Gun-Ho parted from the bank’s branch manager at the restaurant’s front door—Wang Hu Bing Guan. When Gun-Ho and Professor Wang were left alone, Jien Wang suggested Gun-Ho to have a drink.
“President Goo, this place is too luxurious to stay long. Let’s take a walk along West Lake, and have a bottle of beer together.”
“Sounds great.”
Gun-Ho and Jien Wang were walking along West Lake.
Gun-Ho said, “Hangzhou City has changed a lot. I see many new buildings that were not here when I was here before.”
“Things change rapidly these days. It’s the power of money.”
“When more people move to an area, its housing prices will go up higher. By the way, are you planning to take a loan and use it as your investment funds?”
“Let me ask you one thing. The Antang City’s department of transportation brought in the land where the terminal will be built, as their investment in-kind. Do you think they will actually allow the terminal to be the joint venture’s business? It’s the city’s building and will have a train station.”
“If that’s what they agreed and stipulated in the joint venture contract, they have to.”
Gun-Ho shook his head side to side.
Gun-Ho continued, “A city’s terminal is different from an industrial park. A terminal is a public property. The industrial park that I worked with preferred to have a Korean partner for its business because they wanted to invite Korean companies in the industrial park. But, a terminal is different. They don’t need a foreign partner to run their terminal business. Their earning is guaranteed. They just needed money to build the terminal building.”
“What are you saying?”
“They brought in a foreign investor as a co-venturer of the joint venture company because they need the investment funds. But, they don’t want to run the terminal business together with their foreign co-venturer. In other words, I doubt that they will transfer the ownership of the land from Antang City to the joint venture.”
“Are you serious?”
“I’m pretty positive. You will see. They will press me to send the investment funds as soon as possible, but they will give me all kinds of excuses when I ask them to change the ownership of the land to the joint venture’s name.”
“Oh, I got what you mean now. So, they will no longer need your money in running the terminal project after the terminal is built because they can take out a loan using Ji Cheng Gao even though the terminal is not completely constructed.”
“Exactly.”
“You already sent 3.5 million dollars to them, right? What are you going to do about it?”
“They gave me the intercity bus business permit. So, it will generate some income, and they will let me send profits to Korea without a problem. I will eventually be able to recover the original investment funds of 3.5 million dollars and a little bit of extra income.”
“If that’s what it is, why did you agree to participate in the project?”
“If I leave that fund in my savings account with a bank, I will only earn the interest that the bank would offer. Even though it’s not a lot, I will still make more than the bank’s interest by investing here. Also, I will have to pay taxes for the interest income.”
Jien Wang stopped walking and started laughing out loud while looking at Gun-Ho’s face.
“So, your personal investment in the condos is just a snack, not the main meal, huh?”
“Of course, it’s a snack. Once I acquire the condos with a mortgage loan, I will rent them out right away. The rental income from them will cover the loan payment to the bank. I will let them sit there for three years until they become very tasty food. It will be the same case as the condo at Hwaganghwawon in Hangzhou City that I purchased and sold with profits.”
“The idea is very you, Gun-Ho, like a true businessman.”
“There is a beerhouse over there. Let’s have a glass of draught beer with fried chicken.”
“Sure. Let’s go!”
Jien Wang ordered two bottles of Tsingtao beer instead of draught beer. And he added a deep-fried chicken dish.
“You said that you met Seukang Li recently, right?”
“Yeah, I did. I also met with the president of the drama production company called Huanle Shiji.”
“Are you going to make your investment in that company?”
“To be honest with you, I don’t want to put my investment money there.”
“Of course.”
Jien Wang smiled cynically while sipping his beer.
“Huanle Shiji Production Company’s capital is 1 million dollars. 300,000 dollars out of that 1 million dollars are listed as Seukang Li’s father’s money.”
“I suppose so.”
“Usually, old people are reluctant to make their investments in a high-risk business such as a drama production company. If they would want to put their money somewhere expecting that it would grow, they would choose a cash cow. 300,000 dollars is not an insignificant amount. You know what I think? I think it’s not his father who made the investment, but it was probably slush funds from his friends. It’s funds that would be used in support of Seukang Li’s political activities. They are funds that are perfectly disguised as a legal investment. Seukang Li will eventually need funds to climb up his ranks in politics anyway.”
“It was his mistake to trust those people in Huanle Shiji. He shouldn’t have. They might be competent and talented people in producing a drama, but they are not good businessmen. They heavily relied on top stars believing that people would watch their dramas just because top stars would appear in them. It was a huge mistake that they made business-wise.”
“I see.”
“As a matter of fact, I am actually the one who collected 300,000 dollars for the investment in Huanle Shiji. Remember the commission that you gave to me when you started the joint venture for Jinxi Industrial Park? With that money and more from other friends, I made our seed money—300,000 dollars. And, we made the investment using Seukang Li’s father’s name. Since Seukang Li is the director of the relevant field’s bureau, we thought that the production company would grow quickly and steadily with his help such as placing their drama at the prime time and letting them receive the subsidy provided by the broadcasting station. But, the thing is that the top star—the leading actor—took most of the earnings. That was the contract. So, with that structure, of course, they can’t survive unless they make high ratings.”
“Huanle Shiji currently has debts of 2 billion won and the accounts payable of 400 million won.”
“I see.”
“If I put my funds in the company now, since they are under a lot of pressure from their creditors, they might have to use my money to pay for the debt. If that happens, they will need more investment funds to use in producing their next drama. So, I’m still thinking about what I would do.”
“I should have stopped him when he was about to invest in that drama production company.”
Jien Wang continued after gulping down his beer, “At that time, President Baogang Chen was so confident that his business would certainly succeed, and he eventually convinced Seukang Li to make an investment in his new business. It was not a good decision at all.”
“Hmm, I see.”
“I was told that they want to have access to Korea’s advanced technology and skills in production and get help on their drama contents. Of course, they need to receive investment funds as well, but they are also hoping to have some technical support from Korea as well. There has to be a reason why KDramas (Korean dramas) are so popular worldwide, right?”
“That’s why I’m taking my time in considering a lot of things before I make my decision. It’s harder to succeed in business than people usually think.”
“Of course. I agree that Huanle Shiji will prioritize paying the unpaid wages for their workers or guarantee to the actors or actresses once they receive your funds. That’s why I can’t even try to persuade you to make your investment in their company.”
Jien Wang kept drinking his beer, looking distressed.
