The stock brokerage company’s branch manager said to Gun-Ho, “You have been trading stocks, sir. You should be familiar with stock splitting. Once a stock split occurs, its price fluctuates again. That’s why many large and stable companies start with 5,000 won in order to make it easier for them to do a stock split later.”
“We have 2 million shares, and if we add the initial public offering shares of 600,000, we will have 2.6 million shares. If we split the share into two for the price of 5,000 won, the total number of stocks will be 5.2 million.”
“That’s correct, sir. But the publicly available shares to be traded in the stock market will only be 1.56 million. It’s going to be a very desirable number of shares to play with.”
“With the total number of 2.6 million won, I own 900,000, Lymondell Dyeon owns another 900,000, and our employees own 200,000. And the public offering shares are 600,000. After splitting the share into two, I will have 1.8, Lymondell Dyeon will equally own 1.8, our employees will have 400,000, and the public offering shares will be 1.2.”
“Right, sir, assuming you are not selling your old shares in addition to the initial public offering shares that will newly be issued.”
“Does a new public company often sell their old shares as well?”
“Of course, sir. A lot of companies that are newly registered with KOSDAQ sell their old shares too. What you—Mr. President Goo—and Lymondell Dyeon currently own are old shares. After going public, if you sell even only 10% of them, the company will procure a substantial amount of funds.”
“Hmm.”
“However, since Dyeon Korea is a joint venture, you and your partner will probably be very careful in selling your shares because of the management right. You and Lymondell Dyeon own equal shares right now. If you sell 10% of your shares, your ownership interest will be less than what Lymondell Dyeon owns.”
“Mr. Branch Manager, how do you predict the price of our initial public offering shares?”
“We will know that after the presentation on the company business is given to institutional investors and the subsequent demand estimate comes out.”
“Well, still, from your extensive experience in this area, what price would be adequate?”
“Well, it’s 5,000 won per share now. I would say it will be around 25,000 won per share.”
“That means… I currently own 1.8 million, and it will be worth 45 billion won…”
“I can’t say it for sure. We have to wait until the demand estimate comes out.”
“We are going to offer 600,000 shares to the public as initial public offering… Well, since we are splitting them into half, it’s going to be 1.2 million shares. Will these shares be offered to little investors?”
“No, sir. 50% of them will be taken by institutional investors while the other 50% will be offered to little investors. Since Dyeon Korea’s shares are already dispersed among the employees—little investors—we can offer less number of shares to little investors though. Well, I’m going to submit this report on the marketable securities that Mr. Internal Auditor brought to our office. In the meantime, you probably want to let your employees, who own your company shares, to start the marketable securities transfer process.”
“Marketable securities transfer?”
“Well, since Mr. Internal Auditor is handling the employees’ shares now, I will let him explain to you about it.”
“Sir, it’s Mr. Internal Auditor.”
“Mr. Branch Manager mentioned the word—marketable securities transfer. What does that mean?”
“Oh, that’s… what our employees need to do to enable themselves to sell their shares in the stock market once our company goes public. The employees, who own the company shares, must open a stock trading account individually. And then, they will request us to transfer the shares to their stock account. We then talk with the stock brokerage company to handle the transfer process, and we transfer each employee’s shares to each of their stock trading accounts—the exact number of the shares that they own. Once the company goes public, the employees can freely trade their shares in the stock market then.”
“Hmm, so, each employee must open a stock trading account which sounds already complicated.”
“It’s a simple task actually. They can open a stock trading account with a bank these days.”
“Hmm, is that right?”
“I will come back to the office once I finish things here with the branch manager.”
“Okay.”
Gun-Ho was lost in thought sitting on the sofa. Gun-Ho then asked Secretary Yeon-Soo Oh to bring him one more cup of coffee. While having his coffee, he closed his eyes.
‘I’m sure that the employees will sell their shares once the company goes public since the price of the share is high enough for them to make a lot of money. They are not big players in this field nor are they professional stock traders. They are the people who make their living by their monthly wages. They will definitely sell their shares when they can once they know that they will make profits, just like I did in the old days.
Once our employees start selling their shares, and our shares become available in the stock market, it will attract the stock manipulators. Before the stock manipulators reach those shares, maybe I should buy them all. The problem is since I’m considered as a person with insider information, I’m not supposed to trade Dyeon Korea’s shares in the stock market. My trading of Dyeon Korea’s shares will be deemed as illegal insider trading, and I will be arrested.
Maybe I should ask someone, who is not related to Dyeon Korea at all, to purchase the shares for me. Well, I will have to lend my money to that person to buy the shares then. What if something goes wrong? And, if someone finds out that I asked someone to buy the shares, I will be in trouble. Should I discuss this with the stock brokerage company’s branch manager?’
While trying to figure out what to do about it for quite a while, Gun-Ho felt a headache, and he wanted to take a break from all of his businesses. He took the subway by himself and headed to Youngpoong Bookstore that was located at the Gangnam Express Bus Terminal. He picked up a few books related to raising a child. He also bought an educational book for English conversation. Also, he picked a few magazines for Young-Eun before leaving the bookstore.
When Gun-Ho came home that day after work, Young-Eun was in the bed fully covering her body.
“Young-Eun? Are you not feeling well?”
“No, I think I caught a cold or something. I think you should have dinner by yourself tonight.”
“You are a medical doctor. You are not supposed to be sick.”
“I’m sorry, but can you sleep with Sang-Min tonight? I don’t want Sang-Min to catch a cold because of me.”
“Is that because of your part-time job? You are probably too tired of raising the kid and working part-time.”
“Maybe. I had to work late today. Maybe that’s why…”
“I thought you work only in the morning.”
“We had so many patients in the hospital today. I just couldn’t get out when my time was up. I stayed there until 4 pm today.”
“I guess the helper lady stayed home with Sang-Min until then today, huh?”
“Actually, my father visited here from Silim Town. He took care of Sang-Min while I was not here.”
“Really? That’s very nice of him.”
Gun-Ho spent the night with Sang-Min that day. He had his dinner with his boy and watched TV with him too.
He woke up several times in the middle of the night because of Sang-Min who was sleeping with him. He had to feed him and change his diapers several times too.
“Oh, my. Taking care of a baby is a handful of work.”
When Gun-Ho realized how hard it was to take care of a baby while feeding his son, he heard Young-Eun’s voice coming from the master bedroom.
“After you feed him, don’t forget to tap his back.”
Okay. So, Gun-Ho had to feed him, tap his back for a while, and change his diapers several times in the middle of the night. He managed to take some sleep somehow that night, but he felt so tired when he woke up the next morning.
“This has been Young-Eun’s night routine ever since Sang-Min came out to the world…”
Gun-Ho felt sorry for Young-Eun, and he also felt grateful that Young-Eun was there with him. When Gun-Ho went to the kitchen in the morning, Young-Eun was preparing breakfast. The boy was already fed.
“How are you feeling this morning? Why don’t you take a day off?”
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t sound fine.”
“I’m okay.”
Young-Eun didn’t look fine at all. She looked terribly exhausted. Gun-Ho thought that maybe it was time for him to open a hospital for her. He wanted to build a sizable hospital with several medical doctors who would work for Young-Eun.
