I hate to ask, but is there some other way to make a "DIRECT INVESTMENT" in the company that doesn't involve owning stock shares?
Could they mean, for instance, buying (or leasing) property and paying for the building of new restaurants, including buying all of the internal necessities, where such a 'direct investor' would license the "Illegal Burger" rights, but otherwise own the store -- and ownership risk -- outright (=no stock shares involved)?