Golden Spoon Investment Portfolio - Chapter 188

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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188. I wish you could hold out as long as possible.

Nissan Motor Headquarters, Yokohama, Japan.
Yamamoto Daito, who had rushed down to the Finance Department office upon receiving the call, froze solid as he gazed at the status board mounted on the wall.

[USD/JPY : 100.17 +1.06]

The 100-yen barrier he had thought unbreakable crumbled so pathetically that dizziness washed over him.
As if denying reality itself, his face flushed crimson as he bellowed out a roar.

“What in the world is happening here!”

Seeing his fury, the employees instinctively shrank back, cautiously watching his every move to avoid becoming targets of his wrath.
Kakuda, the section chief who reluctantly stepped forward, wiped the sweat beading on his forehead with a handkerchief, his expression fraught with panic.

“A sudden flood of yen selling orders has pushed the dollar-yen exchange rate past 100 yen.”
“Damn it, this is absolutely maddening!”

As Yamamoto stomped his foot and spewed curses, Kakuda flinched and his eyes widened.

Brrrring!

At that moment, the telephone rang loudly.
The female secretary in the brown uniform quickly picked up the receiver.

“Yes. This is Sakoda from Nissan Motor Finance Department.”

The female secretary listened intently to the voice on the other end of the line, nodding with a tense expression.

“Ah… yes. I understand.”

Covering the receiver with one hand, the female secretary cautiously called out to Yamamoto.

“Sir, Director…”
“What is it!”

Yamamoto’s irritation had reached a boiling point, and he spun around with a sharp bark.
The Female Secretary flinched, her shoulders hunching as she shrank back.

“I-it’s Moriyama on the line. What should I do?”
“Moriyama? Put him through immediately!”

Yamamoto lunged forward and snatched the receiver from her hands with a rough gesture.

“It’s me. What happened with canceling the options contract?”

The dollar-yen exchange rate had breached 100 yen, but if the contract had been terminated beforehand, there would have been no problem at all.
In that case, Yamamoto could have avoided censure from the headquarters executives.
Or perhaps he might even have been praised for navigating the crisis skillfully.
But contrary to Yamamoto’s expectations—his last thread of hope—Moriyama’s voice was heavy with despair.

[… We were unable to cancel the contract.]

With his final hope extinguished, Yamamoto’s face twisted into an expression of utter despair as he held the receiver to his ear.
Now the knock-in option would inevitably trigger, and he would suffer massive foreign exchange losses.

“Damn it all….”

Yamamoto gripped the receiver tightly and erupted into a furious roar.

“I told you to convince them however necessary and get that options contract canceled! What the hell have you been doing!”

A torrent of profanities poured from Yamamoto’s mouth.
He hurled insults—calling Moriyama utterly useless, blaming him for the company’s impending collapse—words too harsh to bear.
Moriyama, subjected to this barrage of near-abusive language, was left speechless.
It was Moriyama himself who, over the past several months as the exchange rate had begun its sharp yen-depreciation trend, had repeatedly urged Yamamoto to settle the options contract with the Eldorado Fund, even if it meant taking some losses.
But each time, Yamamoto had dismissed his concerns, insisting there was no problem, and had ignored his advice.
Now that disaster had struck, Yamamoto was venting his frustration and shifting blame—a display so unreasonable that Moriyama found it absurd.
Beyond disappointment, Moriyama felt a deep sense of betrayal, and his voice turned cold and rigid.

[We had made considerable progress, even discussing the termination fee amount, but the exchange rate exceeded 100 yen during negotiations, rendering all our efforts futile.]
“You should have rushed to cancel the contract before that happened!”

Unable to contain himself any longer, Moriyama’s voice rose to match Yamamoto’s intensity.

[If you had made a swift decision without hesitation, you could have minimized the losses and terminated the contract!]
“What? Are you saying this is all my fault!”

Yes! It’s all your fault!
I wanted to scream it out loud, but doing so would certainly mean the end of my career at the company.
Moriyama swallowed his frustration and offered an apology.

[… I’m sorry.]

But Yamamoto responded with an openly displeased expression and an icy tone.

“Get back to the office immediately!”

He slammed the receiver down hard without even waiting for a response, as if he might shatter it.

“Idiot.”

After going all the way to the Eldorado Fund, he should have settled things and returned with results—not come back empty-handed like this.
The finance team members held their breath and watched nervously as Yamamoto gnashed his teeth.
Just then, a short-haired female secretary hesitantly entered the office, sensing the frozen atmosphere.
She approached Yamamoto, who was still snorting indignantly, and spoke to him carefully.

“Director Yamamoto.”
“What!”

Yamamoto whipped his head around and glared at the secretary with fierce eyes.
With both hands clasped in front of her, the secretary, looking thoroughly intimidated, stammered out her business.

“The president is looking for you urgently.”
“The president?”

Yamamoto flinched and narrowed his brows as he asked.

“Yes. He says to come up right away.”

No doubt he had summoned Yamamoto after seeing the dollar-yen exchange rate surpass 100 yen.
Yamamoto’s face contorted painfully, knowing that a harsh reprimand would come the moment they met.

“Damn it!”

When the dollar-yen exchange rate surpassed 100 yen that day, not only Nissan Motor but numerous Japanese companies that had entered into option contracts with the Eldorado Fund were thrown into chaos, hastily convening emergency response meetings.

* * *

Hannam-dong, Seoul.
As the weather had grown noticeably colder, the Japanese maple trees planted along the walls of the expansive garden had turned a brilliant crimson.
Seok-won, dressed in cotton pants and a thin cashmere cardigan, sat in a parasol-shaded chair with the garden lights glowing softly around him, speaking on the phone with Landon Shore in New York.

[Our Japan branch’s phone lines have been absolutely ablaze all day, I’m told.]

Seok-won gently stroked the mother cat that had settled onto his lap, a faint smile crossing his face.

“With the dollar-yen exchange rate plummeting to 100 yen, the knock-in option has been triggered. It’s hardly surprising.”
[Haha, quite right. They must have believed such a thing would never occur within the contract period. I imagine everyone’s insides are burning black with anxiety right now.]

Normally, when the yen weakens, export competitiveness strengthens and companies celebrate.
But caught off guard by the unexpected option contract, they not only forfeited all their exchange gains but now faced substantial losses as they were forced to pay additional funds on top of that.

“The weaker the yen becomes, the more their losses multiply exponentially. Their minds must be in absolute turmoil.”
[Undoubtedly.]

Satisfied with Seok-won’s gentle touch, the mother cat purred contentedly and rolled her body over with abandon.

“Meow.”

Seeing the cat’s plea for more, Seok-won couldn’t help but chuckle softly.

“How are the Japanese companies that entered into the options contracts reacting?”
[They’re still floundering without a clear direction, but according to Porter, the branch manager, since there are still several months remaining on the contract deadline, they seem inclined to observe the situation a bit longer.]

Seok-won, immediately grasping what the Japanese companies were thinking, let out a light scoff.

“The knock-in option has been triggered and there’s no turning back now. They’re hoping to wait for the yen to strengthen from here, then convert it to minimize their losses.”

According to the contract terms, if the exchange rate exceeded the upper limit of 100 yen per dollar even once, they were obligated to exchange dollars equivalent to four times the promised amount at the agreed rate of 90 yen per dollar.
However, since no specific date was stipulated, they only needed to convert the dollars to yen before the contract expired.

[The loss amount will vary significantly depending on when they execute the conversion, so they have no choice but to wait and see.]

Just Nissan Motor alone had option contract amounts totaling 500 million dollars.
Once the option conditions I’d engineered were met, I had to convert 2 billion dollars—four times the contract amount—at the agreed exchange rate of 90 yen per dollar.
So the only way to minimize losses was to exchange the currency when the yen strengthened.

“Meow.”

The mother cat draped lazily across my lap yawned widely, her mouth opening expansively.
I stroked her pointed ears and soft fur while speaking to Landon Shore on the other end of the phone.

“They’re scheming in their own way, but as time passes, they’ll come to regret it deeply.”
[Do you believe the yen will fall further from here?]
“As I mentioned before, this yen depreciation is being artificially engineered by the United States and Japanese governments whose interests have aligned. When two superpowers move to reshape the board, they wouldn’t be satisfied with just this level of exchange rate.”

I adjusted my grip on the phone and continued.

“Considering that the dollar-yen exchange rate remained stable in the late 90-yen range for quite a long time before George Hamilton’s Quantum Fund attacked the yen, we’ve merely returned to the original level.”
[Now that you mention it, that does seem to be the case.]

“Since the Reverse Plaza Accord reversed the direction, they’ll definitely try to push the exchange rate much lower.”

Landon Shore’s voice became cautious.

[How far do you think the yen will fall?]

I dredged up some old memories.

“In the long term, it will decline much further, but in the short term, we could see 110 yen per dollar.”
[If that happens as you say, the losses for companies that bought options will snowball catastrophically.]
“Exactly—they’re walking deeper into their own quagmire.”

I shrugged.

“But that just means our currency gains grow even larger, so there’s no downside for us.”
[The increased profits are welcome, but… I’m a bit concerned that if the damage to these companies becomes too severe, the Japanese Government might intervene.]

Right now, since each company had made separate contracts, no one outside the Eldorado Fund knew exactly how many companies had purchased options or the precise amounts involved.
However, if the damages snowballed and major corporations like Nissan Motor suffered enormous foreign exchange losses through their option contracts, which then became public knowledge through the media, there was a very real possibility the Japanese Government would step in.
This could result in reduced profits or various troublesome complications, but I showed no sign of concern whatsoever.

“Are there any loopholes in the options contract that the Japanese Government could exploit?”
[Unless they resort to absurd arguments, there are no legal issues whatsoever. Since you specifically instructed us to be thorough, we retained two major law firms to review it meticulously. You needn’t worry about that.]
“Then there’s nothing to be concerned about. And even if the Japanese Government tries to pressure us, they won’t dare touch the Eldorado Fund so long as it’s based in the United States.”

While money from across the globe flowed into Wall Street, the reason Seok-won had deliberately established the fund in the United States was to leverage the backing of the world’s supreme superpower.

‘If the Eldorado Fund were based in Korea instead of the United States, the Japanese Government wouldn’t have hesitated to intervene without a second thought, unwilling to let their own companies suffer losses.’

That applied not only to Japan but to every nation where Seok-won and the Eldorado Fund would conduct business in the future.

‘After all, the more money is involved, the more crucial it is to have solid backing.’

With that thought, I supported the mother cat’s elongated belly—stretched like melted cheese—with one hand to keep her from falling.
Feeling how surprisingly heavy her soft belly was, I thought I should reduce her food intake.
Maybe I should put her on a diet.

“Still, just to be safe, make sure to grease the palms of the Japanese Government and influential political figures.”
[Understood. Since you mentioned the yen will depreciate further, you’ll maintain the yen short position as is.]
“Of course. We’ll make more profit, so there’s no reason to close it now.”
[That’s right.]

After continuing the conversation for a while longer, Seok-won ended the call and smiled, baring his teeth.

“I hope the Japanese companies holding the options contract grit their teeth and hold out as long as possible.”

The longer they delayed cashing out and endured, the greater my profit would be.

“Meow?”

The mother cat lifted her head and let out a short cry.
Even though I’d been petting her throughout the call, she still wanted more.

“Should we stop now?”
“Meow.”

As if to say that was nonsense, the mother cat tapped my arm with her tail, urging me to continue what I’d been doing.
People say that with dogs you’re the owner, but with cats you’re the servant.
Seeing her act as though she had no master at all, I laughed with a hearty chuckle.

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