Episode 143. If you don’t like me.
At Na Woong-cheol’s words, Na Woong-jin was surprised and asked.
“Representative Damoye? How does your brother know him?”
“He was the owner of the house next door. He also told you about your situation.”
“..that’s a fact that most bank employees don’t even know, you mean you know all that, right? Incredible. It sounds like you’re not lucky enough to start a big company called Damoye at that age…”
“okay. Even though he was young, he didn’t blink an eye while talking to me. Rather, I was all nervous. Anyway, everyone, CEO Kang Jae-woon can help, so he told me to come and see you.”
“Why is he helping me?”
“Well… I said I liked your personality, but I don’t know how you feel inside. Anyway, there’s nothing wrong with visiting it, so go and see it.”
“..just think about it.”
“Don’t do that. come by all means It’s my feeling, but it seems like I really want to help you.”
To Na Woong-cheol’s urging, Na Woong-jin answered countless times.
“..I see. I’ll go see you.”
“okay. It is definitely.”
#One week has passed since I returned from Jeju Island.
Damoyeo Information Technology headquarters conference room.
The sales team leader was reporting on the sales performance at the end of the month with the data floating on the screen.
“As the CEO predicted, after the release of D-Tab3, sales are increasing rapidly. At the beginning of this year, we were staying in third place with a 25% share, but now it has risen to 36%, and we are closely following 40% of telecommunication as the number one future.”
“I heard that it has risen by 11%… If it goes on like this, it will not be long before we will occupy the first place.”
“yes. Even though expenses such as marketing expenses remained almost the same, sales increased significantly and the operating profit ratio also increased significantly. The profit margin, which was originally around 2%, has soared to 7%, resulting in an operating profit of nearly 75 billion won in the first half of this year.”
“haha. That’s fine. Everyone worked hard.”
The head of the infrastructure business team answered me.
“Wireless routers are also popular, so requests are pouring in for them to be purchased individually so that they can be used on other companies’ internet lines. How do we do this?”
“I’m sorry, but don’t say no. Selling wireless routers doesn’t make much profit, but you can’t just do good things for others.”
“However, please continue to develop products. Since we started, soon other companies will also offer wireless router services. At that time, the performance of the wireless router will have a significant impact on the consumer’s choice.”
“I see what you mean. We will come up with a new product development plan.”
“yes. And now, team leader, let’s start upgrading the wired communication network.”
“..when you say upgrade, do you mean VDSL method?”
Very High-data Rate Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL).
It was a method of sending and receiving signals through a telephone line like the ADSL I am using now.
The speed was 10Mbps (10 megabits per second of data transmitted), which was 5 to 6 times faster than ADSL.
However, there was a disadvantage that the equipment investment cost per line was 2-3 times more expensive than ADSL.
Everyone had a surprised face at the suggestion of installing VDSL.
The infrastructure business team leader opened his mouth.
“Installing a new VDSL requires a lot of investment. In addition, if the current ADSL speed level, there is no problem to use the Internet. Even if VDSL infrastructure is installed, the price cannot be high, so ARPU will remain the same, is that okay?”
Average Revenue Per User (ARPU).
It refers to the revenue generated by one subscriber.
In the case of Korea, which has a relatively small population, it is not easy to increase subscribers.
Wired and wireless carriers focused on raising this ARPU.
The purpose of upgrading communication facilities was usually there.
In such an atmosphere, it was natural for the executives in charge to feel suspicious when they said that they should make an investment that could not even raise ARPU.
“Are you saying that the efficiency drops a lot? I know. Conversion of lines to VDLS will increase subscribers, but it will not be enough to recoup the investment, and the operating profit margin will decrease significantly.”
“Is there an important reason to invest even if the operating profit margin is cut?”
“Of course it is. I plan to launch an OTT service that allows you to view high-definition video in real-time.”
Over The Top (OTT).
It is a service that provides media contents such as broadcasting, movies, and dramas over the Internet.
Representative examples include Otube, which is later used by 2 billion monthly users, and Godflix, which has 150 million paid members.
Since VDSL was an essential infrastructure to start this OTT service, it was necessary to lay the foundation from now on.
The head of the infrastructure business team made an expression of understanding.
“..you had that intention. In fact, it is certainly difficult to reproduce in real-time with image quality higher than XGA level.”
“yes. And after I launch such a service, I’m going to gather all the data centers here and connect them to the information technology line. If the service is successful and can attract many users, it means that Damoye Information Technology can also receive huge network usage fees.”
mesh fee.
It is a kind of access fee that telecommunication companies with internet infrastructure receive from internet content providers such as DAJI Portal and Doeum or other telecommunication companies.
In particular, in One Future, many people access services such as Naibook or Otube, which have servers abroad, and domestic telecommunication companies pay huge network fees to overseas telecommunication companies.
This time, I was planning to attract such services to our server and collect the network fee on the contrary.
And since the Internet ecosystem is still being built, we are not receiving any fees from content providers, but as time goes by, we will eventually collect hundreds of billions of dollars in net usage fees a year, so the profit rate could be higher.
The head of the infrastructure business team made an expression of admiration.
“Ah… the net fee! I hadn’t even thought of that at all. I thought you were simply trying to use our information technology as an auxiliary means, but that was not the case.”
“of course. The money I spent to acquire this place alone is 250 billion won. It cost a lot of money, but we have to raise it properly.”
The head of the infrastructure business team nodded with a reassured face.
“As you said, the upgrade to VDSL will begin immediately.”
Na Woong-jin, the president of Yuhwan Bank, who I was waiting for, came to see me.
He spoke first with a worried face.
“I heard from my brother. In fact, the pressure from the board was so strong that I thought I wouldn’t be able to hold this position for a few months, but I didn’t tell anyone… How did you know?”
As I expected, the loan super fund seemed to have started the acquisition earlier than the original history.
“There is an informant.”
“Um… I don’t know who the informant is, but he must be in a pretty key position.”
I changed the topic because I thought that dragging the story would only increase suspicion.
“I do not know. It’s hard to say more than that. In any case, I am willing to help the president of the bank.”
“..Why does the CEO want to help me?”
“For now, I will tell you that it is helpful for me to have the head of the bank there. I think I can tell you more details after hearing more about your current situation.”
After hesitating for a while, the bank manager opened his mouth.
“Actually, a private equity fund called Lone Super is trying to take over our bank. However, private equity funds are not allowed to take over banks under the current banking law, and I am under pressure to help them take over our bank.”
“Isn’t one of the ways to help you manipulate the BIS equity ratio?”
For a moment, the bank president, Na, was more than surprised, and made a wary expression on his face.
“..Is the representative one of them?”
“I don’t know who you’re talking about, but I don’t have enough contact points in common with other people to be called them.”
“But how did you know that? That’s information that they can’t know without them.”
“You said the head of the bank earlier. A private equity fund is trying to acquire a Yu-Hwan Bank. Then there is only one way. It’s using the exceptions of the banking law. A clause stating that private equity funds can also take over banks in case the BIS ratio is less than 8%, acknowledging the special situation of insolvent financial institutions. This can be inferred if you know the banking law without having to listen to anyone.”
My bank manager looked me in the eye and nodded.
“..it’s hard to believe, but you might think so, since I’ve heard he’s a smart guy.”
“Besides, I know quite a bit about the Lone Super. I got tangled up once.”
I said the bank manager with an angry face.
“Um… if you had a relationship with Lone Super, it must have been a bad affair. They mainly hunt for companies, so their specialty is making other people shed tears of blood.”
“haha. The opposite. At that time, there were tears of blood.”
“yes? Is it a loan super fund?”
He talked about the competition to take over the Damoye Center (Eunha Tower) with Lone Super.
After hearing everything, the bank manager gave a surprised expression.
“Huh… it’s really rare for a Lone Super to drink water like that… It’s amazing.”
“haha. It was thanks to the close connection with Gowon Group. But who are the people you mentioned earlier?”
“..they are on the side of colluding with Lone Super to hunt down our Yu-Hwan Bank. I don’t know the exact list, but it seems that there are so-called treasurys and some very influential figures in the government. It’s hard to name them, so we just call them them.”
Oh, you’re talking about black-haired foreigners who are later mentioned as the dark side of the Yuhwan Bank takeover.
There were many suspicions that former and incumbent government officials who invested money in the Loan Super Fund helped to acquire Yuhwan Bank, but it must have been true.
“Hmm… that’s right. Anyway, I’m not with them. Rather, I can say that I am someone who wants to bring tears of blood to them.”
“Do you have any grudges with them?”
“It’s not like that. The pursuit of power and wealth is personal freedom, but I don’t like using wrong shortcuts.”
Later, Lone Super buys a currency exchange bank at a bargain price and sells it back with a profit of about 4 trillion won.
Even later, he filed an ISD (Investor-State Dispute) lawsuit claiming that the sale was delayed by the Korean government and received up to 5 trillion won in tax.
I still have memories of being quite disassembled when I saw it.
Now that this opportunity has come, let’s prevent such behavior of the loan super fund in advance.
As a bonus, I was thinking of getting a currency exchange bank for me.
As if I had gained faith, the vigilance disappeared from the face of the bank president.
“okay. To explain the current situation in a little more detail, they bought all of our executives and the manipulation of the documents is over. If my approval is received, the data will be sent to the Financial Supervisory Service immediately, and the BIS rate will drop below 8%. I’m refusing to the end, but I don’t think I’ll be able to hold out for long.”
I asked him, staring at him.
“Bank chief. Now that this is happening, how would you like to work side by side with me?”
