The Return of the Ruined Chaebol's Third-Generation Heir - Chapter 40

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Regression of a Fallen Chaebol Third-Generation — Episode 040
“I’m telling you about this because I thought you two would have worried about it in various ways.”
At the breakfast table, Mother broached the subject of the Management Rights Dispute that had been taking place, before picking up her spoon. She spoke calmly, but the strain of recent days was evident in her words.
“So it’s all over then?”
My younger sister Seon-ah widened her eyes and asked, but Mother shook her head.
“Your uncle won’t be able to touch the company again, but things will be noisy for a while. Still, it’s not a crisis or anything like that, so don’t worry too much.”
“You’re doing an Equity Structure Reorganization?”
I threw out the question without any hesitation—as if I had nothing left to hide.
Before, I used to drop hints in roundabout ways because I was a high school student, but now I decided there was no need for that.
I had sought out Kim Seok-jun, and besides, Mother knew that I was paying attention to this affair in various ways.
Mother looked startled at my direct question, but she soon didn’t deny it and nodded.
“That’s right. Things will be noisy at the company. But you shouldn’t take too much interest, or…….”
“Don’t worry. I have to go to university anyway. There’s not enough time for studying alone. Still, Seon-ah and I need to understand why things will be noisy.”
At my words, Mother smiled as if relieved.
“All right then, shall we eat?”
“Mother, but there are elderly people who helped us this time, aren’t there? That, um…….”
“The elders?”
“Yes, shouldn’t you invite them to a meal or something? I thought it was good that they came forward.”
People who needed to be taken care of.
Of course, whatever influence they could wield in actual operations was debatable, but their value as symbolic assets and political resources within the group remained intact.
For Mother to solidify strong leadership, she needed to leave them with the image of a chairman who treated them with proper respect.
Mother wore a contemplative expression for a moment, then nodded as if she understood what I meant.
“I’ll do that. You’re right.”
I thought this was where my involvement in this matter should end.
I nodded at Mother’s answer and ate my meal in silence. Once breakfast was finished, my sister gathered her bag and stood up first.
“I’m heading to school!”
“All right, be careful.”
After my sister left, I put on my shoes and was about to step out the front door when I heard Mother’s voice from behind.
“Seon-woo.”
I turned around, and Mother was also finishing her preparations to leave for work.
“Yes?”
“Your mother received a lot of help from you in this matter. Thank you.”
“I didn’t do anything worth mentioning.”
“Going to see Kim Seok-jun, and telling me things I hadn’t thought of. It was thanks to you that I could find courage.”
“You had it hard too, didn’t you? You’ve been through a lot.”
After Father passed away suddenly, Mother—who had been an ordinary housewife—was thrust into a war zone without time to prepare.
It was Mother’s ability that protected the Seonjin Group in the midst of hyena-like relatives and cunning executives.
Because if the person receiving the hint doesn’t notice it, there’s no point in giving one.
“Then I’ll be heading to school. See you this evening.”
“All right. Have a good day.”
As I opened the gate and stepped outside, cool morning air filled my lungs deeply.
It was air I breathed every day, but today it felt unusually refreshing.
My steps toward school were lighter than ever before.

* * *
“Senior, I’m over here.”
As I sat in the cafe, Han Jae-yi opened the door and came in. Upon spotting me, she broke into a bright smile and waved her hand.
“Hey, Kang Seon-woo. It’s been forever.”
Han Jae-yi plopped down in the chair across from me and set down her bag.
“Why don’t you ever contact me?”
“I was the one who reached out first. That’s why we’re meeting now.”
“No, I don’t mean that. Like, normally. You could ask how I’m doing or something like that.”
“I figured no news was good news.”
At my indifferent reply, Han Jae-yi made an exasperated face, then lowered her voice.
“Are you okay?”
“Me?”
“Yeah…… I mean, the Seonjin Group was all over the news recently.”
So she had been paying attention.
“I’m fine. As you’d understand, things will quiet down from now on. Everything’s been settled.”
Han Jae-yi nodded as if relieved.
“How’s school life? What about your club?”
“You experienced third-year school life last year, so you know how it is. It feels like dying.”
Studying for the College Entrance Examination twice—something not in my destiny—was no trivial hardship.
What was surprising, though, was that old memories were coming back one by one as I went through it.
“Are you going to a domestic university?”
“Where else would I go?”
“No…… I was just wondering.”
Han Jae-yi glanced around us before leaning in closer.
“Chaebols usually go to foreign universities, right?”
“Well, that’s because admission is easier there.”
Foreign universities had active Donation Admission systems, so it was a common route for chaebol families that valued titles.
“I don’t care about that. If I can get in on merit, that’s fine.”
“What, you’re being kind of annoying.”
Han Jae-yi gave me a light sideways glance before asking again.
“What about your club?”
“It’s running well. Min-jae is the president, you know. He’s diligent. Takes good care of the juniors, and he’s definitely the type who does well when given practical work. He’s different from the previous president.”
“What? You sound like an old man.”
Ah, without realizing it.
“No, I’m just saying what I observe from the side. The juniors follow him well, and even the ones who weren’t actively participating in club activities before are enthusiastic about it now.”
“The previous president…… you?”
“I guess. I’ve only seen two presidents.”
Just as Han Jae-yi was about to fire back, I changed the subject first.
“How’s your Stock Investment going?”
At that, Han Jae-yi’s expression, which looked about to explode, transformed instantly into something bright.
“Great. I pulled this out today to show you.”
Han Jae-yi rummaged through her bag and handed me a crisp sheet of A4 Paper.
It was a Trading Journal printed from a securities firm’s HTS.
“How did you know about the Impeachment and the China Shock? The market really was a golden opportunity when it collapsed, just like you said.”
When we last talked, I had hinted at it subtly.
That the market would soon collapse, and that would be the time to buy.
Looking over the Trading Journal, she had understood my hint perfectly and gone in aggressively to accumulate positions.
“You’re a chaebol. Anyway, you bought massively from that point on.”
“Right. You checked the market today, didn’t you?”
“I did.”
As if the Impeachment issue and China Shock had never happened, the stock market was now heating up intensely.
“Foreign investors are buying Korea.”
While domestic retail investors and institutions had been gripped by fear, selling off their stocks, foreign investors had paradoxically been scooping up stocks in massive quantities. Thanks to that, the market was experiencing an unprecedented bull run.
“I made a lot of money that way too. You can tell from the paper, but…….”
“You’ve accumulated a lot of construction stocks, haven’t you?”
I looked away from the documents and met Han Jae-yi’s gaze.
“There’s something special about these construction companies. Do you know what it is?”
“They’re all construction-related companies that have strength in the Chungcheong region.”
“Ding-dong-ding! That’s right!”
“Theme stocks for the Administrative Capital Relocation?”
At my words, Han Jae-yi nodded eagerly.
“I started buying in March. They’re up 40% already. They’ll go higher.”
“Sell them.”
“What?”
“The Administrative Capital Relocation isn’t happening.”
Han Jae-yi’s eyes widened.
Around this time, another verdict was set to shake the nation. The Constitutional Court would put the brakes on the government’s ambitious plan to relocate the administrative capital to the Chungcheong region.
The theme stocks, which had been soaring without a care in the world, would tumble off a cliff starting from that day.
“Slowly unwind your position. It won’t happen.”
“But all the media is saying it will happen…… and the government’s determination is firm.”
“Senior, what’s the number-one investment asset in our country?”
“Real estate.”
“Right. And where is most of it concentrated?”
“Seoul…….”
“It won’t happen easily. Of course, they’ll dress it up with various legal reasons, but the bottom line is that those who benefit from Seoul’s long-accumulated interests have more sway than those who want change. Figure out the rest yourself.”
At my firm words, Han Jae-yi fell silent, lost in thought.
“Senior.”
“Huh? Yeah?”
“Go home and think about it. Let’s get going. I’ve given you another hint, so buy me dinner. You made good money, didn’t you?”
After I said that and stood up to leave, Han Jae-yi scrambled to follow me.

* * *
September 2004.
After school, I got into the black sedan that had been waiting.
Choi Sung-hun was at the wheel, and Jung Tae-sung sat in the passenger seat.
Between the two of them, the division of labor regarding information gathering had already been settled. Choi Sung-hun, leveraging his strengths, brought information from the underground—the darker channels—while Jung Tae-sung handled high-level information related to business and political circles.
“I have a report for you.”
At my brief words, Choi Sung-hun, holding the steering wheel, met my eyes in the rearview mirror and spoke.
“Capital from the Myeongdong market has been pouring into the Yeouido area recently in large numbers.”
“Yeouido?”
“Yes, as you know, the KOSDAQ market has become their playground these days.”
A sigh escaped me involuntarily.
As I checked the market recently, the KOSPI was rising, but KOSDAQ was in freefall.
I had already guessed that the cause was both the moral hazard of KOSDAQ-listed company CEOs and the mischief of dirty money that had come in from Myeongdong, as Choi Sung-hun reported.
“What’s become fashionable among KOSDAQ-listed company CEOs these days is Ghost Stock. Do you know about it?”
“Yes, that’s what you’re calling parked shares, right?”
“That’s right. They borrow money from loan sharks and deposit the Paid-In Capital Increase amount with a one-day maturity. Then they just get a certificate of deposit issued and withdraw it the next day to pay back the loan.”
What they’re really after is Stock Price Manipulation.
They float announcements like “successful large capital raise” or “participation of prominent investors,” lure retail investors with positive news, drive up the stock price, then sell off their holdings and disappear.
In the end, only the retail investors who jumped in late like moths to a flame suffer the losses.
“Park Nam-gyu isn’t doing that too, is he?”
“No, sir. We’re managing that closely on our end. An elder from Jeonju warned him that we don’t look kindly on that kind of hoodlum behavior, so he’s being very obedient.”
Park Nam-gyu doesn’t know my true identity. He’s just trying to stay in the good graces of the fictional elder from Jeonju that Choi Sung-hun created.
“If anyone connected to Chief Choi gets involved in anything like that, cut them off. Getting tangled up will be a headache.”
“Understood, sir.”
I turned my attention to the passenger seat.
“Then, Director Jung.”
“Yes, sir.”
“What’s the situation with Seonjin Aluminum?”
“The news coming in recently isn’t good. It seems they’ve sold off the parent company’s equity stake according to the plan submitted to the authorities, but they were in such a hurry that they didn’t even get fair value—they practically gave it away.”
“There must be a lot of criticism of Chairman Kang Byeong-chul.”
“Yes, there’s that, but there’s also the issue of responsibility for the parked shares.”
Parked Shares were stocks that had been purchased indirectly through foreign securities firms and private equity funds. With the stock price collapsing in this incident, the losses had snowballed into a major problem.
“The aluminum side is now trying to shift the responsibility to the foreign private equity fund whose name they borrowed, and the fund is saying they were just instructed to buy—you were the ones who made the operational decisions, so we have no responsibility.”
“A full-scale legal battle will unfold then. Good. We can stop worrying about them now.”
They’ll destroy themselves even if we leave them alone.
“And Director Jung, I want you to liquidate all the investment assets in SJ Holdings and Ribbon Capital.”
“……Are you saying to convert them to cash, sir?”
“Yes. Liquidate everything and turn it into cash. And there should be a biotech company called Ujin Pharmatech. It’s listed on KOSDAQ. Buy shares of that company.”
At my instructions, Jung Tae-sung turned around with a surprised look.
“The entire amount, sir?”
“Yes.”
“……Understood, sir.”
Jung Tae-sung was puzzled but didn’t object.
The market was currently suffering from high oil prices and high exchange rates, with overall uncertainty mounting. In times like this, the market tends to fixate on a single powerful catalyst—in other words, individual material factors rather than macroeconomic trends.
A few months from now, a whirlwind would sweep through South Korea and indeed the entire world.
It would be the Stem Cell Theme.
I was calculating the timing ahead while gazing out the window.
Zzzt—
My mobile phone vibrated in my pocket. The screen showed Park Jin-hyuk, the research director of Shinhwa Welltech.
‘Why is he calling?’
He’s so immersed in research that there’s almost never occasion for him to contact me directly. Feeling puzzled, I pressed the answer button.
“This is Kang Seon-woo.”
-Director, I’m sorry to bother you when you’re busy. I’d really like to see you urgently.
“What’s the matter?”
-There’s a company that wants to buy our technology.
Technology partnerships and acquisition offers were fairly common. I had instructed the CEO to refuse such proposals after consulting with me.
-Normally I would have consulted with the CEO and turned them down, but the problem is that the interested company is Japanese. The conditions don’t seem normal, so I’m reporting this to you.
A Japanese company? A Japanese firm wants to buy Shinhwa Welltech’s technology?
It piqued my interest, and I felt I should hear the details properly.
“I’ll head to Ulsan this weekend. Let’s talk when I get there.”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————