is only in financing: rather than issue stocks to get cash input, he offers the ownership of the shelf space. He avoids the upfront cash input, which he does not have for himself.
There are two problems here:
1. the commercial real estate may have very limited appeal, since the final users lose cost advantage after paying the high rent.
The business model might be not profitable or sustainable in long run since rent income can not justify the individual investment.
2.his financing method also creates seeds of future controversies.
This article also mess up the accounting profit with cash flows. The 200 m money he got is not his profit. He got easily corrupted with this huge cash pile.