12 Hours After

Translator: Khan

Editor: Aelryinth

The negotiation with RMI, which had begun in early June, rapidly progressed as it entered mid-June.

'If we try to negotiate too cheaply, RMI may turn towards the Suyeon Group.' Vice President Jang, who had been usually stingy, came out like that, and I agreed.

'Yes, then. Let's buy it for 2.7 billion dollars.'

'The premium is nearly five hundred million dollars. If this financial crisis is over and I put my hands on it, I'll be able to bridge the gap in no time. The combined stake of 4.99 percent and the RMI stake of 7.3 percent is more than twelve percent. That's more than eleven percent of Suyeon Construction, the majority shareholder. Suyeon Electronics, one of the cores of the Suyeon Group, is in my hands.

'Everything's going smoothly. And when that happens... I'm going to have to fire Tak Mun-su, right?'

I'd already thought about who would succeed Tak Mun-su.

'Shall I pick one of the directors of Suyeon Electronics? No, they're all under the power of Tak Mun-su, so they're not going to listen to me. So, shall I scout around in the other group? Well... maybe it's better to bring in someone neatly from abroad...'

However, it happened that my plan was twisted.

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On the eighteenth of June...

When I was in the office, I glanced at the future news as usual. It had been almost a year now since the financial crisis originating from China took place. Now, hopeful things had come out of the news of 12 Months After.

[The international economy, which has been staggering since the Chinese financial crisis, has moderate recovery.]

[KOSPI retakes the 2,300-point line. Does the financial crisis nightmare end?]

[This will also pass. The credit crunch of rising nations is unraveling. Korea also has a won rally.]

I looked at it and thought, 'Well, I'd better use forty-five billion dollars if I can in a year. First of all, I'm going to buy Suyeon Electronics and Suyeon Construction. Then, I'll swallow other companies I find, one by one.'

After seeing the future news, I went on to do People Search in my name. [CEO Han Sang-hoon of Invictus Investment bought a seven percent stake in Suyeon Electronics for 2.6 billion dollars and became the largest shareholder of Suyeon Electronics.]

I nodded at it. There was not much to see the content. As I had my will, it was natural that it would be realized as it was.

'All right, well, that's what happens.'

I was thinking about what to put in the next name, but I put in Tak Mun-su. I didn't know what the cornered mouse might do.

[Tak Mun-su, with the help of Deep Blue Corporation, managed to keep the management rights. Suyeon Electronics' management battle goes into the second round.]

There was such news. I frowned.

"Deep Blue Corporation?"

It was a company I'd never heard of. I read it. [Invictus Investment, which has emerged as the largest shareholder, has proposed dismissing CEO Tak Mun-su, but he managed to stay in the position. Suyeon Construction, which owns an eleven percent stake, and Deep Blue Corporation, which owns a five percent stake, expressed rejection. Tak Mun-su and Deep Blue Corporation vowed to wage a showdown on CEO Han's hostile M&A in the future, heralding a prolonged management dispute over Suyeon Electronics.]

I thought as I watched the news.

'What happens if this is like... If I want to push it all the way... I need to buy shares from the public by increasing the share price, or I need to finish the purchase of Suyeon Construction... However, it is difficult to attack Suyeon Construction immediately. In any case, Tak Woo-kyung has a twenty percent stake in Suyeon Construction... If they drag it on for years to pay the inheritance tax in installments ...

'This makes it very complicated. The period of global bargain sales in the financial crisis is only a year away. I can't hold it that long. I can shorten the time by giving them money, but then I will be giving Tak Mun-su a large sum of money. There would be no harm in Tak Mun-su's eyes. Suyeon Electronics and Suyeon Construction were major companies in his father's generation anyway. It's not a bad thing for him to play defense against me here, and then spend a lot of money to build up Suyeon Chemical.'

"Deep Blue Corporation? What the hell is this?"

I searched 'Deep Blue Corporation' on the portal site. Nothing came up. I searched overseas portal just in case. By the way, nothing came out of it. Only the news related to Jaws movies, tuna catching fish came out.

'How is this possible? I can't find anything about the company on the portal site. However, the company bought a 5% stake in Suyeon Electronics, right? Besides, it threw a friendly vote for Tak Mun-su...?

I thought it over. 'Tak Mun-su knew that I was doing a hostile M&A, but he didn't defend the share price, and he didn't get involved in negotiations with the Red Moss Investment. In the meantime, a secret company bought shares and votes in favor of Tak Mun-su... It may be…'

There was only one thing that came to mind: a paper company. It was made of foreign assets of Tak Woo-kyung's hidden money. Rumors circulated that the nation's chaebol would mostly hide their black money in tax havens such as Liechtenstein, the Bahamas, Monaco, and the Cayman Islands. So far, it had been nothing more than a conspiracy theory.

'... in such an urgent situation, did he take out a bundle of money from the wardrobe? Then, it is roughly in line with the true power of Suyeon Group, like Tak said.'

"Is the true power the money which has been put in tax havens?"

'That could be right, but that's all that explains it when I put together the puzzles. Then I think I'll have to dig up Deep Blue Corporation...'

I thought I'd send Crow. However, the existence of Deep Blue Corporation could not be found at all now. I didn't know if Crow would accept this mission. I needed a little more specific data to assign Crow to the task.

'Well... what shall I do?' I was thinking about it and suddenly I remembered Lee Won-jae, who had visited the other day. He had given me a pledge of loyalty, and had said, "I will look into the weaknesses of Suyeon Group in my own way."

I called him right away. He answered my call before the telephone finished ringing. It was faster than Secretary Park outside the door.

"CEO Han."

"Can you speak with me now?"

"Yes, of course. I'll take your call twenty-four/seven."

"Last time we talked about Suyeon Group, right?"

"Yes."

"The... the paper company, the tax evasion, do you have any data on a company called Deep Blue Corporation, including a ghost company?"

"Oh, I'll check it out right away and get back to you."

"Yes, please."

After the call, I wondered if it'd been ten minutes. I got a call from Lee Won-jae again.

"CEO Han, I found it."

"What did you find?"

"Deep Blue Corporation is based in Gibraltar, England. In the past, I heard it made a deal with Suyeon Construction. There was an article on our side."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, I'll send it to you now."

"Oh, yes... By the way, isn't that on the Internet?"

"Ah, this was a 2009 article that came out at the time and went down a while later. Do you know what this means?"

That meant Suyeon Group had put some pressure on it. There was something fishy about it. Lee Won-jae sent me two articles. The first article was entitled Suyeon Construction withdrew its copper mining business in Chile and sold mining rights to Deep Blue Corporation for two hundred forty million dollars.

The second article was entitled Suyeon Construction has been sucking its fingers after the bus left; the mine has been exposed to a massive vein of copper, valued at 3.2 billion dollars.

I read two lines of articles, and the story fit perfectly, if this Deep Blue Corporation here was Tak Wook-kyung's paper company.

"So, Suyeon Construction sold it cheaply even though they knew a vein of copper was going to come out."

"Maybe that's right."

For Tak Woo-kyung, this might be a huge benefit. That was because Tak Woo-kyung only had a 20% stake in Suyeon Construction, but he owned 100% of Deep Blue Corporation. If Suyeon Construction found the copper vein valued at 3.2 billion dollars, the share of Tak Woo-kyung would be six hundred forty million dollars, but if Deep Blue Corporation found it, his share would be 100%.

I said, scratching my forehead. "Ha... this is a total ant-fucking thing... It's a breach of trust. Did the prosecution remain motionless at that time?"

"There was a commotion at the time, but... as you can see, all the articles went down... They said that an independent counsel would be held, but it seems to have failed."

"It's really dirty."

'At any rate, there are more dirty stories if we dig them up. If the copper mine had really been found by Suyeon Construction, the ants with the shares would probably have tasted the upper limit price once or twice. They never do anything that gives money to ants.'

However, Lee Won-jae spoke as if it was not a big deal. "I've heard there's a lot of this going on in the construction industry. Our construction companies build a lot of buildings overseas. For example, if they build a building with three hundred stories, if the list price is ten billion dollars, they pretend to bid at eight billion dollars, and they deposit one billion dollars into the owner's account secretly. From the standpoint of the builders, they made a successful bid at one billion dollars cheaper, and the owner gets one billion dollars back; it is good for one another."

'Those who lose out here are good ant investors. They pay to the national pension, and they buy blue-chip stocks in our country. Even if they invest in large companies, it is no different from being swindled. It is a good thing for only the major shareholders. The financial statements are neat, so no one can say anything.'

Lee Won-jae spoke as if he were talking to himself. "I heard there's a lot of stuff on the shipbuilding, too... The shipbuilding cost a few billion dollars."

I replied, shaking my head, "I see." I didn't want to hear any more dirty stories. "Thank you anyway, CEO Lee Won-jae."

"I'm glad I helped you. If you have any questions, please contact me anytime."

"Yes."

After I finished my phone call with CEO Lee Won-jae, I leaned back in the chair for a moment. 'I thought I'd get it done in moderation, but... they are all the trash, aren't they? If this is true, Tak Woo-kyung and Tak Mun-su are parasites that completely suck up the Korean people. They turn a deaf ear to the roar of the ants with breaches of trust, and they do not pay taxes, using tax evasion. Doing business in Korea, they are just chasing after their own interests.

I changed my mind. 'I'm going to take the root out.'

I calmed my anger for a moment and thought coolly of my next move. First, I turned on my email and called Crow. It was a paper company, but since the article contained more information besides being in Gibraltar, it would be worth searching for.

'If Deep Blue Corporation turns out to be the paper company of Suyeon Group, it's the end of Tak Mun-su. If Oracle news publishes the special edition, President Joo Sung-won will handle it, because it's a matter for the country.'

Indeed, in a corner, Tak Mun-su had used the worst method. He was in crisis, and he had exposed his own illegal activities.

'... maybe he thought he'd never get caught.'

The best thing he could do last time was to give up the game and leave. But he resisted and did more dirty work, not knowing that I was controlling the chessboard.

'... with this, there is the only thing left to do. I will have to capture all the cards perfectly.'