Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Chapter 682: Crowdfunding on Movie Production (4) – Part 1

Gun-Ho received a call from his sister.

“Is it a good time to talk, Gun-Ho?”

“Yeah. What’s up?”

“You know that we are leasing the building that used to be a daycare center, and we now use it for our office building.”

“What about it?”

“The owner of the building just placed it on the market for sale. And I want to buy it. Will it be okay with you?”

“Does GH Logistics have enough money to buy the building?”

“We have 200 million won in our business bank account.”

“How much does the building owner want?”

“He is asking for 200 million won, but the price is negotiable. I think we can get it for 180 million won.”

“Why does he want to sell the building? He is receiving a monthly rent from us, and we are a good tenant. It’s a nice income-generating property.”

“His son needs money to open his own business.”

“I’ve seen many people, who have good real estate properties, having problems like that with their son.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“If you spend all of the cash in the bank account, what are you going to do when you need to buy an additional truck?”

“We can take out a loan from a bank using the building as collateral.”

“Hmm, you want to borrow money from a bank using the building, huh?”

“We are paying 600,000 won every month because we are leasing the building. I think it’s a waste since we have cash in the bank, that we are not using right now. If we are not going to use that 200 million won right away, but it will just sit in the bank account for a while, I think we should use that money to purchase the building. If we need money later, then we can take out a secured loan using that property. With a loan, we will have to make a monthly payment for interest, but it will be less than our current rent.”

“You will have to think about the time when you want to sell the building in the future as well. How large is that building?”

“This formal daycare center building that we are using as our office is 60 pyung large. It’s sitting on 150 pyung of land. Half of the land is classified as a farm.”

“So, the land is 1.2 million won per pyung?”

“Yeah, and he wants 20 million won for the building.”

“How old is the building?”

“It was constructed seven years ago. I was told that they spent a lot of money when they built it.”

“Okay. Do as you want.”

“I will negotiate the price with the owner and make it 180 million won. I can’t really do anything with our office right now since it’s a rental property. I even need permission from the owner if I want to put one nail on the wall.”

“Before purchasing the building, you probably want to make sure that you can renew the lease of the land that you are using to park the company trucks. If they change the land classification, and that won’t allow you to use the land in the way that you are using right now, owning the building won’t do any good.”

“My husband told me that it is very possible that the government will let the local government find a buyer of their choice and allow them to sell it to the buyer, maybe next year.”

“Really?”

“It seems that he talked with someone of a reliable source or something.”

“Anyway, you want to keep an eye on the land that you are using to park the company trucks. You need to know what Onbid’s plan is with the land.”

“Okay, I will do that.”

Gun-Ho arrived at the Pudong Airport in Shanghai City. Director Woon-Hak Sim was there waiting for Gun-Ho. He looked vivid.

“How are you, sir?”

“It has been a while, Director Sim. Are you doing okay here in Shanghai?”

“Yes, I’m doing well. Thank you. I made a room reservation with a five-star hotel for your stay. Would you like to go to the hotel first? Or would you like to stop by the office now?”

“Is President Baogang Chen in the office? He is not working in the studio right now?”

“He is in the office, sir.”

“Can you then ask President Baogang Chen to come to the hotel to meet me? We will have a larger space to talk about business in the hotel, rather than his office.”

“Yes, sir. I will give him a call.”

Gun-Ho arrived at the hotel. After Gun-Ho gave his name and showed his Korean passport to the front desk receptionist, she verified that a sweet room was reserved for Gun-Ho, and started the check-in process. She spoke English fluently. For the guest of their sweet room, the Jiudian Jingli (hotel manager) showed the room and even opened the door for him.

Gun-Ho sat on the sofa in his hotel room and had his tea while looking out the window. The entire Pudong City came into his view.

“This place is being vigorously developed every day.”

After a while, Gun-Ho received a call from Director Woon-Hak Sim.

“It’s Director Sim, sir. I’m in the lobby with President Baogang Chen right now. Do you want us to wait for you here?”

“Please come up to my room. I have a living room here in the suite room.”

“Yes, sir. We will be right there.”

Director Sim and President Baogang Chen entered Gun-Ho’s hotel room after knocking on the door.

“President Goo, it has been a long time since I saw you last time.”

“How have you been? It’s good to see you.”

President Baogang Chen looked around the room as he was sitting on the sofa.

“Taofang (suite room) is really nice. It has a living room with a sofa set where you can have a meeting.”

“Let’s have some tea.”

Gun-Ho placed tea bags that were prepared in the hotel room in two separate paper cups and poured hot water in them, and then handed them to President Baogang Chen and Director Sim.

Sipping their tea, President Baogang Chen and Director Sim glanced at Gun-Ho’s t-shirt and his watch wrapped around his wrist. They looked expensive. They were actually high-end designer clothes and watch. The watch was a limited edition which cost more than 100 million won, which was hard to buy even for the people who had enough money.

President Baogang Chen pulled out a scroll painting with a smile.

“What is it?”

President Chen opened the scroll to its full size. It was a landscape painting which looked really old.

“This is a landscape painting by a painter during the late Qing dynasty. I haven’t offered you any gift so far, so this time, I brought this for you.”

Gun-Ho felt awkward because if he accepted the gift, he would have to give something to President Chen in return, and he didn’t really prepare any gift for him. Also, he would have to carry it around when he traveled to other places. It was an antique scroll painting that he couldn’t estimate the value of.

“I’m not sure if I could accept the gift. It’s an antique scroll painting.”

“It’s not an expensive scroll painting, sir.”

Gun-Ho couldn’t simply reject his gift either. President Chen carried the scroll painting all the way to the hotel to give it to Gun-Ho, and Gun-Ho didn’t want to hurt his feelings by not accepting it. While Gun-Ho was hesitating to take it, President Chen rolled the painting and gave it to Gun-Ho. At that moment, Gun-Ho recalled that he bought a t-shirt at the duty-free shop in the airport on the way to Shanghai. He wanted to reserve an extra t-shirt in case he needed to change. He paid 160,000 won for it. Gun-Ho stood up from his seat and went into the bedroom. He came back to the living room with the t-shirt.

“This is a t-shirt. I think it’s about your size. This is not much, but I want you to have it.”

“Thank you.”

President Chen smiled broadly and took the t-shirt.

After finishing his tea, President Baogang Chen started his sales pitch in excitement.

“Ms. Ailing Feng’s scenario is something that is really hard to get. It’s a love story with a pinch of patriotism. Guangdian Zongju (National Radio and Television Administration) loves a movie like this. Director Seukang Li will help us find a good film distributor as well. I’ve collected 3 million dollars funding so far.”

Director Woon-Hak Sim, who was sitting next to President Baogang Chen looked surprised when he heard of 3 million dollars. President Baogang Chen probably hadn’t told him about it.