Chapter 57 - A Strange Connection, Part I

Translator: Khan

Editor: RED

I sat in front of the computer and cracked my neck. 8:55. There were two emails coming.

[P. 12 Hours After]

[P. 12 Days After]

I clicked [P. 12 Hours After] first. No wonder I had that much time in 12 Days After. In fact, the news of 12 Days After was perfectly safe to read slowly after lunch. There was a catchy word for me after I received the email: the upper limit price.

[Economy – Upper limit price on the day of the KG F&S listing]

‘All right, all right. This is a big fish, too.’

It was the first time that the upper limit price had been quoted in the first four months of subscription. I clicked on it.

[KG F&S hit the upper limit price on the day of its listing. KG F&S, a subsidiary of South Korea’s comprehensive food company KG Food, reached the upper limit price around 1 p.m. on a buying spree by investors on the day of the listing.]

There was nothing to look at in the article. What else could I look at when it said it was on the upper limit price? I first put KG F&S on HTS. Then I read the article again.

[... it has issued an earnings surprise last quarter as the supply of items to school, hospital and public service meals has expanded. KG F&S, which was shunned by individual investors at the time of the IPO, wrote a reversal story today by reaching the upper limit price today.]

‘Oh, that’s what happened.

‘KG F&S is an ugly duckling becoming a swan. Sometimes there is such a case. It is not easy to list not only on the KOSPI, but also on the KOSDAQ. They need to meet the strict listing conditions, undergo screening, and select listed companies to recruit investors, as well. The process may take from half a year to a few years.

‘So, the performance was not good when recruiting investors and setting public offering prices, but in the meantime, their performance has improved. In some cases, they go to the upper limit price as soon as it is listed. On the contrary, there are many cases where they are listed and plummet. Anyway, the latest KG F&S is the former case. I guess the performance has improved a lot while they have been preparing to go public.’

I checked the market capital. KG F&S, which would be listed today, had a public offering price of $12 with the market capital of $430,000,000.

‘It’s a little small. If it’s $430,000,000, it’s a little burdensome to use all the $20,000,000 I have. Let’s just buy some shares for sale. If I do something wrong, I might buy too much.’

I entered the market with such an idea. The starting price was already about to start at 5%. According to the news of 12 Hours After, it would go to the upper limit price at 1 p.m. I had to complete the purchase before then.

—————————-

[Correction News]

[The upper limit price on the day of the stock of KG F&S which is listed today is changed. We inform you that the content has been revised due to a reader’s involvement. The changes are as follows.]

There wasn’t much change. The time that the upper limit price it reached was changed from 1:00 p.m. to 10:00 a.m. The reason for the change in time was simple. I bought $9,000,000 worth of shares for an hour and raised it to the upper limit price. With so much money, it was easy to raise any stock to the upper limit price, but it was hard to get out. I calculated the money I earned today. I earned about $2,000,000 today. I decided to watch it one more day.

‘It’s a stock going to the upper limit price even if I didn’t buy. It will not go down tomorrow.’

I got up from my seat with that thought. The work ended too early today.

‘There’s no good news in 12 Days After. Shall I go buy a watch?’

—————-

I dressed up properly and left my room. I heard that it would take some time for the signed Porsche to be imported and delivered to me. I would have to take a little more time for a taxi.

I tried to get a taxi out of the studio. But while I was doing that, I got a call. The caller was Seo Ji-hoon.

“Brother!”

“Oh, Ji-hoon.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“I’m calling to report to you.”

“Yes. How is it? Did you check that?”

“First of all, about setting up an investment company...”

Meanwhile, a taxi stopped in front of me. I got in and said to the driver, “The Mirae Department Store in Samseong-dong.”

“Okay!”

Ji-hoon kept trying to talk. “When I tried a start-up...”

I interrupted his speech. “Hey, do you have an appointment today? Let’s just meet and talk. It’s a long story, anyway.”

“Shall we do that, brother?”

“Yes. Come to Mirae Department Store in Samseong-dong. Let’s meet and talk. We’ll have lunch together.”

“Yes, I see, brother.”

——————-

There were colorful, shiny watches ahead of me. I brought my face close to look at the watches. A staff member was following along.

“This is a Datejust and this is a Submariner. Young people like you usually look for a lot of Submariner products.”

‘Submariner is for a watch for a diver?

‘The words are a little funny. Who wears this expensive watch and goes diving? I’m sure they’re too busy wiping water even if they pour water onto it.’

But by the way, it was pretty. A product with a gold-plated blue background caught my eye.

“How much is this?”

“It’s $16,600, sir!”

It was a lot of money, but it was not much, because I made $2,000,000 today.

“I’ll buy it,” I answered so coolly.

The staffer replied in slight panic, “Sir, I’ll wrap it up now.”

While the staff was wrapping up the watch, the phone rang. Ji-hoon was on the phone.

“Yes.”

“Didn’t you say you’re in the luxury goods department?”

“Yes, the luxury goods department of Rolex.”

“Oh, I see.”

—

Soon Ji-hoon appeared inside the store.

“Brother. Did you buy a watch?”

I pointed to the watch on the staff’s hand. “Yes. Isn’t that pretty?”

“Wow, that’s beautiful! How much is that?”

‘How much?’

I couldn’t remember well because I’d only roughly heard the price.

“Was it $15,000? That much.”

“Wow, brother. Really...” Ji-hoon looked at me with a pretty surprised look on his face. He still didn’t seem to realize that I was rich.

‘Shall I buy one for him, too? Now?’

But I decided not to. I could afford to buy it at a mere $15,000, but I didn’t. Money should be presented as a proper reward when I managed people.

I said with a slight pat on Ji-hoon’s chest. “When the investment company is established, and the first acquisition is successfully completed, I’ll buy you one then. To celebrate.”

“Really?”

“Yes, but if it works out well enough for me to be satisfied. So work hard. You’ll know when you’re working with me, but... It’s nothing if you’re good at your work.”

‘What I’m saying is the $2,000,000 I earned today. I didn’t know before, but now I understand why the rich buy expensive products without a hitch. If Ji-hoon does this well, the $15,000 watch is really nothing.’

Ji-hoon once again said, bowing down, “Just trust me, brother.”

I patted him on the shoulder and said, “Yeah, yeah. Let’s go eat.”

————————

The sliding door opened, and the woman with her hair neatly turned over asked, “Would you like to order?”

“Yes, Omakasero for two. Alcohol is... First, give me a bottle of Asahi.”

“Yes, I see.”

The waitress closed the door and went out. This was a Japanese restaurant located in Samseong-dong. The Japanese restaurant was divided into rooms like this, so it was good to talk about secret stories and business.

I asked Ji-hoon, “So how was it? Did you search?”

“I met some of the investors I had at the start of my business and asked them to give me some advice. But they didn’t believe what I said: that you are a 29-year-old man setting up an investment company with the money he earned from Bitcoin.”

“Well... that’s right. Even you didn’t believe it either.”

“Of course.”

If I had spoken frankly, they would have been more incredulous. An ordinary office worker earned $3,000,000 from five overlapping Lotto winnings and increased the money several times more from stock trading. They would have thought I was a swindler.

“Anyway, I found that I could set up an investment company as soon as people are ready. So I was thinking if I should recruit new people... But one of the people who I was asking for advice indicated that he wanted to quit and join us this way.”

“Really? Who?”

“He’s Jang Sang-jin, a team leader, in his mid-forties, and he is well-known in the start-up investment area. He has a good educational background and a lot of experience. From what I’ve seen, he’s got a very good personality. He’s been investing, but he’s also been a mentor. He seems to have some problem in his company and wants to leave it.”

“Well, is that so?”

‘That’s good. No matter how well Ji-hoon and I could do, we’re 29 and 28. You will need advice from an old and experienced person.’

“Yes. But he was wondering whether our story was real or not. Therefore, he couldn’t talk right.”

“Then ask him to see me. When we meet and talk, he’ll believe me, too.”

“Do you think so?”

“Yes. You can arrange a meeting. If he is really good, I’ll hire him.”

“Yes, brother.”

“Excuse me.” While we were talking, the sliding door opened, and the food began to come in, one by one.

It was colorful, like an Omakase priced at $120 per person, and fancy. We picked out the food one by one. It was delicious all together.

“Ch… it is as if it’s expensive.”

“That is right, isn’t it?”

The main dish, various seafood sashimi were coming out, and Ji-hoon and I were having a beer.

Ji Hoon, who was enjoying the meal, said, “That’s right, brother. I talked to people in the investment industry and heard there’s already a company for sale in Entertainment industry.”

“Really? What company?”

“CKD Entertainment. Do you know a ballad singer? It’s an entertainment company run by Mr. Do Chan-ki...”

“Oh, I know. CKD Entertainment.”

I knew it well because I made some good money when it had plummeted by twenty percent due to the gay rumors.

“He had recently gay rumors. That’s why the stock price was a little bit down lately.”

“Yes, his recent business hasn’t been working out well, and the gay rumors have broken out, and he’s disillusioned with the entertainment business. The news broke and he got a lot of bad comments from the fans who he trusted. He wants to sell the company anyway, and he’s looking for a buyer.”

Anyway, whatever the story was, all I needed was the right price.

“Well, what’s the situation with the company?”

“The situation of the company… is not good.”

“Surely?”

“The company’s income is not very good. A chronic deficit. But it has a good subsidiary, and I think they’re paying off because they’re earning a lot.”

“A good subsidiary? Which company?” I said without much thought, picking up some tuna and dipping it in the soy sauce. By the way, I thought I had heard the same somewhere very recently.

“OH Entertainment. It is a small company they took over after the listing. The company seems to be doing well these days.”

‘OH Entertainment?’

At that time, Ji-hoon said, “The top celebrity of this company is Oh Hyun-joo. You know her, right? She has been on commercial ads lately because she got a big hit on a soap opera, Your and My Uncle...”

I almost missed the tuna I was holding. “Aaaaah...”

OH Entertainment was the same company that Oh Hyun-joo whose life I had saved belonged to.