Chapter 170: GSC (2)

A-Bio was founded on twenty billion won. However, it had grown tremendously in just one year. It was common for small or medium-sized pharmaceutical companies to become a little bit smaller than big pharma companies with just one powerful drug. But A-Bio had already commercialized well over a dozen drugs like that. They had stem cells and Cas9, base technologies that could change the trend of future medicine.

As a subsidiary, A-Bio had the A-Bio Cancer Laboratory and the Next-Generation Hospital. A-Gen Life was a subsidiary of A-Gen, but it was only run by Yoon Dae-Sung; A-Bio and Young-Joon actually had the majority of the shares.

There had never been a company that had undergone such a transformation in such a short period of time. As such, the evaluation of A-Bio’s worth varied from expert to expert. The situation was especially chaotic before the merger with A-Gen. Experts had one of three opinions:

1. A-Bio had higher market capitalization than A-Gen.

2. A-Bio wasn’t as big as A-Gen yet.

3. A-Bio was similar to A-Gen.

A-Gen was a huge pharmaceutical company that was valued at two hundred trillion won and competed with Schumatix, Roche, and Conson & Colson. A-Bio, which was only valued at twenty billion won, was competing for the acquirer position as they were merging with A-Gen.

“A-Bio is worth more based on the current market capitalization.”

That was what some experts were saying.

“That’s because they grew so fast that people invested in their growth. It’s a bubble that will burst soon.”

That was what others were saying.

“Growth is also one of the metrics for investment. This is not a bubble.”

“There’s no guarantee their future drugs will also be successful, right?”

“When you merge entities, their value is the arithmetic mean of their monthly average stock price, the weekly average stock price, and the previous day’s closing price. If calculated this way, A-Gen is slightly higher.”

“What’s the point of that? Should we leave A-Bio for another year? No, let’s leave them for a month. They made a hair loss cure yesterday. Do you want to see how much more A-Bio will be worth compared to A-Gen next month?”

“And if you include the value of the A-Bio Cancer Institute, they can buy ten A-Gens.”

“The cancer lab is an American entity.”

“It’s an affiliate company of A-Bio that was incorporated under U.S. law. If you look at the shareholder structure, it is owned by A-Bio.”

“Then what about the value of A-Gen Life? They are growing so fast that they are crushing all the domestic insurance companies.”

“A-Gen Life is still an affiliate company of A-Gen.”

“I think everyone is mistaken, but A-Bio is not the only one who grew rapidly. A-Gen also synergized with A-Bio and grew quickly.”

“Would A-Bio have been able to grow that quickly if they didn’t have A-Gen’s centralized research support system? They’re like Siamese twins that use one body together.”

“A-Bio did create incredible drugs, but A-Gen still has a much higher revenue than A-Bio, since most of the facilities that produce their drugs are owned by A-Gen.”

“A-Bio also produces their own drugs as well.”

“Still, it’s only a small amount compared to A-Gen. Most of the plant-based pharmaceutical production facilities are A-Gen’s GMP plants. They sell the inventory from those facilities and split the revenue between A-Gen and A-Bio. A-Gen has also made a lot of money from that.”

“It’s possible to change the manufacturing plant, although it will take time. And A-Bio could build a new one if they wanted.”

“Isn’t that what the merger is for?”

“Speaking of which, A-Gen has grown to the point where its value can’t be determined because of the production of plant-based medicine and the lotus leaf effect. That is how important a platform technologies are, since plant-based production can be applied to all pharmaceuticals.”

“Platform technologies? Do you know that A-Bio has Cas9 and stem cells?”

“A-Gen also owns stem cells. The terms of equity are a bit unclear.”

“Check again. When the Life Creation Team went to A-Bio, they took most of the patent rights to the stem cell technology with them.”

The discussion went something like this. Numerous brokerage firms, accounting firms, and economists debated this interesting merger. The situation of both companies were so unusual that it was impossible to judge their value.

* * *

“Let’s merge and use A-Bio’s name,” Yoon Dae-Sung said.

Young-Joon, who was sitting on the guest sofa and drinking tea, frowned slightly. He wasn’t here to decide on some outcome; he came here because he wanted to talk about how to move forward.

‘He’s going to make it this easy?’

Young-Joon set his tea down on the table.

“I’m sure you’re very attached to A-Gen,” Young-Joon said.

“It’s not like A-Gen is disappearing. All the employees will stay the same, and so will the six labs, right?”

“I promise you that.” “It’s just that the name of the company will become A-Bio, and A-Bio’s management will be in the engine room running the company. A-Gen will stay the same.”

“...”

“Doctor Ryu,” Yoon Dae-Sung said.

“Yes.”

“A year ago, you came to me with A-Bio, which was only worth twenty billion won, and asked to do a one-for-one exchange of shares with A-Gen, which was worth twenty trillion won.”

“I did.”

“And that really happened. We said we would exchange ten percent, but I think it’s better to give you management rights and merge.”

Yoon Dae-Sung let out a deep sigh. This middle-aged executive had worked at A-Gen his entire life. Young-Joon thought that he would be tired after all that time, but he looked much more exhausted than that.

“I have to step down now. I should spend the rest of my days killing time in the countryside,” Yoon Dae-Sung said.

“... Thank you. I hope you’ll give the bondholders and shareholders enough share certificates after the shareholders meeting. Please take care of it well so the shareholders have enough.”

“Haha, don’t worry. Who wouldn’t want to be acquired by A-Bio?” Yoon Dae-Sung said. “And Doctor Ryu, there’s something else I have to finish.”

“To finish?”

“Something you already know about. A-Gen has developed an anthrax bioweapon in the past.”

“...”

“We sold it to the U.S. military. We did that after my father made A-Gen and was on the verge of going bankrupt because we had no business,” Yoon Dae-Sung said. “There were a few of us including me, Director Kim Hyun-Taek, and Division Manager Ji Kwang-Man. That became the nutrients that made A-Gen what it is today.”

“Developing biological weapons is a violation of international law,” Young-Joon said.

Yoon Dae-Sung smiled.

“That’s right. You really are so strict.”

“...”

“I’m going to turn myself in and finish it.”

“You made a tough decision.”

“It took a while for Nicholas to convince me.”

“...”

“But I can’t turn myself into the police right now. Please understand this.”

“You’re going to turn yourself in after the merger is successful?”

“That’s right. There’s a good chance that the merger won’t happen if I leave because the CEO will be gone and it will be bad news. The stocks will suffer a big fall, and the merger will be postponed.”

“Alright.”

“But I’m exhausted. I want to just hand it over to you and be done with it, Doctor Ryu. After the merger, I want you to be the new CEO of A-Bio. I’ll help you take over A-Gen’s management,” Yoon Dae-Sung said. “I am planning my visit to the police after that. It will be about four months later.”

“...”

“And no one working at A-Gen right now had anything to do with the anthrax bioweapon. I hope you don’t dislike the employees here.”

“Of course, not.”

“I believe Nicholas will also leave when I retire. It will be very difficult for you to manage the company and be the CTO, so if you want to focus on one position, it’ll be good to hire an executive.”

“Yes... Thank you.”

“And Doctor Ryu...”

Yoon Dae-Sung hesitated.

“Um... I have a son.”

“A son?” Young-Joon replied.

“And he is working at this company. His name is Yoon Bo-Hyun. He’s working in management as a manager.”

“...”

Young-Joon was surprised when he heard Yoon Bo-Hyun’s name, but he didn’t show it.

“He was supposed to take over the company. I let him work his way up to manager. Now, he’s in his mid-thirties and about to be promoted to senior manager. He did it all on his own. He’s quite capable.”

Yoon Dae-Sung smiled bitterly. He thought of the things Yoon Bo-Hyun had said to him; he had said he would destroy Yoon Bo-Hyun himself and take the company.

“Please take good care of my son,” Yoon Dae-Sung said.

Yoon Dae-Sung contemplated whether to warn Young-Joon about Yoon Bo-Hyun several times a day, but in the end, Yoon Dae-Sung swallowed his words.

“You don’t have to do anything special for him. Just treat him like a normal employee. You just have to let him be.”

“... Alright, thank you.”

* * *

Young-Joon left most of the merging process to Park Joo-Hyuk and the legal team. There was no need to spend a lot of energy and time on the merger as they already had Yoon Dae-Sung’s enthusiastic and full cooperation. Young-Joon was confident that Park Joo-Hyuk, who was much more familiar with the law, would work with investment companies and take care of it.

Instead, Young-Joon was meeting with three guests at A-Bio: Legion, a climate change expert with a background in ecology; Messelson, a systems biologist; and Tedros, the secretary-general of the WHO. Legion and Messelson were GSC members.

“What brings you here? Aren’t you all busy?”

After a brief greeting, Young-Joon made some coffee for them. Messelson, however, didn’t drink coffee.

“There’s something we would like to discuss with you before the GSC conference,” said Messelson.

“Yes, what is it?” Young-Joon replied.

“We are going to make mosquitoes go extinct.”

“Mosquitoes?”

“Yes. Doctor Legion and I have worked on this problem for a long time. We got funding from the Gates Foundation. The species we are targeting are the Asian tiger mosquitoes.”

“Are they vectors of Zika and dengue fever?”

“Yes. The Asian tiger mosquito is of particular concern because it is highly distributed in developed countries such as South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, France, Australia, and Hawaii. If left unchecked, it could cause a dengue or Zika epidemic whenever it comes into the country.”

Young-Joon nodded.

“I mentioned something similar to Secretary-General Tedros before about eradicating mosquitoes.”

Now, Young-Joon had an idea of why these two people came with Tedros.

“You talked about wiping out all thirteen species of blood-sucking mosquitoes,” Tedros said.

“To be honest, when I first heard that from the Secretary-General, I thought you were talking nonsense because you didn’t know much about the field, Doctor Ryu” Legion interrupted.

“Really?” Young-Joon said.

“But I changed my mind after seeing you contain Ebola and anthrax in Africa.”

“We can afford to do it since the HIV eradication project was successful,” Tedros said.

“Doctor Ryu,” Messelson said. “The fact that there are so many countries where the Asian tiger mosquito lives means that we will basically need cooperation from the entire world to make it work.”

“Probably, since HIV tends to be relatively localized while mosquitoes aren’t,” Young-Joon said.

“That is why we are going to announce this item at the GSC conference.”

“You’re saying that it’ll become easier to ask other governments for cooperation if it is approved at the GSC conference, right?”

“That’s right.”

Messelson nodded. Legion, who was sitting beside him, frowned.

“But even if it is the GSC, there are a lot of idiots when it comes to ecology. They don’t even know what trophic levels are. They are going to object and freak out, which is why we need to be prepared for everything,” Legion said.

“Alright,” Young-Joon replied.

* * *

In the intensive care unit at Yeonyee University Hospital, Yoon Bo-Hyun was sitting next to a bed. A middle-aged man was lying in the bed, but he had been in a coma for months already. It was Kim Hyun-Taek. He was declared brain-dead; a certain part of his brain tissue had died. His heart was beating and was being kept alive by mechanical devices, but he was basically a corpse.

Yoon Bo-Hyun squeezed Kim Hyun-Taek’s hand.

“There’s about two months left now,” he said. “The GSC conference will be held after the year-end seminar. Director, the world’s best scientists will gather in one place. That’ll also be around when A-Bio and A-Gen merge and split management rights. Everyone in that conference room will hear the shocking news.”

Yoon Bo-Hyun stroked Kim Hyun-Taek’s forehead.

“I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to use your name.”