Sang-jong walked slowly to the sofa without taking his eyes off Seong-ho. Dropping heavily onto it, he said, “Fine. Let’s hear it. Let’s at least hear how liquidating my stocks is supposed to be for my benefit.”
Unlike when he’d first stormed in, Sang-jong now showed himself willing to listen, and Seong-ho smiled. Keeping his eyes on Sang-jong, he began in a calm voice.
“Does the stock market look good to you right now?”
“You saying it’s bad?”
“Yes. I think it’s very bad.”
“Not just bad — very bad?” Sang-jong frowned at him. “That’s not what the Ilhyeon Securities people told me.”
“And what did they say?”
At the question, Sang-jong recalled what the Ilhyeon Securities people had told him and answered. “That the market’s unstable right now because of the Dubo affair, but once that’s settled it could climb… and it’s actually climbing right now, too.”
“And if it isn’t settled?”
“What?”
“Did they not tell you what happens if it isn’t settled?”
“What are you talking about?”
“So you didn’t hear it. What things look like if it isn’t settled.”
When Sang-jong only blinked, Seong-ho smiled as if he’d expected as much. “Brother, think about why the chairman is throwing himself into this restructuring. If it were all going to settle, and the market steady, and everything come back to where it was, why would we be doing this?” He spread his hands and went on. “The Ilhyeon Construction stake you hold, Brother — the chairman gave it to you. If word got out that you’d pledged it as collateral to play the market, what do you think he’d make of that?”
“I’ll just win!”
“Right. You just have to win.” Seong-ho agreed at once with Sang-jong’s shouted words. “And have you thought about what happens when you don’t?”
Sang-jong couldn’t answer. He was no fool. He’d thought through the very situation Seong-ho described, and he’d calculated what would come down on him if it happened. And yet he’d made his choice for a reason all the same.
“You think I haven’t thought about it?” After a long silence, Sang-jong spoke with a thoroughly sour look. “I blew 300 billion won, and for that I got thrown out of the seat I sat in. If I want that seat back, the only way is to make the money back.”
“And nothing beats stocks for making it back fast?”
“That’s right.” Sang-jong glared at him. “Anyone else, maybe not — but you, of all people, should know exactly what I mean.”
“I know it well. I made a good deal of money on stocks myself.”
Sang-jong’s brow narrowed slightly. He hadn’t expected Seong-ho to admit so readily that he’d made money on stocks. But that wasn’t the only thing he hadn’t expected.
“And it’s because I know it that well that I’m telling you this. What the Ilhyeon Securities people told you is all nonsense. The market is going to collapse soon, and you’re going to take a heavy loss.”
What Seong-ho said next was, again, entirely unexpected. To the flustered Sang-jong, Seong-ho went on in a voice grown calmer, pressing his case. “Brother. If I’m wrong, I’ll make good whatever profit you’d have earned. So pull your foot out now. The situation is not good.”
Sang-jong looked down at the contract in his hand. Written there was the figure of 50 billion won. Fifty billion was not the sum Sang-jong had set his sights on. His goal had been to win back the whole 300 billion, so 50 billion felt like pocket change to him. And yet, for all that, his resolve wavered.
“Why…? Why are you trying to stop me from taking a loss?” Sang-jong asked, still looking down at the contract.
Seong-ho answered the question in his heart. Because you can’t be knocked out of the picture yet. Only with you here can I keep the balance against Mun-jong. That’s why I mean to keep you alive.
Hiding the true reason in one corner of his chest, Seong-ho spoke only the words Sang-jong would like to hear. “Brother. Losing 300 billion on the Dubo investment isn’t a big problem. In business, that sort of thing comes up often enough. And since it happened because Dubo set out to deceive you and came at you deliberately, in time the chairman will forgive you for it. But pledging your Ilhyeon Construction stake as collateral is the kind of thing the chairman won’t forgive. And on top of that, if you were to actually lose the stake…”
“I’d never set foot in the company again…”
“Exactly.” As Sang-jong turned his eyes from the contract back to him, Seong-ho smiled softly. “Brother. Aren’t we family? And when family is in danger of coming to harm, of course you help. That’s why I’m moving so desperately to help you.”
“Family? You and me?”
A sneer spread across Sang-jong’s face.
Tup.
Without wiping the sneer away, he tossed the contract in his hand down in front of Seong-ho and rose. “Don’t forget your promise to make the money good.”
“Of course, Brother.”
Seong-ho rose after him. Sang-jong turned without so much as a glance at him, and without a word of parting, left the office.
Seong-ho followed him out to see him off. “Get home safe, Brother.” Watching Sang-jong’s retreating back, Seong-ho lifted his head, and a deep smile spread across his face.
Just then Byeong-jin came over. “Seong-ho. Word is the affiliate presidents — the Ilhyeon Foods president among them — are meeting up at Ilhyeon Fashion.”
Still smiling, Seong-ho turned to him. “Good. Let’s start with the ones gathered at Ilhyeon Fashion.”
At his words, Byeong-jin nodded, said he understood, and gathered the Restructuring Headquarters staff.
Seong-ho turned his gaze to the doorway a moment, then turned and went back into his office. On his face, as he went, was a look brimming with anticipation of what lay ahead.
Even with the Restructuring Headquarters’ instructions, the affiliates dragged their feet. More than half hadn’t so much as submitted a plan for how they’d bring their debt ratios down by year’s end, and most took a sluggish attitude toward the orders, acting as though time would sort it out on its own. As this went on, the Restructuring Headquarters stepped in directly.
“What is this?”
The Ilhyeon Foods staff were thrown into confusion by the Restructuring Headquarters personnel who’d suddenly descended on them. Byeong-jin shoved past a flustered Ilhyeon Foods employee and ordered his own people, “Box up every last relevant document and take it back to headquarters. Collect all of it — don’t leave a single sheet of paper, not one pen.”
“What do you think you’re doing?”
The employee Byeong-jin had shoved came back at him and demanded an answer. And then the president of Ilhyeon Foods arrived at the office the Restructuring Headquarters staff had stormed. “Who are you? Who do you think you are, doing this here?”
Confirming that the man was the Ilhyeon Foods president, Byeong-jin walked over to him. “Good day. I’m Byeong-jin Jo of the Restructuring Headquarters. On the Head’s instructions, I’ve come to collect the past five years of Ilhyeon Foods’ ledgers.”
The Ilhyeon Foods president knocked the business card Byeong-jin held out away with the back of his hand. Then, jabbing a finger at him, he shouted, “I don’t care who you are. By what right do you mean to take our company’s ledgers?”
Byeong-jin picked the fallen card up off the floor and brushed the dust from it. “Aren’t you aware? That every Ilhyeon Group affiliate must follow the Restructuring Headquarters’ orders.”
“Orders?”
“You were clearly told to submit a debt-resolution plan by last week, and not a single one reached us. So we intend to step in and sort out Ilhyeon Foods’ debt ourselves. Provided, of course, that Ilhyeon Foods is a place worth keeping within Ilhyeon. If it isn’t, the direction will be toward a sale or a liquidation.”
“You—”
As the Ilhyeon Foods president looked ready to lunge at him, security staff quickly moved to shield Byeong-jin, blocking the way. From behind the security men glaring fiercely at the president, Byeong-jin spoke. “The Headquarters gave you time and waited. It’s Ilhyeon Foods that failed to hold up its end. From here on, the restructuring of Ilhyeon Foods will be carried out by the Headquarters directly — so understand it as such.”
Having served notice on the president, Byeong-jin turned back to his people. “We’ll sort it out once we’re back at headquarters. For now, focus on packing it up.” He urged them to sweep the documents together and move fast.
At his order, the Restructuring Headquarters staff swept everything within reach into the boxes they’d brought. And one by one, starting with whoever had filled a box, they began to file out of the company. The staff who’d surged in like an incoming tide flowed back out of Ilhyeon Foods headquarters faster than any ebb. The Ilhyeon Foods employees could only watch, helpless, as the Restructuring Headquarters people came and went.
The same scene played out the next day at Ilhyeon Housing. And the day after that, at Ilhyeon Shipbuilding… One by one, the Restructuring Headquarters paid its visits to the very affiliates that had gone to Chairman Tak-hyeon and Vice-Chairman Mun-jong to protest it.
Once the Restructuring Headquarters stepped in directly, things moved quickly.
“It does seem Ilhyeon Foods is best wound down.”
Having analyzed the documents Byeong-jin had swept up, Deputy Head Yong-nam Mun handed the results to Seong-ho. Seong-ho looked over the material Yong-nam had passed him as he listened to the report.
“Operating profit against revenue is at a very low level. Even granting that this is the nature of the food business, I’d judge it a poor fit with our corporate culture, which prizes growth.”
“Three percent against revenue… low, no question.”
“And even that 3% is the best figure attainable only when market conditions are flat. If the exchange rate rises and raw-material costs spike, there’s a strong chance of large-scale losses.”
Seong-ho looked over Deputy Head Yong-nam Mun’s analysis and nodded. “Good. Let’s set the direction for Ilhyeon Foods toward a sale. Where’s next?”
To Seong-ho’s decision, Deputy Head Gyeong-deuk Lee answered, “Next is Ilhyeon Housing. Ilhyeon Housing…”
Gathering Deputy Heads Gyeong-deuk and Yong-nam and the team leaders and above of the Restructuring Headquarters, Seong-ho held a meeting to dispose of the companies Byeong-jin had swept up. Under Yong-nam’s direction, the company ledgers were broken down and examined in fine detail; under Gyeong-deuk’s direction, the affiliates’ futures were weighed. With the results laid out, Seong-ho chose one of three options. Sell the company, liquidate the company, or carry the company forward. Once Seong-ho’s judgment came down, that became the company’s future then and there.
Hearing Yong-nam’s analysis and Gyeong-deuk’s account of market conditions, Seong-ho decided Ilhyeon Housing’s future. “Set Ilhyeon Housing’s direction toward liquidation. Put its held houses and commercial units up for sale, and find a single buyer to take over its existing property-management clients as a lot.”
“What do you think about a sale?” Gyeong-deuk carefully offered his own view. “It holds quite a lot of assets, so setting the direction toward a bulk sale doesn’t seem a bad idea.”
“If anything, having so many assets means a strong chance the sale won’t go smoothly.”
Recalling how, in that former life, he’d struggled trying and failing to sell off Ilhyeon Housing, Seong-ho shook his head. “Ilhyeon Housing goes toward liquidation, and we wind it down. Now let’s move on.”
“Yes. Next is Ilhyeon Shipbuilding.”
The meeting on disposing of the affiliates ran late into the night. Once it ended, the next day each affiliate was notified of the Restructuring Headquarters’ decision. There were affiliates like Ilhyeon Machinery that were relieved at the decision, but most fell into shock and grief. Because most of the places the Headquarters had chosen to handle directly were ailing affiliates, and the verdicts came back as sale or liquidation.
The presidents, the Ilhyeon Foods president foremost among them, protested the Restructuring Headquarters’ decisions fiercely. But protest did not make the Headquarters overturn its verdicts. In the end, faced with decisions that wouldn’t change, the Ilhyeon Foods president and the others turned their steps toward Ilhyeon Fashion. Because Managing Director Jeong-eun Lee of Ilhyeon Fashion, unlike Head Kim of the Restructuring Headquarters, gave their grievances a ready ear. They pressed their case to Jeong-eun that the Headquarters’ verdicts were unjust, and Jeong-eun took in every one of their complaints. And gathering up their discontent and holding it to her chest, she set off for Pyeongchang-dong.
(End of Chapter 79)