New Employees With an Annual Salary of 1 Trillion Won - Chapter 72
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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 72. The Poisoned Chalice (2)
Finally, the day of the Hanseo Bank bidding arrived.
The bidding was conducted in the Financial Supervisory Service Main Conference Room, and participating companies were waiting in their respective assigned conference rooms.
Among them, Cali Fund was assigned the best conference room.
Even now, with only a few hours left until the bidding, they were still engaged in intelligence warfare.
“We’ve received new contact from the Tiger Fund insider.”
“You mean that Danny person? What did he say?”
“He says Tiger Fund might raise their final bid even higher.”
Bang!
CEO Oh Chang-jin couldn’t contain his anger and slammed the desk.
His hand swelled up, but he seemed not to feel the pain as he only raised his voice.
“They’re raising it again? After putting down 1.5 trillion, what the hell are they raising it for!”
“There’s a high possibility they’ll raise it by about 50 billion won more.”
“Don’t we have a spy on our side? How do they know so precisely the amount we’re going to bid!”
Cali Fund’s original planned bid was 1 trillion won.
However, after obtaining inside information from Tiger Fund, they had pushed their bid up to 1.55 trillion won, stretching themselves thin.
“How about we give up on the bidding even now? If we acquire Hanseo Bank at this price, we’ll only suffer losses.”
“You want us to get scared and back out now? What would that make us? Not only Tiger Fund, but even the Financial Authorities will see us as cowards who ran away after just testing the waters.”
They had already crossed the point of no return.
They absolutely had to participate in the bidding, and above all, they had to win the bid.
The remaining problems could be dealt with later, so they desperately clung to the bidding.
“To win the bid, we need to offer at least 1.56 trillion won or more. Even if we resell Hanseo Bank for 2 trillion, there’ll be almost nothing left.”
“Let’s think about that later. We’ll figure out a way somehow. Right now, just focus on winning the bid. And raise our bid to 1.6 trillion.”
“C-CEO… That’s really pushing it too far. We’ve already far exceeded the amount approved by Headquarters.”
Private Equity Funds generally don’t acquire companies with their own capital.
They preferred the method of bringing in borrowed funds from outside to acquire companies, then reselling them.
This was also part of the Leverage strategy, and of course, they had to bear correspondingly high interest costs.
“Even if we take losses, we absolutely must take this one this time, I’ve told you how many times! We have to prevent Tiger Fund from taking Hanseo Bank by any means!”
“The scale of borrowed funds is too large. We’ll have to pay over 7 billion won just in interest every month.”
“I don’t care about that. Revise the bid amount right now!”
CEO Oh Chang-jin roughly stood up from his seat.
Then he roughly tore up the already written bid document and immediately wrote down 1.6 trillion won on a new paper.
“C-CEO. If we win the bid, there’s no turning back.”
“Whether we die this way or that way, it’s all the same, isn’t it? They say a ghost that dies after eating looks better too. Let’s eat first and see.”
Time passed while they were having this argument.
When bidding time came, CEO Oh Chang-jin was the first to submit his bid document.
Soon after, General Manager Kang Dong-ju also entered the bidding venue with his bid document and showed a strange smile.
“I’ll manage Hanseo Bank well.”
“Stop talking nonsense and just bid.”
“Oh, you seem confident. But it would be difficult for you to write a higher bid than ours.”
A tone mixed with mockery.
CEO Oh Chang-jin’s insides boiled at General Manager Kang Dong-ju’s smile.
“We won’t know until we see the results, won’t we?”
“This time, don’t run away even when the results come out. You can’t suddenly go to the United States like before.”
“You’re the one who shouldn’t do that.”
A childish war of words.
But since the money at stake was in the trillions, no one thought it was childish.
Meanwhile, all bid documents were submitted.
Financial Authorities personnel checked the bid documents under strict security.
“We will announce the final bid amounts. Singapore Investment Authority 1 trillion, Deutsche Bank 1.51 trillion, Tiger Fund 1.57 trillion. And Cali Fund submitted the highest bid at 1.6 trillion won.”
“Nice! We won!”
CEO Oh Chang-jin shouted without caring about the people around him.
Tiger Fund had bid 20 billion won higher than what he received from insider information.
But he read their move and wrote 1.6 trillion won to receive the final winning bid!
“The final winning bidder is Cali Fund.”
Bang bang bang!
The Financial Authorities officially announced Hanseo Bank’s successful bid.
CEO Oh Chang-jin immediately walked quickly toward General Manager Kang Dong-ju.
“In the end, I was victorious.”
“Hmm, you came out stronger than I expected. I didn’t anticipate 1.6 trillion won.”
“You must have thought too lightly of me. Well then, I’ll see you again next time.”
CEO Oh Chang-jin suppressed his laughter as he turned around.
He wanted to sneer openly, but that would have been undignified.
He thought it was much better to show his back to General Manager Kang Dong-ju.
Even though he couldn’t see it, CEO Oh Chang-jin left the auction hall while imagining General Manager Kang Dong-ju staring daggers at him.
***
Watching CEO Oh Chang-jin’s retreating figure, the General Manager smiled.
Although Cali Fund won the bid, the General Manager looked satisfied as if he had won.
“Did everything go as expected?”
“Are you curious about what kind of picture I drew?”
“Actually, I still don’t understand the situation well.”
“Then let’s go together. You’ll understand immediately once you see it directly.”
Just how did he design this?
I followed the General Manager to find the answer.
Going up one more floor from the auction hall, the ‘Financial Services Commission Chairman’s Office’ appeared, and the General Manager naturally opened the door and entered.
“General Manager Kang, you’re here? Oh my, you’ve worked so hard.”
“What did I really do? I just fanned the flames diligently from the sidelines. Ah! And next to me is Deputy Manager Lee Jung-hoo, who serves as Deputy Branch Manager of Tiger Fund Korea Branch.”
“Nice to meet you. A young person has risen to the deputy branch manager position. You must be quite capable.”
I found myself shaking hands with the Financial Services Commission Chairman.
Why is the situation suddenly flowing like this?
It was difficult to collect myself from this sudden development.
“Thanks to the Financial Services Commission relaxing the bidding qualifications, the situation flowed very nicely.”
“Thanks to General Manager Kang, we were able to prevent Cali Fund’s monopoly bid. The government was urgent about attracting foreign investment and recovering public funds, so we gave benefits to Cali Fund, but thanks to your intervention, General Manager, we could sell at fair value.”
Now the puzzle pieces were starting to fit together.
So the General Manager and the Financial Services Commission Chairman conspired to raise the bid price?
“Hanseo Bank, which would have been sold for 800 billion won, was sold at double the price. Isn’t this a good result for everyone?”
“I won’t forget this favor. I can hold my head high when I go to the Blue House too.”
“It was truly rewarding to be able to work for South Korea’s development.”
“If there were more people like you, General Manager, we could overcome the foreign exchange crisis quickly. Haha, but by any chance, aren’t you interested in acquiring other banks?”
The Chairman was trying to sell banks like they were cheap products.
That was understandable. Small and medium-sized banks put up for sale after the IMF crisis were overflowing, and unless it was a bank with scale like Hanseo Bank, there were hardly any places stepping up for acquisitions.
“Hmm… I’ll think about it for now.”
“Please contact us anytime. If Tiger Fund acquires a bank, I can personally negotiate with the Blue House to lift regulations for you.”
“First priority is to completely stabilize Hanseo Card.”
“Since Hanseo Bank is now owned by Cali Fund, you’ll probably need to change the name of Hanseo Card too. So how about acquiring a new bank instead and rebranding it together with the card company?”
The Chairman persistently proposed acquisitions.
The General Manager deflected with laughter and declined the bank acquisition proposal.
“I’ll visit again next time.”
“Anytime. And please contact me often. If it’s a call from General Manager Kang, I’ll answer even if I’m sleeping. Hehehe.”
We barely finished our greetings and returned to the car.
Only then did the General Manager begin explaining today’s situation.
“Do you understand now?”
“I only understood that you joined hands with the Financial Services Commission to raise Hanseo Bank’s acquisition price.”
“Actually, we didn’t join hands from the beginning. While thinking about how to screw over Cali Fund, the Financial Services Commission came to mind.”
“But how did you persuade the Financial Services Commission?”
The Financial Services Commission had already decided on the sale to Cali Fund.
Although Deutsche Bank waged media warfare, it wasn’t enough to change the Financial Services Commission’s position.
“I approached them sincerely. After visiting several times saying I wanted to acquire Hanseo Bank, they recognized my sincerity.”
“You bluffed with sincerity?”
“Well, something like that. After repeatedly emphasizing that Hanseo Bank’s valuation was too low, the Chairman came looking for me first.”
Meeting the Financial Services Commission Chairman wasn’t easy.
The General Manager had lied so sincerely that the Chairman came looking for him first.
“Did the Financial Services Commission propose raising the bid price first?”
“I proposed that first. When I said Tiger Fund would definitely spend over 1.5 trillion won if multiple bidding became possible, he was pleased and even changed the bidding regulations.”
We couldn’t know how much Cali Fund had spent on lobbying.
But no matter how high the lobbying amount was, it couldn’t possibly be more than 1.5 trillion won.
With one overwhelming bid price, we could crush the lobbying instantly, and it was enough to win the Chairman’s heart.
“From the Chairman’s perspective, it would be beneficial whether we acquired it for 1.5 trillion or if someone else paid an even higher price.”
“In the end, Cali Fund acquired it for 1.6 trillion. From the Financial Services Commission’s perspective, it would look like Tiger Fund ran sincerely but failed regrettably, and since we expanded the playing field, their favorability toward us must have risen significantly.”
“Looking at the Chairman’s expression, it wasn’t just increased favorability but looked like someone who had fallen in love.”
“I could make that expression too if someone helped me earn 800 billion.”
It was killing two birds with one stone.
We dealt a blow to Cali Fund while simultaneously establishing a friendly relationship with the Financial Services Commission.
And the real beauty of this strategy was that Tiger Fund hadn’t actually spent a single penny.
“We built a good relationship with the Financial Services Commission without spending a dime.”
“We’ll need the Financial Services Commission’s help more often in the future. We’ve created a stronger connection without throwing money around like Cali Fund.”
“But did the Chairman really want to hand over a small bank to us?”
“It’s likely he was sincere. Neither domestic capital nor foreign capital shows interest in small banks.”
Small banks had no attractive elements.
Most were merely regional-based, with many non-performing loans making them difficult to sell.
“Why are you interested? But generally speaking, it’s better not to acquire banks.”
“Because of non-performing loan cleanup?”
“That’s part of it, but it’s mainly due to the separation of banking and commerce law. To acquire a bank, the structure becomes quite complex. You need to establish a special purpose vehicle and divide equity shares in complicated ways. Or you could sign a ‘sell within 5 years’ condition like Cali Fund.”
It wasn’t saying it was impossible.
But the gear structure where a small bank, Hanseo Card, and Rollbook would become one kept coming to mind.
“I think it’s worth seriously considering.”
“Why do you think so?”
“I haven’t organized my thoughts yet. I’ll tell you soon. But if done well, I think we could create a fairly stable cash cow through acquiring a small bank.”
“Well, small banks do have low acquisition costs and low entry barriers. But without a clear profit model, there’s no reason to bother with it. It’s that troublesome and difficult. So when you’re confident you can convince me, let’s talk about it again then.”
We didn’t need to acquire a small bank right away.
It was something to discuss only after organizing the thoughts in my head.
“Oh! But Hanyang Dairy proposed acquiring Max Coffee.”
“Really? Since Employee Lee’s parents hold all the equity shares in Max Coffee, the sale depends on their choice.”
“I have no intention of selling at all. But Hanyang Dairy even threatened that we’d regret it if we don’t sell.”
“Interesting company. Tell them to go ahead and try. They’ll be shedding tears of blood.”
I had the same thought.
I wasn’t scared at all by a large corporation throwing its weight around.
I was actually looking forward to it. …Had I been too influenced by the General Manager?
New Employee with 1 Trillion Won Annual Salary Chapter 72
E-book Publication Date | 2025.11.27
Author | Seo Oh
Publishers | Heo Heung-beom, Park Geon-won
Publishing House | Poten
Address | [04783] 10th Floor, 8 Yeonmujang 11-gil, Seongdong-gu, Seoul
Phone | 02-6320-8500
Fax | 02-6320-8585
ISBN | 9791175305892
Price | 100 won
ⓒ Seo Oh 2025
This e-book is a copyrighted work protected by copyright law.
This e-book is published under contract with the author, and unauthorized reproduction, copying, distribution, and sharing are prohibited without written consent from both parties.
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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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