Group.”
“Me?”
“Weren’t you the one who showed up at the shareholder meeting in person with the proxy authorization?”
In other words, they were saying I landed the final blow.
Some of the people here had probably attended that shareholder meeting and seen it with their own eyes.
I figured I should clear up the misunderstanding a little.
“That’s a misunderstanding.”
“What part is a misunderstanding?”
“The breakup of Hanjeong Group was only a side effect.”
I explained so everyone could hear.
“All we did was kick out a manager who ran the company like crap and committed crimes, then restore the business to normal.”
“……”
Everyone looked stunned.
I went on.
“In foreign countries, it’s nothing unusual for a manager who’s incompetent to be thrown out of a company. But strangely enough, in Korea, people seem to think it’s some kind of counterrevolution when the founding family gets pushed out of control. If we’re talking about basic common sense, the owner of a company is the shareholder. The manager is simply there to serve the shareholders’ interests. And who pays the manager’s salary? The shareholders do.”
Then Kim Sang-min, who had been listening, sneered, “If you look at it that way, aren’t those shareholders basically making a living thanks to us?”
I looked at him with a pitying expression.
“Don’t go around saying ignorant things like that. I’ll let it slide this once and pretend I didn’t hear it.”
He bristled. “What? Ignorant?”
“Should I report it to WST, then? That Kim Sang-min, the son of the chairman of the O&N Group, thinks shareholders make a living thanks to chaebols. If that quote goes out, I’m sure the O&N shareholders will be thrilled.”
“……”
That shut him up.
Since the topic had come up, I decided to give the chaebol heirs a little moral education.
“If you were just born into a rich family, that would be one thing. But if you were born into a chaebol family, then you ought to have some sense of responsibility.”
“Responsibility? Are you saying we should do volunteer work or something?”
The person who said that was Baek Jeong-tae, the son of Baek Man-soo, chairman of Yuwan Group.
“Volunteer work sounds great. I saw recently that your father, Chairman Baek Man-soo, has been going all the way down to North Chungcheong Province to volunteer at Flower Village with great enthusiasm.”
“W-what?”
Of course, the chairman hadn’t suddenly developed a noble urge to volunteer. He had been indicted for embezzling three billion won in company funds, and the result was a sentence of one year and six months in prison, suspended for three years, plus two hundred hours of community service.
Three billion won embezzled, and all he got was two hundred hours of community service.
In any other country, he would have been locked up for sure, but this was the Republic of Korea—a country that was good for doing business.
Locking up a chaebol chairman who contributed to the nation’s economic development over just three billion won? Impossible.
This time, Jin Gyu-seok asked me, “Do you perhaps think chaebols are evil?”
“Not at all. There are only good chaebols and bad chaebols in this world.”
“Then what kind of chaebol is a good one?”
I thought for a moment before answering.
“A dead one.”
“……”
For a second, the mood turned icy.
I let out a small laugh.
“I’m joking.”
I really did have a great sense of humor.
The news was always full of stories about chaebols abusing their power or committing assaults. But that was, at the end of the day, a matter of personal morality.
The real problem with chaebols wasn’t that.
“A good chaebol is one that serves the interests of its shareholders. A bad chaebol is one that harms them. And there are a lot of bad chaebols in Korea. The role of a private equity fund is to drive out managers like that, normalize a company’s operations, and return the benefits to the majority of shareholders.”
The atmosphere had already turned cold enough to freeze solid.
I could feel the intense hostility directed at me from every direction.
Machiavelli said in The Prince that it was best for a ruler to make others feel both love and fear, but if he had to choose one, it was better to be feared.
It had been written five hundred years ago, but it was still true.
I looked around at everyone and said, “Some of you here may one day inherit a huge conglomerate, and others may end up running just a small subsidiary. Remember this: always be grateful to your shareholders, and do everything you can to serve their interests. If you don’t, you could end up like Hanjeong Group at any time.”