Investor That Can See The Future

Chapter 115

Vice Chairman Im Jin-yong placed the coffee he was carrying on the table.

“I heard you like coffee.”

Taegyu said.

“I don’t drink coffee.”

“One is hot chocolate.”

“Ah, thank you.”

“I will drink.”

It seems that we have some understanding of our tastes.

Taek-gyu drank hot chocolate, and I also drank coffee. Vice Chairman Im Jin-yong said while drinking coffee slowly,

“It seems like a pretty strange relationship. I knew that someone invested in put options during the L6 crisis, but it must have been an OTK company.”

“Ah! Yes. If it hadn’t been discontinued then, we would have been in really big trouble.”

If you think about it, that was the beginning of our investment. If I hadn’t been able to make money at that time, I wouldn’t have been able to invest in startups after that, and I would have been sucking my fingers through Brexit a year later.

“It is terrifying to even think about it now. If we did it wrong, we would have had to shut down the smartphone business entirely.”

Fortunately, it worked out well. Without fear of immediate loss, it was immediately discontinued and exchanged and refunded.

And that was lucky for us.

If he hadn’t done that, he would have blown away over 10 billion. Still, I would have made money again by investing the rest of the money, but if I did, it would have taken me at least 5 more years to get to where I am today.

At that time, the person who made the decision to discontinue was Vice Chairman Im Jin-yong in front of me.

“In the end, I think the decision was a good thing for both parties.”

Taehyung nodded his head.

“Yes. After that, Seo Sung Electronics was also a hit.”

Despite the nightmare of the L6, the later released L7 sold like wings, reviving the IM sector, and demand for semiconductors skyrocketed due to the global economic boom.

Thanks to this, the stock price, which stayed in the 1.3 million won range after the explosion, is now over 2 million won, and the market cap has also exceeded 300 trillion won.

“By the way, I have one more connection, do you know what it is?”

Im Jin-yong was born and raised as the heir to Korea’s top chaebol family, while I was born and raised in an ordinary middle-class family.

I wonder if there is any kind of relationship between the two of us… … .

“I heard that you graduated from the Department of Western History at Hankuk University.”

At my words, Vice Chairman Lim Jin-yong smiled and nodded his head.

“You know.”

can’t you know

Vice Chairman Im Jin-yong donates a huge scholarship to his alma mater every year. When I was in school, the students also called Vice Chairman Im Jin-yong ‘chaebol senior’.

By the way, there are not one or two ‘chaebol seniors’ from Hankuk University.

There are many famous places like KAIST, Pohang University of Science and Technology, and Han Ye-jong, but in the fields of humanities, linguistics, economics, business administration, and law, Korean universities are traditionally strong. Therefore, a lot of children from chaebol families have entered the school since the old days.

Taek-gyu said with admiration.

“Five! such a relationship. Then, Jinhoo is the junior, so you can just call me junior.”

“… … Huh?”

suddenly? It’s different, I haven’t graduated yet?

Taehyung said proudly.

“Originally, Korea is blood, Jiyeon, and academic. I still got one.”

Vice Chairman Im Jin-yong asked with a smile.

“Is that okay?”

I nodded.

“That would be convenient. I will also call you senior.”

I’m not the type to be attached to anything like this, but it’s true that we have a relationship with seniors and juniors anyway.

Taek-gyu adds a word.

“My older sister also graduated from Korea University.”

“Yes. I understand that Governor Oh Hyun-joo graduated from the Department of Economics.”

“My older sister is my junior, so I’ll call her senior as well.”

“… … .”

What the hell is this logic?

Vice Chairman Im Jin-yong had an expression that he didn’t care.

“Actually, I have always wanted to meet you. We even tried to visit the OTK Company building.”

“Is there any reason not to?”

“Because there are too many eyes to see in Korea.”

If we had met, there was a high probability that it would become news in itself. Even if they met for no reason, they would have been talking about the purpose of the meeting in all directions.

Taegyu said.

“You can make a phone call or a video call.”

“Still, we can’t just meet in person.”

When the telephone was first invented, it was expected that the number of people meeting would drastically decrease. But the reality is not.

The biggest reason is that the content of speech accounts for less than 10% of a conversation. The rest are non-verbal elements such as eyes, facial expressions, tone of voice, and gestures.

Although video calls tend to convey non-verbal elements better than phone calls, they are still not as good as face-to-face conversations.

That’s why, even now, even when all kinds of communication technologies have been developed, they fly to the other side of the world by plane to do business.

I took a sip of coffee.

Did I say that the reason we didn’t meet in Korea was because there were so many eyes to see? So, did you come to me from America on purpose?

Even now, he came alone without a bodyguard or attendant. So, is there any reason to hide the fact that you are dating me?

“Why did you come to us?”

Vice Chairman Im Jin-yong put down his coffee and said.

“I’m here to ask for help from my juniors.”

Vice Chairman Suseong Group, number one in the business world, will ask me for help?

Taek-gyu asked.

“What do you want?”

Vice Chairman Im Jin-yong’s expression changed seriously.

“Before we talk, I have to tell you one important fact.”

important facts?

We kept our mouths shut, waiting for the next word.

After resting for a while, Vice Chairman Im Jin-yong said with a sigh.

“I think my father will die soon.”

* * *

Im Il-kwon is the third son of Im Young-cheol, the founder of Seosung Group.

Despite his older brothers, Chairman Lim Young-cheol chose his third, Im Il-gwon, as his successor. At the time, he met with backlash from his eldest and second son, but later it turned out to be the right decision.

Until the 1970s, Seosung Electronics was nothing more than a home appliance company that made and sold white and black home appliances with technology transferred from Japanese electronics companies.

Young-cheol Lim realized that Seosung Electronics could not escape the shadow of a Japanese company forever, and decided to enter the semiconductor industry.

DRAM has high technical difficulty and a huge investment cost. And most of the related patents were held by American and Japanese companies.

It was not a comfortable market for a single electronics company without technology and capital to jump into it.

Chairman Lim Young-cheol took over a semiconductor company on the verge of bankruptcy and started developing DRAM. Although everyone objected, Lim Il-kwon-man actively supported his father’s decision, and Lim Young-cheol entrusted the task to Lim Il-kwon.

It was a series of hardships for several years.

Instead of profits, hundreds of billions of dollars of losses were accumulated. It was repeated every year to make up for the losses in the semiconductor business with the profits earned by the entire Seosung Group.

A sense of crisis prevailed that if something went wrong, not only Suh Sung Electronics, but the entire group would fall over. Japanese electronics companies scoffed at Suseong Electronics, saying it would go bankrupt within a few years.

It is hard to believe now, but until the early 1990s, the global electronics market was dominated by Japanese electronics companies such as Sony, Panasonic, Hitachi, and Toshiba.

However, after only 10 years of entering the semiconductor market, Suseong Electronics has risen to the top position in the memory semiconductor market. In the 1990s, Japanese companies began to turn around, and after that, they even conquered the NAND flash field.

At the time, Japanese electronics companies that ridiculed Suseong Electronics have either gone bankrupt or have been reduced to the level of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

On the other hand, Seosung Electronics has grown into the world’s largest IT manufacturer based on its tremendous success in semiconductors.

Currently, the market cap is larger than the top 10 Japanese electronics companies combined, and even surpassed Toyota, Japan’s undisputed number one company.

Although it does not reach Alijiny or Witzent in China, it ranks in the top 5 in Asia as a whole. Considering Korea’s population and economic power, this is absurd.

If they hadn’t made a bold decision at that time, Seosung Electronics would have gone bankrupt by now or remained a mere company. Maybe it was acquired by Chinese capital like Sharp.

Chairman Il-kwon Lim raised the present-day Suseong Group and Suseong Electronics over his lifetime. Despite his old age, he took the lead in various group issues and showed off his skills.

However, a few years ago he eventually collapsed from old age and was hospitalized. Contrary to the expectation that he would get up from the bed soon, the hospitalization period was prolonged, and his eldest son, Im Jin-yong, took the place of his father and took up the front line of management.

“You are in a very critical condition right now. Since you have decided not to receive life-sustaining treatment, it will probably be difficult for you to endure for a long time. It will be about a full week or so.”

The power of modern medicine is truly astonishing, and even the most critically ill patients can somehow make their heart beat and bleed.

I don’t know if the condition can really be considered alive, but in any case, death can be delayed as much as possible. However, as he said, Chairman Lim Il-kwon has always expressed his refusal to receive life-sustaining treatment.

“I don’t know what to say to comfort you.”

Vice Chairman Im Jin-yong said calmly.

“It’s okay because I’ve been mentally prepared for a long time.”

Chairman Lim Il-kwon never gave a press interview after his hospitalization, and no one other than his medical staff and his family had access to his room.

Because of this, rumors spread that he was in a vegetative state or that he was already dead. In any case, the prevailing opinion was that it would be difficult to return to business and that it would not last long.

He had already expected to some extent, but hearing it through his mouth is shocking.

No matter how rich you are, no matter how high your status, death cannot be stopped. That natural and common-sense truth came to me anew.

“Can you tell us this?”

Chairman Il-Kwon Lim’s health is an extremely sensitive matter. If news of his death comes out, the entire stock market will be shocked.

“After all, it is a fact that everyone will know in a while. As expected, we have been preparing for a long time, but when he dies, many problems will arise.”

Even in an ordinary family, it is a big deal for his father to die.

Even if it’s an emotional issue, it’s because there aren’t just one or two things, from preparing for a funeral to inheriting an inheritance.

Things get more complicated when you have a lot of wealth to inherit. It is not uncommon for children to fight at funerals over the issue of inheritance.

How much more do you care about being a chaebol?

Chairman Im Il-kwon’s fortune is about 20 trillion won. He’s always been the undisputed number one in Korea’s wealthiest list (unfortunately, he had to give up the number one spot to some rookie who made a ton of money thanks to Brexit last year).

“What do you mean by multiple problems?”

Vice Chairman Im Jin-yong answered my question simply.(Read more @ wuxiax.com)

“It’s a management dispute.”

“… … .”

Also. I’ve guessed it to some extent since I spoke up earlier.

Lim Il-kwon had two sons and two daughters under his wife Yeon-Woo-Hyeon.

He fell suddenly, but he was already old. For this reason, he has been steadily working on succession and inheritance before that.

His eldest daughter, Su-mi Lim, is in the hotel and duty-free shop business (Ceylon Hotel), the second daughter Su-kyung Lim is in the fashion and resort business (Neverland), and the second son Seung-yong Lim is in the plant and heavy industry (Seoseong Engineering, Seoseong Heavy Industries).

And for his eldest son and successor, Im Jin-yong, a number of affiliates including the holding company, Seosung Trading, and Seosung Electronics, the core of the group, were assigned.

Taek-gyu asked.

“Is it Seosung Electronics?”

Vice Chairman Im Jin-yong shook his head.

“Electronic dominance is no problem.”

As far as I know, Vice Chairman Im Jin-yong owns less than 1 percent of Seosung Electronics’ shares. Lim Il-kwon, chairman of the board, is also at the 4 percent level, and when all stakes from related parties are included, the figure is less than 20 percent.

On the other hand, foreign investors, such as private equity funds, sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds, and asset management companies, hold more than 50 percent of the shares.

However, there are so many friendly stakes, and the board of directors all support Im Jin-yong. Therefore, the possibility of getting involved in a management dispute was extremely low.

“of course?”

“The problem is with Seoseong SB.”

Taek-gyu looked at me and asked.

“Is that a battery company? Delivered an exploded L6 battery.”

“right.”

Seosung SB is a company equipped with the world’s best technology and mass production system in the field of lithium-ion batteries.

As it is an affiliate, Suseong SB’s batteries are installed in electronic devices such as smartphones and laptops sold by Seosung Electronics.

Not only small batteries but also large-sized batteries are world-class, so we supply batteries for electric vehicles to several automakers including BMW. (The BMW i8 that Taek-gyu bought is also equipped with a SB battery.)

Considering that the electric vehicle market will expand in the future, the growth potential of Seosung SB is quite large.

“Who is aiming for control?”

“It’s my mother and my younger brother.”

It is not uncommon for people from chaebol families to fight over control of affiliates. That’s why, when I heard the story, I wasn’t really impressed.

What I’m curious about here is why are you trying to drag me into your own family quarrel?

“And there is a silver-sex difference behind it.”

“… … .”

Vice Chairman Im Jin-yong looked at my expression and smiled.