After the Divorce, I Found a Thousand Bitcoins - Chapter 27

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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I Got Divorced and Found a Thousand Bitcoins Episode 027

After finishing the two-hour meeting, Li Chunseong left.

Once only the two of them remained, Kang Myeong-gu asked with an anxious expression.

“Is this okay? They’re expressing such concerns.”

Li Chunseong had come for one reason.

-As the second-largest shareholder of KH Construction, we at Dongbang Partners Korea express our concerns about the theme park project that KH Construction is currently pursuing.

Though expressed indirectly, in simple terms, he was telling them not to proceed with that project.

Kang Myeong-gu understood this and was feeling anxious.

Kang Hyeon calmed down such Kang Myeong-gu.

“It’s fine. Even though they’re the second-largest shareholder, KH Recovery holds 66 percent of the shares, so there’s not much they can do.”

When shares are dispersed, the second-largest shareholder is dangerous, but now it was different.

Yet the fact that they came meant they were showing action.

‘Since they hold this much stake, don’t forget about us. Are they appealing something like this?’

It was an appropriate action.

But he didn’t like it.

‘The jeonse fraud ultimately happened because of those bastards too.’

It was those guys, Dongbang Partners, who made them purchase the villa complex land.

When they bought shares, they leaked information about the land to CEO Oh and made him purchase it.

Later, when the project fell through, they pressured CEO Oh, suggesting he pursue other projects.

It was a common method used by private equity funds without controlling stakes.

Unable to withstand that pressure, CEO Oh chose jeonse fraud, and ultimately Mother received part of that damage.

That’s why he disliked those guys even more.

‘Most importantly, that person’s declining blue light means it will benefit me.’

What exactly was happening?

He needed to investigate more thoroughly when he returned.

“By the way, CEO Kang. How is the company doing?”

“Ah! Since you’re here, let me tell you about it. Currently, the core members of the former JS Construction are gathering again. These guys worked on other sites too, so their work will be fantastic. And…”

Listening to Kang Myeong-gu’s story, who showed a more energetic appearance than when they first met, he drew up KH Construction’s blueprint.

* * *

Returning to the office, Kang Hyeon called Kwangho and Kim Seong-won to the conference room.

“Do you know anything about Dongbang Partners?”

“Dongbang Partners is a Chinese private equity fund, isn’t it?”

The answer came from Kim Seong-won’s mouth.

As attention focused on him, he continued his response.

“It was a company I had as a candidate when I was preparing for internships. At that time, Dongbang Partners was just entering the industry, so the hiring conditions weren’t strict.”

“Since you say you had it as a candidate, you didn’t end up joining?”

“No. There were too many confidentiality clauses and things to comply with in the contract. Especially the requirement to use a smartphone provided by the company was off-putting, so I gave up.”

Having many confidentiality clauses for security was common in investment companies.

But requiring the use of a company-provided smartphone was not common.

“This is what I heard when working at another company after giving up on joining there. The rumors aren’t very good.”

“What kind of stories?”

“Among my peers, there was a friend who graduated from Peking University and did internships in China. That friend said Dongbang Partners has a bad reputation even within China. One of the reasons is…”

Both people’s gazes fixed on Seong-won.

“They do a lot of gray area transactions.”

Gray area.

It meant the boundary between legal and illegal.

“So they conduct transactions while taking on considerable risks.”

“Yes. That’s why they’re evaluated as one of the rapidly growing private equity funds even within China. The Korean branch is also influenced by this headquarters approach and conducts many aggressive transactions.”

The general picture became clear.

Their pressure on CEO Oh of JS Construction was originally the company’s nature.

They say humans are animals of adaptation, so when exposed to such environments, they either flee or conform.

The people currently remaining at Dongbang Partners could be said to be those who conformed and adapted to the environment.

“If it’s a company with such tendencies, it’ll be quite troublesome, right? It means they could attack KH Construction from the outside.”

Kwangho’s assessment was accurate.

Since they only have 34 percent of shares, methods to attack from within are distant.

But it wasn’t a company that would just sit idle.

‘I need to find a way. Most importantly, that man called Li Chunseong had quite strong blue light. Something could happen soon.’

The light only showed stock prices or how people would turn out in the future.

Timing it accurately was something Kang Hyeon had to do himself.

“Both of you, please mobilize your networks to gather information about Dongbang Partners Korea. Where they conduct transactions, what products they’re focusing on recently. Everything.”

“Understood.”

“And it would be good if you could also gather information about a man named Li Chunseong from Dongbang Partners Korea.”

“Li Chunseong? He doesn’t seem to be Korean.”

“He seems to be Chinese. From seeing him visit KH Construction directly today, he might be a key figure.”

“Yes, then I’ll gather related information.”

Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated.

First, they needed to know their opponent accurately.

* * *

Kang Hyeon made one request through Manager Jeong Min-jun.

-CEO, I’ve finished checking the articles of incorporation. Fortunately, the articles are structured so the second-largest shareholder can’t interfere, so there’s nothing particular to fix.

“That’s fortunate. I was worried there might be problematic areas since the second-largest shareholder suddenly came attacking.”

-Did you say the second-largest shareholder is Dongbang Partners?

“Yes, that’s correct. Do you happen to know anything about them?”

-I’ll mobilize my network to look into it.

“Thank you. I’ll ask for your help.”

Dongbang Partners Korea was quite a secretive company.

‘Most investment companies show some kind of movement when they establish branches domestically. But this place hasn’t shown any notable movement since investing in JS Construction shares.’

Establishing a branch and making investments meant there was work to be done there.

Yet showing only this level of movement felt strange.

‘There’s definitely something there.’

But finding answers immediately was difficult.

Foreign investment companies don’t reveal themselves well to the outside.

Since they have few personnel, there was little word spreading outside.

It was when several days passed without much gain.

“Time has already gotten to this point.”

Before he knew it, quitting time had passed.

From how quiet it was outside, the employees seemed to have already left work.

Kang Hyeon also packed his things to leave work.

As expected, all other employees had left work, but there was someone alone guarding the office.

“Haven’t you left yet?”

“Oh, I was doing something.”

It was Kwangho.

Kang Hyeon chuckled and approached him as he sat watching the monitor while answering.

“Won’t A-yeon get angry if you go home late?”

“A-yeon is in Santorini with Mother-in-law right now.”

“Santorini?”

“Yeah, I told them to travel a bit with the bonus they received. I arranged a full cruise course schedule and sent them.”

A cruise trip.

That seemed like it wouldn’t be bad.

“Oh, take a look at this.”

“Huh? What is it?”

Looking at the screen Kwangho was pointing to, a familiar program caught his eye.

“Is that an automated trading program?”

“Yeah. I was doing backtesting to gather some data while updating it this time.”

Backtesting meant testing whether one’s strategy would actually work in the market.

Since testing with real assets in the current market could lead to significant losses, most people bring in past data to conduct tests.

“But I discovered an unusual pattern.”

“Pattern?”

“Yeah, this is BANKNIFTY being traded in India.”

India was one of the countries where the financial market grew rapidly during the COVID era.

The population itself was large, and when the pandemic called COVID occurred, they looked for something they could do at home.

What they found in that process was stocks.

“What about it?”

“At first, I didn’t notice anything particularly strange.”

Click!

When Lim Kwang-ho pressed a button, three charts appeared.

Seeing them, Kang Hyeon could immediately tell what those charts were displaying.

“Those are options?”

“Yeah, they’re all options linked to BANKNIFTY. And they’re ultra-short-term ones, not long-term.”

Click!

When he pressed the button again, four charts overlapped.

Though the charts usually moved differently, they showed the same movement at specific points.

“What is this? Why are they all moving together?”

“I’m not sure about that yet. I think I need to look into it more, but one thing is certain.”

Kwangho leaned back in his chair.

“Some institution has targeted India as their prey again.”

It was common for institutions to target specific countries.

“Someone is making money using the Indian index through a specific source?”

“Well, otherwise this kind of movement doesn’t make sense. If we knew what that source was, we could find out who’s pulling these tricks.”

Emerging countries like India are always targets for foreign investors.

Even South Korea had a saying that it was a playground for foreigners, with the market designed in a structure favorable to foreign institutions.

The best method was simply not to get caught up in their games.

“But couldn’t that be considered illegal if things go wrong?”

“If they get caught, yes. But it’s so sophisticated that it won’t be easy to catch. I only discovered this by chance. If I were still at my original company, catching this would be impossible.”

Since coming to KH Capital, Kwangho had been freely continuing his research and development.

Being able to focus his time entirely on that, he was producing truly diverse results.

This information was just caught as a byproduct of that process.

“Above all, we can’t tell if this is one institution doing this or if it’s everyone. If it’s one place doing this, they might be caught under market manipulation laws, but if it’s multiple parties, well, there’s no way around it.”

“Guys like Eastern.”

“Are there only one or two places like that? This is one of the methods institutions commonly use.”

Trading in gray areas was one of the methods commonly used by institutions.

Trading that straddles the line between illegal and legal.

They earn income from there, and in the process, individual investors sometimes suffer losses.

Ring-!

Just then, Kang Hyeon’s phone rang.

Looking at the screen, it was a call from an unknown number.

Since there was nowhere that would contact him at this hour, he pressed the call button with a puzzled mind.

“Hello.”

-President, I’m sorry for the late hour. This is Li Chunseong.

It was a call from Dongbang Partners Korea.

* * *

At Li Chunseong’s request for a meeting, Kang Hyeon arrived at the hotel lounge.

Li Chunseong, whom he met there, showed a good-natured smile.

“Thank you for coming out even at this late hour.”

“You said something that made it impossible not to come out.”

“Haha, please sit. Would you like a drink?”

He asked while lifting the Maotai liquor he had been drinking.

“I’m fine.”

“It’s precious liquor. It’s a shame you’re refusing.”

Saying that, he poured liquor into his own glass and downed it in one gulp.

“Ahh!”

Watching him enjoy the taste of the liquor, Kang Hyeon spoke.

“Let’s get straight to the point. You said you’re transferring shares?”

“To be precise, it’s price negotiation. Wouldn’t it be uncomfortable for you too if we hold shares?”

That was true.

If shares were divided and the second-largest shareholder took an opposing stance, the likelihood of local governments not selecting them as the developer would increase.

The other party knew this too, which is why they came to negotiate.

“Fine. Tell me the price you want.”

Li Chunseong smiled and presented a document.

[JS Construction Stock]

[Holdings: 22,100,000 shares]

[Value per share: 10,000 won]

[Total value: 221,000,000,000 won]

The price they proposed was ridiculous.

A blue light was actually appearing at that price.

As if telling him that accepting this price would be a loss for him.

Thud!

Kang Hyeon immediately put down the document and said.

“These are absolutely unacceptable terms.”

At the declaration of negotiation breakdown, Li Chunseong showed a relaxed expression while pouring Maotai into his glass and bringing it to his mouth again.

“Won’t you regret this? This price won’t come up again in the next negotiation.”

Li Chunseong spoke with confident words.

But Kang Hyeon wasn’t swayed by his words.

‘The blue light has become stronger than before. It means the time to suffer losses is approaching.’

Just like Jeong Sang-woo, who had been the building owner in Seongsu-dong.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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