Golden Spoon Investment Portfolio - Chapter 369

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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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369. I’m curious to see what he looked like in his younger days.

August 19, 1997.
Yun Ki-hun, an executive director at Daeheung Venture Capital, returned to the office after having lunch with the president of a company in which the firm had invested externally.
After hanging his jacket on the coat rack and settling into the plush chair, he leaned back against the cushion, drowsy from postprandial lethargy, and closed his eyes for a moment.
Just as he was about to drift off to sleep, a knock sounded from outside the door.

“Yes. What is it?”

Yun Ki-hun opened his eyes immediately and spoke.
The Female Secretary, dressed in a skirt suit, opened the door and entered to announce that a visitor had arrived.

“The Finance Director has arrived.”
“Tell him to come in.”
“Yes, sir.”

After the Female Secretary left, Eom Tae-jun, the Finance Director, soon appeared.

“Welcome.”

Yun Ki-hun straightened his posture and greeted him.

“I hope I’m not intruding on your busy schedule.”

Eom Tae-jun asked with a smile.

“Not at all. I just returned from external business and was taking a brief rest.”

Yun Ki-hun wiped his face with his palm as if to dispel the drowsiness and gestured toward the sofa.

“Please, have a seat there.”
“Thank you.”

As Eom Tae-jun moved to the leather sofa and sat down, Yun Ki-hun rose from his desk chair and took a seat across from him.

“What would you like to drink?”

The Female Secretary standing by the door approached and asked.

“Get me a cup of coffee. What about you?”
“I’ll have the same, thank you.”
“Understood.”

After the Female Secretary closed the door and left, Yun Ki-hun rested his arm on the sofa’s armrest and studied the man across from him.

“You didn’t come here out of boredom. So, what’s this about?”

At his direct approach, Eom Tae-jun, the Finance Director, smiled faintly.

“I see your impatient nature hasn’t changed—getting straight to business without even catching your breath.”
“You know I’ve never been good at curbing my curiosity.”
“That’s certainly true.”

Eom Tae-jun paused briefly before posing his question.

“Do you happen to know what the exchange rate is today?”

Unsure of his intent, Yun Ki-hun tilted his head and answered.

“Well, I don’t check it daily, so I’m not certain, but the government announced stabilization measures recently and it dropped to around 930 won per dollar, so it should be somewhere in that range.”

At that, Eom Tae-jun leaned forward sharply and spoke.

“Don’t be shocked. It’s 991 won per dollar.”
“…!”

Yun Ki-hun’s eyes widened in surprise at the exchange rate far higher than he’d anticipated.

“991 won, you said!”
“Yes, that’s correct.”

As if he’d expected this reaction, Eom Tae-jun nodded slightly and continued.

“You’ve probably heard the news that last night, S&P, one of the three major credit rating agencies, downgraded Korea’s sovereign credit rating from AA to A+ following their previous negative outlook revision.”
“Hmm. I thought it would be bad for the exchange rate, but I didn’t expect it to spike this dramatically.”
“It’s clear evidence of how anxiously foreign investors are viewing Korea, wouldn’t you say?”
“You’re right.”

The entire economic landscape had grown turbulent and was sliding into recession, especially after Kichang Group had just yesterday broken their agreement with the government and creditors to suddenly file for composition proceedings on their major subsidiaries in court. This weighty atmosphere caused Yun Ki-hun to nod gravely.
When the Female Secretary knocked and entered, the two men paused their conversation momentarily.
After placing coffee cups on the table one by one, the Female Secretary bowed quietly and stepped back outside.
As the door closed, Eom Tae-jun, the Finance Director, continued speaking to Yun Ki-hun.

“As a result of that shock, the stock market has fallen sharply, and there’s a very high possibility the 600 index will break today.”
“The KOSPI was at 775 just last month, and now it’s plummeting like this. The situation is truly grave.”

Unlike the future with smartphones and the internet allowing real-time news access, this era still relied on newspapers and broadcasts for information, making it difficult to stay current otherwise.
Because of this, Yun Ki-hun’s expression hardened as he heard directly from Eom Tae-jun about the stock and foreign exchange markets that had literally gone into chaos throughout the morning.

“While the stock market shock is severe, what’s more critical is the finance companies.”
“You’re referring to the short-term foreign debt that the finance companies are holding?”
“Exactly. Of the 20 billion dollars in foreign debt that finance companies hold, over half—12.9 billion dollars—is short-term debt. The sovereign credit downgrade makes it difficult to extend repayment terms.”
“Even with the Korea premium applied, extension is difficult?”

The Korea premium was a term that emerged in international financial markets after the Hanwha Group default crisis, where additional interest rate premiums were added to account for Korea’s economic risk.

“Yes. Until recently, they could borrow foreign currency by offering higher interest rates. But lately, even that has become difficult, I’m told.”

Yun Ki-hun let out a low, contemplative sound.

“With liquidity already drying up in the market and companies struggling, if banks and finance companies are in this situation, the capital market will freeze even further.”
“Because of that, not just small and medium enterprises, but even the top ten conglomerates have their finance teams desperately scrambling to secure cash and dollars.”
“I imagine so.”
“Seeing all this, I can’t express how fortunate we are that thanks to the Chairman’s foresight, we’ve already repaid all our debt early or converted it to long-term financing.”
“That’s true.”

Yun Ki-hun nodded as he lifted his coffee cup.
Recalling how he had been deeply concerned when Seok-won first took over Daeheung Venture Capital as owner and began aggressively liquidating the existing investment portfolio and either repaying all debt early or converting expensive short-term loans to long-term ones, Yun Ki-hun now realized he had been too hasty in his judgment.

“Looking back as you say, it seems the Chairman foresaw this crisis coming and prepared for it in advance.”

As Yun Ki-hun murmured in reflection, Eom Tae-jun chimed in agreement.

“I share that sentiment. I heard he achieved remarkable results even when he was at Daehung Securities. It seems the chairman’s bloodline truly runs true.”
“Of course. With both of the chairman’s sons being so outstanding, our group will have no troubles ahead.”

Yun Ki-hun nodded in agreement.
After taking a sip of coffee, Yun Ki-hun suddenly remembered something and turned his gaze toward Eom Tae-jun, the Finance Director.

“You didn’t come all the way to my office just to praise the president. What’s the real reason for your visit?”
“Ah, I got sidetracked while we were talking.”

Eom Tae-jun scratched his head sheepishly.

“Actually, this morning Choi Branch Manager from Ilhan Bank came looking for me.”

Yun Ki-hun’s expression turned puzzled.

“He came to the company directly?”
“Yes.”

Although Ilhan Bank was Daeheung Venture Capital’s primary banking partner, it was unusual for a branch manager to visit the company in person.

“What business could he have had, especially not during a holiday?”
“He came looking for dollars.”

Yun Ki-hun’s brow furrowed at the unexpected answer.

“Dollars?”
“Before the exchange rate spiked significantly, you instructed us to convert all of the company’s available funds into dollars, didn’t you?”
“That’s right.”
“Ilhan Bank handled that currency exchange for us. They knew we were holding a substantial amount of dollars, so they came asking if we could sell some or lend them to the bank.”

Yun Ki-hun stared at Eom Tae-jun with an incredulous expression.

“Are you saying a bank came to a regular company trying to buy dollars?”
“Yes. I was initially as taken aback as you are now. But thinking about it more carefully, it suggests the situation is dire enough that even banks are struggling to secure dollars.”
“I see.”

Yun Ki-hun’s expression grew serious, realizing this was no laughing matter.

“So what did you tell them?”
“I said that if the dollar shortage gets worse in the future, it might be unavoidable, but there’s no sign of improvement, so I can’t just hand it over. I told them that the converted dollars are being managed directly by the chairman, and that I have no authority over them.”
“Well done.”
“Still, they kept pressing, saying there had to be a way. It was quite awkward.”

Eom Tae-jun, the Finance Director, laughed with a soft chuckle and reached for his coffee cup, bringing it to his lips.

“I have to say, it’s truly remarkable how you knew the exchange rate would skyrocket and had the foresight to convert to dollars at such perfect timing.”
“Indeed.”
“The exchange rate went from 826 won to 991 won during that period, so we’ve made a 20% gain just from the currency appreciation. There’s no more profitable business than this.”
“It’s literally making money while sitting on your hands.”

Executive Director Yun Ki-hun marveled once again at my foresight.
Unlike other companies that sighed every time the exchange rate rose, Daeheung Venture Capital was actually profiting from it.
At that moment, Finance Director Eom Tae-jun, who had been sipping his coffee, suddenly harbored a doubt.

“But you put all the converted dollars into the Fund Operations Department, saying you’d be investing them. They’re being managed without losses, right?”

Since the Fund Operations Department reported directly to me, Executive Director Yun Ki-hun couldn’t speak with confidence either and answered with a slightly worried tone.

“Hmm. I suppose so.”

* * *

At that same moment.
I was aboard a private jet heading to Beijing, China.
While wearing an eye mask and reclining my seat halfway for rest, Bella, the private jet’s flight attendant, approached and spoke to me.

“Chairman.”

I lowered my eye mask and opened my eyes slightly.
They say language improves fastest when you’re in love, and Bella’s Korean had indeed become quite fluent.

“We’ll be arriving at Beijing Airport in 10 minutes.”
“Understood.”

I pressed the button to straighten my seat.
Bella, noticing that my neck had stiffened from lying down for just a short while, smiled warmly and asked.

“Shall I bring you some water to wet your throat?”

As he nodded, Bella excused herself and headed toward the back of the cabin.
Seok-won raised the shade he had lowered beside him and gazed out through the circular window at the thick white clouds blanketing the blue sky below.

“At least there’s no fine dust like this yet.”

Before my regression, whenever I thought of China, I could only picture cities shrouded entirely in hazy smog and yellowish dust—the environmental pollution was that severe.
But as the nation rapidly transformed into what was called the “world’s factory,” becoming a colossal production complex churning out all manner of goods at bargain prices, the days when I could see skies like this were numbered.
Thinking of the uninvited guest that would arrive year-round—Chinese fine dust—not just in spring, I could already feel the acrid air settling in my chest.
When Seok-won furrowed his brow, Bella returned and handed him a small bottle of water.

“Your water, sir.”

Under normal circumstances, she would have poured it into a glass, but since they would be landing shortly, she had brought it in a safer plastic bottle.

“Thank you.”

He took the bottle, unscrewed the cap, and drank.
As the cool water quenched his thirst, his mind seemed to clear as well.

“Liu Shangfu—or rather, he’s the Deputy Secretary of Fujian Province now. In any case, I’m curious to see what Liu Shangfu looked like in his youth.”

At this critical juncture with the IMF crisis looming, Seok-won was leaving Korea and heading to China precisely to meet Liu Shangfu, who would ascend to China’s highest power a decade later.
As I was thinking about how to build a relationship with Liu Shangfu, Bella approached and spoke.

“We’ll be landing shortly. Please fasten your seatbelt.”

He found his seatbelt as Bella instructed, fastened the buckle, and settled into a comfortable position.
Soon after, the Gulfstream IV private jet carrying Seok-won began to gradually descend, lowering its altitude.
As we descended below the clouds, the loess-colored landscape came into view beyond the window.
Moments later, the Gulfstream IV extended its massive landing gear from beneath both wings and touched down feather-light on the long runway of Beijing Airport.

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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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