Chapter 120

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“The Lebanese government has conveyed their gratitude to our Gwangwoon.”

“Is the recovery work going well there?”

“Yes. Helping hands are coming from all over the world, and didn’t we donate 300 billion? Overall, there’s nowhere that donated more than us.”

300 billion won.

It wasn’t that big of money for us.

But seen as a donation, it was a very large amount.

The donation from the entire EU was about 40 billion won.

Even adding up all donations sent to Lebanon from people worldwide so far barely exceeds 200 billion won.

But we paid a full 300 billion in one sum—1,000 billion more than that amount—so it was worth it for the Lebanese Prime Minister to personally convey thanks.

“But didn’t the prime minister and entire cabinet resign right now?”

“Yes. As it became known that the ammonium nitrate had been rotting in a warehouse for 6 years due to the Lebanese government’s complacency and exploded, from the prime minister to key figures, everyone resigned. The anger of Lebanese citizens is sky-high.”

Due to that, a new prime minister was appointed, but it was still politically chaotic.

“The president says he won’t resign. He says if he resigns too, the political vacuum would be too big and dangerous.”

From the prime minister to the leadership, everyone left, but the president alone kept his seat.

Lebanon has a somewhat complex political structure.

Citizens don’t directly vote for the president; 128 members of parliament elect the president and prime minister.

And the prime minister has far more authority than the president.

The one actually governing the country is the prime minister, not the president.

“Since the president is symbolic and ceremonial in Lebanon anyway, citizens don’t seem to care much.”

“I heard the Lebanese government isn’t even conducting a proper investigation.”

“Yes. There must be political reasons mixed in. The more they investigate, the more it exposes their incompetence.”

The Lebanese government didn’t want to thoroughly investigate this incident.

Because despite numerous danger reports coming up over 6 years, they didn’t accept them and just hushed it up.

“Some say there’s a conspiracy theory that the opposition deliberately committed terrorism to bring down the current prime minister and cabinet. Since the Lebanese government isn’t properly conducting the investigation now, such conspiracy theories are spreading more.”

“That’s scary. That the opposition might have deliberately committed terrorism to bring down opponents.”

“…”

Then the team members stared at me quietly.

“What?”

“There are other conspiracy theories too, but. No, it’s nothing.”

There was a brief strange atmosphere, but we quickly moved to another topic.

“The position clearing in the US is all done. The National Pension has also cleared about half of its positions.”

“What’s our amount?”

Manager Seo swallowed once and answered.

“75 trillion won.”

75 trillion won.

It was truly an enormous amount.

The US stock market had collapsed at a historic level, then recovered at the fastest speed in history, allowing us to make big profits.

“We entered with 25 trillion won, so we made 3x and came out?”

“Yes. It’s a tremendous achievement. Unlike the National Pension, we had somewhat more freedom to buy and sell, and above all, Tisla’s role was big. Didn’t Tisla’s stock price rise considerably this time? Also, many individual investors poured into the stock market due to corona, which helped prices rise.”

Wall Street always says.

Tisla’s stock price is a bubble.

That’s true.

Tisla specializes in electric vehicles, but looking at sales figures alone, honestly recording that kind of stock price didn’t make sense.

But isn’t there a saying?

The era of selling products has passed.

Now it’s an age of selling dreams.

AI, electric vehicles, rockets, etc.

Tisla pursues future industries and rather than showing immediate results to investors, was selling the future.

And surprisingly, that worked properly.

“What about the National Pension side?”

“As originally expected, if they clear positions adding all returns to date, it becomes 1,500 trillion won. They’ve only cashed half of that for now. The rest is buried in the US market. As the President predicted, the US stock market looks like it will continue trending upward. But there’s one problem.”

“What problem?”

“The reason we cleared positions and the National Pension also pulled out about half is because of the EU’s proposal, right?”

Seeing us revive the US stock market with shock therapy, the EU had also requested help from our Gwangwoon and National Pension.

Because they also wanted to hold up the shaking stock prices.

But there’s a saying that all world markets are connected to the US.

In fact, the US market boasts an overwhelming scale comprising 40-50% of global markets.

So when the US stock market revives, European markets revive together.

Just like when Bitcoin rises, other altcoins rise together.

“Initially, like the US, they said they’d lift restrictions so National Pension and Gwangwoon funds could move freely, but as the US market revived and European markets recovered together, the EU withdrew that proposal again.”

Well, it was somewhat understandable.

Because while we were tied up in the US for 3 months, European markets had also somewhat recovered.

“Then our plan to enter Europe should be considered scrapped?”

“Yes. So I prepared a separate portfolio. Anyway, both in terms of returns and in many ways, the US is a much better market than Europe, so reinvesting there…”

The US market right now was a place where putting money in meant it got copied.

European markets had recovered too, but not as much as the US market.

“Especially the US market is implementing large-scale quantitative easing, so IT companies are constantly emerging. The IPO market is growing at historic levels. Of course, there’s severe bubbling, but it’s also the optimal place to make money right now.”

I also thought just putting the money back into the US market might be the best approach.

“Just a moment.”

But when clearing the US market position, my intuition hadn’t shown a rejection reaction.

Rather, it felt like it was actively recommending position clearing.

But entering the US market again from here seemed somehow wrong. So I brought my hand to the portfolio.

“…”

No feeling came at all.

Even though I closely examined the report and thoroughly read the analysis of stocks to stuff information into my head, my intuition didn’t react.

“We were originally planning to enter the European market, right? Then research must have prepared a separate portfolio for which stocks to invest in.”

“Ah, yes. Research did prepare something separately, but since the EU withdrew…”

“Then show me that too.”

“Yes, here it is.”

I also examined the Europe report made by research. But the moment I opened that report, I got a reaction.

“…”

The intuition that had been quiet until now was reacting to the European report.

On top of that, it wasn’t pointing to a specific stock, but brilliance was flowing from the report itself.

“We’re not blocked from entering the European market now, right?”

“Ah, yes. There is an account the EU opened in advance. But unlike what they promised, we’ll have to invest with various restrictions. If you really plan to invest in Europe, it would be better to leave that account and open a new account through a prime broker to invest. Information about that account is in the report too.”

I pressed firmly on the account that the EU had supposedly opened in advance.

“!?”

I felt a strong current quickly sweep through my entire body.

“Please put the National Pension money into this account first.”

“Pardon? A-all of it? But since the EU withdrew the proposal, they could unilaterally close the account.”

“Then we can just pull it out again then, so it doesn’t matter, right?”

“That’s true, but…”

Manager Seo glanced at my mood and quickly nodded.

“Understood. I’ll contact the asset management company and have it processed that way.”

Gwangwoon Asset Management now manages all of the National Pension’s money.

In principle, it should be operated according to the fund’s nature, but actually that’s just a general rule, and in reality they gave us authority to freely operate all funds.

This was largely due to the influence of the former chairman who is now an advisor at our asset management company.

But Europe, huh.

The EU already blocked our access, so would there be something that would suddenly open the gates again?

————————————————————————————————————————

“…I-is this the accurate figure?”

“Yes. According to our calculations, it exceeds 20 billion dollars.”

Germany’s largest insurance company, Munich Re.

CEO Thorsten who was running it almost fainted at the figure the employees brought.

“H-how can such a figure even come out?”

The Beirut port explosion incident.

People think Lebanon suffered the most damage from this incident.

But Lebanon isn’t the only one that suffered damage.

When such incidents happen, there’s inevitably a place that gets badly shaken.

That’s insurance companies.

Were there just one or two insurance policies tied to Beirut port?

Insurance on the port itself.

Insurance on goods.

Insurance on people.

Insurance on ships, etc.

An unprecedented explosion occurred, so now it was time to cough up insurance money.

“Originally, even if the Beirut port accident occurred, insurance claims would only be 3 billion dollars. Since 99% of Lebanese residents don’t have insurance. Plus insurance on the port itself was also low.”

Actually, 3 billion dollars in insurance claims was also quite large.

But compared to 20 billion dollars, it was nothing.

“But when Levant took over Beirut port, things got bigger. They had taken out various insurance policies, and as the port’s business expanded, the number of ships and goods coming to the port increased several times, so the damage amount ballooned.”

The calculated insurance claims came to 20 billion dollars.

“So. How much does our side have to compensate?”

“Munich Re alone has to pay a whopping 1 billion dollars.”

“1 billion dollars?!”

Once again Thorsten squeezed his eyes shut.

“What. should we do?”

“What do you mean what. We have to hold out as much as possible. Are we really going to give up all 1 billion dollars? Do whatever it takes to lower the payment amount.”

“But if we do that, massive lawsuits will come in. Even if we lower it, we won’t be able to lower it much either.”

In other words, they immediately needed money to pay insurance claims.

If they don’t pay the insurance claims they should, that means closing the company.

“First, dispose of all stocks we’re holding. The estimated insurance claims alone are 20 billion dollars. We alone have to cough up 1 billion dollars, so what do you think will happen to other places?”

The executives quickly understood what that meant.

The insurance companies connected to Beirut this time would have to dispose of all their holdings to pay insurance claims.

“So dump them quickly! Before they all become worthless!”

————————————————————————————————————————

All financial markets were in a slump due to corona, but with the US stock market’s brilliant revival, all markets came back to life.

And the European stock market was most affected among them.

Although it was falling as scarily as the US market, now it was recovering while continuing to trend upward.

“But what on earth happened? It’s returning to that crash again?”

The heads of state belonging to the EU were also going crazy.

They thought they had barely stabilized the angry public sentiment as the market recovered with effort, but like a lie, the crash had returned.

“It’s because of this Beirut port incident. Our Europe is famous for insurance, right? The problem is too much insurance was tied up in Beirut, and when it burst, things got bigger.”

The estimated insurance claims alone were 20 billion dollars.

European insurance companies would have to pay all of it.

They could use tricks to hold out, but ultimately having to pay was unchanged.

“Insurance companies have to secure insurance funds, so everyone is dumping the stocks they held, and that’s dealing a big blow to the market.”

“And a financial scandal broke out in the process?”

Then adding insult to injury, a financial scandal exploded.

In the process of clearing stocks, it was revealed that a German company that was making a big name in fintech had been playing tricks with accounting fraud.

“The false accounting reports amounted to 2 billion euros, and as that company filed for bankruptcy, the European financial market shook even more.”

“So the conclusion is, all of this is because of an explosion that happened in far-away Beirut?”

“Yes. If not for that incident, our European market would have been peaceful. It would have continued trending upward like the US.”

But as numerous European insurance companies tied to Beirut collapsed, the European market also started collapsing together.

“…”

Everyone remained silent without a word.

Everyone was racking their brains over how to break through this situation.

“I received a report recently.”

That’s when the Chairman quietly spoke.

“The report that Gwangwoon pulled out about half of the National Pension’s money from the US market and put it into the account we opened before.”

“Wait… isn’t that the account we decided to close?”

“It was. We even told Gwangwoon about that in advance. But Gwangwoon still put massive money there.”

“Why on earth…?”

“And coincidentally, not long after, the entire European market started shaking.”

“!?”

Does that mean Gwangwoon knew this would happen?

“The money in the account hasn’t moved?”

“Yes. Not putting such a big sum in safe assets and just leaving it in an account is enormous waste. Gwangwoon can’t not know that. Yet keeping it there—what do you think that means?”

“…They’re sending us a message.”

“Yes. They’re probably asking, still don’t need our help?”

They held their heads again.

The first thing they did when the US market revived and the European market stabilized was withdraw the proposal made to Gwangwoon and National Pension.

They judged it was too risky to undo the shackles and let them run free in the European market, and above all, the existence called Gwangwoon was too concerning.

Strangely, the name Gwangwoon always popped up in every major incident.

“There are rampant rumors that Gwangwoon is connected to this Beirut too…”

“Could Gwangwoon have done this aiming for…!”

As the atmosphere started heating up, the Chairman quickly calmed them.

“Everyone, let’s not go too far. Insurance companies have already concluded through separate investigation that the Lebanese government incompetently managed ammonium nitrate for 6 years, and the explosion occurred because Levant carelessly conducted work.”

Of course, there were plenty of suspicious aspects.

The Lebanese government was also busy just hiding the incident.

“So are you really saying we should let Gwangwoon freely enter the European market?”

“The US did that and saw proper results. There’s still a lot of talk about it, but ultimately it succeeded. Do you have any other good ideas? Can you immediately inject hundreds of billions of euros into the financial market?”

“…”

Every country’s treasury was empty from this corona.

And now they have to pour astronomical money to save the financial market?

That would be no different from bankrupting the country itself.

“Since no one has anything to say, I’ll first contact Gwangwoon again. And hear about detailed investment plans.”

No one objected.

The situation had already been reversed by a long shot.

“Sigh. Everyone’s expecting me to do something, really.”

After finishing the meeting and returning to her office, Standing Chairman Sharol let out a big sigh.

The heads of state just maintaining their pride were frustrating.

“But Chairman.”

“Hm?”

“What if even this is Gwangwoon’s plan too?”

At the secretary’s words, Sharol narrowed her brow.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, what if they didn’t intentionally cause the Beirut port explosion to blow up a competitor company, but were actually targeting the European market from the start?”

“…!”

The Beirut incident occurred after the EU completely withdrew its initial proposal.

And that immediately dealt a direct blow to the European market.

“Wouldn’t it be dangerous to release Gwangwoon into Europe?”

“…Enough. Didn’t I tell you before? Don’t bring me strange conspiracy theories. Besides, is there any other money to pull from without that money? If you have a method, tell me. I’ll actively accept it.”

“I-I’m sorry.”

“Go out and do your work.”

Sharol sent away the secretary talking nonsense.

And as she examined the report, for some reason the secretary’s words kept circling in her head.

If all of this is really Gwangwoon’s intention—

Why Europe of all places?