Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

When Gun-Ho arrived at his office in GH Mobile, Secretary Hee-Jeong Park brought a cup of green tea to him, and she said, “President Song is not in the office right now. He went to Mandong Company, sir.”

“Hmm, I see.”

“He is attending a meeting for their vendor companies. He asked me to let you know that when you come to the office.”

“He didn’t have to… Well, thank you for letting me know. Could you ask the accounting director to come to my office?”

“Yes, sir.”

Secretary Hee-Jeong Park gave a bow to Gun-Ho quietly and walked out of the office.

After a moment, the accounting director came to Gun-Ho’s office carrying some documents. The accounting director handed the documents to Gun-Ho in a respectful way.

“What is this?”

“It’s the notarized supply contract with A Electronics.”

Gun-Ho gave a cursory review of the documents. When Gun-Ho noticed that the accounting manager was still standing in Gun-Ho’s office while putting her hand together in front of her, he said to her, “Why don’t you have a seat?”

“Yes, sir.”

The accounting director sat on the sofa facing Gun-Ho.

While reviewing the contract, Gun-Ho said, “So, we are supplying five different products to them, and they are requesting 100,000 pieces for each product.”

“That’s correct, sir. The product cost is between 4,500 and 6,500 won. It will create additional monthly revenue of 2.75 billion won.”

“Hmm, it’s 33 billion won yearly.”

“According to Mr. President Song, A Electronics’ research center in Suwon City has a newly developed product, and that could increase our revenue another 33 billion won as well. If that happens, he said that we will need to hire about 100 more workers.”

“Hmm.”

“Oh, sir, the 750 million that would be used to increase the company’s capital has been received. It was sent from a person named Beom-Sik Lee. The funds were transferred by that individual.”

“Please write this down.”

“Yes, sir.”

“There is a certified legal consultant’s office that we’ve been working with, right?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Contact Ms. Manager Kim there, and ask her to come to our office.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Our company’s current paid-in capital is 5 billion won. We will increase it by 750 million won. The value of our stock is 10,000 won. We will increase the number of shares by 75,000. The additional shares will be owned by Mr. Beom-Sik Lee.”

“Can I have more information about Mr. Beom-Sik Lee?”

“I will give you his address and date of birth later. He is an old retired man.”

“Okay.”

“And, I want to transfer a part of my shares to President Jang-Hwan Song. Please transfer 3% of what I own to him.”

“I beg your pardon, sir? Did you just say that you wanted to transfer some of your shares to him?”

“Yes. Transfer 15,000 shares to him.”

“Okay, sir.”

After the accounting director left Gun-Ho’s office carrying the same documents that she had brought in, Gun-Ho made a call to A Electronics’ CEO. Most of the time, Gun-Ho used his cell phone number instead of his office number, which was way more convenient. If he called his office number, the secretary’s office would take the call and try to find out who the caller was before transferring the call to their CEO, especially a secretary’s office of a large company like A Electronics would act more strictly.

“I’m confirming that we received the funds. Mr. Beom-Sik Lee is the father of Minister Jin-Woo Lee, isn’t he?”

“That’s correct. I have the certificate of his resident registration. I will send it to you by fax. Oh, you know what? I will just scan it and send it to you via email, which would be more convenient.”

“Sounds good.”

“Once the process of increasing the capital is completed, please send me the share certificate and a statement reflecting the company’s stock distribution among the shareholders.”

“A statement showing our company’s shareholders?”

“A document that is being used within the company should suffice. I just need that statement signed or stamped by the president and the company.”

“Okay.”

“You need to file the changes in your company’s shares with the tax office within the jurisdiction anyway. It has to be done before the due date of your corporate tax filing.”

“Right, I’m aware of it.”

“You will make a total of 60 billion won yearly by supplying A Electronics, as a start. The product order worth 30 billion won will come from our factory in Dangjin City, and the other 30 billion won worth of order will be made by our research center in Suwon City for their newly developed product. I will increase it even more by the end of this year, about up to 100 billion won.”

“Okay. Thank you. One thing that I want you to understand is that even though we are increasing our capital by 15%, the portion that we are giving to Mr. Beom-Sik Lee would be 13% of the ownership.”

“I know that.”

“By doing this, GH Mobile will be able to go public sooner than we originally planned. I want you to know that there is a company called Dyeon Korea that GH Mobile invested in. If Dyeon Korea could go public, that would bring more income to GH Mobile.”

“I’m aware of that company. I received the report about that company from our department of planning and coordination during its investigation for this deal.”

“Okay then. I guess I will let you go now.”

“One second!”

“Is there anything else that you want to talk about?”

“I think we need to be careful when we indicate certain people. Let’s refer to Mr. Minister Jin-Woo Lee as L1, and his father—Mr. Beom-Sik Lee—as L2.”

“No problem.”

“Again, this deal between you—Mr. President Goo—and me is not known to L1 at all. His wife has no idea about it either. I’m doing this on behalf of L2 because he asked me earlier to help him with increasing his assets. So, I’m just doing a favor for L2 on my own.”

“That’s what I know as well.”

About 20 minutes after getting off the phone with CEO Park of A Electronics, Gun-Ho received a text message from him.

[I just sent you a scanned copy of L2’s resident registration certificate. Please check it.]

Gun-Ho printed out the copy of the certificate of L2’s resident registration that A Electronics’ CEO Park had sent to him.

“Mr. Beom-Sik Lee’s home address is Mido Condo in Daechi Town, Gangnam District, Seoul City. It’s not far from where I live. Oh, he was born in 1938? How old is he then? Whoa! He is 80 years old. He is indeed old.”

Gun-Ho was thinking, ‘He is 80 years old… meaning that he wouldn’t have many years left before his time. Well, we say that many people will reach 100 years old without a problem these days, so maybe he will live longer. Moreover, his son is a minister in the government, and he got married to a daughter of a conglomerate family. He probably has easy access to all sorts of healthy foods, and he will live for a long long time.

But, what would happen if he passes away? Well, Mr. Minister Jin-Woo Lee will inherit whatever this old man owns since he is his son. No one will say anything against it by then. It’s very natural to inherit from one’s dead father.’

Ms. Accounting Director Min-Hwa Kim came to Gun-Ho’s office again.

“Sir, we have been requested to produce two certified copies of your personal seal.”

“Who is requesting it?”

“Manager Kim from the certified legal consultant’s office is asking for them.”

“That’s… onerous.”

“If you happen to have your personal seal with you, we will take care of it, sir. Assistant Manager Kim in the accounting department is handling document issuance.”

“Please ask him to come to my office then.”

The accounting director made a call to Assistant Manager Kim using her cell phone.

“Please come to the president’s office right away.”

While waiting for Assistant Manager Kim, Gun-Ho handed the copy of L2’s resident registration certificate that he had just printed out to the accounting director.

“This is the person who will own GH Mobile’s shares of 75,000.”

“He is… a very old man. He is even older than my parents. How are you related to him if you don’t mind me asking, sir?”

“I just know him. You don’t need to know any further details about him.”

“Yes, sir.”