225. Samryong Car (2)
As expected in the factory cafeterias of the late 1990s, the menu at Samryong Motors was poor.
White rice, soybean paste soup, also known as dung soup, and kimchi and a few side dishes.
However, Hoyoung ate it as if it were a delicacy.
To be honest, Jo Jung-sik was hesitant to eat such a meal, but he had no choice but to follow Ho-yeong as he ate so well.
“Are there many people eating even though it’s dinner time?”
“Factories work until night. The night shift, which works until 10 p.m., eats dinner and takes a short break before returning to the factory.”
“It is such a system. But can those who work hard in the factory gain strength with just this diet?”
Jang Tae-tae was embarrassed for a moment and his face reddened slightly.
Apart from Hoyeong’s delicious meal, what he said was true.
“I know the diet is poor, but… Due to the company’s poor circumstances, we lowered the price per meal to around 1,500 won.”
“okay.”
Hoyeong nodded and put the remaining kimchi and rice into her mouth.
However, Jang Tae-tae could hear it without missing it.
Hoyeong said to herself, ‘To increase efficiency, I’ll have to change this right now.’
“president. Are you here for a meal? Aren’t you going home today?”
“Is Director Kim going on the night shift today? I don’t think I can go in today.”
At that time, a man in his 40s wearing greasy work clothes spoke to Jang Tae-tae.
“Where are these guests from? It doesn’t look like they’re from the headquarters.”
“ah! say hello This is Cho Jung-sik, the chairman of Myungsung Group. And this is Hermes Group’s Chairman Yun Ho-young.”
“What-! Oh, how are you? sorry. I made an excuse.”
The middle-aged man stuttered and apologized as if he was very surprised after learning the identity of Jo Jung-sik and Ho-yeong.
Who could have predicted that Hoyeong and Jo Jungsik would be eating dung soup with him in a staff cafeteria like Hagi?
“This is Samryong’s technical director, Director Kim Yeong-un.”
“Nice to meet you. This is Yun Ho-young.”
Hoyoung naturally reached out his hand, and Kim Yeongwun wiped his hand on his pants several times before holding Hoyoung’s hand and shaking it.
“Greetings. I am Youngwoon Kim, technical director of Samryong Motors.”
“yes. By the way, are you wearing work clothes?”
“Ah, that’s because Director Kim here is also directly involved in the work. As the general manager of the plant, he is in charge of site management. This friend here, like me, joined Dong-A Motors as an employee and has endured until now.”
“I see. Can we say that it is the same concept as the factory manager?”
“You are correct.”
Hoyoung nodded.
Kim Yeong-un, whom he saw, also seemed like an enthusiastic and free-spirited person.
It was a bonus that the expression that looked like he was going to die because he was uncomfortable in a place like this, probably because he had been eating oil for the rest of his life.
“Next time I have a chance, I will greet you properly. If you take away more time, precious break time will be reduced, right?”
“It’s fine… Thank you for your consideration, I will return to the factory.”
Kim Young-un bowed his head and left the restaurant.
Hoyeong gradually liked this Samryong car.
‘It’s a place that guarantees autonomy, and if sufficient investment is made, it will do its part.’
Originally, when Hoyoung took over Samryong Motors, the board of directors and management were planning to do a drastic change.
If there was no talent he liked in Korea, he was willing to take a lot of money and bring him from abroad.
‘It was good to see you here today. It’s been a while since I’ve met people I want to give a chance to.’
However, Hoyoung’s thoughts have completely changed.
He considered today’s meeting a success.
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In the car on the way back to work.
Jo Jeong-shik must have had the same thoughts as Ho-yeong, so he naturally started talking to Ho-yeong.
“Chairman Yoon. Didn’t we talk about it on the way?”
“Are you talking about the company asking you to come in person?”
“you’re right. In fact, I thought they called us because of course there are a lot of things they care about…”
“Actually, I was asking to see and evaluate it because I am confident in the company.”
Cho Jung-sik nodded.
“yes. To be honest, if I hadn’t been here, I would have rated Samryong Motor very low.”
“Neither do I.”
In a way, it was a natural reaction because the Samryong car, which can only be seen in numbers, was taking the worst day by day.
‘If you think about it, Samryong Motors will create a mania group even into the distant future. Korando has always been a steady seller, and Rexton and Tivoli are also selling quite well. If there hadn’t been a technology leak, the perception would have been better…’
Hoyoung looked back at Samryong for a moment.
Then something flashed into his mind, and his face was full of surprise.
“Lee Myung-han!”
“Lee Myung-han? Isn’t that the boss’s secretary? Why is he suddenly?”
“Ah… nothing. I’m sorry. Thinking of something else.”
It was Ho-yeong who was trying hard to be evasive, but inside she was still surprised.
He could only remember where he had seen the face and name Lee Myung-han.
‘Lee Myeong-han is the main culprit behind the leakage of Samryong Motor’s technology to China!’
Samryong Motors is in the position of going around numerous companies as the Daeyu Group is disbanded right after Daeyou Motors took over.
In the meantime, when I was under the umbrella of a Chinese company…
‘The incident occurred after several board members sold their technology to China for a large sum of money. And the instigator of the board members was Lee Myung-han.’
Hoyoung also realized why he couldn’t remember his face and name.
I hadn’t seen it in person, but I had only seen and heard it through the news and the Internet, so my memory was fuzzy.
‘If I take over Samryong Motors, I’ll have to cut Lee Myeong-han first. Let’s cut risk factors from the beginning.’
While Ho-young was thinking, the car that drove him entered Gangnam before he knew it.
After getting off at the company and saying goodbye to Cho Jung-sik, Ho-young went straight to the office and called the Samryong Motors acquisition TF team and instructed them to proceed with the acquisition in earnest.
He was determined to have a Samryong car.
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The current situation of the Samryong group was not so good.
Currently, the foreign exchange crisis is spreading across Asia like wildfire, and while the large Korean companies are collapsing one by one, the chairman is immersed in politics, not caring about management, but the group’s situation couldn’t be good.
Even recently, the company has become more difficult because of Chairman Kim Si-jin.
At most, he became a member of the National Assembly, but he was found out after storing close to 6 billion in cash as the slush fund of former President Jeon Hyeon-du.
Of course, it cannot be said that the moral problem of the group’s chairman ruins the entire group, but it could be a sufficient opportunity to enter the downward trend in earnest.
After the slush fund incident, the group’s image was at its worst, and business performance was rapidly deteriorating.
In such a situation, the Samryong car was like a thorn in their eyes.
Although all other subsidiaries such as cement, oil refining, and paper are making surpluses, the loss at Samryong Motors was several times the surplus from all other subsidiaries.
However, since it was said that they were going to buy such a troublesome item, even within the group, they welcomed it with open arms.
This is an opportunity to dispose of Samryong Motors, which is no different from the cancerous mass of the group, which has been nurtured by Chairman Kim Si-jin’s excessive love for cars.
However, there was one important problem in selling the Samryong car.
‘We have absolutely no intention of taking on all of Samryong’s debt.’
A firm reply from Hoyoung.
Of course, it would be better not to have a Samryong car than to have a huge debt of 3.4 trillion won.
However, what is urgent right now is the Samryong Group.
The Samryong Group, after Hoyoung came out like this, suggested that Daeyu Group, which showed interest in Samryong Motors, first buy a Samryong Motors.
However, the response from Daeyu Group was also the same as Hoyoung’s.
‘The key to the acquisition will be how much Samryong Motors’ debt will be covered by the Samryong Group.’
And they notified that they could take up to 1.7 trillion won, that is, half of the current debt of Samryong Motors.
It was the Samryong group that caught fire.
The management of Samryong Group asked Hoyeong again.
How much debt can they afford to buy a Samryong car?
Here, they thought that if Hoyoung said they would pay less than Daeyou Group, they could sell it to Daeyou Group, and if Hoyeong said they would take on more debt, they would sell it to Hoyeong.
Less than an hour after the last inquiry went, they were able to answer the phone from Hoyeong.
1.8 trillion won.
That was the final amount that Hoyeong informed him he would bear.
A whopping 100 billion won more than the amount suggested by Dayou Group.
In this way, Hoyoung was able to safely (?) sign the contract to acquire Samryong Motors.
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October 1997.
Hoyoung, who had completed the acquisition of Samryong Motors, was at the Pyeongtaek plant to meet Jang Jang-tae, the president of Samryong Motors.
Originally, [Samryong Motor] was written in large letters at the entrance of the Pyeongtaek factory, so you could tell it was Samryong Motor from a distance, but now the work of erasing the writing was in full swing.
It was decided to change the name of Samryong Motors, which was acquired by Hoyoung.
Right into the ‘reputation car’.
However, it did not matter whether or not he would become a real affiliate of Myungsung Group.
Hoyoung raised most of the money for his Sungsung car directly from Gaia Investment.
Of course, it wasn’t that Myungsung Group’s stake was not included at all.
Myungsung decided to take a 20% stake in the price of using the brand ‘Myeongseong’ in addition to the investment money in proportion.
It was not difficult to raise all the funds from Gaia Investment, but to do an automobile business in Korea, the name of the company was changed because of Hoyoung’s idea that it would be easier and more comfortable to approach consumers more familiarly and reliably in the name of reputation. will be changed to
“President. It’s such an honor to meet you. In the future, I will devote my life to hard work. Samryong, which I have dedicated my whole life to… No, it is Myungsung Car. We will make it the best automobile company in the world.”
Hoyoung hired Jang Tae-tae and most of the employees without firing them.
It was a very rare case of taking over a company and not undergoing restructuring in a situation where Korea is currently struggling with the worst unemployment rate in history, so it was Ho-young who received a meaningless citation from the government.
“You are giving your life. What is the most important thing in the world that a company sacrifices its life for? Even if a company fails, it’s enough to rebuild it, but when a person dies, it’s over. Don’t say that again.”
“ah…! Okay. I must live and see the end of the automobile industry with the president!”
It wasn’t long before they met, but Jang Jang-tae was already completely on Ho-yeong’s side.
If there was a religion called Hoyeonggyo, he even showed enough faith to make him the first religious leader.
There was another reason why Hoyoung did not fire all the executives and employees.
It was a fact that I found out only after the acquisition process was almost over, but as the management of Samryong Motors got worse and worse, the employees of Samryong Motors went to work even while cutting their own wages.
In particular, CEO Jang Eun-tae, who is in front of us, struggled to save the company while cutting wages by nearly 70%.
Hearing the news, it was natural for Hoyoung to think that he was good at people.
“So, the boss should go home soon. I am concerned about my health. Now, don’t stay at the company too long.”
“I want to do that too, but I will live a little busier. It’s because I think I’ll have to organize the company structure to solve the debt first. We will boldly withdraw from unprofitable fields.”
“That’s a good idea. If you need funds to withdraw your business, please ask the head office (Gaia Investment) at any time. An answer will come as soon as possible.”
“thank you!”
Jang Tae-tae was moved by Ho-yeong’s kind words, and even tears welled up.
“It is still early for the rainy season.”
“yes?”
“First, we will invest about 100 billion won. It was said that the development of new cars should not be stopped. If necessary, we will try to find out if we can transfer technology from other foreign companies, so please feel free to give us your opinion.”
“All right. Thank you very much. President!”
“And another one.”
“I will listen.”
Jang Jang-tae was so shocked by Ho-yeong’s next words that he forgot that he had been in tears a moment ago.
Hoyoung’s words were shocking to that extent.
“I said earlier that business should be normalized because of corporate debt, but the debt will be paid off within this week.”
“how…?”
“I will just use the easiest and simplest method.”
“May I ask what is the simplest way to pay off the debt?”
“yes. It’s a cash hit.”
“Cash… Huh?!!”
Jang Tae-tae looked at Ho-yeong’s face, wondering if he was joking, but Ho-yeong’s face was confident enough and serious.