New Employees With an Annual Salary of 1 Trillion Won - Chapter 147

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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 147. Flocking Talents (1)

It took exactly one week to finalize the contract.

Since every contract lived and died by its details, the working staff from each side struggled desperately to insert even slightly favorable clauses for themselves.

“If Blue House hadn’t set a one-week time limit, we’d still be nitpicking over details.”

“Thanks to that, we were able to draft a contract favorable to us. After all, GL Group was the one in a hurry.”

Song Sang-yeon’s expression wasn’t particularly bright.

Though we had acquired GL Card and GL Battery, he was worried about what lay ahead.

“Is GL Card’s situation that serious?”

“It’s much worse than what appears on the surface. I wonder how such a company managed to maintain its industry-leading position.”

“That’s why what happens from now on is crucial. Depending on what bad debts we hand over to the creditors, the difficulty of normalizing GL Card will vary.”

Not all bad debts were the same.

Some debts were absolutely impossible to recover, while others could be recovered given sufficient time.

“I’ll actively utilize the credit scoring system Branch Manager created to subdivide the bad debts.”

“We’ll hand over the unrecoverable debts to the banks and keep the recoverable ones ourselves. That way, we’ll essentially be holding quality bonds rather than bad debts.”

Quality bonds were assets.

Therefore, if we classified them properly, what we’d be taking on wouldn’t be 9 trillion won in debt but assets.

In the end, we’d be getting our hands on GL Card without making any sacrifices.

“The contract signed with the creditors clearly specifies this content. The contract is designed so that the creditors have no choice but to accept the bad debts we hand over.”

“Thanks to Blue House’s pressure, we were able to pull the wool over the creditors’ eyes.”

“Above all, this is possible because commercial banks don’t have a credit scoring system as subdivided as ours.”

The credit scoring system I created continued to evolve.

When we applied it to Hanseo Card, the data was limited, but now we could secure much more data, allowing us to build a more precise system.

“We need to hand them over quickly before the commercial banks catch on.”

“The first classification work is already complete, and we just need to additionally classify the bonds positioned on the borderline.”

“There’s one more remaining problem. We need to restore GL Card’s credibility.”

“Many customers left due to this incident. Of course, we’re still number one in the industry, but if we can’t stop the customer exodus trend, the gap with second place will narrow significantly.”

The combined market share of GL Card and Hanseo Card reached 30%.

Samjin Card, the industry’s second place, held 22%, an 8% gap from us.

However, customers leaving GL Card were moving to Samjin Card at an alarming rate, so we had to block this to maintain our industry-leading position.

“It’s time to change the card company’s name. Combining GL Card and Hanseo Card to create a new brand seems like the best way to improve credibility.”

“Do you have a name in mind?”

“Since the card business ultimately centers on the domestic market, a Korean name seems better.”

“I agree with that point as well.”

To target the domestic market, it had to be an easy name.

I thought of several names that fit Korean sentiment and had connections to Tiger Fund.

“Tiger Fund is also a tiger, and the Korean Peninsula is also tiger-shaped, so it would be good to include the character ‘ho’ (tiger).”

“How about Hanho Card? Simply taking the first characters of Korea and tiger would fit well with domestic sentiment, wouldn’t it?”

“It lacks global sensibility and sophistication, but it’s a name that perfectly suits this era.”

Hanho Card.

The name definitely had an old-fashioned feel to it.

But it wasn’t a big problem. After acquiring Hanseo Card, we were already issuing separate ‘Rollbook Cards’ within it to target the younger demographic.

“Then let’s integrate Hanseo Card and GL Card to create Hanho Card.”

“I’ll proceed with large-scale advertising.”

“Please emphasize trust as much as possible. And please hide the foreign company feel as much as possible.”

“I’ll emphasize that it’s a domestic card company.”

Simply changing the name wouldn’t cause credibility to skyrocket.

Along with the card company integration, extreme measures needed to be added to restore trust.

“And I’m thinking of investing the 2 trillion won profit from this short selling into Hanho Card.”

“Are you planning to clean up bad debts with 2 trillion won?”

“Not simple cleanup, but creating a trust recovery package. We’ll clean up some bad debts, reduce overdue interest, and even lower fees and interest rates.”

“I’ll include that content in the advertising as well. If we invest 2 trillion won at this point, it will make a strong impression on customers.”

Simply paying off debts wasn’t enough.

To instill the perception that Hanho Card was a company preparing for the future, we needed to execute various programs simultaneously.

“Even investing 2 trillion won, there’s no actual money going out. The reverse CDS profits are sufficient to cover it.”

“GL Card’s stock price is already rebounding rapidly. With the merger effect and trust recovery package added to this, it seems it will soon recover to previous levels.”

It was a race against time.

We had to present countermeasures as quickly as possible to prevent customer exodus, so we had to execute plans while simultaneously formulating them.

***

Tiger Fund Headquarters Chairman’s office.

Chairman Robertson and General Manager Kang Dong-ju sat side by side, leisurely enjoying tea.

“I hear Korea Branch caused another incident?”

“They only spent about 1.6 billion dollars on acquiring a card company. That doesn’t even qualify as an incident.”

“You talk about it like buying candy. You know better than anyone how much agonizing headquarters does when investing 1.6 billion dollars.”

“That would be true for headquarters. But Korea Branch’s situation is different. Moreover, this acquisition was accomplished without spending a single penny.”

Chairman Robertson put down the coffee he was drinking.

When it came to Korea Branch’s affairs, he wanted to personally check everything from A to Z.

“What did they do this time?”

“It’s nothing major. They conducted short selling on Korean card companies and captured some profits with CDS.”

“Are you saying they made 1.6 billion dollars profit from that?”

“Would they have only made 1.6 billion dollars? Cumulative profits already reach 5 billion dollars. In the end, they acquired the card company with profit money. Moreover, since they drove down stock prices through short selling, they acquired it for less than half price.”

Chairman Robertson suddenly stood up from his seat and slammed the desk.

“If you were going to do such an operation, you should have told me earlier! How could you let Korea Branch secretly do such fun work again!”

“The scale wasn’t that large, so I didn’t report it separately.”

“You still should have reported it! Knowing that I’m going around to every restaurant on Wall Street these days because of Korea Branch, how could you leave me out!”

Chairman Robertson was angry about not being included in the fun operation.

He wanted to participate in anything led by Branch Manager Lee Jung-hoo, which is why he was personally rolling up his sleeves for the talent recruitment requested by Korea Branch.

“From now on, even for small-scale investments, if Korea Branch is conducting them, I’ll definitely report to you.”

You should have done that from the start. Now, tell me in detail. What method did you use to earn as much as 5 billion dollars?”

“After identifying the scale of bad debts of Korean card companies in advance, we placed short sells. Simultaneously, we boosted profits with CDS, and after the acquisition, we even utilized reverse CDS to secure additional profits.”

Chairman Robertson’s eyes sparkled like a child getting a toy.

He continued asking questions and even applauded every time he heard about the process.

“This is why I always want to go to Korea Branch. You need to take over the chairman position quickly so I can comfortably go to Korea, don’t you think?”

“Please give me a little more time. And… would Branch Manager really welcome Chairman coming to Korea?”

“Surely he wouldn’t kick me out?”

“Given Branch Manager’s personality, that’s entirely possible.”

General Manager already understood Lee Jung-hoo’s tendencies to some extent.

He was someone who followed routines down to the second and absolutely wouldn’t tolerate anything that disrupted his rules and environment.

Even if that existence was Chairman Robertson.

Lee Jung-hoo would certainly find some way to create an order and environment he could control.

“Couldn’t I just recruit all the talent Branch Manager wants and bring them along?”

“With such justification, he might tolerate it for a few months.”

“Hmm, only a few months?”

“If you just go, he’ll kick you out in less than a week.”

“Well, a few months is enough time for one operation and more. I need to finish talent recruitment as quickly as possible and enter Korea.”

Chairman Robertson straightened his clothes and was about to go outside.

“Where are you going?”

“You said to recruit talent to go to Korea, right? To bring even one more person, I need to keep showing my face and making rounds.”

Chairman Robertson went outside for talent recruitment.

General Manager, watching his retreating figure, quietly picked up his mobile phone and called Korea.

“Branch Manager, you’re doing well, right?”

[I’m doing well. But what’s the occasion?]

“The Chairman will likely be heading to Korea soon, so I contacted you to give you advance notice. I figured Branch Manager Lee should know ahead of time to make plans.”

[Thank you for the heads up. But what is the Chairman planning to do when he comes to Korea?]

Lee Jung-hoo’s voice turned stiff.

As expected, I could tell just from his voice that Branch Manager Lee wasn’t welcoming the Chairman’s visit to Korea.

“He was furious that this short selling operation proceeded without him. He wants to come to Korea and work on operations together with Branch Manager Lee.”

[…By operations, do you mean investments? Isn’t headquarters already conducting various types of investments?]

“Not bland investments – he wants to pursue dynamic investments together with Branch Manager Lee.”

[Is there no way to stop the Chairman from coming to Korea?]

“How could I stop him? Besides, he’s even working hard on talent recruitment for the Korea Branch.”

A moment of silence passed.

General Manager Kang waited quietly, and Lee Jung-hoo, having organized his thoughts, spoke again.

[Then may I ask you for one favor?]

“Anything. If it’s a request from Branch Manager Lee, I should naturally accommodate it.”

[I’ll send you a report by the end of today. Since the Chairman is coming to Korea anyway, I’d like to handle some complicated business.]

“So you’re planning to put the Chairman to work in Korea too. If that’s the plan, I should gladly participate.”

[Thank you. But if possible, I’d like to keep this report hidden from the Chairman.]

Chairman Robertson was incredibly perceptive.

Just looking at the report, he would surely figure out the plan and change his schedule.

“Let’s treat this plan as classified.”

[I’ll make him so swamped with work that he’ll want to return to the United States.]

“Make sure he never wants to say he wants to go to Korea again. I’ll provide solid support.”

The two were plotting something amusing.

Unaware of this, Chairman Robertson was still going around with his talent recruitment list in hand.

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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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