New Employees With an Annual Salary of 1 Trillion Won - Chapter 40

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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 40. United States Expansion (5)

 

 

 

A call from the Branch Manager during lunch break.

I still had a lot of work left to do, so I expressed my intention to decline.

But the President and colleagues pushed me saying “please go,” so I eventually headed to Seoul Hotel.

 

“Employee Lee, you came? The cake here is famous for being delicious. Would you like to have one?”

“I had a hearty lunch, so I’m fine. But what’s this sudden business about?”

“Do we need to have some business to meet? It makes me a little sad when you put it that way.”

“That’s not what I meant. You called me suddenly, so I thought there was some business.”

“Of course there is. Today I’m scheduled to meet someone who wants to acquire stocks of Saera Technology and Dream Rain.”

 

The uncomfortable feeling from not completing my work routine instantly disappeared.

If it was a negotiation for profit realization, it was okay to not follow the routine for a day.

And it was also an opportunity to observe and learn how the Branch Manager designed this negotiation.

 

“Is it okay for me to participate in the negotiation?”

“Employee Lee is the one who planned the investment in Saera Technology equity, so of course you should participate. Shall we head up now? We’re meeting at this hotel’s VIP Conference Room.”

“Hotels have conference rooms too?”

“Most large-scale hotels have VIP-exclusive conference rooms. Coming to a place like this will be good experience for you too.”

 

I entered the VIP Conference Room with the Branch Manager.

It certainly had a luxurious atmosphere befitting a hotel, and the facilities were state-of-the-art.

But I noticed some misaligned parts, and while waiting for the guest, I slightly moved the positions of cups and memo pads.

 

“They should arrive soon. I heard they’re someone who keeps time appointments like clockwork.”

 

As soon as the Branch Manager finished speaking, the conference room door opened.

A middle-aged man with an intellectual impression entered and shook hands with the Branch Manager.

 

“It’s even more pleasant to meet you in Korea. When I worked at Wall Street banks, I heard a lot about the Branch Manager. I’m Oh Chang-jin, serving as the representative of Cali Fund’s Korean office.”

“I’ve also heard about Representative Oh Chang-jin several times since my Wall Street days. They say you’re a genius at corporate sales?”

“I’m embarrassed. Compared to the Branch Manager, I’m still quite lacking.”

 

Their words and actions were different.

Clearly the two exchanged compliments, but judging by the atmosphere alone, it felt more like they were exchanging harsh words.

 

It looked like a battle of wits between predators.

The two were smiling while sharply probing each other’s weaknesses.

 

“Let’s get to the main point now. As I mentioned over the phone, we’re looking to sell stocks of Saera Technology and Dream Rain.”

“Honestly, I don’t quite understand. Aren’t these the most watched stocks in Korea right now? Why are you selling such stocks?”

“Simply put, we have circumstances that require cash urgently. Are you thinking of purchasing them?”

 

Representative Oh Chang-jin still had a puzzled expression.

Over the past few days, Saera Technology’s stock price had risen by over 50%, and it was still setting new highs daily.

In such a situation, it was natural for him to find a sale hard to understand.

 

“If the price is right, there’s no reason not to buy.”

“The current value of our Saera Technology and Dream Rain stocks is approximately 200 billion won. As more time passes, that value will rise further.”

“I agree that today is the lowest price. So how much are you thinking of selling for? You’re surely not going to transfer them at current market price, so how much do you want?”

 

A situation where both media and financial companies were predicting further rises in Saera Technology.

Representative Oh Chang-jin’s judgment that they wouldn’t transfer at current market price was natural.

But the Branch Manager once again pulled out a card that overturned expectations.

 

“Based on current market price, we’ll sell for 200 billion won. However, there are a few conditions attached.”

“You’ll really transfer them for 200 billion won? The conditions must be quite serious.”

“They’re not particularly demanding conditions. They don’t cost a single penny, and in some ways, they might be very favorable conditions for Cali Fund.”

 

Representative Oh Chang-jin’s eyebrows twitched.

He seemed definitely interested in the phrase ‘conditions that don’t cost a single penny.’

 

“I’d like to hear what kind of conditions they are.”

“It’s simple. We’d like to borrow Cali Fund’s name just once.”

“Tiger Fund wants to use Cali Fund’s name? Not some other small fund, but Tiger is one of the top places even on Wall Street, isn’t it?”

 

It was a condition I couldn’t understand either.

I knew Tiger Fund’s status well from direct experience.

Tiger Fund was a place that could negotiate on equal terms with major American IT corporations.

 

But requesting Cali Fund’s name as a negotiation condition?

The Branch Manager wouldn’t have brought up such a thing for no reason; there must be some hidden meaning.

 

“We’re planning a large-scale investment using leverage. We need to establish a lending contract with a prime broker. You know well that when multiple funds move together, fees are reduced and higher leverage becomes possible.”

“Where on earth are you planning to invest?”

“Are you really asking such questions when you’ve been on Wall Street?”

 

Representative Oh Chang-jin made an expression showing he had made a mistake, and even slightly bowed his head in apology.

 

“That was careless of me. As you say, if Tiger gets Cali Fund’s name attached, even 10x leverage would be possible.”

“We’ll take full responsibility for the investment. Cali Fund just needs to lend us their name. The profits will naturally be ours too.”

“Lending a name is essentially the same as providing a guarantee. It’s difficult to accept without any safety measures.”

 

The Branch Manager answered as if he had been waiting for this.

 

“Of course we’ve prepared for that. Representative, you’re well-versed in Korean companies, so you’d know well, right? We’ll provide Rollbook and Nexpin as collateral. Wouldn’t that be sufficient?”

“Both Rollbook and Nexpin? Huh… Those two places are worth at least 100 billion.”

“They might be 100 billion now, but they’re companies that will grow to hundreds of billions within a few months. So they’d be very solid safety measures.”

 

The fame of Rollbook and Nexpin was different from before.

Nexpin was collaborating with American IT companies, and Rollbook had established itself as Korea’s top community platform.

Representative Oh Chang-jin, who was very interested in Korean corporate acquisitions, couldn’t be unaware of this fact.

 

“Providing those two companies as collateral does inspire confidence, but it still feels somewhat lacking.”

“Saera Technology and Dream Rain are stocks that will rise by at least 50 billion within a month. Isn’t that quite good profit for lending a name once?”

“Whether there will be 50 billion won in profit or not is something we’ll only know with time. And the stock price could suddenly fall, potentially causing losses instead.”

 

Representative Oh Chang-jin did not back down easily.

Even though collateral was offered, he seemed to want to reduce the risk even further.

To such a person, the Branch Manager brought out his final decisive blow.

 

“If the stock price falls for one month from the sale date, we will compensate for the decline. With those conditions, Cali Fund would essentially be securing a large quantity of Korea’s most promising stocks without any risk, wouldn’t you say?”

“Hmm, those are certainly good conditions. Very well. I’ll accept the Branch Manager’s proposal.”

 

The Branch Manager took out a contract he had prepared in advance,

and Representative Oh carefully reviewed the contents before signing immediately.

 

“Let’s finish the block deal by tomorrow. If the market price rises further, the situation could get complicated.”

“I’ll wire 200 billion won by tomorrow. I don’t know what strategy you’re preparing, but I wish you success.”

 

The contract was concluded.

Representative Oh shook hands with a satisfied expression, then left the conference room with one last meaningful smile.

 

A victor’s smile.

It was a smile of someone convinced that he was the winner of this contract.

However, the Branch Manager actually sneered at that smile.

 

***

 

Once Representative Oh Chang-jin had completely left the conference room.

The Branch Manager relaxed his posture and spoke to me.

 

“Doesn’t Representative Oh Chang-jin smile annoyingly? Nothing is more foolish than being certain of victory when the game isn’t even over yet.”

“Still, if he can gain nearly 50 billion won in profit, it wouldn’t be wrong to call him a winner.”

“With stocks, you never know until you lock in the profits. Even if it goes up 50 billion next month, if you hold on longer and meet a crash, you’ll end up losing.”

 

That was an obvious statement.

No stock rises infinitely, after all.

 

“Do you think Cali Fund will hold until before the bubble bursts?”

“People’s hearts aren’t as strong as you’d think. Once greed catches fire, reason becomes paralyzed. I could already see traces of madness in Representative Oh’s eyes.”

“So we’ve essentially passed a bomb to Cali Fund?”

 

We were anticipating the IT bubble collapse.

So passing off stocks now was no different from handing over a bomb.

 

“Cali Fund doesn’t seem to think it’s a bomb. And since stock prices will continue rising for a while, we won’t get blamed either. In the end, it’s a problem for those who don’t sell.”

“But why do you need Cali Fund’s name? No matter how I think about it, I can’t understand the reason.”

 

Considering the IT bubble, passing off stocks at this point made sense.

But he could have demanded better conditions, like more cash or something else with tangible value.

 

“On Wall Street, trust is a more powerful weapon than assets. Just the fact that Tiger Fund and Cali Fund joined hands will make prime brokers see us differently. And that trust will return to us as dozens of times more profit.”

“I still don’t quite understand what kind of structure this is.”

“It’s very simple. We’re certain about the IT bubble collapse, right? Then we can profit through large-scale short selling. But to bring in more leverage, we need trust.”

 

I had a vague understanding of the concept of leverage.

A method of increasing investment scale by borrowing more money than you have.

But how much did he want to increase the investment scale that he’d even borrow Cali Fund’s name?

 

“How many times leverage are you planning to use?”

“As Representative Oh Chang-jin said, even 10 times is possible. Being able to increase investment scale by 10 times naturally means profits increase by 10 times too.”

“But if leverage gets high, couldn’t even a small rebound cause fatal losses? We know the IT bubble will burst soon, but it’s hard to know the exact timing.”

 

Just looking at Saera Technology’s gear, I could tell the collapse wasn’t far off.

But using 10 times leverage meant even a day or two of rebounds could cause irreparable losses.

 

“Even a 10% rise would wipe out the principal. But there’s no need to worry. Since we’ve put up Rollbook and Nexpin as collateral, brokers won’t liquidate easily.”

“You mean we can hold out until the bubble bursts?”

“By current standards, the collateral value might be somewhat insufficient. That’s why we must succeed in Rollbook’s US expansion before the bubble collapses.”

 

Rollbook’s US expansion had been delayed.

This was largely my responsibility.

The timing was delayed due to the platform restructuring, and we had only just finished all preparations.

 

“I’m sorry the preparations were delayed.”

“There’s nothing to be sorry about. Rather, Korean user numbers surged after the restructuring.”

“There was some initial attrition, but we were able to prevent further departures with free points. Now there are actually many users who prefer Rollbook after the restructuring.”

 

One step back for two steps forward.

In reality, it was like taking more than ten steps forward.

Membership nearly doubled, and Point Shop sales also surged.

 

“Actually, American users will prefer the current method too. The previous Rollbook was too complicated. Surprisingly, American users prefer simple things.”

“Now it’s much more convenient to use, and by distributing functions across multiple sites, traffic overload has disappeared. We’ve set it up so that if users concentrate on one side, they get redirected to other servers.”

 

The United States had a much larger internet-using population than Korea.

That meant we had to be more sensitive to traffic issues and prepare thoroughly.

 

“Thanks to the slightly delayed launch timing, we could build a more solid infrastructure and prepare various promotional strategies.”

“What are your thoughts on promotion?”

“Since it’s a service targeting university students, we plan to set up Rollbook booths at major US universities. We’ve also signed marketing contracts with popular sports players from each university.”

 

The scale was different.

In Korea, we let it spread naturally.

But in the United States, the Branch Manager was using a strategy of rapid expansion through powerful promotion.

 

“Rollbook is a site that once you try it, you have no choice but to keep using it.”

“I think so too. That’s also why I’m planning to spend more money on promotion than expected.”

“When you say a lot of money, how much are we talking about?”

“300,000 dollars for the first promotional budget. I’m thinking of increasing it more depending on the situation.”

“You’re spending that much?”

“No need to worry. I’m the type who absolutely never does anything that doesn’t make money.”

 

I was also confident about Rollbook’s successful US expansion.

But hearing the Branch Manager’s words, I couldn’t just sit still.

With the US expansion not far away, I felt an urge to find and fix even the smallest errors.

 

“I’ll go to the office right now and do a final check.”

“There’s no need for that. The American programmers already checked thoroughly, and they praised it as having the fewest errors among all the websites they’ve worked on.”

“Having few errors means there are still errors. I’ll check everything from the beginning again.”

“Don’t push yourself too hard. As long as there are no critical bugs, you can fix them gradually.”

 

Despite the Branch Manager’s attempts to stop me, I stood up from my seat.

Perhaps sensing my determination, the Branch Manager could no longer hold me back, and I immediately rushed to the Rollbook office.

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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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