Chapter 288: Chapter 282

Hyunwoo’s takeover of Samryong Motors was a big concern to many people. They were interested not only in making a smash hit with Samryong Motors but also how much wealth he had.

“How rich is he?”

“I guess at least 10 trillion won?”

“Maybe he already surpassed Konho Ahn, CEO of Ohsung Group in terms of personal wealth.”

In fact, Hyunwoo was curious about that, too.

‘How much money do I have now?’

He could estimate his wealth, but it was impossible to figure it out accurately. Though KOVE DREAM, Ani & Funny and N&C Korea were all corporations, they were not listed on the stock market. Only Samryong Motors was listed on KOSPI.

Many of the public also showed interest in his personal wealth. When it became the talk of the town, his father Duyoung jokingly asked, “How much money do you have?”

He just smiled and said, “Haha, I don’t know exactly how much I’ve got. This summer I’m going to get Ani & Funny as well as KOVE DREAM listed on the KOSPI officially. Then I think I can figure out the exact size of my wealth.”

“That’s a good move. In fact, it’s well overdue. When you officially get them listed, you can make use of them much better. I guess you can figure out the size of your wealth then.”

Was it the reason? Duyoung kept asking about his financial matters.

“By the way, how much sales and profits are your companies are making? I hear you’re making a huge sum of money…”

In fact, he received a written report on final accounts.

And the sales and net profits were really surprising.

In particular, Ani & Funny’s was impressive.

It produced new animated movies and seven short stories in the market last year.

Thanks to Yenam Noh’s brilliant activities, not a single work failed, raking in huge revenues. In particular, one movie and two short stories hit box offices in an unprecedented way.

Garbage World, Tuti & Angelica and Iron Worm were all making a smash hit.

The revenues through books were also large. The biggest source of revenue was the secondary revenues through the merchandising of the animated characters.

When all the sales were combined, the total revenues amounted to about 6 trillion won.

Of course, the expenses related to the growing activities of the companies were also snowballing rapidly. There were 250 full-time employees and 200 part-timers.

Besides, there were about 12,000 seasonal workers at the Ani & Funny’s internet cafe.

So, the regular salaries were 800 billion won, and when other expenses were added, the total expenses in Korea alone were 1.2 trillion won.

Hyunwoo ran the branches in Vietnam, China and India.

The overseas staff in Vietnam numbered 4,000, 12,000 in China and 4,000 in India. The overall salaries of these overseas employees were 300 billion won.

But the overseas companies paid more secondary costs than staff salaries. It was almost 900 billion won, all told.

Still, Hyunwoo’s net profits were 4 trillion won.

Thanks to this huge capital funds, Hyunwoo could expand the Kennyland under construction in Sosan City, and he was planning to build similar theme parks overseas, including China and America.

Compared with Ani & Funny, the revenues of KOVE DREAM were small. Its net profits were only 300 billion won.

The poor performance of KOVE DREAM was not because of the decrease in its sales. Rather its sales were increasing by 30% every year with the addition of its member countries.

The main reason for it was the lowering of its membership fees. As many large companies competed to imitate KOVE DREAM in a war of low fees, KOVE DREAM sold their products with little profit.

But the total profits of KOVE DREAM were more than 3 trillion won because of the returns on investments. The number of companies Hyunwoo had a stake in as of today was 73, including 27 additions from last year. 15 companies out of them hit the jackpot while another 15 made a big hit. On the other hand, there were 14 companies that went bankrupt.

KOVE DREAM was no more a sales company but an equities fund like OneStar.

N&C Korea was incorporated into KOVE DREAM last year. Jaegyong Kang and Sungrak Sohn, the co-representatives of N&C Korea, were promoted to vice chairman of general sales and subscription sales departments, respectively. Juhwan Moon and Sonjong Kim became the director of instant sales and planning departments, respectively.

Hyunwoo pitted the directors against them in selecting the future CEO of KOVE DREAM.

To be its first CEO, all of them really worked hard.

Now all the attention of the public was focused on the initial public offering (IPO) of Ani & Funny as well as the coming of KOVE DREAM stocks because listing them on KOSPI was around the corner.

“Wow, how much can its market capitalization be?”

“Can it surpass Ohsung Group?”

“That won’t be easy.”

“Can Ani & Funny compete with Tony World of the USA?”

“The market capitalization of Tony World is more than 130 trillion won. Even though Ani & Funny enjoys such remarkable growth, it won’t be easy to surpass Tony World.”

“I can’t wait to see the IPO of Ani & Funny and KOVE DREAM.”

Hyunwoo was as anxious as them. He couldn’t go to sleep as he was so thrilled on the eve of the IPO day.

Finally, the IPO day came. Ani & Funny and KOVE DREAM were listed on KOSPI on the same day.

The market reaction was explosive.

Hyunwoo put the IPO price of Ani & Funny at 100,000 won.

As the number of issued stocks was 200 million, he estimated its market capitalization at 20 trillion won.

Some were concerned about the high IPO price, pointing out that its right IPO price was 80,000 won.

But the results were the opposite. As soon as they were listed on KOSPI, it hit the maximum price and didn’t go down.

Stock experts quickly presented their own analysis.

Their analysis was based on the comparison with Tony World.

The leader in the global animation world was Tony World. It was once threatened by Japanese animation companies, but it beat them easily.

The current market capitalization of Tony World was over 130 billion dollars. Converted in Korean currency won, it was about 135 trillion won.

But there had been a change in the animation market these days. When Ani & Funny and Tony World announced their work simultaneously, Ani & Funny emerged as the winner at the end of the day.

As a result, Tony World suffered the worst deficits it had for the past three years. Its stock prices plummeted, leading to its market capitalization less than 100 billion dollars.

That meant Tony World was the setting sun in the animation world, while Ani & Funny established itself as the new leader in the global animation market.

Accordingly, the stock prices of Ani & Funny kept soaring.

KOVE DREAM’s IPO was also impressive. Its market capitalization was half of Ani & Funny’s, but its stock prices were on the upward trend.

Thanks to the successful IPO results of Ani Funny & KOVE DREAM, Hyunwoo’s personal wealth was revealed to the public for the first time.

He had 70% and 65% of the total shares of Ani & Funny and KOVE DREAM respectively. That meant the value of his stocks in Ani & Funny and KOVE DREAM was about 16 trillion won and about 7 trillion won.

His combined wealth easily put Konho Ahn, CEO of Ohsung, in the shade.

But that was not all.

Market analysts estimated that the stock value of STM was at least 10 trillion won, and Hyunwoo possessed 98% of its stocks.

Besides, he personally made a great investment in the companies in China and Vietnam, which kept growing with their combined stock value reaching more than 3 trillion won.

Overall, the experts estimated that Hyunwoo’s total wealth was over 38.6 trillion won.

That was a pretty surprising number. Even 10 billion won was too much for ordinary people to count, but Hyunwoo’s wealth was 400 times that amount.

Naturally, the general public exclaimed in surprise.

“Wow, I thought his wealth is about the same as Konho Ahn’s. But he’s got money three times as much as his.”

“I hear only a few years ago he was an ordinary employee of a small furniture company. How could he make such a huge sum of money within such a short period of time?”

“I guess he was born with the blessings of money.”

Hyunwoo was the subject of everybody’s envy.

Accordingly, Yu Zuung was also the envy of every woman. Wasn’t she now a woman loved by Korea’s richest man?

As soon as Hyunwoo’s wealth was known, Yu Zuung was not merely a top star, but a noblewoman that nobody could dare touch easily.

But neither Hyunwoo nor Yu Zuung thought much about their wealth.

Hyunwoo just acted as he did so far. He had a meal three times a day, tried to get sound sleep and exercised whenever he had free time.

He bent over backward to take care of the many businesses as he could starting from morning and late into the night.

What he concentrated on most these days was Haenim School and STM Research Center in Tapgokri, Sosan.

Hyunwoo spent money on Haenim School freely. He advertised enrollment for as many students as possible and kept building buildings for them.

He also established Sinsung University.

Sinsung University was kind of special college. Instead of having the applicants take entrance exams, Sinsung University selected students on the recommendation of the doctors of STM research centers and their high school teachers.

Its first target were the graduating classes of Haenim School, of course.

Any graduate of Haenim School could enter the university, but their acceptance didn’t necessarily guarantee their success.

They were supposed to be rated by the professors every year. If they failed, they would be expelled immediately.

The education and administration of Sinsung University were also focused on nurturing the creativity of the students. It hosted an open contest on the best inventor in and out of season and created a research center to support and make their inventions marketable as products.

Ten patent lawyers were hired.

The invention contest was not confined to the students of Sinsung University only. Ordinary citizens could also apply through the homepage of Sinsung University.

In fact, Sinsung University focused more on making inventions through the contest marketable as products than just churning out inventions themselves.

As soon as Sinsung University opened, it drew an explosive response from the students across the country. Not only those with extraordinary skills but also those who only focused on getting the best grades were admitted.

In the second year of the opening, there were over 120,000 applicants competing to get in. Among them were not only high school graduates but also adults who were more than 40 years old.

The problem was that the enrollment number of the university was only 1,000.

Though the school kept expanding its facilities with the goal of increasing the enrollment number to 50,000, it took time.

After all, the school authorities decided to select the students through strict examinations. The rate of competition was as high as 120 to one.

They announced a list of the successful applicants.

Naturally, the applicants had mixed feelings of joy and sorrow at the results. Those who were admitted shouted for joy, while those who failed were greatly disappointed.

The general public was also disappointed.

“Yea, that’s what I expected. They advertised that they just paid lip service when they said they would enroll only those applicants with extraordinary skills. After all, they enrolled the best students only.”

“I’m so disappointed.”

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