Chapter 35

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“What on earth happened?! Suddenly dismissed!”

The news was like a bolt from the blue, enough to make Chairman Oh Dong-young, who had been lying in his sickbed due to old age, spring up.

“It seems President Oh Jae-hyun used tricks. He persuaded LK Orient shareholders to hold a board meeting and proceeded with a majority vote.”

As a result, overnight Chairman Oh Dong-young and his eldest son were kicked out of LK Group’s core holding company.

“What is that bastard doing now.!”

The second son, Oh Jae-hyun, had been devoting himself only to Japanese business since before, even establishing himself there and staying for quite a while.

Back then, he thought Jae-hyun was just working hard without other thoughts, but he’d been sharpening his knife to stab his own father and brother.

“Why did the shareholders side with the second son? They’re all my friendly stakes, aren’t they?”

LK Orient was a company Chairman Oh Dong-young created early on for firm control.

He even filled it with shareholders who would take his side no matter what situation came.

Some stakes were even held by LK executives, and those stakes couldn’t be sold by regulation, and they had to put them all down the moment they resigned—perfect friendly stakes.

“Yes. But those executives also raised their hands for President Oh Jae-hyun. Along with other LK Orient shareholders. He probably did underwater work for a long time, turning the shareholders’ hearts without the chairman knowing.”

“These insolent bastards dare.”

Chairman Oh Dong-young’s body trembled.

Isn’t this clearly a coup d’état?

It was an action directly opposing the father’s will, the group chairman’s will.

“That bastard Jae-hyun lived his whole life as if he had no ambitions. He was plotting such sinister schemes behind the scenes?”

“Being born a man, and born as the chairman’s bloodline at that, it would be a lie to have no ambitions. He just hid it well until now without getting caught.”

Chairman Oh Dong-young clutched his throbbing head.

First, he needs to put out the urgent fire.

“Director Yang. Can we reverse this?”

“If the chairman steps up directly, it’s possible. If you drop a stern order once, the stakes that were attached to President Oh Jae-hyun will return to you, Chairman. But I can’t guarantee all of them will return.”

“Why not?”

“Suddenly holding a board meeting and dismissing like this is essentially no different from declaring war. President Oh Jae-hyun clearly knows that controlling stakes will be divided when you step up, Chairman.”

“So he obtained enough controlling stakes to fight me over shares?”

“Yes. He wouldn’t have started this otherwise. We’ll need to see how this all sorts out.”

Chairman Oh Dong-young had handed over all management rights to his eldest son, the vice chairman, and withdrawn from the front lines like a retired king, just observing.

He’d been watching for when to hand over the chairman position, and this happened.

And the biggest reason friendly stakes left was also because Chairman Oh Dong-young had withdrawn to his inner chamber.

“Call everyone. No, I’ll do it myself.”

“Will you be all right? Your health isn’t good either.”

“Does my son think I’ve become a toothless tiger and try to break my will? Should I just sit and watch? Before I die, I need to teach him some manners one last time.”

Chairman Oh’s eyes that had always been weak lately regained vitality like his prime days.

Though an old body, he was still a born fighter whose blood boiled before battle.

The problem is the opponent is his son.

The Dieselgate incident was shocking not only worldwide but also to our country.

But now, you couldn’t hear anything about Dieselgate in any news.

[Chairman Oh Dong-young secured controlling stakes in LK Orient again, and the management rights battle has begun in earnest.]

[Due to the so-called prince’s rebellion that occurred at LK Group, LK Group-related stock prices are currently shaking. LK Group promised to calm the disturbance as soon as possible so it won’t affect stock prices.]

The news was full of LK Group stories.

It was because the second son, President Oh Jae-hyun, suddenly rose up during the group succession process that was thought to end well, causing a management rights battle.

Don’t they say the world’s most interesting spectacle is watching fights?

Moreover, this was a fight over a group’s chairman position.

And the second son stabbed his father and brother in the back?

For third parties, it was a dopamine party.

“But stock prices aren’t shaking as much as expected.”

“Originally, management rights battles are huge favorable conditions in stock markets.”

Favorable conditions in our country’s stock market are different from overseas stock markets.

Usually overseas stock markets judge the company’s growth value, and if that company’s performance is good, stock prices inevitably rise.

But in our country’s domestic stocks, even with good performance, they stay in box ranges.

Even developing something, they maintain box ranges.

Then what raises Korean stocks?

That’s exactly management rights battles like now.

Management rights battles starting means they’re urgently entering stake acquisition.

Then naturally, prices will rise from purchasing stocks spread in the stock market, and ironically, this is favorable for shareholders.

In America’s case, unless it’s hostile M&A or activist hedge fund intervention, management rights battles using stakes are rare, and Japan clearly separates management and ownership, so such cases are almost nonexistent.

“It’s like a special event you can only see in our country.”

“Seems like a mess but interesting market in another sense.”

However, this LK Group management rights battle wasn’t happening on KOSPI.

“LK Group’s control structure is in Japan, not Korea. Above all, this is all unlisted companies, right? Unless it’s over-the-counter trading, you can’t even get items, so everyone’s just twiddling their thumbs.”

Due to this, people’s criticism was pouring out.

Currently in this succession battle, LK Group stocks in Korea are completely useless.

Only LK Orient’s stakes matter.

Most people didn’t know LK Group started in Japan and the holding company is currently in Japan, so hearing news that succession battles broke out, they hastily loaded up on LK Group stocks and got screwed.

“The group itself made the control structure complex with circular shareholding, so ordinary people naturally don’t know. Even people working at securities firms probably didn’t know well?”

Not for nothing is it the company with the most complex circular shareholding structure in our country.

“But. I wonder how much they’ll try to buy our stakes for?”

The reason we’re only talking about LK Group in the conference room now was exactly this.

The 300 billion stakes JK Holdings sold to us. Normally it would be just stakes with no use, money forcibly tied up, but becoming stakes of the holding company that’s key in the management rights battle, its value rose.

“Hmm. Usually when management rights battles happen, they buy stakes at 20% higher prices. In KOSPI history, there was even a case of raising the price by up to 50%.”

“Wow. 50% of 300 billion. We’d eat 150 billion just sitting.”

“Wow. This is why it’s important to look several moves ahead. The department head predicted President Oh Jae-hyun would start the prince’s rebellion and obtained these stakes through over-the-counter trading.”

Following intuition that burst from LK Tower, tailing and climbing up, we somehow ended up participating in the LK Group management rights battle, currently the noisiest in Korea.

Well, to be precise, we’re maintaining neutrality.

“But there’s still no particular contact.”

“Their control structure is so tangled too, and it might be the process of confirming this and that.”

“What if they just pass our stakes?”

“That. Isn’t completely impossible either. The outcome could be decided regardless of our stakes.”

If that happens, we become like the dog that chased chickens.

Even trying to sell stakes again, there’s no one who’ll buy them nicely.

“Let’s wait for now.”

With the heart of a patient fisherman, just quietly waiting until someone bites the bait.

Plus, didn’t my intuition strongly lead me to purchase these stakes?

‘But what if we really get passed?’

Then 300 billion is forcibly tied up in LK Group forever.

Until the next descendants wage management rights battles.

“Vice President. What’s all this about suddenly? Why is everyone so anxious to meet me?”

President Hwang Dae-woon was dumbfounded by meeting appointments flooding from here and there.

Especially the most noticeable was LK Group.

“Didn’t LK Group’s second son properly start a rebellion this time, causing chaos?”

“He did.”

“For LK Group’s management rights battle, it has to be done in Japan, not Korea. The problem is it’s all unlisted companies, so outsiders can’t even squeeze in. So according to information that came out, currently forces supporting Chairman Oh Dong-young and President Oh Jae-hyun are split almost evenly.”

No matter how old Chairman Oh Dong-young is.

To go to a precarious level with the second son.

“President Oh Jae-hyun pulling in shareholders well is one thing, but the big reason seems to be doubts about the eldest son Vice Chairman Oh Seung-hyun’s management ability. No matter how friendly stakes toward Chairman Oh Dong-young, it’s already decades ago, and above all, since some of LK Group’s income goes to Orient, they probably want higher dividends.”

“So?”

“This LK Orient has various companies mixed in, and among them is something called JK Holdings. An investment company active in Japan—do you know what stocks they mainly handled?”

“I wouldn’t know.”

“Europe. Especially Stumbagen.”

“Ah.”

Then they must have seen massive losses from this incident.

“Plus, they took longs on Stumbagen and shorts on other competing car companies, so losses were considerable enough for margin calls to drop. So as funds ran short, they started dumping everything they had, and one of those was Industrial Holding Association stakes.”

“Industrial Holding Association.”

“It’s a force with quite high stake rate in LK Orient, an unlisted company composed only of friendly stakes by the founding chairman for firm control. They put out 17% of those stakes through over-the-counter trading. Calculating that as total stakes, it’s apparently 5% of current LK Orient controlling stakes.”

5% of controlling stakes.

Normally, not very necessary stakes.

But in a situation where management rights battles are attached, 5% gains tremendous impact.

“And didn’t I tell you earlier? Right now Chairman Oh Dong-young and President Oh Jae-hyun’s control ratios are similar.”

“Then this 5% becomes the casting vote?”

“Yes. And that 5% is currently in our company.”

“.What?”

President Hwang blinked his eyes.

That 5% is in our company how?

Then something briefly flashed through his mind.

“Wait. Last time Jin-ho spent 300 billion on over-the-counter trading, right? Don’t tell me that was it?”

Usually when companies make transactions in thousands of billions, they receive reviews through each department.

Whether this is really the right investment decision, whether risk management is certain.

That way, the final approval is done by the president.

But Jeong Jin-ho’s department had no such complex intermediate steps.

If Jeong Jin-ho wanted, he could make any transaction as he pleased.

This was groundbreaking authority that couldn’t be found in any securities company.

That’s why President Hwang only received simple reports wherever Jin-ho invested.

He worried that the more deeply he knew, the more he’d get anxious about those risks and talk nonsense from excessive caution.

But now Jeong Jin-ho was holding stakes that decide LK Group’s next chairman.

“..”

His throat suddenly went dry and he gulped down water.

Could this all be Jin-ho’s design?

Shorting Stumbagen to endlessly drop the price, forcing JK Holdings to spit out stakes, then securing stakes before the prince’s rebellion burst, waiting and becoming the casting vote.

“Isn’t it too exquisite to see as coincidence?”

“Phew. This is why I tried not to know details about what Jin-ho invests in. This makes my heart pound.”

That’s why meeting requests came from here and there.

Not only LK Group but even other funds.

“Is this 5% definitely the casting vote?”

“Until now. If we call an absurd price, both sides will go toward passing these stakes. They can’t use up all bullets trying to eat 5%.”

As far as President Hwang knew, until now the highest sold at official price during management rights battles was 50%.

“What should we do?”

“What do you mean what. Jin-ho bought it. Then the decision authority is with Jin-ho too. Reject all meeting appointments.”

This was already not a game President Hwang could intervene in.

But if there’s exactly one curious thing.

‘I wonder how much Jin-ho will try to sell it for?’

The management rights battle was in full swing, but actually there was no news for us, so we wondered if they’d really pass us like this.

Maybe the game was already over and they’re preparing press announcements.

But they also seem to have realized late while gathering the complexly woven stakes. That this 5% we’re holding now decides the game’s outcome.

“But if the tug-of-war is done wrong, we could get passed.”

In management rights battles, stake acquisition is essential, but if you cross the line, there’s high possibility both sides will choose to pass rather than inflate my belly, negotiating with each other instead.

Aren’t there quite a few cases of actually getting greedy and getting passed and suffering losses?

Then finding an appropriate price was my role.

If you bought, you need to sell to realize profits.

“.30%?”

I called a bit strongly.

No reaction.

“40%?”

I wrote 40 next to it, but still no reaction.

Like that, I slowly raised the price.

50, 70, 90.

“Even at this, there’s no feeling?”

Maybe I’m calling the price too expensive?

Or do I need more precise numbers?

“Let’s just go all the way.”

Right. It’s a price I’m raising alone anyway.

Just write it as I please.

Like that, I kept raising the numbers.

“.!”

But surprisingly, the pen stopped at one number.

And the thrill rising from that end was telling me.

That this is the appropriate price for 5% stakes.

I doubted my eyes for a moment.

“3 times?”

Burning 900 billion for just 5%?