Chapter 589: Didn’t I Warn You?

I moved to a suite inside the Baekje Hotel with Choi Woo-sik, the chairman of KS Group.

As Soon, the manager, took Woo-sik's entourage out, I sat down with him.

Before I could even hear Woo-sik's greeting, I went straight to the point.

"You've been having a tough time lately, haven't you? Thanks to the Sovereign Fund?"

His lips quivered, and he narrowed his eyes. I continued without giving him a chance to speak.

"That's why I warned you, didn't I? I told you your shares were too low. Hyenas like the Sovereign Fund don't let such opportunities slip by. I explicitly advised you to sort out your share structure and convert to a holding company."

In 2003, a 20 trillion won accounting fraud involving KS Global was uncovered.

As a result, all of KS Group's executives, including Chairman Choi Woo-sik, were under investigation by the prosecutors.

Thankfully, they avoided arrest, but the media slammed KS Group as Korea's version of the Enron scandal.

President Yoon Chang-ho immediately ordered the prosecution, the National Tax Service, and the Fair Trade Commission to take strong action.

'KS Group has been shaky since then.'

Chairman Choi didn't hold a significant stake in KS Group.

Like many chaebols in Korea, he controlled all his affiliates through a circular shareholding structure.

Naturally, KS Group's stock plummeted, and the activist fund, Sovereign Fund, seized the opportunity.

Using a subsidiary called Crest Securities, they began to hoard shares of KS Corporation and eventually secured 14.99% of the stakes.

Except for special cases like Jungwoo Group, a foreign fund had now become the largest shareholder of a major Korean company.

"You ignored my warnings, and look where that got you?"

"…Did you call me here just to mock me?"

Choi Woo-sik bit his lip and said with apparent frustration.

Seeing his distress, I couldn't help but smirk slightly.

"Well, mocking… maybe not."

* * *

A month before the KS Group's general shareholders' meeting, Eva came to see me.

Since Eva was on vacation, it wasn't common for her to seek me out unless something urgent arose.

With shopping bags in both hands, Eva entered my study, calling out to me with a lively voice.

"Boss!"

Her voice was bright, her face beaming with joy.

Before her vacation, she had been living under a cloud of exhaustion.

I guess I was quite the tyrannical boss after all.

"You look a lot better, Eva. What've you got in those bags?"

Pointing at the mountain of shopping bags that looked heavy to lift, she laughed playfully.

"What do you think? Gifts for you, Boss!"

"Gifts? All of a sudden?"

"It's nothing special. I picked up a few things I thought you'd like while traveling."

Settling down, Eva placed the shopping bags on the table.

Then, she started pulling out items, one after another, off the table. It felt like she had cleaned out a department store.

From wallets to watches, belts to sunglasses…

"Earrings? Why'd you buy those? I don't even have pierced ears!"

"Those are obviously for me! The rest are all for you. So, what do you think? Do you like them? I made sure to pick things that'd suit you!"

I glanced at the box full of sunglasses piled among the gifts.

"These are nice. I'll have to wear them when I go on vacation next time."

"Of course! I put a lot of thought into choosing them!"

I smiled back at her, appreciating her pride.

"Thanks! So, how's the vacation going?"

Eva nodded.

"Yeah! Right now, I'm traveling around Europe. I started in the UK and plan to tour the whole continent. But something urgent came up, so I had to rush back. Once everything's settled, I'll head out again."

"What's so urgent that you had to rush back? You could've just called or delegated it to someone below you, couldn't you?"

"Hmm, I could have, but this is something I feel I need to take care of personally. There's no one among the staff I could trust to speak with you directly."

Straightening up, Eva wiped the smile off her face and began seriously.

"Boss, do you know a company called Crest Securities?"

"Sovereign Fund?"

"Yeah. They reached out to us, asking for our shares. No, to be precise, they want us to delegate our voting rights to them."

No matter what I did, some things never changed. This was yet another instance of that.

Even after I had pointed out the issues with the circular shareholding structure back in the IMF days, Chairman Choi still didn't get it.

Foreign funds had far too many opportunities to exploit the vulnerable governance structures of our chaebols if they set their mind to it.

That's why I had cautioned him from the moment the Sovereign Fund started secretly buying shares.

They weren't buying to invest but hoarding shares for a hostile takeover.

Yet, he had refused to take my words to heart, and now here we were, faced with the consequences.

"How much stake do we have in KS?"

"4.9% in Future Investments. If you add everything up from the scattered shares, it's around 8.7%."

"And what about the shares the Sovereign Fund secured?"

"They've managed to collect 14.9% through five paper companies."

Looks like they distributed the companies to maximize their voting rights.

After a moment of contemplation, I asked again.

"And how much does Chairman Choi own?"

"Only 9.7%. With related parties, it might come to around 15%. Does that make sense, to control the entire KS Group with that? I can't fathom what the Korean chaebols are thinking at all."

I chuckled at Eva's grumbling stance.

"You can't think of it the same way as the U.S. or Europe. At least the IMF incident has made things more open to foreign capital. Before that, there were severe restrictions regarding foreign investments, you see."

"That may be true… but regardless, Chairman Chandler's coming to Korea personally. They've set up a meeting for tomorrow."

"What? Chandler is coming personally?"

I couldn't help but exclaim, surprised. They usually prefer to operate discreetly and avoid drawing attention.

Before my return, they had never once visited Korea.

It seemed this was another variable that emerged because of my intervention in history.

"Brother? Little Brother?"

"Both are said to be visiting Korea."

The full name of the Sovereign Fund is Sovereign Asset Management.

However, they only use the name for formality. Their true nature is a family office managing the wealth of Christopher and Richard Chandler.

They were a significant investment firm but remained shrouded in secrecy.

Now two of them were coming to Korea, not just one?

"They must be putting all their chips on the line. Eva, what do you think their goal is? Control of operations? Or are they aiming for market manipulation to profit from stock price changes?"

Most funds incite management disputes to push up stock prices and reap profits.

However, the behavior of the Sovereign Fund was a bit different. They were currently shaking up KS Group in a big way.

"I think they genuinely intend to secure control. They've already managed to gather support from the KS labor union and some minority shareholders to enhance their voting power. They were confident they could win if we back them!"

KS Group was indeed an appealing target.

As Asia's largest oil company, KS Co.'s market capitalization was undervalued at 12 trillion won.

Additionally, the value represented by the 20% stake that KS Co. held in KS Telecom exceeded 30 trillion won.

If management control of KS Co. changes hands, most of the affiliates currently tied together by the circular shareholding structure would all fall to the Sovereign Fund.

What if the Sovereign Fund gained control? They wouldn't care about the company's growth.

It was clear they would tear apart KS Group and sell it off, pocketing the profits.

"What do you think, Eva?"

"I'd recommend siding with the Sovereign Fund. But you don't want to see Korean conglomerates fall into foreign hands, do you? A patriot, perhaps?"

"I'm not a patriot; I'm a businessman. If there's something to gain, I want it for myself. The pie that is KS Group is too tasty to just hand over to others."

I scoffed at her comment. A patriot, me?

It seemed Eva was under some delusion.

I simply disliked those who dared to tread into my territory.

"That would be true. If you hadn't intervened during the IMF crisis, Korea would have teetered even more. Foreign capital would have chewed away at the assets, resulting in total erosion of domestic capital…"

"I operated for my own benefit, but it might have looked differently. What a dream I'm living in. Anyway, is your position to suggest siding with the Sovereign Fund?"

Shrugging her shoulders, Eva nodded.

"Maximizing our interests is the way to go. What they're targeting is likely the refining business of KS Co., but they will also push for the sale of other subsidiaries."

"Let's meet and decide. I need to sit down personally and negotiate. Let's go together."

"Okay, Boss! I'll schedule the meeting and get in touch with you."

Eva, having conveyed the message, replied confidently and rose from her seat.

"Got it. I'll make good use of the gifts. Thanks, Eva."

In lieu of a response, Eva winked playfully before waving goodbye as she left.

A few days later, I met with the Chandler brothers at the Myeong-dong Hotel.

"Hello!"

Eva greeted them warmly first and then introduced me.

"This is our boss, Kim Mu-hyeok."

I smiled gently and extended my hand.

"I'm Kim Mu-hyeok."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Richard Chandler."

"I'm Christopher Chandler."

After shaking hands with both, we sat across from each other.

Richard and Christopher exchanged whispers before turning to me.

"Are you… the Charlie Kim from Dream High Investment?"

I nodded at their inquisitive faces.

"That's correct."

"Was Future Investments also your company? I knew it was an asset management company based in Hong Kong. Was it actually an American capital?"

"Dream High and Future Investments are unrelated companies. Dream High is managed by James Han, while Eva runs Future. I'm just the investor financing them."

"Hmm…"

Responding nonchalantly, their expressions turned grim.

It seemed they thought it was a simple matter to deal with Eva directly, believing they could simply come to Korea and handle things.

My existence seemed to have caught them off guard. Unexpected variables are rarely good omens.

As I observed their stiff faces, I wore a wider smile.

"I've heard your names from Russia. After the Soviet Union collapsed, you invested in Russia and helped privatize several state firms, while also improving Gazprom's management. Thanks to that, I became the second-largest shareholder of Gazprom."

"…"

These brothers made a fortune by investing in Russia when no one else cared.

It was a long time before I began to make my entry there.

Their most renowned deed was the removal of Gazprom's corrupt CEO, Rem Vyakhirev.

They doubled Gazprom's market share and then completely sold off their stakes and left Russia.

They were indeed titans who had dominated Russia's capital market during the 1990s.

If they had delayed even a little in selling their stakes, they could have suffered massive losses after Russia's moratorium.

"I've always wanted to meet you, and now I finally do. Thanks to your efforts, I was able to get a lot of help when I invested in Russia."

I decided to cut the pleasantries and get to the main topic.

"So you want to receive proxies for the KS shares held by Future Investments?"

Richard Chandler, the elder brother, answered.

"That's right. If you help us this time, we can take control of KS Group. We've secured 30% of the voting rights. We can definitely win the voting rights struggle in the shareholders' meeting."

They've secured 30%?

I had heard Crest Securities secured 14.9%.

That meant they had already secured more than 15% of friendly shares.

"With that much, you could probably win without Future Investments' stake, right? With 30% secured?"

"That's correct. But if Future Investments' stakes end up with Chairman Choi, we'd lose the voting rights struggle."

They seemed to have done all the calculations already.