Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Chapter 372: Joint Venture’s Board Meeting (3) – Part 1

Mr. Brandon Burke objected and said,

“The vice president—Mr. Adam Castler—of this joint venture company was just asked to give an earnings report. This is not fair. I object to it as the chairman of the board.”

Everyone in the meeting room looked at Mr. Brandon Burke, and Mr. Burke explained his objection further,

“The earnings report needs to be presented by the president of the joint venture; that would be President Gun-Ho Goo. The person who is responsible for managing the joint venture is the president, not the vice president.”

‘Is he asking me to give the report?’

Gun-Ho was dumbfounded. All the documents prepared for the report were written in English.

Mr. Burke continued to speak, “The global company—Lymondell Dyeon—has several joint venture companies all over the world. There has been no single precedent that a vice president gives an earnings report during a board meeting. According to the contract, President Goo will take the position of the chairman of the board. I’m sure that President Goo will ask the same when he is in my seat.”

Gun-Ho thought about what Mr. Burke just said. He was right. Gun-Ho couldn’t think of any argument to refute his statement. Gun-Ho looked at the report documents again. Most of them were numbers, and Gun-Ho was good with numbers. He could easily understand what those numbers represented.

Gun-Ho couldn’t understand English while most of the attendees in the meeting could. However, he was amazing with numbers. That trait of his played a critical role in making the current Gun-Ho.

“You are absolutely right.”

Gun-Ho decided to give the earnings report.

“Please take a look at the documents placed in front of each of you.”

Ms. Yeon-Soo Oh interpreted what Gun-Ho said. Her clear and refreshing voice resonated in the meeting room,

“Let me show you what we have here.”

“It has been six months since the joint venture company was established. The monthly sales revenue for the first month was 300 million won, and it steadily increased, and our monthly sales revenue of the last month was at a record high of 2.5 billion won. That makes the total sales revenue of the first six months 12.2 billion won. That was the result of the hard work of all of our workers including the vice president—Mr. Adam Castler. If you compare this with other joint venture companies of Lymondell Dyeon, you will see that this is a usually high amount.”

When Yeon-Soo Oh finished her interpretation, Ms. Angelina Rein started clapping with a broad smile. Mr. Brandon Burke’s applause ensued and all of the other attendees followed.

“I truly appreciate all of your hard work.” The chairman of the board—Mr. Brandon Burke—said while clapping.

Gun-Ho continued his report, “The sales revenue of the first six months was 12.2 billion won, and we are anticipating to achieve 30 billion won in total for the sales revenue by the end of this year without any difficulty.”

“Hmm.”

Mr. Brandon Burke wrote down the numbers that Gun-Ho mentioned.

“I will talk about the product cost. The cost of raw materials is 5.9 billion won which takes 48% of our total sales revenue.”

Everyone in the meeting room was looking at the documents except Gun-Ho. Gun-Ho could recall all the relevant numbers without referring to any document.

“This shows that we are getting necessary raw materials from Lymondell Dyeon for high prices. With all due respect, Mr. Burke, I’m requesting to adjust the price of the raw materials that Lymondell Dyeon sent to our joint venture.”

Gun-Ho didn’t forget to make a necessary request even while giving his report.

Mr. Brandon Burke responded to Gun-Ho’s request, “I will discuss the price with Lymondell Dyeon once I go back there.”

“Next, I’d like to talk about our labor cost.”

The joint venture’s board meeting with the help of interpreters was long and boring as expected.

Gun-Ho’s report alone took two hours. It was finally break time. Most of the attendees of the meeting went outside the meeting room to take a break. Some of them used that time for smoking.

“Oh, my gosh, it’s already 3 o’clock. We started the meeting at 1 pm, right?”

“Did you realize that President Goo didn’t even look at the documents while he was giving the earnings report? And he gave exact numbers as stated in the document. That was unbelievable.”

“He is the president, right? There must be reasons when a person takes a position like that.”

“We have a lot more to cover after this break. I guess the meeting will go several hours longer.”

“Yeah, I think so.”

It was almost 5 pm. Mr. Brandon Burke and Ms. Angelina Rein were meticulous. They closely looked at the business expenses part. Fortunately, Mr. Adam Castler was meticulous as well in preparing the pertinent document.

“I thought Mr. Adam Castler didn’t do much at work, but he is well prepared.”

Director Kim and Director Yoon seemed to be impressed by Mr. Adam Castler’s work.

However, the board meeting didn’t seem to be ending pleasantly. Around 5 pm, Gun-Ho and Mr. Brandon Burke were arguing loudly. They had different opinions about the investment in-kind. They even mentioned that the joint venture might have to be terminated.

“Hey! Mr. Brandon Burke! As an investment in-kind, I contributed the land where this factory is sitting on. The value of this land was appraised by Korea Appraisal Board which is a certified government company. The appraised value is exceeding the amount of funds that I was supposed to contribute. However, what about Lymondell Dyeon? You sent a few used equipment, and you just declared that the total value of those machines is 4,450,000 dollars. Do you think that makes any sense!?”

“We’ve attached the appraised values of those machines when we sent them here. If you don’t trust what we claimed, that means you don’t want to continue to do the joint venture with us.”

“Your appraisal is not reliable. It was a piece of paper with the value, and it was done by some private accounting company. It’s not even a government-certified appraisal firm.”

“Lymondell Dyeon already paid 5 million dollars which is half of the joint venture’s paid-in capital—10 million dollars. We initially sent 50,000 dollars when we established this company, and subsequently, we sent an additional amount of 450,000 dollars for the operation.”

“The amount of the cash that Lymondell Dyeon sent is correct.”

“The remaining amount of 4.5 million dollars out of the promised 5 million dollars is fulfilled by the equipment and raw materials that we had sent. The value of the raw materials is clearly shown on the copy of the export documents submitted to the U.S. Customs & Border Protection. Also, we have the appraisal for the machines. All these documents are valid and reliable, so your country’s customs office accepted them and issued the conclusion of investment in-kind.”

“Do you think I’m a fool? Why don’t you go downstairs and take a look at the machines that you sent to us yourself? And tell me if you truly believe those machines are worth 4.5 million dollars. You, Mr. Adam Castler, why don’t you tell us about the value of those machines? Tell me what year are those machines?!”

Mr. Brandon Burke bawled out at that moment.

“If you don’t trust us, we will take those machines back!”

Gun-Ho bawled at him as well.

“Take them! Do you think I’m desperate to keep the joint venture even after all this nonsense?!”