Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

When the president of Yangji Construction left the office, Manager Kang came to Gun-Ho.

“Sir, you have to be careful about their usual scheme. Many landowners lost their land by listening to a construction company that told them that they could build a building on their land without spending their own money.”

“I think I heard about it before.”

“A construction company doesn’t care whether a landowner builds a building with his own money or borrowed money. Once a building is completed and it doesn’t sell, it is the landowner who has to bear all the consequences. Many landowners ended up selling the land because they couldn’t pay the loan.”

“He said I would have to pay a high property tax.”

“You can use the rent you receive from the parking lot tenant and the tented cart tenant.”

“Well, anyway, we will have to think about this eventually.”

Gun-Ho opened his stock account for the first time in a long time.

He had purchased the Kumho Chemical stock for 10 billion won and sold 300 million won stock when he acquired the land in Gangdong District. So, he was supposed to have about 9.7 billion won worth of stocks in his account. However, the stock price had increased.

“Haha. The price of Kumho Chemical increased by 3.5%. So my net account value is now back to 10 billion won.”

If Gun-Ho sold all of his stock right now, he would have 10 billion won in cash.

Gun-Ho stretched himself before wearing his jacket that was hanging on the wall.

“Ms. Ji-Young Jeong, is Manager Kang out to visit the OneRoomTels?”

“Yes, he is.”

“How much did we receive from the OneRoomTels yesterday?”

“We received 1.8 million won from four OneRoomTels.”

“Hmm.”

“Did you file the Four Major Public Insurance for the new residential manager?”

“No, I didn’t because he didn’t want it.”

“Then how do we classify him?”

“I listed him as a day laborer.”

“I see. I will be back later.”

“Okay.”

Gun-Ho went to the indoor golf practice facility. The coach came while Gun-Ho was practicing his swing by himself.

“You look prettier than the last time I saw you.”

“Don’t be silly. I heard you went to China.”

“How did you know?”

“You didn’t bring anything for me?”

“Oh, I forgot.”

“I’m just kidding. Keep practicing your swing. Don’t lower your head.”

Gun-Ho spent about an hour in golf practicing before he sat at the café in the Education Community Center building to drink a fruit juice.

“I still have a lot of time before having to go back to the office. I want to get some fresh air. Maybe I should visit a golf field in Yongin City or Anseong City. I’ve never been in a golf field before. I’ve always practiced golf in an indoor facility.”

Gun-Ho visited two golf fields in Yongin City, and he liked them.

“Nice. The green field looks so beautiful.”

Gun-Ho then headed to Anseong City.

“I want to see a golf field in Anseong City as well. The membership fee should be less pricey than the one in Yongin City. Gee, I gotta go to a bathroom. I’d better stop by the rest area. Oh, I see the Anseong rest area over there.”

After finishing his business in a restroom, he bought some snacks like walnut cookies and banana-flavored milk. When he was having his snack in the rest area, he heard someone calling his name.

“Mr. Gun-Ho Goo?”

Gun-Ho lifted his head to look at the person.

“Oh, General affairs manager at YS Tech—Seon-Hong Hwang?”

“Mr. Goo, you look great. You seem to be doing very well. What do you do these days?”

“I’m running a small real estate development company. How’s the president of YS Tech—Young-Sik Park?”

“They are all doing fine.”

The General affair manager looked a bit older than before. He lost some more hair and some new wrinkles appeared under his eyes.

“How’s the company?”

“It’s not doing well these days.”

“They are not selling well?”

“Don’t get me started. Since our major client, Mulpasaneop is not doing well, our work reduced a lot accordingly.”

“What happened to Mulpasaneop?”

“The president of Mulpasaneop’s son started a business in China, and it didn’t seem to work out. Our company used to sell products worth 500 million won to Mulpasaneop every month. Now, it was reduced to 300 million won.”

“Oh, I see. The company probably had to let go of many employees then.”

“Right. We used to have over 100 employees. Now we have only 70 employees. My job is not secured either. By the way, you look really great. You seemed to make a lot of money these days.”

“Haha. What are you talking about? Thank you anyway for saying it.”

Gun-Ho wanted to meet the president of YS Tech—Young-Sik Park.

“I wouldn’t be able to come this far without him. I’ve forgotten about the person I should feel grateful for a long time.”

However, Gun-Ho didn’t have enough sources to help his current financial situation. He couldn’t just go see him carrying a pack of beef ribs as a present or give him some money to help him out. Any of those wouldn’t help his current situation.

“Let’s see how things go. I can go see him when he really really needs my help.”

The reason why YS Tech was having a financial difficulty was because of Mulpasaneop. Its major client, Mulpasaneop’s financial problems affected YS Tech’s business. The only way for YS Tech to survive, in Gun-Ho’s view, was to diversify its clients. However, it was not easy for a vendor to attract more clients just by providing good quality products.

“It’s all about connection. There is not much difference in the quality of products among vendors. The key is the network.”

The next day, when Gun-Ho came to his office in the morning, he assigned new work to Ji-Young.

“Ms. Ji-Young Jeong, do you know that you can see a company’s information on the Financial Supervisory Service website? Through their Data Analysis, Retrieval and Transfer System (DART)?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Here are the names of two companies you need to monitor sometimes. Pay attention to their official announcements. You don’t have to look at their old announcements; I need to know their official announcements from now. They are YS Tech and Mulpasaneop.”

“Okay, sir.”

“If you see any changes, let me know. Also, check their credit on a paid-website for more information.”

“Okay.”

While Gun-Ho was reading a newspaper after signing the daily report, Ji-Young came to Gun-Ho.

“I checked the two companies you gave me earlier on DART, but I can only find Mulpasaneop. YS Tech can’t be found on their website.”

“Really? Then just keep an eye on the information of Mulpasaneop.”

“Okay, sir.”

Gun-Ho talked to himself with his eyes closed.

“YS Tech cannot be found on DART… I guess YS Tech was removed from the company list that is required to post their announcements because its sales revenue reduced significantly.”

Ji-Young printed out the financial statements of Mulpasaneop from the paid-website that provided companies information. Gun-Ho knew how to read and analyze financial statements to see a company’s financial situation. He studied accounting when he worked at a factory, and he worked in accounting afterward in Asan. Moreover, as he ran his own business so far, he had been exposed more to accounting as a business owner. That added more depth to his accounting knowledge and understanding.

“The short-term debt is increasing.”

Gun-Ho paid attention to Mulpasaneop’s debt which kept increasing.

“Their account payable and accrued expenses payable keep increasing. Their current financial status is very dangerous.”

The company seemed to be groaning with pain.

“This company has a lot of investment assets abroad.”

Gun-Ho started analyzing their profit and loss statement.

“Their sales reduced compared to last year, and their net income is negative.”

Gun-Ho could imagine that YS Tech would suffer with Mulpasaneop since it was YS Tech’s major client. Mulpasaneop was not a KOSDAQ registered firm; however, it was a large and stable company. When Gun-Ho worked at YS Tech, the annual gross sales of Mulpasaneop was over 70 billion won.

“At that time, the company wanted to become a KOSDAQ registered firm; I guess it didn’t work out. What went wrong? Their credit score is negative C.”

Gun-Ho decided to wait and see how things went with Mulpasaneop.