Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Chapter 910: Dividend (1) – Part 1

When CEO Park said to Gun-Ho that he would give the presidential candidate’s mouth, he meant information. For a businessman, especially, who was running a large company, information was money. At this point, very useful and hard-to-get information was essential to Gun-Ho in order to increase GH Mobile’s sales. That kind of information was more important than making a connection with some potential client companies at this stage.

Gun-Ho thought, ‘Party Leader Jin-Woo Lee is one of those people who are of the highest levels of wealth and social status, like the conglomerate family such as A Electronics Group, W Group, and H Group.’

Gun-Ho believed that these people with the highest levels of wealth and social status must have access to all sorts of information that Gun-Ho couldn’t get.

Gun-Ho’s decision to distribute dividends with the acquisition proceeds of Dyeon Korea, so Party Leader Jin-Woo Lee’s father could receive 30 billion of dividend was a trade in exchange for that sort of information.

A Electronics Group’s CEO Park and Gun-Ho parted satisfactorily.

Chan-Ho Eom who was driving Gun-Ho with his Bentley asked Gun-Ho while looking at him through the rearview mirror, “Where would you like to go, sir?”

“It’s almost lunchtime. What do you want to eat? You like Chinese food, don’t you?”

“I do, sir.”

“Let’s then go to the Chinese restaurant—Chew Young Roo—at the four-way intersection in Nonhyeon Town.”

“Yes, sir.”

On the way to Chew Young Roo, in his car, Gun-Ho thought about it while leaning back in his seat, ‘As a matter of fact, I also wanted to distribute that acquisition money as dividends. By distributing 200 billion won, I can take 164 billion won since I possess 82% of the ownership interest. Whenever there is an opportunity to get cash as my personal fund, I have to take it, especially when it is an investment return. If I let it sit and be mixed with other funds in the company that was earned by the company’s business activities, people would misunderstand that all of them are the money that was earned by the company’s workers working really hard.

If that happens, and the labor union finds out that we have a substantial amount of cash assets, they would most likely start demanding to share the money with the workers, or they could constantly demand things for the employees’ wellbeing one after another. The fund that was just added to GH Mobile’s bank account is clearly the proceeds made by selling the ownership interest in Dyeon Korea. So, I’d better take it out while I can.

If I receive my dividend, how much cash will I have in total? It must be more than 500 billion won. Let’s wait to get an accurate number for it until I find out how things go with selling Dyeon Korea’s stock. SH Investment Partners’ President Geun-Soo Son will give me a report about it today.’

After having his lunch at Chew Young Roo, Gun-Ho went to GH Building in Sinsa Town. He then called for Secretary Yeon-Soo Oh.

“Please bring me a cup of coffee.”

“Yes, sir.”

After a moment, Gun-Ho heard someone knocking on the door. He thought it was Secretary Yeon-Soo Oh with his coffee, but it was Manager Hong who was in charge of accounting.

“Umm, sir. We received each GH company’s this year’s performance report and next year’s business plan.”

“Which GH companies sent their papers so far?”

“They are GH Development, GH Media, GH Logistics, and the two companies in China—GH Parts Company in Suzhou City and GH Antang Transportation Company in Antang City. Oh, GH Machines sent their papers as well.”

“Oh, GH Machines sent theirs too? Okay. You can leave the papers on my desk. I will take a look at them after having my coffee.”

“Yes, sir.”

Manager Hong placed the documents on Gun-Ho’s desk and left the office after giving a bow to Gun-Ho.

‘Beginning next year, I think I will convene a meeting for all GH companies here in my office, and have each president of the companies come and give a report on the performance report and business plan themselves. So, they can compete with each other. I will set a date for it around mid-December each year. Maybe I can reserve a hotel conference room for the meeting, and have them all come to Seoul.’

Gun-Ho was reviewing the documents that Manager Hong left at his desk as he was sipping his afternoon coffee with his legs crossed.

He looked at GH Development’s papers first, which was operating GH Building in Sinsa Town. It achieved an annual revenue of 10.1 billion won this year. It was the first time it exceeded 10 billion won. However, it seemed to cost a lot to run the building, so it left net earnings after tax with 50 million won only.

Every performance report and business plan of GH companies were made with a unified form that Manager Hong had sent out to each company. So, it was easier for Gun-Ho to read them.

“I’m more than content with what GH Development achieved this year. It generated profits anyway even though it has a large debt of 150 billion won. The loan interest that it is obligated to pay is enormous anyway.”

In fact, GH Development had a debt of 165 billion won. The loan from a bank was 150 billion won with a security deposit of 15 billion won. When it acquired GH Building, it bore the security deposit as well, but it didn’t have enough money to pay off the security deposit yet.

GH Media made 3.1 billion won this year, and its net earnings were 1.2 billion won.

“Even though its sales revenue increased this year, it also spent a lot of money. So, in the end, it made about the same profits as last year. I guess that it’s because of the expenses that it had to bear for Director Woon-Hak Sim’s work. I believe that the amount of dividends for this year would be about the same as last year.”

GH Logistics’ sales revenue was 1.6 billion with net earnings of 300 million won.

“I’m more interested in the land that GH Logistics is using right now for its business. I hope I can later buy the land through Onbid with GH Logistics’ profits.”

GH Parts Company in Suzhou City, China, that Min-Hyeok Kim was running made 11 billion won with net earnings of 1.8 billion won.

“Huh? Their sales revenue increased. I guess that Min-Hyeok Kim has worked so hard hoping to receive a good amount of his dividend this year.”

GH Antang Transportation Company that Jae-Sik Moon was running made a sales revenue of 7.5 billion won this year. Its net earnings were 300 million won.

“Well, this is the sales revenue for the past 6 months only. Considering the short period of time of its business, the number doesn’t look bad at all. But, the profit is a bit lower than I expected.”

In Antang City, Jae-Sik Moon’s wife was running GH Food Co., Ltd. Its sales revenue was 3.5 billion won, and its net earnings were 700 million won.

“Well, it’s not bad either. This company has been in the business for about 6 months as well. I guess that Jae-Sik Moon’s wife will take some dividend this year too.”

The last document was from GH Machines that Jong-Suk Park was running. Gun-Ho giggled while reviewing the paper.

“This company has been in business for 2 months only, but he still sent the paper. Hahaha. It made 1.4 billion won with net earnings of 20 million won. Haha. Well, it made something at least.”

Gun-Ho called for Manager Hong.

“You wanted to see me, sir?”

“I want you to write this down, please.”

Manager Hong quickly pulled out a pen and a piece of paper.

“I want you to send out an official letter to each GH company. The subject line should read as ‘Re: performance report.’”

“Yes, sir.”

“Here goes its content. I thank each and every one of you for your effort and dedication to achieve the sales goal this year. I do appreciate your effort and contribution. I expect you to do the same for next year to achieve the goal set as stated in your business plan.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And add this. For dividend distribution, we will proceed with it after the external audit document becomes available. We will discuss it then.”

“Yes, sir.”

“From GH Chairman Gun-Ho Goo.”

“Got it, sir.”

When Manager Hong was about to leave the office, Gun-Ho added, “At the end, please add P.S. And say that I will be expecting to receive 2 copies of the external audit document from each company by March 30th.”

“Yes, sir.”