Empire of the Ring

Chapter 236: Gleaning (3)

Translator: None Editor: Eastman

Kim Joo-hyuk, the vice president of H Rotem, who had returned Korea flew back to Baku with several company staffs.

His face was bright as he stepped into Youngho’s office near Arirang Hotel.

“It’s only been a few days since you went back to Korea. How did you return so quickly?”

“Mr. Lee because of you, I have so much work to do now. I’m overjoyed for our new venture. I don’t want to procrastinate a bit.”

“Oh, am I tiring you out? Should I turn to German G company, then?”

Kim Joo-hyuk shook his head hard at Youngho’s joke.

“Don’t make such a joke. This is my chance to become the president.”

“The current president of the company won’t be happy to hear that.”

“Hahaha. When I become the president, he will be promoted to the vice-chairman of the H Corporation. He’s even pressuring me to get promoted as soon as possible.”

Youngho thought the company was an enjoyable environment if the culture of the company was as easy as that.

“We signed the contract only a few days ago. The ink is still not dried.”

“Our company pushes things a little hard. We roll like a bulldozer. I also received approval directly from the chairman for this project.”

Kim Joo-hyuk had come as a temporary director of the railroad car partnership with Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan now and he bragged that he has an authority of the president over the project.

He kept saying that he would be the president for sure when he returns Korea, but it came across as pressure to Youngho.

“I feel a little uncomfortable since it sounds like your promotion depends on my cooperation.”

“That’s why I’m asking for your support. I’ll certainly repay you with great gifts.”

Youngho wondered what kind of gifts he was talking about, but acted as if he did not care. He leaned against the back of his chair. Then, Kim Joo-hyuk leaned forward toward the table to get closer to Youngho. He was about to say something secretive.

“The chairman of the corporation suggested an interesting deal. Would you like to hear about it?”

“Well, I can’t go anywhere now since you’re already so close to me.”

After Youngho agreed, he came even closer to Youngho. His upper body almost covered the whole table. Lowering his voice, he began to speak.

“Our corporation’s Intelligence Team is as great as the intelligence services of any country. We can find out about the business strategies of our competitors, and if necessary, we can also figure out people’s personal information.”

Youngho already knew about the company’s intelligence strength. He had to hold back laughter since Kim Joo-hyuk acted as if he was sharing top secret information. He was dead serious.

“Any global corporation should be equipped with such an information network. So, you must be saying that you already know about me as well, aren’t you?”

His face turned like a deflated balloon as Youngho pre-empted. It looked like as if it was asking how Youngho had found out.

“Come on. Please don’t beat around the bush and cut to the chase. If you go to any decent companies in Baku and asked about me, they can tell you how many spoons I have in my kitchen.”

“Man, I was trying to hold a candle to the sun.”

“Hahaha...”

“Alright. I’ll cut to the chase. As far as I know, you’re a billionaire who wants for nothing. I’m not talking about your cash but your property assets. The chairman said that a mere agency commission would not suffice to suit your value, so he suggested something.”

After a long introduction, he finally was starting to get to the point.

“Are you serious? Ha! He’s such a generous man. I guess the company is really struggling with supplying raw materials.”

“I don’t know. I’m still amazed by the unprecedented offer.”

“Youngho. They say it’s not good to think too long. Why don’t you take the offer if you think it’s a good one?”

“Dr. Park. What do you think about the offer?”

Park Youngsun was silent.

The offer was so shocking that he needed time to think.

After thinking for a while, he made a remark that poured cold water on Youngho’s excitement.

“Mr. Lee. There’s always a catch behind any appealing offer. I understand that this is a great opportunity for us, but you need to give it the benefit of the doubt.”

“...”

“Think about it. There’s got to be a reason when a global corporation is willing to build you a parts factory. Although the company is desperate for raw materials, but any corporation won’t sell its hens on a rainy day.”

Jong-il expressed dissent to Park Youngsun.

“Dr. Park. What if they are suggesting this to improve their relationship with us? They’re afraid that paying us small agency commission would not get them far with us. Building us a parts factory is nothing to them if they can meet their raw material demands.”

Youngho was discussing the H Corporation’s exceptional offer with Park Youngsun and Jong-il.

What Kim Joo-hyuk brought as gifts were three proposals.

The first proposal was what Youngho was dying to have, which was establishing a partnership train car parts factory. Youngho’s share would be 51 percent and the H Corporation’s would be 49 percent, under the condition that H Corporation would be responsible for building the factory.

This was already an exceptional offer since the corporation was building a factory for Youngho to be its CEO.

The second proposal was a condition for the first one, which was for Youngho to supply Koryoin town’s mine’s mineral resources exclusively to H Corporation. Since it was what Youngho had already promised to Kim Joo-hyuk verbally, there was no problem.

The last proposal was for Youngho to become H Corporation’s representative agency in Kazakhstan and to work to win business contracts with the commission fee of three percent of each business project.

These looked great at a glance, but Youngho did not want to be hasty and miss important things. So, he brought the matter to Park Youngsun before responding to Kim Joo-hyuk.

“Mr. Lee. What I’m worried about is the exclusive supplying of minerals to the corporation. We haven’t thoroughly examined the deposit yet. In order to operate the parts factory smoothly, the exclusive supply is necessary but if the supply doesn’t go on amicably, the parts factory won’t run properly.”

“If you don’t know about the deposit amount, who would?”

“I can’t tell everything by just looking at it. We need to do some test excavation works and a geological survey before we can tell an estimate deposit amount.”

Youngho had thought that someone like Park Youngsun could estimate a mine’s deposit amount only by looking at the geological features of mine, but it was an unlikely prediction.

“Dr. Park. Do you really think that they would not provide materials for parts factory just because we failed to provide minerals? It’s going to affect their car production.”

“They would probably make an additional clause in the contract and take back the factory if minerals are not provided. Even if the chairman wanted to give us great offers, the corporation’s practitioners and counselors will make sub-conditions to protect their assets in any case.”

Park Youngsun paused and sipped on his tea before continuing.

“Also, there had been so many international lawsuits between Korean corporations and their foreign partnerships. So I’d like to suggest something. Since they made a suggestion to us, why don’t we make the contract?”

Everything Park Youngsun said made sense.

Any exclusive offer usually was followed by provisory clauses.

“Then, could you make a draft, Dr. Park?”

“Since you’re already determined, I’ll get right to it and make you a decent-looking one.”

Park Youngsun, who fulfilled his goal from the discussion, left the office with a smile.

Kim Joo-hyuk was feeling confident that he brought exceptional business proposals, but as Youngho did not give him a plausible response immediately as he expected, he fretted and fidgeted as he waited. His only wish now was to receive Youngho’s agreement, so that he could call the headquarters in Seoul to report the good news and drink some cold beer.

He frequently visited the building where Zeynep Corporation’s offices were to see what was going on. He did not know what Youngho was up to, so he wanted to see if office workers had heard anything from him.

On the other hand, Youngho who already decided what to do was having a relaxing day.

It was difficult to draw in H Corporation to his advantage, but he was almost there. It was rather H Corporation that was torn by anxiety and Kim Joo-hyuk’s action was its proof.

“Mr. Lee. I need to report the result to the headquarters. What should I tell them?”

“Mr. Kim. As you know, I’ve come this far with luck, but I never did any harm to my business partners.”

“...”

“I’d like to hear what your business philosophy is.”

“Well... I don’t quite understand what you’re saying.”

“I’m only curious about your past relationships with other foreign partnerships.”

“Are you assuming that our corporation is going to stab you in the back?”

“How could I imagine such a thing? I’m just curious.”

Kim Joo-hyuk, then, seemed to understand Youngho’s intention.

As Kim Joo-hyuk took a moment in thought, his face turned rigid.

It was because the corporation had never ended businesses with past foreign partnerships in good terms. In most cases, it had to content a lawsuit and some of them even created diplomatic problems.

The relationships with foreign partnerships always started in good terms, but contracts caused many problems. Many ambiguous clauses in their contracts often were blamed for lawsuits.

A contract for mineral resources was a long-term business that would be dealt in more than a decade of time. As the time went by, many company staffs that were in charge of the project would be replaced and the successors would find it easier to take problematic contract clauses to court, than trying to deal with the other party.

Youngho pointed that out.

“Mr. Kim. I appreciate your corporation’s suggestion, but I couldn’t help but think about the future. So, My counselor made a contract. Would you like to look at it?”

As Youngho handed him the contract, Kim Joo-hyuk read it thoroughly with a nervous face. He signed in relief after reading it twice.

“This is quite simple. I’d like to polish it a little bit, just in case. I’ll hand over this to the headquarters’ legal department for a review.”

He was an unavoidable professional manager.

“You don’t seem to understand my words. I gave you this so you can show it to the chairman and get his signature. As soon as the legal department takes over, the contract would gain ten more pages to it. Would you be able to handle it if I didn’t like the added conditions and reject to work with you?”

“...”

“There is no contract like this these days. I’m sure this is way clearer than contracts with twisted and coded sentences.”

The rough summary of the contract that was written by Park Youngsun.

According to the utmost good faith, the contracted conditions were carried toward the end of the contracted term. The party that could not carry out the conditions of the contract would give up any rights for the business. Any different opinions would be mediated and resolved by a mutual discussion of the two parties. Including the clauses above, the contract went on with simple and clear clauses. There were no conditions under each clause or complicated clauses.

This was a contract that could be unfair and could be beneficial to both parties at the same time. If both sides kept their promises without being greedy, the contract would not cause any problems.

The minerals would be priced according to the current market price each time of transaction and parts factory would share profits according to each party’s share. There was no need for a complicated contract.

Youngho only found out about this later, but the chairman of H Corporation chuckled after looking at the contract sent to him by Kim Joo-hyuk. Anyway, Youngho’s gleaning was finally gaining its momentum.