Chapter 53
Chapter 53
I was planning to come to Hong Kong once to meet Hyunjoo’s sister and Eli before the start of the class. By the way, the manager of Golden Gate Asia wanted to meet us.
He doesn’t know much about us, but he knows that OTK Company is Hyun-joo’s customer. (From the time of account opening, everything after that was handled through Hyun-joo’s sister)
So, through my older sister, I implicitly told him that I wanted to meet him, and I gladly agreed. Because I also wanted to meet him.
The old man welcomed us warmly.
“nice to meet you. My name is Chase Southwell.
We also greeted politely.
“Nice to meet you. This is Jinhoo Kang.”
“Good morning. This is Taek-gyu Oh.”
We were seated in front of a table that could seat dozens of people. A male employee who appeared to be a secretary served coffee and tea.
“Thank you for accepting the invitation. Were there any inconveniences on the way?”
“Thanks to the branch manager, I was able to come comfortably.”
The old man said cheerfully.
“It’s better to call them by name rather than by title.”
Hyunjoo noona and Ellie, who are sitting across from each other, look tense. It seems that it is inconvenient to be with a Korean company, a foreign company, or the president.
No matter how many times you are Hyun-joo’s older sister, how often do you meet with the branch manager?
When I think about it that way, I also feel nervous for nothing.
“Oh oh! The view here is very good. You can see Hong Kong at a glance. You work in a very nice place.”
“·················ogue.”
It’s not like the baby was surprised by some mother’s job.
When Hyunjoo’s older sister frowned as if to be quiet, Taekkyu quickly shut his mouth.
Seeing that, Chase smiled.
“It’s not a meeting place for work, so you can stay comfortably.”
Taek-gyu spoke politely in English.
“right? Because my sister is too picky.”
Hyunjoo noona made more impressions than before, but she didn’t say anything because she was in front of the branch manager. Taek-gyu, who gained confidence, jokingly said something, while Chase smiled and chimed in.
“Did you know that my sister gets scolded every day?”
“Heh heh, I often get scolded by my wife when I go home.”
He is like a foreign grandfather who seems like a good person. However, that is only an appearance.
Golden Gate has a total of five heads, including major shareholder and CEO James C. Goldman. One of them is Chase Southwell, who is in charge of the Asia office.
He is a legendary financier who ranks among the top ten in the Asian financial world.
The general public may not know it well, but he is unlikely to know his name, even if he is not in finance. He is sometimes mentioned in the news.
Chase came to Hong Kong in the late ’80s, when Asia was growing. And his abilities were verified, and he rose to the position of branch manager in 10 years. But not long after, the Asian currency crisis broke out.
Golden Gate, which was taking a long position at the time, suffered a huge loss, and shareholders wanted to reduce their investment in Asia.
He vehemently opposed it. Rather, he emphasized that Asia is a market with great potential, and that now is the right time to increase investment.
The CEO, James, agreed with Chase’s opinion and actively supported it. This allowed him to buy bulky bonds and stocks that had plummeted.
Within a few years, major Asian countries successfully overcame the foreign exchange crisis, and Golden Gate made huge profits.
It is not an exaggeration to say that it is thanks to this grandfather that Golden Gate is able to stand out in the Asian market today.
As the Asian branch directly controls the Korean market, it has a deep relationship with Korea. Even now, all of Golden Gate’s investments in Korea are made through his hands.
Our personal wealth may be smaller than ours, but our impact on the global economy is not comparable to ours. He can move tens of billions of dollars with a single word.
If he cuts his investment in Korea or makes negative comments about Korea, the Korean stock market will immediately fluctuate.
Then why did such a great being asked to meet us?
The reason is simple.
Because we’ve become giants to some extent.
* * *
A year is short if it is short and long if it is long.
We have traveled to many cities around the world, and we have seen and learned many things.
I was constantly learning about the world and finance. Her English has become so sophisticated that she now hears Ellie and praises her for her good pronunciation and expression.
Fortunately, Taek-gyu managed to speak English as well. Regardless, Koreans are taught English over 12 years from elementary school to high school. Thanks to this, essential words and simple vocabulary are already stored in your head.
I just don’t know how to take it out and use it. Thanks to that, I decided to do it for about a year, and I was able to talk to a certain extent.
While we were playing and studying, the world economy changed rapidly.
The term 4th industrial revolution, which was used only by some, is no longer unknown. Most experts predict that the changes that will occur over the next decade will be greater than those that have occurred over the past 100 years.
Governments and corporations alike set out to find future food to survive in the changing industrial environment.
And······.
The startups we invested in have really exploded.
Startups thrive on dreams. You don’t have to make money right away. You just need to show that you can succeed in the future.
It’s hard to show that.
None of the companies that have invested are currently making a profit. Rather, it is generating huge deficits every year.
However, the attitude towards them has changed 180 degrees.
Until then, investors, who had not seen them even if they begged them to invest, came to them with their investment funds, asking them to let them invest from a certain point.
Continuous investment is necessary for a company to continue to grow. And to do that, you have to make a profit, get a loan, or raise an investment from outside.
Initial investment in startups is made in the form of founders selling their shares. However, the subsequent investment process is a little more complicated.
Before, it was the work of both the founder and the investor, but after that, it is the work of the founder, the initial investor, and the three new investors.
Additional investment is generally made in the form of issuance of new shares.
A company invests money in the form of newly issuing stock (equity) of a certain percentage and purchasing it by new investors.
Naturally, the stakes of existing investors are diluted that much. If this is repeated several times, it is not uncommon for a 50% stake to be reduced to less than 10%.
To prevent such a situation, at the time of signing an investment contract, we put in a clause that we do not interfere with management, but restrict the issuance of new shares and have priority underwriting rights. This was to prevent dilution of the stake by issuing new shares at a low price.
If I had to pick one of the dozens of startups that grew the fastest, it was surprisingly (and perhaps notably) Faceit.
Faceit built a server with the investment we received and formed partnerships with producers. The number of users has exploded, and as data has accumulated, the recommendation algorithm has become more sophisticated.
You no longer have to scour the internet to find the porn you want to watch, just go to Faceit and enter your favorite actors and preferences.
In just one year, Faceit has rapidly encroached on the global pornography market. If you search for porn on portal sites such as Gubble, the Faceit site appears immediately.
A famous American content company, noticing the explosive growth, proposed to acquire it. The offer amount is 4 billion dollars.
Faceit declined the offer. Instead, it received a $95 million investment from a private equity fund in the form of issuing and selling 10 percent of the new shares a few months later. It was possible because they judged that Faceit was worth $950 million.
Our stake was reduced from 48 percent to 43.2 percent, but instead the value of our stake increased.
A similar thing happened one after another at dozens of startups. In some places they hoped to invest, in others they hoped to take over.
Investors were probably stunned too.
If you try to invest in a startup that looks good, you already have a significant stake in a place you’ve never heard of.
Thanks to this, the mission of OTK Company became widely known, regardless of IBs, hedge funds, PEFs, sovereign wealth funds, and large corporations.
The combined value of the companies we currently have invested in is estimated at about billion.
600 billion won became 11 trillion won.
Of course, it is not easy to measure the value of unlisted companies, so it is only an estimate.
* * *
Chase looked at us and said.
“I was surprised to hear that the two giants running the OTK Company were Jessica’s younger brother and her friend.”
I smiled shyly.
“It’s overrated.”
“When I made $600 million in options in the Korean market last year, I was a little surprised, but I didn’t really care. It was an extremely risky investment, and it was considered a once-in-a-lifetime fortune for everyone. However, after seeing OTK Company’s actions, I changed my mind.
It is.”
He prefers to invest in a long position rather than a short position by buying a low price and holding it for a long time. As a result, we seemed to appreciate the fact that we quickly bought a stake in an undervalued startup.(Read more @ wuxiax.com)
Usually, startup investment is a jackpot if only one or two out of 10 succeed. But we succeeded nine out of ten. None of the others have stood out yet, but they haven’t failed.
“I’ve always wanted to meet people with such great insight.”
Just because Warren Boat has been consistently profitable for 50 years, and George Soros’s legendary victory in the foreign exchange market doesn’t mean they have superpowers. I just think that the way I see the market is superior to others.
So Chase was purely admiring my talent. Listening to compliments over and over again makes me feel a bit prickly.
“So do I. If I told you that I met Chase Southwell in Golden Gate in person, everyone would be envious.”
Opportunities to meet Asia’s legendary investors are rare.
Anyway, before coming here, Sang-yeop-senpai begged me to take him too. Unfortunately, I couldn’t come with you because I was busy with work.
“The head of the department at my university is a huge fan. Undergraduate students as well as club members.”
Chase was delighted with my words.
“Is that true? Then we should go to Jinhoo’s school and have a signing event.
I nodded seriously.
“I will host it once.”
“Heh heh, thanks to you, I have an excuse to take a vacation and go to Korea.”
We talked for two hours. As time went on, it moved to just a little bit of a story rather than a topic about finance.
Taek-gyu talked about which movies were interesting and which games were popular recently, and Chase boasted how cute and adorable his son and his twin granddaughters, working as professors, are cute.
Unlike the rest of us, he had a lot of schedules.
Chase stood up with a sad expression on his face.
“I have high expectations for the future. Golden Gate hopes to continue working with OTK Company in the future.”
“So are we.”
“I am glad that Jessica is connecting Golden Gate and OTK Company. She is precious to both of them.”
At the compliment of the governor, Hyun-joo noona coughed awkwardly, and Taek-gyu said, ‘Your sister is very precious. Then I said, ‘I got a stinging glance.
They don’t seem to think that they might be right after the meeting is over.
“Maybe we have good news for each other within this year.”
“What news?”
He smiled generously at my question.
“It’s not confirmed yet, but we can look forward to it.”
