WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Arsène
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Conglomerate Heir Just Wants to Fail ◈
Chapter 12
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At the same time, Daeseung Construction’s main conference room looked like the command center of a massive war.
A space normally reserved for the president and executives was now packed with key staff from the finance, planning, and legal teams. Dozens of laptops and monitors lit up the evening.
On the enormous whiteboard hung on the wall, a map of the greater Seoul area was covered in a chaotic tangle of Post-it notes and red marker lines.
“The Namsang Group’s large resort project in Jeju is in the final stages of negotiations with the creditors! They’ve practically accepted our offer!”
“Good! Where’s the next target? Has Shinae Construction’s Dongtan site still not gone on the market?”
President Jeong, the owner of that booming voice, commanded the team with an energy and confidence incomparable to what he had shown two months ago.
“Dongtan is a site Hanseong has been eyeing for a long time, so we expect competition. We may have to be prepared to pay a little above the estimated price.”
When the planning team leader cautiously reported this, President Jeong snorted.
“Pay more? Do you think those Hanseong bastards have the room to handle that right now? They’re tied up by Hwasu, and President Jo has been beating them senseless in retail. They’ll be too busy to think straight! Our price is the price! Bid boldly!”
“Yes, sir!”
“It’s the vice minister’s office calling. What should we do?”
“Damn... Which one? Yongin? We said we weren’t doing that one. Ah, they’ll lift the land-use restrictions? Put them through for now.”
The conference room was hot with energy.
They were not gripped by fear that the company might collapse. They were filled with the excitement and thrill of pioneers conquering new territory.
They were not acquiring distressed assets.
They were gathering future value at prices that were practically free.
And all of this was a miracle that had begun with one decision made by the young vice chairman two months ago.
“The vice chairman laid out the board like this for us. If we can’t produce results here, we don’t deserve to wear the Daeseung uniform! Understood?!”
At President Jeong’s shout, every employee in the conference room answered with a thunderous, “Understood!”
Despite days of nonstop work, their faces held not exhaustion, but pride at standing in the middle of history.
“This one week will decide Daeseung Construction’s next twenty years. I’ll pay your bonuses out of my own pocket if I have to, so don’t worry and devour every last one of them!”
“Waaaaah!!”
.
“Ugh, I’m bored.”
I sank into the soft sofa and aimlessly flicked through channels with the remote.
The economic channel Lee Jinju had forced me to watch was still going on about the looming collapse of construction companies.
The so-called experts all wore grave expressions, but to me, they were nothing more than boring background noise.
“Vice Chairman, this is the interim report from Daeseung Construction.”
Lee Jinju approached and held out a tablet. Reluctantly, I sat up.
What report was it this time?
Were they going to complain that market conditions were tougher than expected?
But Chief of Staff Lee Jinju’s expression was brighter than ever.
“Give me the summary.”
“Among the distressed PF project sites Daeseung Construction acquired over the past week, there are seven major projects that you absolutely must review personally, Vice Chairman. They have been arranged by amount, so please review numbers one through seven.”
I flipped through the materials Lee Jinju handed me and checked the figures.
“One, ten, hundred... How much is this?”
“The total amount invested in acquisitions is approximately 4 trillion won, of which 2.3 trillion won was in cash-equivalent assets.”
“Four trillion?!”
The number was so unreal that I could not grasp it at all.
I had spent my life moving from one rooftop room to another because I was short 4 million won for a deposit...
Still, a meaningful number had finally appeared.
‘Construction really is the best way to spend money.’
At this rate, it was only a matter of time before the entire Group began to wobble.
“However...”
Lee Jinju paused, and I urged her to continue.
“However what?”
“The current reappraised market value of the acquired assets is approximately 9 trillion won. The full 5 trillion won will be recorded as a bargain-purchase gain. We spent 2.3 trillion won in cash, but the Group’s total assets have effectively increased by 6.7 trillion won.”
“...What did you say?”
I asked again, wondering if I had heard wrong.
Why?
Construction was supposed to be doing badly.
Even the experts on TV all looked so serious.
“Thanks to the perfect timing you directed, Vice Chairman, we were able to acquire distressed assets at bargain prices, creating a large gap between their book value and actual value. President Jeong Geonju said we seized an opportunity that might only come once in half a century... Vice Chairman, you were truly... truly incredible again...!”
Grandfather’s company assets had increased instead?
By nearly 7 trillion won?
This was a scam.
Or I was dreaming.
“The details are attached to the report. They say they will organize the projected returns and future development plans for each site in a follow-up report.”
My expression gradually stiffened, and Chief of Staff Lee Jinju’s voice grew quieter as she watched me.
“...Ah, it seems this level of result did not meet your expectations, Vice Chairman. I apologize. I will convey your intentions to President Jeong Geonju and tell him to work even harder.”
“No! No, don’t do that. Please.”
It was already this bad, and she was going to make him work harder?
I did not even want to imagine what would happen then.
“I’d like to be alone for a moment.”
“Pardon?”
“Just for a moment.”
“Ah, understood, Vice Chairman.”
Lee Jinju quietly left, and I stared at the empty ceiling.
The TV volume, which I had lowered during our conversation, began bothering me again.
[Daeseung Construction Pursues Aggressive M&A Amid PF Crisis... Could It Become the Savior of the Troubled Construction Market?]
An economic commentator who had just heard the breaking news was speaking excitedly on TV.
[This is truly... a textbook example of vulture investing! When everyone is gripped by fear and selling off their assets, they use overwhelming cash reserves to sweep up quality assets at bargain prices! It is easy to say, but moving against market fear requires tremendous nerve, financial power, and above all, extraordinary insight to accurately read the market floor!]
I raised the remote to turn off the TV, but my finger stopped in midair at the commentator’s next words.
[Is it not well known that Chairman Kang Sinsu, the founder of the Daeseung Group, multiplied the Group’s size several times over through this sort of contrarian investment during the IMF foreign exchange crisis? The actions Vice Chairman Kang Daeun, his grandson, is showing now seem to be the very image of Chairman Kang Sinsu, both in scale and boldness.]
I resembled Grandfather?
Me?
Dumbfounded, I sank deeper into the sofa.
[Yes, this has just come in. The government has officially announced that it will not provide direct liquidity support to distressed construction companies after all. It says it will respect the market’s autonomous restructuring function. In effect, it has rolled out a red carpet for Daeseung Construction to dominate.]
Unable to take any more, I grabbed a sofa cushion and threw it at the TV.
“Aaargh!”
.
President Jeong Geonju stood before the vice chairman’s office with an extremely tense expression.
Normally, Daeseung Construction’s astonishing results would have put a broad smile on his face, but Chief of Staff Lee Jinju had given President Jeong advance warning.
As she led President Jeong toward the vice chairman’s office, she whispered quietly in one corner of the hallway.
“...It appeared that the vice chairman was not yet satisfied with Daeseung Construction’s results.”
“Th-that cannot be. With a windfall this enormous... We will work harder. There are still many areas where we can generate additional profits.”
“No. It seems the vice chairman does not wish to acquire more than we already have. Of course, we should ask about the vice chairman’s exact intentions directly.”
“Hmm... Certainly, we took the choicest assets first, so only scraps remain. There is no need to overextend ourselves just to take those. But... is that really true? That the vice chairman was dissatisfied?”
“...The vice chairman did not say so directly, but after sending me out, the vice chairman became furious in the office. The sound carried through that thick door.”
“Haah... I see.”
President Jeong Geonju swallowed hard.
Of course... the vice chairman made the most important judgment alone.
We merely followed the road the vice chairman had paved and gathered the fallen ears of grain along the way.
If such a tremendous success was still not enough, it could only mean that the vice chairman’s capacity was greater than President Jeong could possibly imagine.
President Jeong straightened his clothes and grabbed the doorknob with a resolute expression.
When he entered the vice chairman’s office, Vice Chairman Kang Daeun unexpectedly greeted President Jeong with a broad smile.
.
“Welcome. Ha ha. You have worked very hard.”
I greeted President Jeong Geonju of Daeseung Construction with a bright smile.
The corners of my mouth seemed to tremble from the strain of forcing it.
Still, I could not exactly explode and demand to know why he had made so much profit.
“You worked too hard. Too... hard.”
“Ah, no, Vice Chairman!”
At my words, President Jeong waved his hands and bowed at the waist to ninety degrees.
Why was he so tense?
Was my expression really that awkward?
In any case, I decided to think as positively as possible.
The asset value had increased enormously, but I focused on the cash that had been spent.
Of course, Daeseung was famous even among major corporations for accumulating unusually large cash reserves.
Whenever an economic crisis arrived, it would pick out solid but cash-poor companies in danger and absorb them through mergers.
It was also something Grandfather had always emphasized to me when I was young.
‘Damn it, now that I think about it, that is exactly what I did this time, isn’t it?’
Still, no matter what, they could not stockpile cash forever.
I quickly found a way to reliably burn through the Group’s cash again.
“Thanks to President Jeong, Daeseung Construction has accomplished something truly great. Such major results must naturally be followed by appropriate rewards.”
“You flatter us. Everything was possible thanks to your farsighted judgment, Vice Chairman.”
“...What did I do? I heard the construction division worked very hard this time.”
After pausing for a moment, I played my trump card.
Since it had come to this, there was no choice but to burn money in the most certain and straightforward way.
“So I have decided. We will pay a special performance bonus this quarter to every executive and employee of Daeseung Construction.”
“Pardon? Ah, yes. I believe it will greatly boost employee morale. How much were you considering?”
“Well, I do not have experience with these matters, so I am not sure what would be appropriate... Does Construction not have a bonus amount it was originally considering?”
“Ah, yes. Around this much...”
I shook my head after seeing the number President Jeong carefully wrote on the memo pad on the table.
“Should not extraordinary results be matched by extraordinary bonuses? Double it.”
“V-Vice Chairman! Would that not be a little excessive?”
“They have more than earned it. Proceed immediately.”
Footnotes:
The “IMF foreign exchange crisis” refers to South Korea’s 1997 financial crisis, when the country received an IMF bailout.
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