New Employees With an Annual Salary of 1 Trillion Won - Chapter 106

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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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Chapter 106. Gap Strategy (1)

 

A call came from headquarters.

 

It was a call directly from Chairman Robertson, and he delivered very welcome news.

 

[Chanel has accepted our proposal.]

 

“Does this mean Chanel will open a store in Midopa Department Store?”

 

[Of course it had to succeed when I stepped in personally. The Operations Team will go to Korea within this month, so make sure to treat them well.]

 

“Thank you for your hard work.”

 

It was worth mobilizing the architect that Chanel loved.

 

The Chairman had gone to meet Chanel with the blueprints created by Peter Marino.

 

He succeeded in signing a contract with Chanel in less than a day.

 

[Contact me anytime if you have more work to assign. I don’t know about other things, but working with you is fun.]

 

“I’ll contact you when there’s another interesting project.”

 

[I’ll be waiting.]

 

When I hung up the phone and turned my head, the General Manager was there.

 

Having heard the entire conversation with the Chairman, he shook his head.

 

“The Chairman must find it so enjoyable to return to hands-on work. Well, it’s certainly much more dynamic than just sitting still and looking at documents.”

 

“If I don’t give him more work, he seemed ready to come to Korea again.”

 

“Still, we can’t just assign him any random task. He is the Chairman, after all.”

 

There was one perfect job to assign to the Chairman.

 

It was a plan established while acquiring various department stores and large marts, including Midopa Department Store.

 

It was also a strategy that could be used simultaneously in Korea and the United States.

 

“General Manager, the flow of funds into the stock market has greatly diminished after the IT bubble.”

 

“That’s inevitable. Who would want to invest in a stock market that hits the daily limit down every day?”

 

“Won’t the money that left the stock market eventually go to real estate?”

 

This wasn’t just idle talk.

 

The real estate market was actually showing an upward trend.

 

The gears of many real estate companies were slowly beginning to pick up speed.

 

“Are you suggesting we invest in real estate?”

 

“There won’t be immediate profits, but if we hold it long-term, it will become solid assets.”

 

“When the fund size grows, finding suitable investment targets becomes a challenge. Real estate would make a good portfolio addition.”

 

Our managed funds had already exceeded 20 billion dollars.

 

Now we couldn’t absorb all the funds with just stocks or corporate equity shares.

 

At this point, diversifying into substantial real assets like bonds or real estate was the standard approach.

 

“I didn’t know Employee Lee was also interested in real estate.”

 

“While acquiring department stores and marts, I came to think that real estate is undervalued.”

 

“Certainly, real estate prices in Korea have fallen significantly since the IMF crisis. And the United States has also experienced a real estate slump since the 1990s. While it’s gradually recovering now, it’s been quiet compared to the stock market.”

 

Though not comparable to Korea, the US real estate market was also undervalued.

 

And real estate was also an investment target where leverage could be utilized.

 

“I’d like to purchase land and buildings mainly in California and Manhattan. If we use leverage, couldn’t we secure a lot of real estate?”

 

“That’s entirely possible. With just mortgage loans, we can borrow up to 60%, and for development-type real estate, over 80% can be raised through PF. We can also utilize commercial mortgage securities.”

 

“I’d like to secure as many buildings as possible that way.”

 

The General Manager also agreed that real estate was undervalued.

 

However, he had concerns about purchasing too many buildings.

 

“Over thousands of companies went bankrupt due to the IT bubble. Thanks to that, there are countless places with building vacancy rates exceeding 40%. So while we can acquire buildings at bargain prices, we have to pay the maintenance and management costs.”

 

“We’d have to bear leverage interest as well, so we’d inevitably operate at a loss.”

 

“That’s right. If we resell them at high prices in a few years, we could recover the losses, but considering the risk issues, acquiring too many buildings needs careful consideration.”

 

I had already thought of the solution to that problem.

 

There was a way to acquire buildings and dramatically reduce vacancy rates again.

 

“That’s why I want to introduce a shared office system.”

 

“You mean the coworking concept? That’s more of an ideological concept that hasn’t been actually implemented, as far as I know.”

 

“I don’t know about the ideology or concept, and focused purely on the cost aspect. IT companies can’t afford high monthly rents. So if multiple companies enter one space, wouldn’t the rent costs decrease accordingly?”

 

It was literally a system for sharing office space.

 

While it would have been unwelcome before the IT bubble, now that everyone was struggling, they had to do anything to cut costs.

 

“It would certainly be a great help in terms of cost reduction. Monthly rent takes up quite a high proportion of company operating funds.”

 

“So I plan to acquire buildings and allow companies to move in at affordable prices. And if we also provide welfare spaces that venture companies can’t afford to worry about, we can dramatically lower vacancy rates.”

 

The General Manager tapped on his calculator.

 

He carefully calculated building operating costs, property taxes, loan interest, and even remodeling expenses.

 

“It’s certainly a feasible scenario. We could turn a profit just by lowering the vacancy rate to 20%.”

 

“And when we sell the real estate, if we sell the shared office business together, we can see even greater profits.”

 

“Ah! You want to create a company based on shared offices.”

 

“Creating a company will make it much easier to find tenant companies. And it could definitely work in Silicon Valley and Manhattan where rents are expensive.”

 

“It definitely seems like it would work. I know there are quite a few large buildings for sale among those owned by IT companies. And with high vacancy rates, we could acquire them at low prices.”

 

It was a business that was bound to succeed.

 

Of course, it might be difficult if we looked ahead 20 years.

 

But right now it was definitely a feasible business and the optimal way to reduce real estate maintenance costs.

 

“I’d like to simultaneously purchase and remodel at least 10 buildings.”

 

“Normally, you’d need to pay over 40 million dollars to acquire a Class A classic office, but for urgent sales, 25 million dollars would be enough. For 10 such buildings, 200-300 million dollars would be sufficient for acquisition.”

 

“I want to start with 10 locations and expand to over 100 within a year.”

 

Even 100 buildings would only cost 2-3 billion dollars.

 

Compared to Tiger Fund’s managed funds, it was a low figure, and even lower if leverage was used.

 

“If we assign this to the Chairman, 200 locations would be possible within a year. He has extensive connections in real estate too.”

 

“If he takes on real estate work, he’ll have to travel around busily for a while.”

 

“He won’t have time to come to Korea for at least a year.”

 

We exchanged glances for a moment.

 

Without anyone taking the lead, we began creating reports on real estate acquisition and shared offices.

 

It wasn’t a report for headquarters, but one to get Chairman Robertson moving.

 

***

 

Chairman Robertson moved really quickly.

 

Less than a week after receiving the report, he had purchased one building and was simultaneously proceeding with purchase contracts for over 10 buildings.

 

I couldn’t just sit idle either.

 

I mobilized Tiger Fund Korea Branch to begin purchasing buildings in Seoul city center.

 

“Sweep up everything that’s for sale – high-rise buildings, logistics warehouses, and even vacant lots.”

 

“Is there a particular reason to purchase vacant lots?”

 

“We can buy vacant lots and build buildings on them.”

 

“I understand clearly!”

 

I assigned this project to Accountant Kim Do-yoon.

 

Though his life in Korea was short, he was the person with the longest Wall Street experience.

 

Accountant Kim Do-yoon was the person who best understood what I wanted.

 

“We also need to proceed with remodeling the purchased buildings into shared office structures.”

 

“I’ll contact construction companies as well. The construction market isn’t doing well anyway, so we should be able to get construction work done at good prices.”

 

The construction industry had been frozen since the IMF crisis.

 

Of course, the ice was slowly melting now, but the atmosphere was still chilly.

 

But if we proceeded with large-scale remodeling, multiple construction companies would definitely rush to compete.

 

“And please also proceed with the Midopa Department Store remodeling.”

 

“I’ll select construction companies in consultation with architect Peter Marino and Chanel’s working staff. For regional department stores and marts, I’ll assign work to local construction companies.”

 

“Since we’re making them into warehouse-style marts, it shouldn’t take too long.”

 

The plan was to turn buildings into shared offices.

 

Logistics warehouses or vacant lots would be made into logistics centers or warehouse-style marts.

 

This way, we could secure not only real estate but also distribution systems.

 

“I’ll hurry to complete all work within this year.”

 

“Don’t overdo it. I’ll leave it to you then.”

 

After finishing the work instructions, I grabbed my bag and left.

 

9:05 PM. It was the quitting time I had set, and I headed home along the usual route.

 

“Older Brother! You’re just getting back now?”

 

“What’s got you home so early?”

 

“Training camp starts tomorrow, so I came home early to pack.”

 

“Another training camp? Why?”

 

“Do you have absolutely no interest in me? We made it to the round of 16 in the President’s Cup! So we’re doing training camp from tomorrow until the tournament ends.”

 

I had heard that Younger Brother’s school was recording decent results.

 

The media attention was clearly different from last year, and I had seen articles about Younger Brother in the sports newspapers.

 

“Is winning possible?”

 

“We’ll have to see. This year Busan High and Kyunggi High have the strongest teams. But our school isn’t at a level where we’re completely outmatched.”

 

“Since you’re doing it anyway, do well. Let me know if you need money.”

 

“Didn’t you know that your company agreed to cover all the training camp costs? You didn’t even know that?”

 

I had no idea at all.

 

All support was still being handled by the General Manager.

 

Since I would now be taking over Tiger Fund Korea Branch, I needed to take over this part as well.

 

“If the support isn’t enough, let me know. I’ll report it to higher-ups.”

 

“There’s nothing lacking at all. They say no school receives as much support as ours? Even professional team scouts are amazed.”

 

“That much?”

 

“I heard we use better equipment than most professional teams’ second squads. It’s all supported by your company.”

 

Nexpin was the official sponsor, but more precisely, Tiger Fund was providing the sponsorship.

 

Considering Tiger Fund’s scale, it would be more than enough to sponsor professional baseball, not just high school baseball, so the level of support had to be different from other high school baseball clubs.

 

“With that much support, you know you’ll get twice the criticism if your results are poor, right?”

 

“Of course. I’m going to make a real statement this time! But aren’t you going to come watch the games?”

 

“If you make it to the finals, I’ll bring all the Nexfin Employees to watch.”

 

“Really? That’s a promise!”

 

“I got it, so make it to the finals first before talking.”

 

The kid wore a confident expression as he swung his bat.

 

He had definitely grown to more than twice his size from last year, so his swing sounded much louder.

 

Was that why? Complaints erupted from the window downstairs.

 

“Please keep it down! What are you doing in there to make all that thumping noise!”

 

“We’re sorry!”

 

Even a luxury villa couldn’t be free from noise between floors.

 

Especially when someone with a bear-like build swung, it felt like the entire house was shaking, so the complaint was natural.

 

“Don’t swing in the house anymore.”

 

“Sorry. I did a full swing without realizing it.”

 

“Hurry up and pack to leave. This much spending money should be enough, right?”

 

I took out all the cash from my wallet and handed it to the kid.

 

Then Younger Brother politely set down his bat and neatly folded his hands together.

 

“I will use this money for good purposes.”

 

“Go pack before I take it back.”

 

“I will do as you command.”

 

I couldn’t help but laugh watching the bear-like kid waddle away.

 

But his words about making a statement in this tournament strangely didn’t feel like empty boasting.

 

When Younger Brother swung his bat, I could see the image of a stable gear structure turning smoothly overlapping with it.

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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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