CH399 | Heir

Two days ago, the inauguration and farewell ceremony was held with great pomp.

All of Taewoo Group’s executives attended, along with many executives from financial firms housed in the Finance Tower.

Yet the mood between the first half and the second half of the event was entirely different.

When Vice Chairman Park Mandeok stepped down from his roles as Taewoo Group’s Vice Chairman and head of the financial subsidiaries, the applause was thunderous.

It was proof of his outstanding character and ability.

As someone who had protected Taewoo Group for many years, he was held in deep respect.

But the atmosphere changed during the latter half of the event, when President Han Junghoon was inaugurated as Vice Chairman.

He was younger than most of the executives, and he carried the label of having left Taewoo Group for Wall Street before returning.

Because of that, there wasn’t an outpouring of cheers.

Still, no one openly opposed his appointment.

Rumors had long spread within the group that President Han held a firm grip on Taewoo’s cash flow.

And so, Han Junghoon became Vice Chairman.

Just a day after assuming the title, he was invited to a state banquet at the Blue House.

And today, early in the morning, he came to see me to report on what had happened there.

“Since becoming Vice Chairman, even the air around you feels different. If you carried yourself with that same presence at the Blue House banquet, I’m sure the conversation must have gone very well.”

“...Chairman, were you aware? That the purpose of the Blue House banquet was essentially extortion?”

“Extortion? I don’t know anything about that.”

“We were given something close to a threat. They demanded contributions to a foundation, collected according to corporate rankings. The pressure is also being applied through the Federation of Korean Industries.”

I continued to act as if I didn’t know anything.

Vice Chairman Han, clearly frustrated, thumped his chest with his fist and went on.

“They’re demanding a contribution of over 77 billion won in total. Since Taewoo Group is number one in the business world, they even bluntly said we should pay the most.”

“So how much has Taewoo Group been assigned?”

“For now, 20 billion won. They singled out Taewoo Group and Samsung Electronics and told us each to contribute 20 billion.”

Twenty billion won was by no means a small amount.

Yes, we had earned tens of trillions in the first quarter alone, but that was the result of our own hard work. Donating 20 billion won to a foundation was an entirely different matter.

“But why did we and Samsung Electronics get the same amount? Shouldn’t we be asked to pay more, since we’re ranked first?”

“That struck me as suspicious too, so I looked into it a bit. It seems Samsung is in the middle of a succession process, and that’s why they’ve been asked to pay the same as us.”

“Did you look into anything else?”

“Yes. It turns out companies that agreed to contribute were promised compensation in return—overseas construction contracts, temporary MOUs, and even help with succession issues. The government seems to have given its word.”

Large conglomerates have always had big problems to match their size.

Especially those focused on the domestic market—they were vulnerable to government pressure.

In Korea’s current business climate, if the government openly supported one company, its rival could lose contracts and see sales plummet.

“But in our case, there’s nothing much we’d gain, is there?”

“One of the senior secretaries at the Blue House did casually mention a few offers. They’d push highway projects toward Taewoo Construction and guarantee a few energy-related contracts.”

“Not exactly offers that appeal to us.”

Most of Taewoo Group’s revenue came from overseas.

Of course, we had a strong share of the domestic market as well, but it was less than a quarter of what we earned in the U.S.

From our perspective, there was no need to accept such offers.

We already had the capacity to win major projects without government support and to expand abroad on our own.

“Even if the offers don’t appeal, don’t we have no choice but to contribute? The government is framing it as being for the Olympic bid. If we refuse, we’ll immediately be branded as an unscrupulous corporation.”

“Being branded unscrupulous doesn’t matter. What does matter is that the government would find endless ways to make life difficult for Taewoo Group.”

“They could start with a tax audit, then target our new headquarters and even Finance Tower. And if they throw up obstacles at every permit stage, all our subsidiaries would struggle.”

The Blue House held near-imperial power.

It couldn’t destroy Taewoo Group outright, but it certainly had enough authority to make life miserable for us.

“Rather than giving it all at once, let’s split the payment.”

“You mean paying the contribution in installments? I doubt the government will like that.”

“Still, we wouldn’t be refusing outright. At the very least, they shouldn’t punish us for it.”

“So how should we divide the payments?”

“Say that this year and next year we’ll contribute 2.5 billion each, and then in the third year we’ll provide 15 billion.”

“Is there a reason you want to pay only 2.5 billion in the first two years? From the group’s perspective, the best option would be 5 billion a year for four years.”

Because three years later, we wouldn’t have to pay at all.

By next year, the foundation’s corruption would start hitting the news.

And the year after, the president’s impeachment proceedings would begin—saving us 15 billion won.

“Who knows what will happen near the end of the administration? Better to pay as little as possible now and wait for the lame-duck period to play out.”

“That doesn’t sound like a bad plan. From what I saw at the banquet, I got the impression the lame-duck period might come sooner than expected.”

“Why do you say that?”

The banquet hall must have seemed lively and harmonious on the surface.

Yet Vice Chairman Han had noticed undercurrents.

“Chairman Cho of Hyunjin Group is serving as head of the Olympic Bid Committee. But something wasn’t going well—he even raised his voice at a senior secretary from the Blue House.”

“Chairman Cho certainly has a firm backbone. He wouldn’t tolerate constant interference.”

I couldn’t help but think this might be the spark.

Even before my regression, there had been talk that Hyunjin Shipping collapsed after falling out of favor with the Blue House.

Clashes between the foundation and the Olympic Bid Committee.

The fallout left Hyunjin Shipping cut off from government support, eventually leading to its bankruptcy. It wasn’t an implausible scenario.

“I wonder if Chairman Cho will even be able to hold on to his position as head of the bid committee. The foundation seemed to wield more power than he did.”

“Knowing Chairman Cho, he won’t simply endure it quietly.”

But even a conglomerate chairman had little recourse when facing the living power of the state.

He would likely be forced to step down from the committee and spend the rest of the administration under pressure, waiting for the regime to end.

“We’d better keep our distance and avoid getting burned by the sparks.”

“Exactly. Forget about the Blue House for now, and focus only on the China matter.”

“Six hundred billion dollars from Taewoo Group and Finance Tower has been safely funneled into the Chinese stock market. We’re gradually increasing the volume of short positions, and at the latest by June, we should be able to unload the full six hundred billion.”

The larger the scale of an investment, the more complicated the process became.

To execute short selling on the scale of six hundred billion dollars, we had to spread it across a wide range of companies. Depending on the company, the returns could vary drastically.

“Handle it as you see fit, but make sure the financial firms in Finance Tower don’t feel like they’re being treated unfairly.”

“I’ve designed the portfolio so that even if Taewoo Securities takes a slight hit in returns, the overall profitability of Finance Tower rises.”

“Just don’t be too generous. If they get used to being fed, they’ll start thinking of it as their due.”

What we needed were hunting dogs.

A dog that’s too well-fed won’t bother to hunt.

That’s why we had to ration just enough feed, training them to be obedient hounds.

“I’ll see to it. But according to the information we’ve gathered on China, it looks like the real estate market is already in a slump. They say hundreds of small and mid-sized construction companies are going bankrupt.”

“With so much money pulled out of real estate and redirected into the stock market, of course real estate would be the first to falter.”

“Which explains why Finance Tower is full of firms eager to short construction companies.”

“Make sure to coordinate things so they can short the targets they want.”

The larger the pool of money, the greater the destructive force it carried.

That was why I chose to move in concert with the financial firms inside Finance Tower.

If Taewoo Securities carried out short selling alone, the effect would be limited. But if the entire Finance Tower moved together, the Chinese stock market would plunge even more dramatically.

And when the U.S.–China power struggle began, the financial firms of Finance Tower would act as hunting dogs, protecting me.

That was why I kept feeding them, raising them carefully.

“And there’s news from Wall Street. It seems the number of hedge funds Chanos has bankrupted has reached twenty.”

“So most of the hedge funds that joined the short-selling spree ended up collapsing.”

“They say even the bankrupt firms are being stripped to the bone. Because of that, people on Wall Street hate not only looking Chanos in the eye but even being in the same room with him.”

Chanos had established himself as a true grim reaper.

At a glance, it might look like Wall Street was shunning him.

But it wasn’t ostracism—it was fear.

The financial firms of Wall Street were terrified that if the grim reaper fixed his gaze on them, they too would meet death in the form of bankruptcy.

“He certainly knows how to swing the blade. Once he’s finished cutting down over there, tell him to move on to China. Before long, there will be no shortage of places that need cutting down there too.”

“Do you intend to have Chanos handle the cleanup of bankrupt Chinese companies as well?”

“Who else could make them cough up money out of fear? Only someone like Chanos. And right now, he’s consumed by madness. In a communist state like China, he’s the only lunatic who can cut down companies openly.”

Launching large-scale short selling against Chinese companies would inevitably weaken our ties, no matter how close we’d been before.

Even if we shared part of the profits with top Chinese officials, our relationship would never be the same.

And if the THAAD missile defense dispute escalated into a cultural ban, it could push the relationship past the point of no return.

That meant we had to prepare for a new kind of relationship with China.

Until now, we had intentionally taken a submissive stance toward the Chinese leadership.

But soon, as the Taewoo Group rose as a key player in the U.S.–China power struggle, we would have to stand on equal footing, negotiating and conversing as peers.

“Once the work in China is done, I’ll have Chanos handle the shorting of major corporations. So make sure he has access to the information he needs.”

“Are you saying you plan to raise Chanos as Taewoo Group’s personal hitman?”

“Not a hitman. More like a cleaner. Assassins work quietly, in the shadows. A cleaner sweeps everything away in broad daylight, leaving not a speck of dust behind.”

There would be endless opportunities for short selling ahead.

Especially once the era of COVID arrived—countless companies would collapse.

To prepare for that day, Chanos had to be shaped into the perfect corporate cleaner.

I was still deep in discussion with Vice Chairman Han about Chanos when Director Cheon Min-jung burst into the office in a panic.

The urgency on her face alone told me something serious had happened, and her first words made me leap to my feet.

“Novo Nordisk just contacted us! They’re planning to scrap the new drug!”