South Korea, Seoul.

On Monday morning, December 29, the last investment agreement for Samsung Electronics among the three major consortiums in South Korea was signed in a conference room at the Samsung Group headquarters in Taiping Road, Jung-gu, Seoul.

One party to the agreement is a Western consortium dominated by the Westeros system, and the other party is a representative of Samsung Electronics' shareholders.

There were no reporters at the scene.

This is a tacit understanding reached by both sides, because if the scene of the signing scene is exposed, it is easy to remind people of the scene when Western powers rampant Asia at the beginning of the century forced various unequal treaties.

The Korean people are still restless recently, and no one wants to cause any trouble.

The main terms of this investment agreement are an investment involving a total amount of US$3.975 billion.

Based on the average stock price of Samsung Electronics in the past 30 days as the benchmark, based on the current exchange rate, it is equivalent to Samsung Electronics' valuation of about US$4.7 billion.

Of the US$3.975 billion investment, US$1.175 billion was used to purchase approximately 25% of Samsung Electronics' shares in the hands of Samsung Electronics' original shareholders, and the other US$2.8 billion was used as an investment to obtain another new share issuance by Samsung Electronics.

After the transaction is completed, five investment entities including Apollo Management, controlled by Westeros system, will hold a total of 53% of Samsung Electronics' shares and achieve absolute control.

However, in the specific agreement, the five investment entities controlled by the Westeros system hold no more than 15% of the shares. Samsung Group holds a total of 21% of Samsung Electronics through its subsidiaries, and is still the largest shareholder on the surface.

The signing ceremony at 10 o'clock in the morning ended, and the Westeros system team led by Chen Qing decisively began to take over Samsung Electronics.

Even if the control of Samsung Electronics is still the Samsung Li family on the surface, this is also a promise made by Simon himself, but in fact, the Westeros system must of course ensure its influence and control over the company.

Because this is not a world where you will be rewarded by doing good to others, especially in the business world. The weak and decentralized investors usually end up not very good.

In the rest of the day, with the signing of the agreement, the Westeros system team issued a series of announcements as the latest absolute controlling party of Samsung Electronics.

First, the board of directors of Samsung Electronics was dissolved and reorganized.

The list of the new board of directors that the Westeros system has been planned and completed was immediately announced, with a total of nine people.

Former Samsung Electronics President Jiang Jinqiu was promoted to chairman of the board of directors during this reorganization and continued to serve as Samsung's president, which is actually equivalent to meeting the CEO of the chairman.

This arrangement is mainly to calm people's hearts.

Another strategy to calm people is to introduce Lee Kun-hee's 29-year-old only son Lee Jae-yong to join the Samsung Electronics Board of Directors.

Two people calm their hearts, one is the heart of an An Samsung Electronics employee, and the other is the heart of an An Samsung Li family.

The other seven people all came from the Westeros system.

One of Simon's key pieces is Zheng Shoudong, a Korean-American lawyer who was born in McKinsey International Law Firm, who is good at corporate mergers and acquisitions and restructuring. Zheng Shoudong is also a director of Bank of New York Mellon.

Zheng Shoudong joins Samsung's board of directors this time and will be responsible for supervising Samsung Electronics' subsequent business restructuring.

Another local pawn, Zong Zhenghao, an executive of the financial department of Hanbao Steel, who went bankrupt at the beginning of the year, joined the Samsung Electronics board of directors this time, will also serve as the financial director of Samsung Electronics, responsible for sorting out the financial situation of the entire Samsung Electronics and subsequent supervision.

The other five people remained, according to their original strategy, were all Korean-born faces.

However, compared with Jung Shoudong and Zong Jung-ho, these are either former government officials or new members of Korean university professors, and more of them are just decorations, get a generous salary, and then be honest as voting machines.

After the board of directors was reorganized, the second measure was to seal Samsung Electronics' accounts and start a deep financial review.

This is mainly to clarify and grasp Samsung Electronics' financial power.

Subsequently, the third measure.

All Samsung Electronics' secondary and above senior executives at home and abroad will conduct written reports to the new board of directors within one week. Within one month, the new board of directors will randomly call for in-person reports through random inspections.

To put it bluntly, this measure is to demand a statement.

The weather has changed.

A change of master.

To Be or Not To Be.

Choose yourself.

It just so happens that Samsung Electronics is conducting all-round layoffs. The new board of directors will not interfere too much in the layoffs against the lowest-level employees. As for the management, of course, they must choose to be clear about the current situation and be loyal to the Samsung Electronics board of directors instead of being the executive of the Samsung Li family.

This measure will ensure that the Westeros system has the personnel rights of Samsung Electronics.

By mastering both finance and personnel, you will basically complete control over a company.

Of course, things are not that simple in actual operation. But the same thing is said, over time, the water flows for a long time.

Simon is very patient with this.

Lee Kun-hee, who has confirmed that he can take over Kia Motors, expressed silence for the Westeros system to declare control over the Westeros system.

If any company has two masters at the same time, the ending is often internal fighting and internal friction.

Simon is very clear about this, and Lee Kun-hee, who was born in the chaebol and has been in the business world for many years, also knows this. Giving up Samsung Electronics and developing Samsung Automobile is Lee Kun-hee's choice and it is also a tacit understanding between the two parties.

In addition to the measures related to the agreement, in the afternoon of the same day, Westeros electronic giants such as Tinkobaier and Nokia began to urgently negotiate with the Samsung Electronics team on component procurement matters in the first quarter of next year.

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Not only that, most of the 2.8 billion US dollars injected into Samsung Electronics this time will be invested in Samsung Electronics' semiconductor business for technology research and development and investment in the construction of semiconductor factories.

The semiconductor industry has not yet emerged from the trough of 1996. It seems unwise to do so now. However, the key to Samsung's semiconductor business being so strong later is this counter-cyclical operation method. Through investment regardless of cost and fierce price wars during the industry trough, competitors in the industry are constantly driven out.

The last one is dominant.

Once you have mastered the pricing power, you can make up for the loss in the early stage and achieve huge profits through price increases.

As for another LCD screen business that Simon is also interested in, it will be temporarily shelved and wait until LG completely surrenders, and then it will be separated from Samsung and integrated into LG.

This is also a strategy that was finalized very early.

Even if Samsung is absolutely controlled, Simon will not allow this electronics company, which is ultimately rooted in South Korea, to be too large and must be subject to restrictions.

On the second day of the second day of Samsung Group and Westeros System signed an investment agreement against Samsung Electronics. On December 30, under the interference of the South Korean government, Samsung Auto and Kia Motors, which was in the state of taking over by the authorities, signed a memorandum of merger. The agreement was signed at the same time, representatives of consortiums controlled by Westeros System came forward and announced that they would provide financial support for Samsung Auto's merger with Kia Motors.

The news was announced that Hyundai Group, which had reached a tacit understanding in private, was silent, while Daewoo Group responded strongly.

Daewoo Group Chairman Kim Woo-joong even held a press conference that afternoon, publicly accusing the authorities of handing over Kia to Samsung, who has no experience in making cars, which may lead to a complete collapse of Kia and more people losing their jobs.

Samsung responded quickly, confronting tits, criticizing Daewoo Group for preventing Samsung from accepting Kia for purely for its own interests, to hinder industry competition and pursue monopoly.

There was a war of words in the media, and the two sides were also moving frequently under the table.

After all, Samsung and Kia signed a memorandum of intention, and the specific details are still under negotiation, which means that Daewoo still has the opportunity to grab Kia.

Hyundai, Daewoo and Kia previously accounted for about 422 structures, with a total share of more than 80%.

Therefore, it is not difficult to imagine why Daewoo had such a fierce reaction.

For Daewoo, if he can win Kia and merge the two, he will officially be in line with the previous South Korean largest automobile giant, and each has a 40% market. On the contrary, if he loses Kia, or even the worst case, if he is taken by Hyundai, Daewoo will completely lose the qualification to compete with Hyundai.

However, the reality is that Daewoo's Kim Woo-jung is obviously still unable to see the current situation in South Korea.

On the political level, South Korea's general election has passed.

The South Korean election on December 18 experienced the destruction of the Asian financial crisis and the ruling party’s people’s hearts were greatly damaged. Kim Dae-jung won the throne of the new president without any suspense.

Without the restraint of elections, the authorities of Kim Yong-san, who had only two months left in power, would not need to worry too much. To be more blunt, how to deal with Kia is more beneficial to Kim Yong-san's political party, and even to Kim Yong-san's family, will the Blue House choose how to choose.

Compared with Daewoo, Samsung Group currently has the Westeros system and even more American political and economic forces.

There is almost no need to hesitate about how to choose.

Even if the Korean people don’t know much, the people at the upper level of the South Korean pyramid are indeed very clear about how strong the United States has in actual control over South Korea. Although Kim Yongsan’s party fails this time and wants to regain power in the next term, it ultimately cannot be separated from the support of the United States, or even without support, it cannot be targeted.

Besides, Daewoo, what can he give them?

Money?

In addition, at the economic level, whether it is Daewoo's financial situation with many internal problems or some arrangements Chen Qing had already suggested to Kim Yongsan, it has confirmed that the authorities do not have to worry about Daewoo's ideas at all.

For politicians, these chaebols who are becoming more and more arrogant in the country should indeed be destroyed by a few, killing the chicken to scare the monkey.

Therefore, the second day after Kim Woo-jung held a press conference to criticize the authorities' decision on Kia, on December 31, South Korea's "Korea Ilbo" suddenly exposed the huge debt of Daewoo Group totaling up to $70 billion in the form of a special issue, pointing out that Daewoo's operating conditions are actually in danger and may collapse at any time like Kia, Han Bao and other consortiums.

Other media followed up quickly, which immediately caused Daewoo to fall into a public opinion storm.

You should know that even though the media has frequently exposed the poor financial situation of bankruptcy groups such as Kia and Han Bao over the past year, such a huge debt scale of US$70 billion is still unique. Even if it were not for those who are interested in collecting it deliberately and giving very detailed evidence materials, the public might not believe that the debt of Daewoo Group would be so huge.

The biggest feature of the Korean consortium is its complexity.

Even some insiders may not be able to figure out the chaotic debt disputes between a large number of subsidiaries of the consortium.

For the Korean people, the bad situation in the country at this time and the loss of power agreements signed with the IMF are all the consequences of these chaebols' wanton lending.

When the news was revealed, Daewoo, who was already holding on to anger, quickly became a threat to thousands of people.

In response to the media and public opinion around Daewoo, the IMF team in South Korea, which has been relatively silent during this period, also made an unexpected public statement, claiming that considering the serious financial risks of Daewoo Group, the IMF and related rescue capital will carefully consider the transfer of funds to Daewoo.

This is the real killer move.

Under the IMF's statement and public criticism, on the last trading day of 1997, the stock prices of Daewoo Group-related companies plummeted across the board, and even once again dragged down the South Korean KOSPI market, a single-day high of 3.8% drop after the IMF rescue agreement.

This crisis in South Korea, or the crisis in Asia, is largely due to the domino effect formed by panic, which leads to capital's one-sided short selling and escape, just like banks encountering a run.

Now, this panic effect has hit the latest target of Daewoo Group.

The long-term wanton expansion has made the Korean consortium firmly believe in the principle of "big but not falling".

Perhaps it was because they stayed in a smooth and smooth situation for too long, and the chaebol family behind these consortiums gradually ignored one thing. The so-called big but not falling is not that the company itself will not collapse, but that in order to avoid huge negative social impacts, the government often tries its best to help to prevent these large enterprises from collapsing.

It's simpler.
To be continued...