The Magician’s Memorial - Chapter 74



Only Krnovel

Episode 74 Advance (3)

SAVE Investment Company was the majority shareholder of Ford.

I was in a position where I could fully express my opinion.

Of course, with a 20% stake, you cannot control Ford’s management strategy, but if Taewoo Motors achieves good results in China, the situation will change.

Since I couldn’t explain the entire situation to my grandfather, I talked back.

“First of all, we need to check how well our Taewoo cars produced at the Romanian factory are applicable to the Chinese market.”

“Do you think you can set up a joint venture with Ford if car sales are good?”

“As long as we get good grades, there is no need for us to take the lead. “Wouldn’t an American car company that runs out of compact car models contact you first?”

“Hehe, that’s a very positive mindset. Yes, young people should live positively.”

My grandfather showed an easy smile.

It seems like all the broken hearts have been resolved, but to completely relieve her, I gave her one more piece of good news.

“And it looks like we could borrow additional money from Wall Street. “The conditions are the same as before.”

“Are you talking about the conditions for repaying expensive private loans?”

“If you do that, the interest you pay each year will be significantly reduced.”

There is nothing worse than paying out interest.

In particular, the interest rate on private loans was well over 15%, so it was too much of a waste.

So, I was planning to provide some of SAVE Investment Company’s funds to Taewoo Group in the form of a loan.

“Hehe, that’s very good. “It was a shame to lose my raw money to loan sharks, but it turned out very well.”

“Plus, we decided to lend in Korean Won, not dollars.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to have dollars? When I listened to economic officials and professors, they said it was highly likely that the dollar exchange rate would fall to 300 won. “Then wouldn’t the amount to be repaid be reduced by half?”

This led to national bankruptcy.

The exchange rate drops to 300 won? Moreover, the people who made such predictions were quite renowned scholars in the economics world.

According to them.

The moment the exchange rate drops to 300 won, the amount owed in dollars is reduced by half.

But history didn’t go that way.

Rather than being reduced by half, the amount to be repaid triples.

Even after just one year, the exchange rate, which was 700 won, will become 2,000 won.

Taewo Group’s debt was 20 trillion won.

This was the reason why it jumped to 80 trillion won after the foreign exchange crisis.

To some extent, I understood what they were saying.

Today’s Republic of Korea is a country that achieves economic growth of more than 10% every year.

However, starting this year, the economic growth rate has decreased significantly.

So, I tried to provide a loan in Korean Won.

My grandfather, who didn’t know how I felt, was hoping to borrow money in dollars.

“No one can predict how the value of the dollar will change. So, I think it is more advantageous to borrow in Korean Won.”

“Hmm, whatever you do. Since this is the result you have achieved, shouldn’t you follow your words? So how much can you borrow?”

“You can receive additional loans of up to 3 trillion won. Wouldn’t this be enough to repay the entire Taewoo Group’s private loan debt and funds borrowed at high interest rates from second-tier financial institutions?”

“Hehe, the money going out will be greatly reduced. You can save at least hundreds of billions of won a year. “You have done a great job.”

The amount of money paid out in interest every year was at least trillion.

Moreover, as more loans were being taken out to repay the interest, the loan principal only increased.

To break that vicious cycle, we used funds from SAVE Investment Company.

Of course, this did not mean that the vicious cycle could be completely broken.

Taewo Group needed a system that could sustain itself, development of products that could be chosen by the public, and a stable supply chain.

* * *

The sun slowly set.

Since I, the highest-ranking person in the planning office, was not leaving work, the employees were also unable to leave work, so I gathered up my work and got up.

“Everyone gets off work. “Starting tomorrow, you can leave work first even if I don’t.”

“The manager has not left work, so how can he leave work first?”

I was able to understand the current atmosphere of the company from the words of the planning director.

A class society similar to the military.

Taewoo Group’s company culture was very rigid.

It wasn’t a culture that could be changed right away just because I stepped forward, so I had no choice but to leave work early.

“Then I will go first. “Everyone, please leave work.”

“see you tommorow.”

I had no choice but to head to Captain Kang’s office to take care of some other business.

Overtime was in full swing there, just like Taewoo Group.

Moreover, a team leader who was supposed to be in Japan had already returned to Korea and was working overtime.

“Have you already finished your trip to Japan?”

“The negotiations ended much easier than expected. We received all shares of MCA Records in exchange for nullifying the derivatives contract. As a bonus, I also brought with me a few patents related to sound.”

I heard there is a reason why I pay a team leader a lot of salary.

I get paid a lot because they know what I want without me having to ask them to do it.

“thank you for your effort. So now MCA Records has been handed over to us.”

“There are a few procedures left to fine-tune, but in the grand scheme of things, the ownership of MCA records remains with SAVE Investment Company.”

“Then, use MCA Records to create a system where you can purchase or rent music on the Internet and listen to it.”

We didn’t acquire MCA Records for nothing.

This was to dominate the upcoming MP3 market.

“Is it possible to create an Internet music site?”

“You just need to recruit IT experts to create it. “Relevant patents are requested from Taewoo Group’s technology research institute.”

“But would the Recording Industry Association of America give permission? And it’s very likely that singers who release albums will also reject them.”

“So first, I’m going to start very small. We will make the music site’s accessibility worst and we will not promote it. “We just need to secure evidence that we first created a site where people can buy these types of music for money.”

If you eat too much from the beginning, you will feel bad.

It took Apple at least 1-2 years to create the iPod, and the site being created now was only preliminary work.

“If that’s your intention, I think it’s entirely possible.”

“Now that the Internet has become popular, places where music is shared illegally will be mushrooming. If that happens, people will realize the need for a music streaming site.”

“We will create a music site as soon as possible. And we’ll put it in the bottom corner of MCA Records’ official site.”

As expected, he is a team leader who handles work neatly and sensibly.

“And please prepare Taewoo Group’s borrowings.”

“We have already brought in 3 trillion won into Korean banks. “As soon as the contract is completed, I will send it to Taewoo Group.”

The dark circles around Team Leader Han’s eyes seemed to have become darker.

Since you’re working back and forth between Korea and Japan, you probably haven’t had time to properly rest.

I really want to give you a vacation, but

This was not possible because the foreign exchange crisis was only one year away.

Instead, they pay a lot of salary. Please hold on just a little longer.

* * *

Time passed and it was April.

Meanwhile, the sale of Taewoo Shipbuilding and its mobile phone division has been completed.

All of that money was tied up as funds for establishing a joint venture with Aramco.

Because he was a grandfather who wanted to spend money if he had it.

I had to use this trick to stop the money from flowing out.

When I was whistling at Taewoo Group’s decreasing debt ratio.

The planning director came into the office with a large number of reports.

I was the head of the planning department who reported in detail the situation of each affiliate every month, and the day would fly by just listening to all the reports.

I felt sorry for the planning director, but I mechanically nodded and received the report.

However, there was a completely unexpected report that made me jump out of my seat.

“Please say that again. “What is development finished?”

“You mean electric cars? Taewoo Motors has completed development of the TEV-4. A launch ceremony is scheduled to be held at the Bupyeong Automobile Plant on April 20th. Although it was developed with the goal of commercialization, sales volume is not expected to be high as it is twice as expensive as a regular passenger car.”

I turned my head and looked at the calendar.

Apparently today was April 1996.

But what about electric cars? As far as I know, electric vehicles were only commercialized 10 years later.

This was at a time when Tesla, famous for its electric cars, had not even been created.

SAVE Investment Company was also making connections by knowingly or unknowingly investing in the engineers who created Tesla.

But electric cars have already been made.

It is also an electric vehicle made for commercialization.

“What are the specifications for TEV-4?”

“The maximum driving distance is 300km, the maximum output is 95 horsepower, the maximum speed is 120km/h, and the zero-hundred speed is 15.”

“It’s still not enough.”

“Still, while other companies only made prototypes to show off their technology, we actually created an electric vehicle that could be sold to the private sector.”

I had too high expectations because it was an electric vehicle in the commercialization stage.

After checking detailed information, I found that it was an electric vehicle that still had limitations in commercialization.

However, I was surprised that Taewoo Motors had already entered the electric vehicle market.

Because it was the same as the future of Taewoo Motors that I thought of.

And over time, all automobile industries will jump into the development of electric or hydrogen vehicles.

It is never a bad thing to jump in early and secure technical skills.

“I didn’t know that the chairman was also interested in electric vehicles.”

“You once said that the era of electric vehicles will come someday.”

My grandfather’s insight was truly outstanding.

If the Taewo Group had not collapsed due to the foreign exchange crisis, the world might have truly changed.

Although I had a disagreement with my grandfather over the debt issue.

I also acknowledged my grandfather’s abilities.

“Keep moving forward with your electric vehicle project. “It may not make money right now, but as the chairman said, I think the era of electric vehicles will come someday.”

“A lot of manpower is being invested to develop the motor in-house. One day, Taewoo will be able to build an electric car using only its own technology.”

Should we move the time forward a little?

Should we meet Tesla’s founders sooner?

… No matter how much I thought about it, it wasn’t the time yet.

At the very least, it was a matter to be reconsidered after the foreign exchange crisis had passed, and it was right now to focus on developing batteries for electric vehicles and mobile phones.

“I understand that automobiles produced in Romania have begun to enter China. “What is the reaction?”

“The response is better than expected. Thanks to the attention of the Chinese government, tariffs are low and the price is competitive compared to foreign cars. Although production volume is not large, most of the cars produced have already been sold.”

This is a good response, right?

Although it was a trick, they succeeded in entering China.

Now we are at least ready to throw the bait of a joint venture to Ford.