When Mun-jong and the others averted their eyes and gave no answer at all to Seong-ho’s request to participate in the rights offering, silence hung over the living room for a while.
Then Gyeong-eun, feeling frustrated at the sight, broke the silence.
“What is this? Have you all gone mute?”
Ordinarily Gyeong-eun would have quietly waited for Seong-ho to speak, but today of all days she couldn’t hold back.
“Why the silence? Eldest brother. When you need to ask a favor it’s fine, but when someone asks you to grant one, you don’t like it?”
“Me…?”
“Then who else here is the eldest brother but you?”
Mun-jong briefly watched for Tak-hyeon’s reaction.
Tak-hyeon showed no reaction at all, only wearing a gaze that seemed to find the situation amusing.
“That’s… haah…”
“What? You don’t want to take part in the rights offering?”
When Gyeong-eun persistently threw out the question, Mun-jong finally opened his mouth with difficulty.
“As you know, I don’t have a company I manage, do I? I’m merely the general Vice-Chairman. So ask the second son first. Ask what the second son is thinking.”
Gyeong-eun’s gaze shifted to Sang-jong.
Sang-jong glared once at Mun-jong for dragging him in, then opened his mouth.
“Ilhyeon Construction is… currently in the thick of the Seocho Town development, so we’re short on spare funds. If anything, I’d been thinking of borrowing money from Ilhyeon Securities… and hearing its condition is poor, it only leaves me in a bind.”
When Sang-jong shook his head, saying it couldn’t be done, Jeong-eun gave her reasons for refusing before she was even asked.
“It’s the same for us. Right now is an investment period, so we don’t have the capacity to participate in a hundreds-of-billions rights offering that Ilhyeon Securities is carrying out.”
Gyeong-eun turned her gaze to Chang-jong with a face that said she hadn’t expected anything.
Chang-jong raised his hand and said,
“I’m not a president, so there’s no use telling me. Talk to the person above me.”
At Chang-jong’s brief remark, Gyeong-eun let out a sigh.
“Are you all going to be like this?”
“You two, who have the means, go ahead. We don’t have the means.”
Jeong-eun gestured back and forth between Gyeong-eun and Seong-ho and said,
“A married couple helping each other and receiving each other’s help — that should do it. Shouldn’t it?”
When Jeong-eun looked around with a face asking how her idea was, Mun-jong furrowed his brow as if troubled and said to Seong-ho,
“Ilhyeon Securities… give it up. That would be better.”
He’d acknowledged the fact that it was a company that would serve as an important link in the succession process.
But that held meaning only if the company was alive until then — in the present situation, it clearly seemed it would become an existence worse than not having it at all.
In a situation where a large-scale rights offering of 600 billion won had to be carried out, continuing to drag it along didn’t seem like good judgment.
When Mun-jong finished, Tak-hyeon, who until then had only been quietly listening, opened his mouth.
“So it’s settled that no one will participate in the Ilhyeon Securities rights offering?”
“No.”
Gyeong-eun’s hand shot up.
“I’ll take part.”
Gyeong-eun looked around at the others seated there and gave a snort.
“I don’t know what everyone’s so afraid of, but I trust this man. So I’ll take part in the rights offering.”
It was a remark in which one could feel Gyeong-eun’s trust in Seong-ho Kim as a person, not simply because he was her husband.
“Don’t worry. If Ilhyeon Department Store and Ilhyeon Hotel both participate in the rights offering, we can take responsibility for up to 200 billion won on our side. The rest… let’s search well together.”
Even though Gyeong-eun had spoken boldly, she felt sorry over the fact that she could only put in an amount that wasn’t even half of the 600 billion.
But Seong-ho took Gyeong-eun’s hand and conveyed his gratitude.
“Thank you. You won’t regret it.”
“I know. When has anything you’ve done ever failed?”
Gyeong-eun spoke in a way meant for the other siblings to hear.
Watching that, Jeong-eun’s sneer.
“Aren’t you two having a fine time. So the two of you do it. There’s nothing wrong with the two of you collapsing flat together, either.”
“Sister-in-law!”
When Gyeong-eun shouted toward Jeong-eun, Tak-hyeon raised his hand.
“Let’s wrap it up now. If you want to do a 600 billion won rights offering, do it. And it’s fine that Gyeong-eun said she’ll take responsibility for 200 billion of the 600 billion. Only, know this one thing.”
Tak-hyeon turned his head toward Gyeong-eun.
“Ilhyeon Department Store and Ilhyeon Hotel are simply not yet separated from the group — they’re companies already in the winding-down stage with Ilhyeon Group. Just don’t forget that even if something goes wrong with the two of them, no other affiliate will help.”
Tak-hyeon nailed it down: if Ilhyeon Securities collapsed, Ilhyeon Department Store and Ilhyeon Hotel would collapse along with it, and even then there would be no group-level support.
Gyeong-eun bit her lower lip and answered in a loud voice.
“Even if it goes wrong, I won’t ask for help. And if worst comes to worst, I’ll go down to Nonsan and live farming with my parents-in-law, so don’t worry.”
Gyeong-eun spoke boldly with trembling lips.
The people present could tell that the display came not so much from confidence as from pride.
But whether Gyeong-eun’s bold words came from confidence or from pride didn’t matter.
What mattered was that all of this was moving exactly as Seong-ho had anticipated.
They step backward, as expected. And while you all step backward like that, Ilhyeon Group will come into our hands.
Seeing them, unaware that this very moment was the most important moment in the Ilhyeon Group succession, Seong-ho barely held back the laughter that threatened to come out.
Mun-guk Oh asked once more, thinking he might have misheard Seong-ho.
“Really… really, you’re saying the Chairman gave his permission?”
“Yes. I came back after hearing the answer to proceed with the rights offering.”
Mun-guk Oh only gazed intently at Seong-ho, not even noticing that the coffee set before him was going cold.
“I proposed a 600 billion won rights offering to the Chairman, and in the 600 billion won rights offering…”
“President. W-wait a moment.”
Executive Director Mun-guk Oh stopped Seong-ho’s words, blinked for a moment wondering if he’d misheard, and then opened his mouth.
“Did you just say 600 billion won?”
“Yes. I said 600 billion won.”
“I’m quite sure I said 300 billion won… Could there have been some mistake…?”
Seong-ho, apparently finding Mun-guk Oh’s reaction amusing, answered with a smile.
“No. You did say 300 billion won, Executive Director Oh.”
“Then how did it… become 600 billion won?”
“300 billion won is merely the amount to save Ilhyeon Securities from capital erosion, is it not? I thought that since we’re doing a rights offering anyway, it would be better to also secure funds that allow for aggressive investment, at a larger amount than that.”
Mun-guk Oh stared at Seong-ho with his mouth open.
Seong-ho wasn’t simply thinking of saving Ilhyeon Securities from capital erosion, but of the situation beyond that as well.
He’s an even more remarkable person than I’d heard.
The stories Mun-guk Oh had heard about Seong-ho were each and every one hard to believe.
Because seizing control of the group’s core in a short time wasn’t enough — the course he’d carried on within that core was something an ordinary person couldn’t do.
So Mun-guk Oh had often thought that most of the stories about Seong-ho were probably exaggeration.
As people of the owner family always did, if they’d done 10, they’d inflate it in the telling to 100 or even 1,000, or worse, mix in false stories claiming they’d done things they hadn’t and put them out into the world.
But the Seong-ho he’d experienced firsthand was clearly different.
“I’ll resolve the capital erosion with 300 billion won and push new businesses with the remaining 300 billion won. And on that basis, Ilhyeon Securities will make a leap.”
Seong-ho drank his coffee to wet his mouth for a moment and continued.
“To others’ eyes, the present Ilhyeon Securities may look to be in the midst of a crisis, but I’m different. If anything, I think it’s a very good opportunity to make a leap.”
Seong-ho set down his coffee cup and said to Mun-guk Oh, who still couldn’t say anything,
“When carrying out a rights offering to resolve the company’s difficulties, we can draw in investment funds at the same time? What a good opportunity this is. I don’t want to miss this opportunity.”
When Seong-ho finished, Mun-guk Oh slowly nodded.
“If it can be done as you say, it would be icing on the cake. But President…”
Mun-guk Oh stopped his nodding and asked while looking at Seong-ho,
“Will affiliates be participating in the rights offering?”
“Ilhyeon Department Store and Ilhyeon Hotel each plan to participate with 100 billion won.”
“Ilhyeon Department Store 100 billion, Ilhyeon Hotel 100 billion… Then how do you plan to raise the remaining 400 billion?”
Though Ilhyeon Department Store and Ilhyeon Hotel were said to participate in the rights offering, it was still money that didn’t even amount to half the total.
That alone couldn’t resolve the rights-offering amount.
“Surely your plan isn’t to proceed through a public offering… is it?”
Mun-guk Oh felt a chill run down his spine.
The market wasn’t just hitting bottom — it was in a situation where it had drilled down through about ten basement floors.
To raise funds through a public offering right now had an extremely low chance of realization, and was tantamount to hanging a sign around your neck reading “we may soon go under.”
It could be called the worst possible move — so bad it would almost be better to say the company had fallen into difficulty and been delisted from the exchange.
Mun-guk Oh didn’t think Seong-ho was unaware of this.
But he thought that Seong-ho could fall into the trap of thinking “we” or “I” are different and make the worst choice.
So he asked in a trembling voice, and after the question, he waited for Seong-ho’s answer with a heart hoping, please, that it wasn’t so.
“In a situation like this, we can’t proceed with a public offering.”
“Haah…”
Executive Director Mun-guk Oh let out a sigh of relief without realizing it.
But in the place vacated by his tension, a question took root.
“Then where do you plan to raise the funds?”
“Just as you entrusted the rights offering to me, you can entrust that problem to me as well. Because I’ll handle it as I see fit. More than that, I mean to discuss something else with you, Executive Director Oh.”
“Something else? What…?”
“Wouldn’t it be about the new direction that Ilhyeon Securities, having escaped the state of capital erosion through the rights offering, will advance in?”
Seeing Seong-ho, who didn’t regard the crisis right before his eyes as a crisis, Mun-guk Oh inwardly clicked his tongue in amazement.
He’d shown directly, through word and action, that his saying he’d handle it himself wasn’t idle bluster.
“I have one good idea.”
“A good idea?”
“Yes. It’s a very good method that can bring Ilhyeon Securities back from the dead — would you like to hear it?”
Seong-ho, wearing a smile at his lips, laid a hand on the leather diary set on one side of the desk.
And he recalled in his mind the scene he’d looked at just before Mun-guk Oh came.
[…… As the IMF era arrived, the stock market, which had risen on expectations, plummeted once again. 277. In a market that had marked a number no one could imagine, investors could no longer be found. It was then that Mirae Securities launched an interesting campaign. Buy Korea. Mirae Securities…]
Seong-ho slowly explained to Mun-guk Oh the story that had been written in the diary.
Chung-seop Jo, who’d come in following Byeong-jin Jo, couldn’t hide his uncomfortable expression.
“Is there somewhere you’re feeling unwell?”
Byeong-jin, sensing something strange in Chung-seop’s failing to follow him properly and hesitating, stopped his steps and asked.
“That’s…”
Chung-seop stopped speaking for a moment, looked around, and then answered.
“Isn’t this Ilhyeon Securities’ headquarters?”
“Does that make you uncomfortable?”
“You may not know, Team Leader Jo, but the truth is I used to work here.”
“At Ilhyeon Securities headquarters?”
“No, not headquarters…”
Chung-seop touched the back of his head with his hand and smiled awkwardly.
“I was at a branch…”
“Ah, is that so. But why does it make you uncomfortable?”
Byeong-jin, still not understanding even after hearing Chung-seop’s account, tilted his head and asked Chung-seop.
Wondering if there might be someone who’d recognize him, Chung-seop lightly covered his face and answered,
“You may not know this, Team Leader Jo, but coming to a former workplace isn’t so pleasant.”
“Did you perhaps leave on bad terms?”
“No. That’s not it.”
Chung-seop hurriedly shook his head and said,
“There was nothing about leaving on bad terms — I submitted my resignation and quit through proper procedures. The reason I quit was for starting a business, so I’m still on good terms with my colleagues.”
“Then there’s no reason for it to be unpleasant, is there?”
“That’s true, but…”
Chung-seop Jo, CEO of Future Asset, which had entered the institutional sphere anew by acquiring a securities firm.
He looked up at the ceiling of Ilhyeon Securities as if it were strange that he, as CEO of Future Asset, had come to his former workplace.
(End of Chapter 172)