Empire of the Ring

The Danish shipyard was thrown into a frenzy after Youngho’s call. It was because Youngho promised a contract of two additional 20,000-ton icebreaker orders, which cost nearly 100 million dollars. It was also intriguing to hear that the ships would have Denmark nationality.

Since Youngho managed to get contracts for a total of six icebreakers within a short period of time in the period of shipping recession, it was quite an impressive achievement.

The reaction came immediately from the stock market. It was a ten percent increase in market capitalization.

Szechenyi called Youngho as he heard the news.

“Brother, you did it again! Stocks are just going up.”

“That American investment company will have a stomachache out of jealousy.”

“Yep. The management of the company must be regretting it so bad.”

When Youngho bought shares of the Danish shipyard from a U.S. investment firm recently at a cheap price, Szechenyi opposed it since it did not seem like there would be more ship orders. With the two percent of the company’s share that Youngho bought from the U.S. firm, he now had more than six percent of the company’s stock. Since the shipyard company agreed to give Youngho future contract commissions with the company’s share, his total share would increase even more soon. He would become a major stockholder.

With the request to build six icebreakers in a row, the company’s reputation had risen. It would lead to attracting more orders for ferry boats in the future.

Getting Nikolay’s two large orders were killing two birds with one stone for Youngho.

When he emphasized business diversification to Nikolay, who had just earned a huge amount of money in his hands, he took Youngho’s suggestion so easily. It was majorly because Youngho scratched Nikolay’s most itchy spot. Business in Russia was like walking on thin ice, and you could be stranded at any time, so he made a decision to stretch his business overseas.

He made sure if he could make special orders for the ship. It seemed that he was going to make a ship that was as sturdy as a fortress.

“I think you should refrain from buying stocks for the time being. The price went up too high in a short period of time.”

“Keep contacting the U.S. investment company for the rest of their stock. They must be thinking that this is only a temporary rise.”

Youngho was certain that the U.S. firm considered them to be just lucky for closing deals for a few orders. Since the shipyard company had been dying and losing money for years, a sudden change in the stock market rise was impossible. Because of the recession in the shipping industry, other major shipbuilders were struggling as well. The investment company would have no choice but to sell its shares to renew its portfolios.

“Brother, I’m embarrassed to hear that the media are paying attention to me for this. Everyone thinks I’m behind it.”

“You should be keeping your poker face. If the press wants to interview you, just be confident and tell the whole world that it was your decision.”

“I didn’t do it, how can I do that?”

Szechenyi was too nice to take the credit for what he did not do.

“This is the only way to raise your stock price right now. It’s for the sake of Princess Isabella, your future wife. When you get married, the public’s opinion needs to be formed in favor of you. The Danish public won’t like it when the princess’ husband-to-be is not well-known.”

“That’s true. She was really proud of our investment company’s achievement this time. Well, it’s your achievement though.”

“That’s it. This is the time. You should let Zeynep make her debut in high society. If you two make prominent achievements as siblings, the world will focus on you two.”

“It won’t be easy as you say. Zeynep hates things like that.”

“You know Vaso, the grandson of Chief Niksic? He’s already dating Park Seo-young. If you tell that to her, she’d be jealous and go put her foot in the high society.”

“What? Vaso is going out with Seo-young?”

***

When Youngho said he was leaving Krasnoyarsk the next day, Nikolay secretly asked him to come to his office downtown. He asked to have a cup of tea with Youngho, but it meant that he had another favor to ask.

When Youngho sat down in his office, he made coffee for Youngho.

Then he sat close to the table to cut to the chase.

“You haven’t recovered your health yet, aren’t you overworking yourself?”

“I didn’t have any physical problems. It was just going through a lot of stress.”

He really seemed to have gotten a lot better after his deal with Youngho.

“Thank you for taking the time to visit me when you’re busy getting ready to set off.”

“Not at all. You can call me at any time.”

“I should go to Denmark next month, but I can’t afford to travel that far. So, can I send Andrei instead?”

“Oh, that doesn’t matter. Business owners usually send agents to sign contracts. Is there a reason why you suddenly changed your plan?”

“This place is full of government agents from Moscow. It bothers me to go abroad. There’s a couple of people out there trying to find fault with me.”

Most businessmen who took over state-owned companies at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union were now being bashed by political figures, officials, and businessmen in Russia for using illegal methods at the time.

“Why don’t you turn them over to another entrepreneur.”

“I’d love to, but who would dare to come forward to buy them? No corporation that is under the government’s eye can do it. So I’d like to ask you a favor. This time, can you ask your friend in Europe to buy gold bars from me?”

“Is there no obstacle for foreigners to take over a combine plant or a chemical fiber company?”

“There is nothing wrong with that by the current law, but if the government doesn’t approve of the deal, there’s no way we’ll make it through. It would be beneficial if you know someone in power.”

In other words, it was possible only when a certain amount of payment was paid to someone in power. It was just a matter of time and money.

“I’m sure it’s not impossible for him. This one is going to take some time though.”

“I’d like to have it sorted out by the end of this year. I don’t want to do business with the officials of Moscow anymore.”

Nikolay had a combine factory, chemical fiber company, nonferrous metal-making smelting plant, pulp factory, wood factory, and piano manufacturing factory. Among them, it was chemical fiber company, combine manufacturing plant, smelters and other chemical plants that the authorities of Moscow were after.

In Russia, which did not have a high bar for environmental standards, even pollution-causing companies could maintain their facilities without having to reduce their emissions.

Eriksson was also the right person for this. Recently, global companies’ favorite place for business was said to be Russia, so there could be an interested client who might have been suffering from global environmental organizations.

***

“You must be still in Russia since you’re using a satellite phone.”

“I should be leaving soon now that I hear the heat had gone down a little bit. My children are dying to see their dad.”

“They must be interested in the stuff you’re bringing them when they say they miss their dad.”

“Well, I should bring some Siberian natives’ toys. There are a lot of things that are worth paying attention to in Siberia.”

“Please introduce me something useful too.”

“Have you heard of the industrial city of Krasnoyarsk? Some factories here are on sale. I wondered if you’d like to hear about them.”

“I don’t know about the city that well, but isn’t it on the route where the Trans-Siberian Railway passes through?”

“You are right. The owner is tired of running the factories. There are some annoying issues as well.”

“If you don’t pay the officials well in Russia, you can get caught up in the hassle. I’m sure even foreigners know that well, but it’ll be a shame if you’re a Russian businessman who doesn’t respect that.”

Youngho loved to talk to Eriksson. It was like he was reading Youngho’s mind. Not many words were needed to make him understand.

“I think it’s a pretty good company. Would you like to handle it?”

“Of course, this is a perfect situation for us to get involved. There are a lot of Russian corporations on our client list.”

Who would not be on the Information Agency’s client list? It would be faster for Youngho to find areas where they did not involve in. It must be a bigger organization than McKinsey & Company which was a global consulting company. The Information Agency was an organization that easily dealt with the US CIA as well.

“My client is in a position to continue to see me here since he’s not leaving the area. He’d sell it even at a low price, but I’d appreciate it if you save my face in the deal.”

“We’ll have to do some research to calculate a reasonable price. May I have your company name and factory addresses? I’ll call you after I’ve studied it in detail.”

“He’s got quite a lot of big factories. Do you think you can take them all?”

“Of course. These kinds of companies are always in high demand.”

“Thank you for your favor.”

“It’s only my job. I wish we could have this conversation every day.

“Hahaha…”

After talking to Eriksson, Youngho sat face to face with Nikolay again.

“My friend asks for some time. He’d have to investigate your factories.”

“Oh, really? I’ll give you all the production scale and the sales data.”

“I don’t think he’ll need that. They do their own research.”

“All the known sales figures are fake. That’s why I’m going to provide all the data.”

In other words, all the data presented to the government were false. Moscow officials found out about it and had been taking advantage of the secret. As a seller, he wanted to reveal the correct data to receive the right price, but this could be risky.

“Oh, please don’t expose that data to anyone. This could be your weakness as a seller. We should just wait until they come up with their own calculation.”

“I see. I guess I got too excited. If I sold it to the government, I’ll have to sell it at a dirt cheap price, so I was a little eager.”

At the international airport of Krasnoyarsk, a private Jet piloted by Hudson from the autonomous state stood shining in its bright silver color. When Youngho and Il-kwon said they were leaving, Sergeenko followed them to the airport to say goodbye.

“Mr. Lee, I’m sorry to have made you travel for nothing on this visit.”

“Oh, no. It was still a great achievement to go to Tundra. Let’s go bear hunting together next time when I visit. I was very jealous of the fact that Mr. Yaniv bragged about catching a bear in Kamchatka.”

“You should catch a Siberian tiger here instead of a bear, and you need to have some tiger skin to be recognized as a businessman in Siberia.”

“What? I don’t want to get arrested by killing a protective animal.”

“We recognize self-defense in Siberia. Many have been attacked by tigers, so that’s no problem.”

“I see. There would be another victim if you just let go of it when it’s attacked people before. You know, the Chinese company is digging up the forest these days, and I’m afraid that the natives will suffer from the damage.”

“Well then, we’ll have to do some research and do the right thing.”

“You know that if you make too much noise, I’ll be damaged too, right?”

“Ha, ha… Isn’t that what our group is specialized in? We’ll have to teach them how it’s done in Siberia. It is self-defense.”

Now that Youngho had slipped a piece of his mind, Sergeenko would take care of it for Youngho. For the time being, the back alleys of Krasnoyarsk would be busy.