Big Deal – Review

Ahhh the zero-ethics world of business takeovers. Who doesn’t love seeing cutthroat assholes trying to screw over hard-working people. If you have no morals and an endless love of money, even YOU could fit right in with the high-profile venture capitalist hedge fund creeps out to destroy anything in their sights to make a profit.

It is 1997 and a South Korean company Gukbo Group experiences pain of the IMF crisis which was a turbulent time in Asian markets as a widespread turmoil spread throughout multiple countries due to Thailand devaluing its currency. The IMF stepped in and gave companies bail out packages in an attempt to stabilize these ripples; however, they often came with short-term horizons to retire debts.

Opening with Choi In-Beom (Lee Je-hoon), a young but very bright analyst and trader, the film throws plenty of data at you right away. He is at Solquin Global Financing Group to give a presentation to the New York based investors. The instructions he is given? Don’t fuck this up. He has a Bachelors from Seoul National University, an MBA from the University of Chicago, three years of Bear Stearns analysis and three years with Solquin. But, what does he have to say?

He has 30 corporations that will hit the Mergers and Acquisitions market after a series of bankruptcies. These are ripe for the picking, as they could have some solid performing assets underneath the bankruptcy debts. All competitors and even smaller banks will be rushing in to take charge. His top priority: Gukbo and their founding Gukbo Soju company. They make the best soju in Korea, and have never lost money. Why are they in trouble however?

Gukbo Group had spent years expanding and opening new subsidiaries, using a lot of debt to complete the processes They had to borrower to do this in spite of their original main Soju company which does very well in with large sales in South Korea’s drinking market, which is the highest alcohol consuming country in the world.

Reckless expansion and management decisions have put them in a spot of pressure to repay its loans, and a few debt instrument defaults. The company President Son Hyun-Joo (Seok Jin-Woo) will not give in to the debtors! They look for consulting firms, and ultimately file for ‘composition’ which is a new court-backed system to temporarily guarantee company debts. This is a program designed by the IMF during the ongoing crisis and grants a 5-year reprieve, with all debts due at the end of this period.

The Finance Director Pyo Jong-Rok (Yu-Hae-jin) agrees to this plan, and the company goes back to focusing on its products to boost revenues. While they start doing very well with their soju, they are forced to liquidate assets and subsidiaries in order to keep the courts happy. Meanwhile, the group they once consulted with, Solquin, has been looking to make its move on the entire Gukbo organization. Hostile takeovers are afoot.

This film covers a lot of interesting financial ground, but the truth is the cutthroat business investors are hard to sympathize with at all. Their actions lead to consequences for the Gukbo employees, as they use any means (mostly unethical and/or illegal) to secure their desired investments. It gives a lot to think about, while presenting the information in a way that most anyone can follow it, even if they haven’t spent time diving into finance.