Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Gun-Ho left Dyeon Korea.

When he drove about 150 meters away from it, Gun-Ho asked Chan-Ho Eom to stop the car. He then got out of the car and turned around to see Dyeon Korea. He did seem to have mixed feelings.

‘In order to win, I have to abandon.’

The line was from a book that he read before. It was saying that one had to know when to leave things behind resolutely if he wanted to have a victory in his life. Chan-Ho Eom who was standing next to Gun-Ho asked, “Mr. Chairman, we are not coming back here again, are we?”

“No, we won’t.”

There were a few clouds floating above the Dyeon Korea’s factory building.

Gun-Ho thought about going to work in GH Mobile after stopping by GH Machines, but then he changed his mind. He wanted to have a drink instead.

He said to Chan-Ho Eom, “Let’s go to the sashimi village near the Asan Bay Seawall.”

“Umm… where did you say, sir?”

“I will buy you a clam stew.”

“You are not going to GH Mobile today?”

“Let’s go there next time, not today. I want to have sashimi today. I don’t know why.”

When Gun-Ho and Chan-Ho Eom arrived at a sashimi restaurant, they ordered a clam stew and sashimi along with soju. When Gun-Ho finished half a bottle of soju, he said, “Chan-Ho, since you have to drive, you shouldn’t drink soju. Get some coke instead.”

“Yes, sir. And, I’m going to order a sea squirt dish as well. I love sea squirt.”

“Sounds good.”

After lunch, they headed back to Seoul City. On the way to Seoul, Gun-Ho opened Paxnet with his smartphone to check Dyko’s current stock price.

“Hmm, they are still holding the upper limit price.”

Because of the soju that he had during the lunch, Gun-Ho fell asleep in the car. When the car was passing through the tollgate heading to Seoul City, Gun-Ho woke up. He then picked a bottle of beverage in the car to ease his thirst. At that moment, his smartphone started ringing. It was A Electronics Group’s CEO Park.

“You seemed to take your hands off Dyeon Korea completely. I just saw Dyeon Korea’s public announcement about the acquisition.”

“Yes, I did.”

“You probably feel a bit hollow by now.”

“Right, just a little bit.”

“Do you have any plans about what you want to do with the investment profits that you made by selling your ownership interest in Dyeon Korea?”

At that point, Gun-Ho felt like CEO Park was almost crossing the line. What he was going to do with his company’s investment profits had clearly nothing to do with CEO Park. Unlike Gun-Ho, A Electronics’ CEO Park and W Chemicals’ CEO were CEOs—an employee—not an owner president. But, even so, Gun-Ho couldn’t take them lightly. Having a good relationship with these people was important for his business. Otherwise, GH Mobile’s sales revenue could get cut in half.

As Gun-Ho didn’t say anything for a while, CEO Park laughed and said, “Haha, well, I shouldn’t have asked you about it. It’s none of my business anyway. You could acquire another company through M&A, or you could just keep the fund in the company reserve. That shouldn’t be my concern. By the way, will you be available tomorrow? I’d like to meet with you tomorrow. I have something that I want to talk to you about.”

“Okay. I can meet you tomorrow.”

“Meet me in front of the Namsan Public Library then, at 11 am.”

“Sounds good. I will see you there.”

CEO Park was the type of person who always brought an unexpected offer to Gun-Ho whenever they met in person. As a matter of fact, Gun-Ho could get to know H Group’s CEO and W Chemicals’ CEO because of CEO Park. It was obvious that CEO Park had an extensive network in business and probably in politics as well.

As Gun-Ho’s vehicle entered Seoul City, Gun-Ho looked at his watch.

“The stock market is still open.”

Gun-Ho headed to GH Building in Sinsa Town.

Gun-Ho was sitting in his office enjoying a cup of Longjing tea that Secretary Yeon-Soo Oh had brought to him. At that moment, he received a call from SH Investment Partners’ President Geun-Soo Son.

“The stock market just closed for the day, sir. We sold 2 million shares today.”

“Good job.”

“If the price hit the upper limit again tomorrow, we might regret that we sold too many shares today.”

“We don’t have to aim for the highest possible price in selling our stock. We say ‘buy it on your knee and sell it to your shoulder.’ That perfectly applies to trading stocks. We will leave the area below the knee and the neck area for other people.”

“That’s true, sir.”

“I want you to sell the rest of our stock tomorrow morning.”

“Yes, sir.”

The following day, Gun-Ho woke up to the sounds of birds; well, at least that was what he thought.

“This is a high-rise condo building in a city. How can I possibly hear the sounds of birds?”

They were probably hallucinated sounds. When he woke up completely sober, he could no longer hear the sounds of birds.

Gun-Ho went to work in GH Building, Sinsa Town that day.

He sat at his desk and turned on the computer. He then checked the stock price.

“The entire stock market today is not good. I see blue lights everywhere.”

As the U.S raised interest rates, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined. And the stock market in Korea was affected accordingly. However, Dyeon Korea’s stock price was still on the rise. Thanks to the good news of acquisition by a conglomerate company. But, it was still slow though.

‘I will still be satisfied if Dyeon Korea’s stock price stays the same as the price that we sold our stock at yesterday.’

Gun-Ho turned off the computer. He then thought about giving a call to SH Investment Partners’ President Geun-Soo Son for a moment, and then he decided not to.

“He is probably very busy monitoring the stock price. I don’t want to distract him by calling him. Once he successfully sells all of my stock, I’m sure that he will give me a call.”

When it was about 10:30 am, Gun-Ho walked out of his office. He then headed out to meet with CEO Park. He was supposed to meet him in front of the Namsan Public Library that day.

When Gun-Ho’s vehicle arrived at the Namsan Public Library’s parking lot, there were not many cars parked. It was a cold day, and it seemed that the library wouldn’t have many visitors that day because of the weather.

At that moment, Gun-Ho saw a new black Genesis model coming into the parking lot. Gun-Ho stared at the car thinking that maybe it was CEO Park’s car. And then, his phone started ringing, and it was CEO Park.

“Please come and get into my car. I am in the new Genesis that just arrived at the parking lot.”

Gun-Ho got out of his Bentley and then walked to the Genesis. Someone in the driver’s seat rolled down the window. It was CEO Park.

“Please get in the car.”

Gun-Ho opened the car door and looked inside of the car. CEO Park was the only person in the car. It turned out that he didn’t come with his chauffeur.

“You are driving yourself today.”

As Gun-Ho got into the car, CEO Park pulled out a warm bottle of Ssanghwa-tang*.

“It’s cold outside, right? Please try this. It will warm your body.”

CEO Park opened the bottle before handing it to Gun-Ho.

While Gun-Ho was having the Ssanghwa-tang, CEO Park said, “We are the only ones in the car right now. I guess this is not a bad place at all to have a private conversation. There is no one around us who can hear us.”

“Do you need privacy today to talk with me? I guess you have something very important to talk about.”

“Haha. As a matter of fact, I do.”

As Gun-Ho finished his bottle of Ssanghwa-tang*, CEO Park continued, “I am hoping that you can give a lot of help to Party Leader Jin-Woo Lee, Mr. Chairman Goo.”

“Of course I should. He helped me a lot as well.”

“GH Mobile has been experiencing an acute increase in its sales revenue lately, hasn’t it?”

Note*

Ssanghwa-tang – A traditional Korean tea that is known to help recover from fatigue.