Chapter 008: The Princess of the Chaebol
Samsung Group is the largest company in South Korea and also a large multinational enterprise group. Samsung Group includes many international subsidiaries, including Samsung Electronics, Samsung C&T, Samsung Airlines, Samsung Life Insurance, etc. Its business covers many fields such as electronics, finance , machinery, and chemicals.
Samsung Group is a family business, hereditary to the Lee family. The founder Lee Byung-chul was the first chairman, and after his death, his second son took over. All Samsung industries under it are family industries and are managed by other family members. The leadership of the group has been passed down to the third generation of the Lee family. Lee Kun-hee is the chairman of the group, and his son Lee Jae-yong is the vice chairman of Samsung Electronics.
To put it bluntly, Samsung is equivalent to the local emperor of South Korea and an important economic pillar of South Korea. In South Korea, Samsung is an aristocratic enterprise. Most people would be proud to enter such a group enterprise. Entering Samsung means that you are different from ordinary people, as if entering the aristocratic class. Even an ordinary clerk will have this distorted sense of superiority.
This shows what Samsung's status is in the eyes of Koreans. Even though Koreans keep cursing these Korean monopoly companies, they are still fighting hard to enter these large companies.
The Lee family of Samsung can naturally be said to be the number one chaebol in South Korea, but many people have a misunderstanding that Samsung belongs to the Lee family.
Although this is true in theory, the reality is that through a tightly organized cross-shareholding network, the Lee family controls seventy-four companies in the Samsung Group with a shareholding ratio of less than 2%.
"Samsung became a world leader entirely because Chairman Lee Kun-hee firmly controlled management power and isolated it from outside influence," said Kim Hyuk-woo, a professor at Korea's Kyung Hee University of Management. "Once the cross-shareholding structure is broken, the Lee family's control over the Samsung Group will be weakened and they will be more vulnerable to outside influence."
This is the reality. The Lee family now firmly controls Samsung. Although the overall shareholding ratio is not very impressive, the Lee family's contribution to Samsung's development to its current situation is indelible, and Lee Kun-hee's ability is unquestionable. Regardless of whether there is external pressure, the Lee family's holding power is more in line with the core interests of the majority of shareholders.
Although Samsung Electronics is the largest company in the Samsung Group, many of the Lee family's rights come from Cheil, formerly Samsung Everland. This private company is essentially the holding company of the Lee family, directly and indirectly holding Samsung's electronics, financial and trading companies.
Cheil owns 19.3% of Samsung Life Insurance, which in turn owns 7.6% of Samsung Electronics. The phone maker owns 37.5% of Samsung Card Co., which in turn completes the circle with 5% of Cheil stock.
The Lee family currently controls Cheil completely. Lee Jae-yong holds 18% of the company's shares, his elder sisters Lee Boo-jin and Lee Seo-hyun each hold 8.4%, his youngest sister Lee Yoon-shin holds 9%, and their father also holds 3.7%. The remaining shares are mainly held by other chaebols, but they are all closely related to the Lee family.
Samsung will basically not face any pressure in South Korea now, unless the future president is a non-chaebol figure and a strong leader who dares to weaken the power of the chaebol.
However, although the companies are large, they are not without hidden dangers. To put it bluntly, when the leaders of these chaebols die one day, the greatest turmoil will immediately come. In addition to external factors, there are also Korean laws, such as the maximum inheritance tax rate is 50%.
If Samsung's Lee Kun-hee dies one day, the inheritance tax alone will be billions of dollars, which is definitely not a small number. The Lee family will definitely be in big trouble at that time.
Samsung Electronics already has dozens of billionaires with assets exceeding 2 billion US dollars as shareholders. These people are the real celebrities, and the riverside villa area in Gangnam is home to more such people.
Lee Kun-hee's family has one son and three daughters, among which Lee Yoon-hyung is the youngest daughter in his family. Lee Yoon-hyung currently owns $191 million worth of shares in Samsung Group and is already regarded as one of the richest women in South Korea.
Compared to other family members, Li Yinxin is actually a very cheerful and lively woman. She likes French literature, racing, and having fun with friends. Of course, that was a year and a half ago.
That kind of life changed drastically after the kidnapping incident a year and a half ago.
Among those who kidnapped her was Zheng Xiuheng. Among the four people who kidnapped her, Zheng Xiuheng was forced to do so, while the other three were probably habitual offenders.
The reason why Li Yinxin was kidnapped was actually very funny, so funny that Zheng Xiuheng would complain after knowing the reason. Li Yinxin was seen by a young man in the Imperial Club, and then the young man wanted to have sex with her, but he didn't know who the woman was, so he asked someone for help. Zheng Qilong was not there at the time, and it was his second-in-command. It can be said that a simple-minded second-in-command did it.
These guys certainly didn't know who was who in the upper class, so they sent four people to kidnap Li Yinxin. Among them, Zheng Xiuheng, Zheng Qilong's bodyguard, was also named, and they said that if he didn't go, they would cause trouble for his sister. So Zheng Xiuheng went. In fact, many people were unhappy with him at that time.
As a result, less than three hours after Li Yinxin was kidnapped, Samsung became angry and the police immediately surrounded the Imperial Club with lightning speed. However, by then, the person had already been taken to an apartment building, which was the property of the young master.
When the young master later learned of Li Yinxin's true identity, he was of course scared to death. But the reason was not because he kidnapped Li Yinxin, but because it was very funny. This guy was actually the illegitimate son of someone in the Li family, and even a distant relative. But this guy didn't even know the little princess of the Li family. This was a very ridiculous thing.
In the end, he said nothing and was detained by the police in the Imperial Club for most of the day. Finally, fearing that the matter would be exposed, he even thought of destroying the body and directly told the facts to the gangsters, indicating that if they did not get rid of Li Yinxin and run away, they would be finished, even if they sent the person back.
As a result, all four of them were scared, including Zheng Xiuheng. It was really despairing for a few minions . Zheng Xiuheng even thought of running away with his sisters, but after thinking about it, this was simply an approach with no future.
The three men collapsed under such circumstances, their infinite fear turned into anger, and they finally wanted to rape Li Yinxin.
Under such circumstances, Zheng Xiuheng naturally chose to stop them. The three knew that Zheng Xiuheng was good at fighting, so they gave up temporarily. The disappearance of Li Yinxin was still under investigation until 30 hours later, when the three attacked again out of fear, but this time they didn't want to rape Li Yinxin, but wanted to kill her.
Zheng Xiuheng didn't know if these three people had any relatives, but he did, and he would never choose this path. If Li Yinxin really died, the Li family would never let it go. At that time, hurting their own family would be what he would regret the most.
Under such circumstances, Zheng Xiuheng protected Li Yinxin three times. There is no doubt that Li Yinxin felt that her life was completely in the hands of this boy, so she was infinitely close to him and relied on him. Zheng Xiuheng did not let her down and protected him three times in total. When the three bastards attacked for the third time, Zheng Xiuheng took ruthless action and knocked the three of them down completely.
Finally, he gritted his teeth and decided to call the police. Before the police arrived, Zheng Xiuheng asked Li Yinxin not to vent his anger on his family, saying that it was because his family was threatened that he had no choice but to follow the three people. Just because he saved her, please let his family go.
In fact, Zheng Xiuheng was somewhat desperate at that time, but what surprised him was that Li Yinxin actually grabbed his hand and said excitedly: "Don't worry, I will protect you, just like you protected me!"
As a result, Li Yinxin did it. Zheng Xiuheng saw with his own eyes that after the police and Li's family came into the room, they first shot to death the three people that Zheng Xiuheng mentioned when he called the police. Later, the reason was resisting arrest, assaulting police officers, and possession of a weapon.
Zheng Xiuheng was also going to be taken back to the police station, but Li Yinxin made it clear that it was Zheng Xiuheng who saved her, so she absolutely would not allow him to be harmed, otherwise she would not let anyone go, and if he died, she would commit suicide.
At that time, everyone thought that Li Yinxin was crazy, even Zheng Xiuheng, but there was no doubt that Li Yinxin's words allowed Zheng Xiuheng to safely escape from this incident. As for the eldest master and Zheng Qilong's second-in-command, they all disappeared.
As for Zheng Qilong, he escaped the disaster, but it is said that he almost died a tragic death. However, his superiors saved him. Zheng Xiuheng felt it was a great pity at the time.
Later, Zheng Xiuheng learned from the Li family that Li Yinxin was suffering from "Stockholm syndrome". As for whether the Li family would thank Zheng Xiuheng, the answer is no.
