Hyun Yi-soo felt awkward discussing Dongjung Industries in front of Park Jin-hyuk. It was not just a company he knew; Jin-hyuk was a shareholder, and it was his maternal family’s business.
Furthermore, rumors were circulating in the industry that Chairman Lee Jong-moo, the honorary chairman of Dongjung Industries, was keeping a close eye on Park Jin-hyuk. Hearing that such a place was currently in a bad situation might be unpleasant for Jin-hyuk.
However, contrary to Hyun Yi-soo’s concerns, Park Jin-hyuk did not feel much of anything. He did not view Lee Jong-moo’s gift of shares as a gesture of pure intention.
Moreover, even though they were his maternal family, he felt they had no significant influence on him now that his mother was gone.
Of course, there were people in the maternal family who cared for him, such as his maternal grandmother who adored him, and Onsan-daek, who had moved from Dongjung Industries with his mother.
But he felt that was the limit. He did not want to repeat the painful experience of his past life as Yoo Jung-geol, where he wasted years being held back by family ties.
“How much is the projected operating loss?”
Hyun Yi-soo looked troubled at Park Jin-hyuk’s question. Jin-hyuk gestured with his hand that it was fine and urged him to speak. At that, Yi-soo finally opened his mouth with difficulty.
“Currently, it is known that the operating loss for the last quarter was approximately 200 billion won.”
“A quarterly operating loss of 200 billion won?”
Park Jin-hyuk’s brow furrowed at Yi-soo’s words. It was natural for businesses to experience ups and downs. However, the current operating loss of Dongjung Industries was at a level that exceeded mere fluctuations.
Unless there was something that specifically had to be accounted for as an urgent loss this quarter, a loss of that magnitude should not have occurred at Dongjung Industries.
“Yes. And that’s not all. Because most of the Middle East construction projects have been postponed or halted, it is reported that the operating loss for the second half of the year will be even greater.”
“It’s not over, and there might be even bigger losses? This seems to go beyond the company being in trouble. Just hearing about it, I can feel the situation is becoming critical.”
Jin-hyuk understood Dongjung Industries’ situation through Yi-soo’s explanation. Unlike DS, Dongjung Industries was a company specialized in construction.
Although it had subsidiaries, even those were all construction-related businesses, such as resorts, golf courses, and construction material companies.
With the construction department — the core of Dongjung Industries — blocked, the entire company seemed to be suffering from a form of arterial sclerosis.
“That is why some believe the Lam Chatan project will determine the company’s fate for the next ten years.”
“To the point of betting the company’s fate on a single project?”
“It appears the company is short on cash because they spent most of their liquid assets purchasing the site for the new city project. That is why they are trying to form a consortium with financial investors.”
“What is the investment scale of the financial investors?”
“They gathered investors expecting a capital execution between 700 billion and 900 billion won. However, they are facing difficulties after receiving responses that only about 200 billion won — less than half the expected amount — will be invested.”
Park Jin-hyuk sat with his legs crossed, tapping his knee with his finger. It was a unique habit of his that surfaced when he was thinking, even while talking to Hyun Yi-soo.
“Listening to you, it feels like Dongjung Industries is pinning great hopes on the Lam Chatan project, and they believe that securing it will help their future operations.”
“Yes. Since their existing projects are being blocked one after another, their expectations for Lam Chatan have only grown.”
“Hmm — based on the investment scale of the financial investors, it feels like if they can just break ground, things will roll along naturally after that. Is that correct?”
Hyun Yi-soo looked at Park Jin-hyuk with a surprised face, amazed that he could grasp the business details from such simple information.
“Yes, that’s right. Once they break ground, it’s a structure where the project costs contracted by the Thai government will flow in continuously, so starting the project is extremely important.”
“And they’ll use the money from there to unblock their other stalled projects?”
“Yes.”
Even without a detailed explanation, Jin-hyuk seemed to know exactly what Dongjung Industries was thinking. After listening to Yi-soo, he fell into deep thought.
If the blockage is cleared, the difficulties in future work will be resolved. And that place is none other than his maternal family. Park Jin-hyuk crunched the numbers in his head.
He knew that while Dongjung Industries was not a card he could use right now, it would be a good hand to hold for whenever the time came to use it. Moreover, if it was related to DS Construction, one of his wings, its value was undoubtedly even higher.
Having finished his thoughts, Jin-hyuk looked at Hyun Yi-soo and spoke.
“How about looking for new financial investors?”
“Considering the market situation where even a credit crunch is feared, it will be very difficult to find new investors. I heard that Dongjung Industries struggled immensely just to find the current financial investors.”
“I see. Fine. Then, when you return, please send me the contract for DS Construction’s participation in the consortium.”
“The consortium contract?”
“I’ll review it. Also, please provide the business plan as well. I need to see the business plan to evaluate what kind of project it is, don’t I?”
“Yes. I will have someone send it to the Executive Director as soon as I return.”
In truth, Park Jin-hyuk could see the value of the business just by looking at the consortium contract. He believed he could determine the project’s feasibility solely through the value generated from DS Construction’s perspective.
However, since Hyun Yi-soo did not know about his ability, Jin-hyuk requested the business plan as well. It wouldn’t make sense to ask only for the consortium contract while claiming to review the project’s feasibility.
After discussing the construction status of the DS Biologics factory for the remaining time, Hyun Yi-soo and Park Jin-hyuk ended their meeting.
***
Park Jin-hyuk was looking at the consortium participation contract that Hyun Yi-soo had delivered a few days ago.
“Good. This is an excellent project.”
It was written that DS Construction could secure a 20% stake by participating in the consortium. It was nearly 2 trillion won based on the total project cost. However, the value shown in the contract was close to 3 trillion won, far exceeding the initial 2 trillion.
Assuming it was uncommon for total project costs to rise, he could infer that additional profits would be generated during the project. In Jin-hyuk’s eyes, Lam Chatan possessed great value beyond the project itself.
‘If we can expect a 20% stake and over 1 trillion in additional profit… Dongjung Industries might be expecting even larger returns.’
Although Dongjung Industries might not know the exact details, he thought they likely sensed intuitively, through their long years of business experience, that the new port project would be profitable.
And it was certain they had judged that they could only normalize the projects waiting in the wings by resolving this one first.
‘They won’t be able to let this go. They’ll try to grab it at any cost.’
From DS Construction’s perspective, while a profit of 3 trillion won would be a shame to miss, the project wasn’t absolutely necessary. This was because if they poured the resources used for the port project elsewhere, they could find a project that offered comparable, or perhaps even greater, profits.
However, for Dongjung Industries, the new port project was a must. The reason Dongjung was struggling to find investors was on a completely different level than DS Construction’s concerns.
Park Jin-hyuk couldn’t solve this problem right now and get a fitting reward from Dongjung Industries. But he believed that if he could know the opponent’s problem and the profits they would gain in advance, he could use it someday. Currently, Dongjung Industries was becoming that kind of asset to him.
*Knock, knock.*
While Park Jin-hyuk was reviewing the contract and the business plan, Kim Joon-woo knocked and entered the office.
“Executive Director. The guests from Bayer have arrived.”
“Really? Let’s go.”
For a while now, Bayer had been constantly expressing their desire to meet Park Jin-hyuk. Even though he had suggested they speak with the person in charge if they wanted to do business with DS Pharma or DS Biologics, they did not break their stubborn insistence on meeting him personally.
Jin-hyuk had declined the meeting because he found it burdensome to fly all the way to Germany, but they even expressed their intention to visit him directly, trying to meet him by any means necessary.
Having no excuse to avoid them when they were willing to come to him, Jin-hyuk had set an appointment.
Then, as if they were going to fly over immediately, they entered the country through Incheon International Airport the day after the appointment was made and came to DS Pharma.
While heading to the meeting room to meet the people from Bayer, Kim Joon-woo spoke to Park Jin-hyuk in a low tone.
“Executive Director. They arrived carrying their luggage.”
Park Jin-hyuk did not stop walking but looked back at Kim Joon-woo. Joon-woo continued, seemingly trying to provide as much information as possible before the meeting.
“And the person escorting the visitors was the president of the Korean branch.”
Park Jin-hyuk stopped walking, looked at Kim Joon-woo again, and asked, “The Korean branch president is here as an escort? Not to participate together?”
“No. I clearly heard that he was acting as an escort.”
“If they’re using a branch president as an escort, then who on earth came?”
Jin-hyuk asked with a puzzled expression. After all, a branch president was a person who represented an entire region; if they were someone he had to serve, Jin-hyuk felt they were no ordinary people. Kim Joon-woo shared the information he had gathered.
“It’s Vice Chairman Snyder, who is the Vice Chairman of Bayer and the head of the Americas region, and CFO Weinmann, who is in charge of finance.”
“The Vice Chairman and the CFO came?”
“Yes. They brought only the president of Bayer Korea, without any other attendants.”
Jin-hyuk hadn’t paid much attention when they said they just wanted to meet, thinking it was just business talk.
However, he couldn’t hide his bewilderment at the fact that people at the pinnacle of a world-class bio-company like Bayer had come without even an entourage. Jin-hyuk asked Kim Joon-woo about the situation when he just met them.
“How did they look? If they brought their luggage, it means they ran straight here from the airport without even getting a hotel.”
“They looked exhausted, but seeing how they were constantly talking amongst themselves, it seemed like they intended to decide something in today’s meeting with you.”
‘Why did they come to find me?’
DS was producing Pfizer’s products well, and through the collaboration with Roche, they had now gained a reputation. It wouldn’t be strange at all if Bayer came to request product production. However, the people who visited were completely unexpected.
“Should I call President Kyung?”
“Yeah, go ahead and call him. There’s nothing wrong with him listening in.”
Park Jin-hyuk nodded, and Kim Joon-woo told an employee assisting them to bring Kyung Dae-yong to the place where they would speak with Bayer.
Park Jin-hyuk tilted his head and headed toward the room where the Bayer people were. When he arrived in front of the meeting room, the interpreter waiting there greeted him, and they went inside together.
As Jin-hyuk appeared, the Bayer people stood up to greet him.
“Hello. I am Park Jin-hyuk of DS Pharma.”
“We’ve wanted to meet you. I am Weinmann, the CFO of Bayer. And the person next to me is Vice Chairman Snyder, who is the Vice Chairman of Bayer and the head of the Americas region.”
“I apologize. As the host, I should have been here waiting. I feel I’ve been rude to my guests.”
“No. It’s quite all right. We just arrived ourselves.”
Park Jin-hyuk greeted them warmly, shaking their hands while observing them. Just as Kim Joon-woo had said, they had hollow eyes from the jet lag, stubble on their faces, and even their hair was disheveled. The luggage placed next to them proved Joon-woo’s words that they had come straight from the airport.
“Please, have a seat.”
Jin-hyuk invited them to sit and looked back. He was checking if Kyung Dae-yong had arrived yet. Not long after he looked toward the door, it opened and Kyung Dae-yong walked in. Upon his appearance, Jin-hyuk introduced him to the Bayer representatives.
“This is President Kyung Dae-yong, the president of our DS Pharma.”
As Kyung Dae-yong entered and tried to greet the Bayer side, Weinmann frowned slightly and spoke.
“Director Park. We have come to speak with you personally. I don’t think it would be good for anyone else to attend this meeting.”
“Personally? Didn’t you come to discuss business matters?”
“No.”
At Weinmann’s firm denial, Park Jin-hyuk frowned and looked at Kyung Dae-yong. Sensing the atmosphere immediately, Kyung Dae-yong quickly offered his greetings and left the room.
After confirming the door was closed, Jin-hyuk turned his head and silently observed the Vice Chairman and CFO who had come as Bayer’s representatives. Their status proved just how high their positions were.
‘People worth tens of billions of won visited me personally?’
Park Jin-hyuk simply sat and watched them, waiting for them to state their reason for seeking him out first. Weinmann and Snyder looked at each other, appearing to exchange opinions with their eyes.
After a moment, as if they had reached an agreement, Weinmann nodded and began to explain the reason for their visit to Park Jin-hyuk.
“Director Park. There is only one reason we want to meet you. Novo. It is because you are the majority shareholder of Novo.”
It was only after hearing Weinmann’s words that Park Jin-hyuk realized why they had come. He relaxed his stiff face and his tense posture, sitting back more comfortably.
When he didn’t know the exact reason, he had to be on high alert to figure out their intentions. But from the moment he knew their goal, he didn’t need to do that anymore.
‘So they’re here to ask me to hand over the Novo shares.’
With a leisurely mind and a much more relaxed state, Jin-hyuk spoke.
“So you came because of Novo. Fine. Go ahead. How much are you willing to pay for the acquisition of Novo’s shares?”
At Park Jin-hyuk’s words, the people from Bayer were taken aback.
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.