Ellie tilted her head at my question.
"Well, it was such an unexpected proposal."
Having finished her meal, Hyun-joo Sister chewed on nicotine gum instead of smoking, explaining, "Originally, they were trying to cast Hollywood actress Katherine Taller as their advertising model, and they were almost at the point of signing the contract. But the president saw Ellie and was completely smitten, so she changed her mind."
Listening to her, I learned that the fees for top domestic actors and Hollywood actors for commercials are similar.
I looked at Taek-gyu and asked, "What do you think?"
Then Taek-gyu blinked at me, looking puzzled. "Why are you asking me that?"
"No, well…" Because you seem to be strangely good at guessing things lately.
I asked Hyun-joo Sister, "If Ellie agrees, will Golden Gate be selected as the IPO underwriter?"
"Probably. The conditions are pretty much the same for us and them."
"If the IPO size is 300 billion won, the commission alone would be quite substantial."
"We decided to receive new share warrants instead of commission."
"Really? What's the subscription price?"
"The same as the offering price."
From the company's perspective, giving shares instead of commission is like saving money. From the IB's perspective, if the stock price rises after listing, they can earn more profit.
Hyun-joo Sister chuckled. "If it falls below the offering price, we'll just have to consider it free service."
Even though she says that, she probably doesn't really intend to provide free service, so it's safe to assume that there's a good chance the stock price will rise after listing.
"It's okay if we do it, and it's okay if we don't. It's not like we're in a difficult situation."
Then Ellie said, "Still, it would be good to do it. It's a big deal in the IPO market after a long time."
I thought about it carefully. If Ellie didn't want to do it, she wouldn't be consulting me, she would have just refused. The fact that she's talking to me about it means she wants to do it, right?
"Ellie likes exercise, right? You also go scuba diving. It seems like it would fit the company image well. As long as it's not something too revealing like a bikini, wouldn't it be okay?"
Hyun-joo Sister said, chewing her gum, "You don't have to worry about that. Bikinis aren't their main product in the first place."
Ellie hesitated and said.
I said to Ellie, "Why don't you try it?"
"Hmm, I don't know if I can do well. But I do want to leave behind pretty pictures taken while I'm still young…"
Hearing her say this, it seems like she secretly wants to do it.
She said that her dream was to become a ballerina when she was young, right? Given that, it's not strange that she would have a desire to stand before the public.
With this kind of beauty, only doing financial work is, in a way, a waste of talent.
"Wouldn't it be a good experience or memory? I'm sure you can do well, Ellie."
At my words, Hyun-joo Sister said casually, "That's right. You used to do advertising modeling part-time when you were in university in England, right?"
"Really?"
This was something I didn't know.
Ellie flinched and waved her hands. "Th-that's just… I just did it briefly during vacation to earn tuition and living expenses."
"What kind of advertisement was it? Do you have any photos?"
At my question, Ellie's expression turned serious and she firmly shook her head. "No. I don't have any."
"..."
What did she film? Is it some kind of dark past?
In the end, Ellie accepted the modeling offer, and Golden Gate Korea branch was selected as the IPO underwriter for Bester, beating out KYB Securities.
***
After Christmas passed, companies entered the full-fledged year-end season.
There wasn't much of a year-end atmosphere. Domestic consumption was still sluggish, and there were only depressing news stories.
The biggest issue recently was the relationship between Korea and Japan.
Currently, the relationship between the two countries was hard to describe as good, even as a polite phrase.
The Korean government had scrapped the Comfort Women agreement made with Japan during the Park Si-hyung administration, and recently, the Korean Supreme Court ruled that Japanese companies were liable for compensation to workers who were forcibly conscripted during the Japanese colonial era.
The Japanese government strongly protested against this. Foreign Minister Okamoto Takeo strongly criticized Korea in public.
"The Comfort Women agreement is a final and irreversible agreement, and the Japanese government cannot accept Korea's unilateral scrapping of it. Also, all compensation has been completed with the Korea-Japan Claims Agreement, and making such a ruling now is an act of overturning treaties made between countries. Japan has compensated Korea sufficiently so far, and according to existing agreements, there is no need to pay even 1 yen more in compensation. Promises are meant to be kept. If unfair sanctions are imposed on Japanese companies based on the Korean court's ruling, we will strongly respond at the government level."
These political conflicts also affected economic cooperation.
Mangling remarks poured out during discussions on resuming the Korea-Japan currency swap. Finance Minister Matsukata Ryutaro said, "Korea treats scrapping treaties between countries like eating rice. There is a very high possibility that they will borrow money when they are in a hurry and then stiff us later. What should we believe to lend money to Korea? There are many countries that need Japan's help, so there is no need to give special favors only to Korea."
Due to this, discussions on resuming the currency swap were suspended.
Taek-gyu asked, "Then what happens?"
"What do you mean what happens? Nothing is wrong."
A currency swap means exchanging currencies with each other according to a pre-agreed exchange rate.
The reason for signing this agreement in the first place was not because Japan was doing Korea a favor, but because the interests of both sides aligned.
The yen is considered a safe-haven asset and a quasi-key currency. From Korea's perspective, being able to borrow yen at a fixed amount when things are difficult is similar to increasing foreign exchange reserves.
From Japan's perspective, they don't particularly need won, but it's positive in that it can induce won exchange rate stability. If the won plummets, Korea's export competitiveness increases. Since Korea and Japan's export items overlap to a significant extent, stabilizing the Korean exchange rate is also beneficial to Japan.
If Korea were in a difficult situation, they would have to beg to resume the currency swap, but there's no need to do so. While domestic consumption is bad, the current account surplus is recording record highs every quarter, and foreign exchange reserves are sufficient. Rather, we should be worried that the exchange rate is too low.
The Japanese political world criticized Korea every day, and the claim to Dokdo's territorial sovereignty continued to emerge every now and then.
The biggest reason for doing this is because it helps improve the approval rating of the ruling cabinet.
Until recently, Prime Minister Okazaki Yusuke's approval rating was falling due to various scandals, mangling remarks from his aides, and sexual harassment allegations, but after taking a hardline stance against Korea, his approval rating rebounded significantly.
In a situation where Korea-Japan relations were deteriorating, one incident broke out.
***
The accident occurred at 2:30 AM. The location was a road in Chicago.
Suddenly, a man in black clothes jumped out in front of a car that was driving, and the car swerved sharply and reduced speed, but an accident occurred.
911 was dispatched after reports from people nearby, but the man died during transport.
The deceased was Yoshizawa Masao. He was a Japanese international student, and it was revealed that he was intoxicated at the time and jumped onto the road before his colleagues could stop him.
Up to this point, it was just one of the traffic accidents that happen all the time.
However, it received significant attention in the news because the vehicle that caused the accident was an AD1, and it was in autonomous driving mode at the time.
At the time of the accident, the vehicle was driving at a constant speed with a correct signal. As it was an unavoidable accident, the insurance company also acknowledged 100% pedestrian responsibility.
The accident seemed to be ending like this. However, the reaction in Japan was different.
Two days after the accident, Prime Minister Okazaki suddenly suspended all schedules and convened an emergency cabinet meeting.
And as soon as the meeting ended, he stepped forward himself and announced the results. "First, as Prime Minister, I deeply regret the passing of the deceased in a foreign land. The Japanese government will arrange a private jet and urgently dispatch the Foreign Minister and a scientific investigation team from the National Police Agency to the United States. We will also thoroughly investigate the accident to uncover the truth."
The Sankei Shimbun even published a special feature article, extensively reporting on the death of the Japanese international student, and NHK also covered it as a major news item.
[Is CarOS' Autonomous Driving Technology Really Okay?]
[Multiple Accidents Have Occurred Before]
[Are There Measures to Prevent Recurrence?]
[Public Opinion Demanding a Complete Ban on Driverless Cars is Rising!]
[CEO Kang Jin-hoo Must State His Position....]
In reality, the accident rate caused by autonomous driving is less than 1/20th of the accidents caused by drivers. And this incident was an accident caused by the pedestrian's responsibility.
However, that point was not mentioned at all.
***
Toyota Motor Corporation Chairman Toyoda Toshiyuki said in a media interview, "Incomplete technology is no different from a murder weapon. People should not be killed or injured by machines. It is time for a complete re-examination of autonomous driving technology."
The Japanese political and media circles framed this as a problem with autonomous driving technology. The reaction in the United States was generally bewildered.
Gerard Clark, the MC of the famous car program Top Motor, personally ran a simulation and concluded that there was no way to avoid it. Even when he was aware that a person would jump out, it was the same.
People who watched the released black box video also agreed.
– Is that a person or a roe deer?
– No, how are you supposed to avoid that?
– Even Michael Schumacher couldn't avoid that.
– It's sad that he died, but isn't this accident not due to an autonomous driving error?
– But why is Prime Minister Okazaki making such a fuss?
– Isn't it wrong to jump onto the road drunk? What exactly are they going to investigate?
Taek-gyu asked, "Why is Japan acting like this?"
"Because the automotive industry's share in the economy is that big."
Just looking at the top spot in the stock exchange market cap, in Korea, it's Seosung Electronics, while in Japan, it's Toyota.
In addition, among the world's top 10 automobile companies, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and Mitsubishi (affiliated with the Renault Alliance), and Suzuki are included.
They have invested heavily in autonomous driving, electric vehicles, hydrogen cars, etc., and have been making sufficient progress. Toyota alone was already operating driverless cars, and its technology was also evaluated as being ahead.
But because of CarOS, the technology of the Japanese automotive industry has now become outdated. CarOS has not yet entered Japan, but sales declines have already appeared in the North American and European markets, and this has negatively affected Japan's current account surplus.
In this situation, when a Japanese international student was hit and killed by a CarOS car, they are excited and acting like this.
I expected that we would clash with them someday, but I didn't expect it to be like this. Even anti-Korean sentiment from recent events has mixed in here.
Memorial altars were set up all over Japan, from Okinawa to Hokkaido, and the whole of Japan was swept up in a mourning atmosphere.
As if they had been waiting for this, the anti-Korean group Zaitokukai (Citizens' Group Against Special Privileges for Koreans in Japan) held a demonstration in Shin-Okubo.
They carried portraits of Yoshizawa Masao and walked around the Koreatown shopping district, calling Koreans murderers.
Zaitokukai Chairman Nishimura Makoto appeared on NHK News and said, "Yoshizawa Masao is no different from being killed by Kang Jin-hoo! Kang Jin-hoo must come here, kneel before his portrait and the bereaved family, and apologize! Koreans, get out of the Japanese archipelago!"
Taek-gyu, who was watching the news, said in disbelief, "Why is that bastard acting like that?"
"..."
It's not a one or two-day thing for far-right groups or right-wingers to spout nonsense. But for a public broadcaster to broadcast that unfiltered is another problem.
Cabinet ministers took turns talking about the errors and problems of CarOS technology, and the level of criticism against me also increased further.
Japan's influence on the international community is not insignificant.
Because Japan was making such a fuss, several countries with their own automotive industries, such as Germany, France, China, Mexico, and India, subtly agreed. No latecomer would dislike seeing the leading company being attacked.
The Japanese government loudly demanded that CarOS state its position and disclose all data, including driving data and algorithms.
When the situation reached this point, it was difficult to remain silent. Already in a busy situation, Daryl was deeply contemplating countermeasures.
What would be the best thing to do?
At that moment, something flashed before my eyes.
When I came to my senses, I saw Taek-gyu staring intently at me again.
"What did oracle say?"
I told him exactly what I had just seen. "It says to acquire 14.97 million shares of Toyota stock at 14.97 million yen."
"How much is that?"
"Just a moment."
I searched for Toyota on my smartphone. The current number of listed Toyota shares is 149,582,550.
If OTK Company acquires 14.97 million shares, it will hold more than 10 percent of the shares. This meant that we could become Toyota's largest shareholder at once.
But something is a bit strange here.
Taek-gyu also seemed to sense something was wrong, blinking his eyes. "How much did you say just now?"
"14.97 million yen."
"Rounded up, that's 15 million yen. Roughly 170 million won. And with that, how much of Toyota's shares are we buying?"
"10 percent."
"Is Toyota's current market cap 1.7 billion won?"
"..."
Is that even possible?
"Didn't you misread 149.7 million yen or 1.497 trillion yen?"
I shook my head. "No."
I definitely saw it clearly.
What in the world is going on?