Chapter 613 - Reunion with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s Branch Manager
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.”
“You are right. Even the small city—Antang—that is located deep in the west area is being developed vigorously. I see a lot of new construction sites there.”“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.”
“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.