In his 2020 bestseller, billionaire dealmaker Michael ByungJu Kim¡¯s leading character is a young banker who finds himself tangled in the dealings of South Korea¡¯s wealthiest families.

Now, fact appears to be following fiction.

Last month, Kim¡¯s eponymous private equity firm MBK Partners stepped into one of the most fraught corporate battles in recent Korean history, a tussle pitting the founding families behind heavyweight Korea Zinc against each other.