Gun-Ho said to Mr. Geun-Soo Son as he handed Seung-Hee sister’s certificate of resident registration and her certificate of seal impression to him, “Please proceed with establishing the private equity fund company. Ms. Seung-Hee Park just sent you— Mr. CEO Son— 15 million won. Please sign the lease agreement for the office-tel and buy necessary furniture and supplies for the office with it.”
“Oh, the fund has been sent already? Yes, sir. I will proceed with it.”
“Once you register the company with the government, please open its business bank account, and bring a copy of the bank account information to Accounting Manager Hong here. Manager Hong has a tax accountant license.”
“Oh, she is a tax accountant?!”
“Don’t forget to register the company with the Financial Services Commission. It is required for a private equity fund firm.”
“I’m aware of it, sir.”
Gun-Ho sipped his tea and said, “And, I have things that I’d like to talk to you both.”
Mr. Geun-Soo Son, who used to work at Gangnam Bank as a team lead of their global asset strategy department, and Ms. Seung-Hee Park, who was working as an insurance salesperson, looked at Gun-Ho’s face. They were ready to listen to Gun-Ho intently.
“SH Investment Partners can make a recommendation to investors about investing in a certain real estate, bonds, stocks, etc., once it is legally established. However, I don’t intend to run the company as such. We will not give a consultation or recommendation to investors. Doing so could put us in a very risky position.”
Mr. Geun-Soo Son and Ms. Seung-Hee Park nodded their heads.
Gun-Ho continued, “If we make a certain investment recommendation to investors, and those investors make their investment accordingly as we recommend, and they end up losing money as a result, they would be upset and vigorously blame us on it. We could even be sent to a prison in some circumstances as well. There are a lot of precedents like that. Therefore, I want to make sure that you understand my intention with this company. If any of you bring an investor or make an investment in the stock market, bonds, and others, as opposed to my specific instruction, I will dissolve SH Investment Partners right away.”
Gun-Ho continued, “Investing in the stock market is a game where you play without knowing the other player’s cards. It’s reckless to invest in the stock market relying on your intuition or data that is not accurate, and you shouldn’t do that. You are putting your money— real money— in investing in the stock market, meaning that it is a real battlefield.”
Both Mr. Geun-Soo Son and Ms. Seung-Hee Park had a bad experience with stock investment. They had tried to make money from it but ended up losing money. So, they totally agreed to what Gun-Ho just said. Especially, when Gun-Ho said, ‘you don’t know the other player’s cards in the stock market,’ they couldn’t agree more with Gun-Ho. It was originally said by Chairman Lee from Cheongdam Town to Gun-Ho.
“Our private equity fund company— SH Investment Partners— is initiated and established by Ms. Seung-Hee Park, but Mr. Geun-Soo Son will run the business as its CEO.”
Gun-Ho then looked at Seung-Hee sister and said, “Ms. Seung-Hee Park, once a business bank account is open for the company, please send 3 billion won to the bank account.”
“Yes, sir. I will do that.”
“Well, I look forward to working with you all.”
Gun-Ho then gave a deep bow to two directors of his new private equity fund company. And, Mr. Geun-Soo Son and Ms. Seung-Hee Park did the same to Gun-Ho in response.
Gun-Ho received a call from Jae-Sik Moon in Antang City, Guizhou Province, China, later that afternoon.
“Our Chinese partners sent us an official letter. It looks like an ultimatum.”
“What is it about?”
“It’s saying that if we don’t make the second investment fund for the terminal construction by the 15th of next month, they will terminate the joint venture, and they expect us to take our hands out of the project accordingly.”
“Is that right?”
“I will make the translation of this letter and send it to you via fax. Well, I’d better send it to you through email as well; that will give you a clear view of the letter.”
“Okay, I will wait for it.”
A while later, the official letter from the Chinese partners was received via fax and also email. The translation into Korean was attached to the letter. The letter was signed by Antang Joint Venture’s co-venturer— President Runsheng Yan of Antang City’s intercity bus business and the terminal. The letter was also stamped with a large star on it, which looked very Chinese.
[Dear Mr. President Gun-Ho Goo— the president of GH Logistics:
GH Logistics and Antang City’s intercity bus and terminal company have established a joint venture with the purpose of running an intercity bus business and building the city’s terminal.
However, your company has continuously delayed sending us the second investment fund that was previously and clearly promised before. The fund is intended to be used to build the terminal. As a result, the terminal construction has been delayed greatly.
A joint venture must be built on trust between its partners, but the way that you broke your promise and your contractual duty on this is leaving us with a doubt on your true intention with the joint venture.
We are requesting you to send the second investment funds to the joint venture by November 15th. If we don’t receive it by then, we have no choice but to dissolve the joint venture.
From President Runsheng Yan of Antang City’s bus company.]
Gun-Ho replied to the letter right away.
[Dear Mr. President Runsheng Yan of Antang City’s bus company,
I’ve received your letter.
The reason why we haven’t sent the second investment fund is due to your breach of contract. Accordingly, we are not at fault here.
The land where the terminal is being built on must be Zhuan Liang (transferrable land), and the ownership must be transferred to the joint venture. The ratification by the Construction Bureau issuing the permission to use the land is not enough for us to send the second investment fund.
Therefore, you are responsible for breaching our joint venture contract, not us.
However, we don’t intend to go through a legal proceeding to settle the issue with you. We are expecting, instead, to hear an acceptable resolution from you.
From President Gun-Ho Goo of GH Logistics in Korea.]
Gun-Ho stated in the reply that he didn’t want to go through a legal proceeding, which he purposefully mentioned in the letter to his Chinese partners. It implied that he could file an international lawsuit on the issue.
Gun-Ho made a call to Jae-Sik Moon.
“President Moon? I just sent my reply to their letter. I want you to deliver my response to the Chinese partner either tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.”
“Okay. I will check if it arrived.”
“How’s your business doing with KFC?”
“Its sales revenue is not as high as before when it just opened the business. But, the deep-fried chicken restaurant is doing great; it’s doing better than before. Its sales revenue has gradually increased, and it’s now generating around 7,000 Yuan per day.”
“How much are those restaurants making in total?”
“With three restaurants— KFC, the deep-fried chicken restaurant, and the pizza restaurant— we are making about 30,000 Yuan on a daily basis. It’s approximately 5 million Korean won.”
“It’s not bad at all. You still make profits out of them.”
“Haha. That’s true, I do make profits. The other business that we are doing— the real estate investment is doing much better actually. The condo price in Huaxi Huayuan went up a lot.”
“How much do they cost now?”
“The condo price jumped high after Thanksgiving Day, and it’s still on the rise. The local newspapers are talking about it every day. As the government is planning to suppress real estate prices, many people are trying to own a good real property that would bring a great profit in the future. And they think the condos in Huaxi Huayuan are ‘good’ real estate properties to invest in for the purpose. Currently, it costs 220 million won per unit.”
“How much did we pay when we bought them?”
“It was 160 million won per unit at that time. I guess that investing in real estate brings a significant return usually.”
“Since we bought 5 of them, we made 300 million won so far, right?”