Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

While Director Kim was having his jujube tea, the internal auditor started talking about the matters that he was in charge of, “The preliminary examination has been requested to KOSDAQ Listed Companies Association.”

“Well done.”

“Once it is passed, and once we can start our registration process, we will need to submit the report about our marketable securities.”

“Hmm.”

“We are asking for a high amount of money for public offering, so we need to submit the report on our marketable securities to the Financial Supervisory Service. The stock brokerage company is handling the work as our agent.”

“How long does the preliminary examination take?”

“Usually, it takes about 2 months.”

“The last time when the stock brokerage firm’s branch manager visited us, he asked us to make the pertinent board resolution and backdate the document. Have we finished it?”

“Yes, sir. Would you like to review it?”

“It’s fine. When are we holding the presentation targeting institutional investors as part of Investor Relations (IR)?”

“We will do it after the preliminary examination is completed and file the report on our marketable securities. Ms. Accounting Manager Myeong-Soo Jo and Mr. Assistant Il-Gi Seong from the sales department are currently working on the document for the presentation. We have enough time to prepare for it.”

Director Kim chipped in as he placed his cup of tea back on the table, “It would be really nice if we could establish more manufacturing facilities in other countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, and Uzbekistan, but the internal auditor opposed it. According to him, that will make the presentation for institutional investors more difficult.”

“Haha, really?”

“During the IR presentation, we will need to attract as many institutional investors as possible, so our number on the demand would look good. That will make the price of our initial public offering high.”

“Is that right?”

Director Kim and the internal auditor stood up from their seats to leave.

“Well, if you don’t have anything further to discuss with us, sir, we will go back to work now.”

“Good going so far.”

Gun-Ho went down to the production site. The plant manager— Manager Hee-Yeol Yoo— and the maintenance department’s manager— Manager Ahn— were absent from the production site since they were on a trip to China. Gun-Ho wanted to check the site if it was running fine without them.

When he got there, he could hear the usual machine noises, and they looked very normal. There was an old man who was walking back and forth in the production site while tying his hands together behind his back. It was the chief research officer who was holding a temporary position.

Gun-Ho said, “You are here.”

“Huh? Sir, you came.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Manager Yoo asked me to check the production site for him during his absence. So, I came to check on them. Everything looks fine here. I don’t think they need me on the site.”

“Well, I’m sure that your presence here does something. Thank you.”

“I thank you, sir. People at my old age usually don’t have a place to work at. I’m very lucky to have a place to go to work every morning.”

At that moment, Director Kim walked down to the production site. It seemed that Director Kim felt like he had to come down to the site from time to time to check things there since neither Director Yoon nor the plant manager— Manager Yoo— were not in the company. Director Kim said to the chief research officer, “Brother, come to the production site three times per day and take a round. It can be a good exercise for you.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m doing right now. Manager Yoo asked me to do so before he left for China.”

“Sitting in your office in the research center all day long is not good for your health. You should take a walk sometimes. I will buy you a bowl of Galbi-tang (Korean short rib soup) tomorrow for lunch, so you feel more energetic.”

Gun-Ho laughed while listening to the conversation between Director Kim and the chief research officer. He then headed back to his office. While walking up toward his office, he thought, ‘I think I should extend the work contract with the chief research officer for one more year.’

Once he was back to his office, he called for Secretary Seon-Hye Yee.

“Having a cup of jujube tea in the office is one of my pleasures that I have in this place. Can I have one more cup of jujube tea, please?”

Secretary Seon-Hye Yee felt good about his boss loving the jujube tea that her mother made. She was humming while serving the tea to Gun-Ho.

“Thank you.”

Gun-Ho was thinking about various matters while enjoying the jujube tea on his sofa. At that moment, he received a call from Jae-Sik Moon in China.

“It’s me. Are you in Dyeon Korea right now?”

“Yeah, I’m in Dyeon Korea. Today is the day when I’m supposed to be here.”

“I heard that Dyeon Korea is doing great these days. Its factories in China and India will soon begin their businesses, huh?”

“It’s just a start.”

“As always, I’m so proud of myself having a friend like you, Mr. President Goo.”

“Don’t be silly. How’s the terminal construction going there?”

“They finished the second floor. The Chinese partners are nagging at me a lot these days about not sending the investment funds to them.”

“Really?”

“So, I snapped out back at them the other day for not transferring the ownership of the land to the joint venture’s name.”

“The two partners— Chinese and Korean— are nagging at each other, huh? Haha.”

“According to them, the government already approved the use of the land, and it has been ratified by them. Since it will serve the public interest, the land is classified as Hua Fa (planned land). Once the terminal is completed, they will issue the permit for its use. That’s how it works. And they went on saying that we are being so stubborn without understanding the law in China.”

“Just ignore them. I know you have to suffer from listening to their nagging, but this is the only way that we can win over them in this matter.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Thank you. You are doing great.”

“Since the joint venture is running the terminal business in addition to the intercity bus service, we are making good money, including the ticket sales fees.”

“Ticket sales fees?”

“Other bus companies in Antang City want to provide their service in our terminal, after they learned that we are building a modern terminal.”

“Really?”

“We are selling their bus tickets at our terminal and taking some fees from it. For example, if we sell their tickets worth 1 million won, we take 80,000 won from it.”

“Really?”

“Once the terminal building is completed, we will lease commercial spaces to retail stores and services. That will bring us even more income.”

“Of course.”

“I’m getting a lot of calls from the old friends from high school.”

“For what?”

“Since I run a joint venture company, and the joint venture is building a terminal, they want to reserve a good commercial space within the new terminal building.”

“They are going to run a store in China?”

“They want to reserve a good store first, and then will ask me to resell it for a higher price.”

“Those crafty jerks. Do they really think it’s easy like that?”

“I asked our Chinese partners about it. They said that they will run a lottery in selling the commercial spaces.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. A lot of people will pay attention to how fairly they would run it.”

“My chauffeur said that running a lottery is just a pretext. If someone has Guanxi (connection) inside the company, they can get a good spot. The problem is that you have to have a really strong Guanxi with someone in a high ranking position.”

“Hmm, really?”

“For now, we are focusing on the land ownership transfer, so we are not showing our interest in leasing out the commercial spaces yet.”

“That’s good. They won’t like it if they find out that we are interested in leasing the stores in the terminal because they are still waiting for us to send the second investment funds.”