Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

When Gun-Ho got off the phone with Min-Hyeok, he received another call from President Young-Sik Park of YS Tech.

“President Goo? It’s me.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I just deposited the loan interest for the 200 million won that you lent me the other day to your bank account; it’s 1,170,000 won. Because of the money, the company is still staying strong.”

“That’s really good to hear.”

“You saved my company.”

“Don’t mention it, sir. Has Mulpasaneop applied for court receivership?”

“They are in the process of preparing for it. They already received funds from the Small and Medium Business Promotion Center, and they are preparing the application now.”

“Do you happen to know the name of the accountant who has been handling Mulpasaneop’s financial matter? If you have their financial statements, you can find the name of the accountant on it.”

“Hold on one second. Let me check.”

“Okay, sir.”

President Young-Sik Park found the name of the accountant in the Mulpasaneop’s financial statements and gave it to Gun-Ho.

“It’s Accountant Nak-Jong Lee from Anchang Accountant Office.”

“Got it. Thank you.”

“Why do you want his name?”

“I know a hard money lender. He used to make a lot of money as a hard money lender in Myeong Town when he was young. I was thinking that there might be something I can do to help Mulpasaneop.”

“Hmm, really? I see.”

After getting off the phone with President Park from YS Tech, Gun-Ho thought of the accountant—Nak-Jong Lee.”

“Nak-Jong Lee… I guess I will have to see him.”

Gun-Ho collected information on Mulpasaneop such as financial statements from DART and the company’s current state from a paid-website. He wanted to bring all this information to Chairman Lee of Cheongdam Town.

“I believe that Chairman Lee should have some valuable advice on what needs to be done. I feel like I always ask him to meet me only when I need something from him. I think I’d better get him a present or something this time.”

Gun-Ho was at first thinking of getting expensive liquor and then he decided not to; Chairman Lee didn’t often enjoy having a drink anyway.

“Then what should I get him? He has everything he needs. I just want to get him something to show him my appreciation.”

After giving a lot of thought to it, a king-sized persimmon crossed his mind.

“I guess dried persimmons should be good. Considering his age, he would like the tenderness that a semi-dried persimmon offers.”

Gun-Ho purchased a box of king-sized semi-dried persimmons from a department store and went to Chairman Lee’s building in Cheongdam Town.

“The location of this building is excellent. When would I be able to buy a building in this kind of place?”

When Gun-Ho entered Chairman Lee’s office, his secretary jumped up from her seat.

“Hi, is Chairman Lee in the office?”

“Yes, are you President Gun-Ho Goo?”

Chairman Lee’s secretary must have had a very good memory. She remembered Gun-Ho after she had seen him only once last time he visited here.

“Wow. She remembers my name!”

Gun-Ho thought he should have brought something for the secretary as well, like a sweet cake or something.

The secretary went inside Chairman Lee’s office and let him know that Gun-Ho was here.

“President Goo is here?! Let him in.”

Gun-Ho entered Chairman Lee’s office and gave him a 90-degree bow.

“How have you been, sir?”

“What made you come all the way here today?”

“I’m sorry. I should have come to see you more often.”

“You must be very busy these days. I haven’t seen you at the fishing site for a long while. What are you carrying?”

“Oh, I saw this dried king-size persimmon on the way here. It looked so delicious so I had to get them for you.”

“Hand it over to me.”

Chairman Lee opened the box that was wrapped with a golden wrapping cloth.

“They are semi-dried persimmon. They look tasty.”

Chairman Lee tried one persimmon.

“It is tasty. The taste reminds me of my home town. Why don’t you try one?”

“Thank you.”

When Gun-Ho picked up one semi-dried persimmon, Chairman Lee called for the secretary.

“Ms. Park, Ms. Park!”

“Yes, sir.”

The secretary entered the office hastily.

“Take some of these dried persimmons for yourself!”

“Oh, thank you, sir.”

Chairman Lee looked at Gun-Ho’s face closely after drinking a cup of water.

“How’s your business? I can tell by looking at your face that it is going very well.”

“Yes, it’s doing fine.”

“Well, the rental property business is usually stable. I’ve heard you are doing a joint venture with China. How is it?”

“That is doing okay as well.”

“If a company is doing okay, that means it is successful.”

“Really?”

Gun-Ho took some moment before bringing up the Mulpasaneop matter. Gun-Ho took out a big envelope with documents related to Mulpasaneop in it.

“What is that?”

“Actually I came to hear your advice on something.”

“I won’t do that.”

“Sir?”

“You have never paid for my advice.”

“Sir?”

“Haha, I’m just kidding. Since you brought me the dried persimmons, that should be my fee. So what do you want to know?”

“Well, there is a company named Mulpasaneop in Asan City. Please take a look at these documents. According to their balance sheet, their annual sales revenue was 70 billion won the year before last year. Since last year, it shrank to 50 billion won.”

“Hmm.”

“They used to have 400 employees, and now they have only about 250 workers. The company is in the process of preparing for the court receivership.”

“Do you want to buy this company?”

“Yes. I used to work in a factory before. I really want to run a factory myself. My desire and hope to have a factory are like a religion to me.”

“What is this 10 billion won foreign investment here?”

“The president’s son opened a factory in China.”

“Since that is not shown on the consolidated financial statements, that factory must have gone under.”

“I suppose so.”

“Why do you want to buy a company that is going broke?”

“I want to make it stable and run it successfully.”

“I understand your desire since you used to work in a factory. Your desire must be different from the one of a person like me who used to work as a hard money lender.”

“Do you think they will sell the company?”

“I don’t know. However, they should be sick and tired of the company by now since they must have suffered enough with creditors.”

“If someone wants to make an M&A of this company, how much would they ask?”

“I’m not sure since I am not the one who owns that company. However, if the president of the company has been running that company since he was young, the company must have meant so much to him like his own child. In that case, the president will resist selling his company until it eventually needs to be broken into pieces and sold. That’s a different mindset from a person like me—a hard money lender.”

“That means, he would want a high price for his company.”

“If he decides to sell it, he would ask for the amount he could have a good retired life with.”

“How much would that be?”

“How much do you think is needed to have a good retired life?”

“About 3 billion won?”

Chairman Lee didn’t say anything.

“Then, 5 billion won?”

Chairman Lee still didn’t say anything before he finally gave what he thought.

“That… I can’t tell. You have to be in the situation to call a price.”

“I think 5 billion won should be enough.”

“How much do you have right now?”

Gun-Ho had about 30 billion won in stock, but he told Chairman Lee that he had about 10 billion won.

“I have about 10 billion won.”

“So you have enough money to buy that company if it costs you 5 billion won.”

“That’s right.”

Chairman Lee clicked his tongue.