With Seok-won seated in the center and Landon and Andrew facing him from either side, Daisy, the secretary, set down coffee on the table, its rich aroma of freshly ground beans filling the air, and then left.
As usual, Andrew, his hair neatly combed back, smiled broadly and held out a thin approval folder.
"Settlement of the Enron short-selling profits is complete."
"I see."
Since he had been waiting for it anyway, Seok-won took the folder and opened it.
"It's written in detail in the documents, but we shorted Enron at an average of 72.48 dollars and finished covering the entire position at 1.23 dollars. The final rate of return is 98.3%."
Across from him, Landon let out a short whistle.
"I thought it would be difficult, but you really did finish the short at one dollar per share, just like you said at the beginning."
Andrew said the same, looking impressed.
"It's only because we covered the shorts all at once over three days, and the price jumped a lot, pushing the average above one dollar. If we'd been able to buy more leisurely, we could have closed the position at a much lower price."
"But if the federal court had accepted Enron's bankruptcy filing while we still hadn't fully cleared out the short position, we would have been completely stuck and ended up in a very troublesome situation."
Just as Seok-won said, once protection under Chapter 11 was put in place, not only would all debt repayments be frozen, but stock trading would also be halted immediately.
Andrew knew that perfectly well too, so he did not look particularly regretful.
"That's true."
Then, smiling, he continued his explanation.
"After subtracting all the costs that went into it, we ended up making 47.85 billion dollars in net profit."
"That's not a bad return."
Seok-won set the folder down on the table and said with a satisfied smile on his lips.
For someone who had just made nearly fifty billion dollars, his calm attitude was almost unbelievable, and Landon was the one who made a bigger fuss instead.
"No, why do you look so unfazed? Forty-seven point eight billion dollars is an amount comparable to the annual profit of a major Wall Street investment bank like Goldman Sachs! You're probably the only person in the world who can make that kind of money and just smile calmly like this, boss."
"Haha. I suppose so. But compared to what we made during the dot-com bubble collapse last time, it's actually a pretty modest amount."
"Ah… is that so?"
Landon froze for a moment, then nodded as if he understood.
Listening to the two of them, Seok-won let out a small chuckle and said,
"We made 52.94 billion dollars from the short bet we placed before 9/11. If you add the Enron short-selling profits, that brings it to 100.79 billion dollars."
"That's right."
Landon put on a triumphant expression.
"Because of the completely unexpected terrorist attack, all of Wall Street took enormous losses and is in tears. If they find out that we hit a jackpot like this instead, they're going to be sick with envy."
Andrew soon joined in with a grin.
"Now that the situation has been wrapped up with the bankruptcy filing, not only Wall Street investors who knew we had shorted Enron for tens of billions of dollars, but even the media are all talking about it in amazement. It's become a huge topic."
"Oh, come to think of it, after Time last time, your photo was also on the cover of Newsweek that came out a few days ago, right?"
Landon looked at him with a playful grin, his eyes narrowing.
"It's not easy to land the covers of both major weekly magazines in a row, so congratulations on winning the double crown."
"They're not weeklies, but since the Wall Street Journal ran a full front-page story about you the day before yesterday, that makes it a triple, in practice."
With the two of them playing off each other so enthusiastically, there was nothing much he could say.
Seok-won gave a small shake of his head and laughed it off, then steered the conversation back to where it had been.
"With this, we've achieved all of this year's target returns."
"We didn't just achieve them. We already blew past the targets by a huge margin just from the short bet on the index."
"Then let's give all employees a bonus equal to 200% of their annual salary."
"What?"
Landon's eyes went wide in shock.
"D-Did you just say 200% of their annual salary?"
Normally, when people talked about bonuses, they were calculated based on monthly salary rather than annual salary, so it was no wonder he was shocked.
They all knew that Seok-won was generous, but even Andrew looked at him with a face that said he hadn't seen this coming.
"Everyone worked hard, so isn't it only right that they receive proper compensation?"
"That's true, but we already paid out huge performance bonuses in the first half of the year, and now you're giving out another bonus. Even on Wall Street, cases like this are rare."
"Exactly. I worked at Goldman Sachs for over ten years, and the money I've received under you over the past few years is dozens of times more than all the bonuses I got there, so there's really nothing more to say."
Andrew nodded as he spoke.
In fact, the Eldorado Fund posted eye-popping returns every year and, in line with that, paid out generous bonuses.
Thanks to that, once someone got a job at the Eldorado Fund, it was common even for junior traders to make close to a million dollars within just two or three years.
Because this was something that was very hard to find even on Wall Street, where compensation was extremely high, these days, among those dreaming of becoming Wall Street securities men, the most coveted workplace was not the traditional major investment banks like JPMorgan or Goldman Sachs, but the Eldorado Fund, which was often ranked at the very top.
"Ahem. I'm asking this out of pure curiosity."
Landon, who had suddenly cleared his throat and glanced around, opened his mouth.
"So you're giving the same 200% of annual salary as a bonus to us executives too, right?"
"Of course."
"Hahaha! Thank you."
When Seok-won replied with a light laugh, Landon rubbed his hands together and bowed his head as if pledging lifelong loyalty.
Even Andrew, who usually did not show much emotion, could not hide his pleased expression.
With Landon and Andrew's annual salaries at 21 million and 20 million dollars respectively, getting 200% of that as a bonus naturally made their hearts race.
Considering that the U.S. president's salary was 400,000 dollars, it was easy to see just how enormous that amount was.
Even on Wall Street, where high earners were common, it was an extremely high salary that placed them well within the top ten.
Seok-won leaned back comfortably against the sofa and shifted the conversation to the next topic.
"How did it go with the instruction to heavily buy the Hang Seng Index and H-shares?"
As the conversation returned to business, Landon wiped the smile from his face and spoke in a serious tone.
"As instructed, we've almost finished buying, focusing mainly on H-shares."
H-shares referred to stocks of Chinese companies whose headquarters were on the mainland but were listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange.
At that time, China's financial market was not open and was completely closed off, so if foreigners wanted to invest in Chinese companies, buying H-shares was the only option.
On the other hand, since they were listed on the Hong Kong stock market, foreign institutional investors and individuals could buy and sell them freely without any restrictions, and transactions were conducted in Hong Kong dollars.
"Take 8 billion dollars out of the profits we made this time and buy more shares of PetroChina, Sinopec, COSCO, and Angang Steel."
"If we do as you say, we'll end up securing close to at least a 10% stake in each of the four companies and become major shareholders. Isn't that a bit too much investment?"
Not only Andrew, but Landon as well, showed a bit of concern.
"China's government is being proactive about opening up, but considering that it's still a communist country, I think it would be better to invest more cautiously."
Since stock prices could swing wildly depending on decisions made by the Chinese Communist Party, which exercised absolute power rather than following market logic, it was perfectly understandable to be hesitant about investing large sums of money.
'If I didn't know what the future held, I would probably be reluctant to invest heavily in Chinese companies too.'
In particular, all four companies Seok-won had ordered them to buy had a strong state-owned character, with the Chinese government holding large stakes in them, which made caution all the more natural.
However, since he knew that after China joined the WTO, the stocks of those companies would rise at least four or five times over, in a literally explosive surge, he could not afford to miss this chance to hit it big.
Seok-won looked at the two of them in turn and calmly began to explain his reasons.
"As I've said before, joining the WTO means that Chinese companies, armed with cheap labor, have obtained a pass that lets them sell their goods to markets all over the world with low tariffs."
"...."
"Then naturally, exports will surge, and with the world's largest domestic market and cheap labor attracting foreign investment, money will literally start pouring into China."
Seok-won interlaced his fingers and crossed one leg over the other as he spoke.
"If China shows that kind of explosive growth, wouldn't investors, not just on Wall Street but all over the world, get restless, itching to put their money in?"
"It does sound tempting, but since the financial market isn't open, direct investment isn't possible, is it? That's a big problem… ah!"
Landon was in the middle of replying when a thought suddenly flashed through his mind and he exclaimed.
Then, with an excited expression, he leaned forward in his seat.
"Since we can't invest directly in China, which is going to see tremendous economic growth, you're saying people will invest indirectly in H-shares listed in Hong Kong, right?"
Seok-won flashed a grin.
"Exactly. And on top of that, all four companies we picked will directly benefit from economic growth, so there's a strong chance their stock prices will skyrocket."
Andrew, who immediately caught the meaning of his words, replied with sparkling eyes.
"Come to think of it, if export volumes increase, the performance of COSCO, a shipping company, will improve. And PetroChina and Sinopec, which are oil companies, as well as Angang Steel, which produces steel, the rice of industry, will all be companies that directly benefit from economic growth."
Faced with such impeccably chosen picks, Andrew could not hide his look of admiration.
Landon also looked at him with surprised eyes.
"Huh. As expected, you had everything planned out, boss. Looks like we were worrying for nothing."
"When China joins the WTO, the Hang Seng Index and H-shares will start stirring and rising. Let's make sure all the positions are fully set before that happens."
"Yes."
"We'll do that."
This time, both of them accepted the instructions without any complaints.
Seok-won rested his arm on the sofa's armrest and looked at the two of them leisurely as he spoke.
"And now that the Enron investment is wrapped up, it's time to make the next bet, isn't it?"
"My goodness. You're planning to make another bet while investing in Hong Kong at the same time. You really are tireless."
Even as he complained out loud, both Landon and Andrew had eyes shining with excitement.
"So what kind of investment are you planning this time?"
Seok-won let the moment hang for a bit, then opened his mouth.
"We're going to short WorldCom."
"...!"
At the unexpected instruction, the two of them were momentarily at a loss for words.
Then Andrew pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses and asked cautiously.
"Is there some kind of bad news about WorldCom that we haven't identified yet?"
"Do you really think Enron is the only company that committed accounting fraud?"
At that, the two of them raised their eyebrows with puzzled expressions.
"When you spot one cockroach, it means there are a lot more hiding where you can't see them."
"Th-then are you saying that WorldCom is manipulating its accounts?"
Seeing Landon's flustered reaction, Seok-won nodded without hesitation.
"That's right."
TL/n -
WorldCom was once the second-largest U.S. long-distance telecom company, but it collapsed in 2002 after the largest accounting fraud in American history—over $11 billion in overstated assets—leading to bankruptcy and sweeping corporate governance reforms.