Orange Life Becomes a Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Shinhan Financial... Only 4% Opposition

Positive Evaluation from Shareholders at the General Meeting

Signaling Accelerated Integration with Shinhan Life Insurance

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Hyung-gil] Shinhan Financial Group's plan to make Orange Life a wholly owned subsidiary received positive evaluations from Orange Life shareholders as well. This is expected to accelerate the integration process with Shinhan Life within the Shinhan Group.

According to the insurance industry on the 13th, Orange Life held a general shareholders' meeting on the 10th and approved the agenda to enter into a stock exchange agreement with Shinhan Financial Group. Shinhan Financial Group had announced last September that it would conduct a stock exchange for the remaining 33.5 million shares (40.85%) of Orange Life, offering 0.66 shares of Shinhan Financial Group stock per one Orange Life share.

According to the results of this shareholders' meeting, among the 80,514,303 shares with voting rights, the attendance rate of shareholders was 80.05%. Of these, 92.21% voted in favor of the stock exchange, while only 4.43% opposed it. Considering Shinhan Financial Group's holding of 59.16%, the approval rate was overwhelmingly high.

Following the shareholders' approval, Shinhan Financial Group and Orange Life will carry out the stock exchange on the 28th, and Orange Life is scheduled to be delisted on the 14th of next month. Shinhan Financial Group is expected to immediately begin the integration process with Shinhan Life thereafter. It is anticipated that the merger will create one of the top four life insurance companies in Korea with total assets of approximately 66 trillion won.

Jeong Moon-guk, CEO of Orange Life, who successfully secured reappointment this year, appears to be preparing for organizational integration as he recently completed executive appointments. Newly appointed executives include Vice President Kwak Hee-pil, Head of Sales Channel Division; Vice President Lee Young-jong, Head of New Life Promotion Office; and Vice President Byun Chang-woo, Head of Customer Acquisition Tribe.

Key executives such as Executive Director Ham Young-jung, Head of Finance & IR Division, and Executive Director Kim Beom-su, Head of FC (Financial Consultant) Sales Strategy Division, were also reappointed. Over the past year, Orange Life has slimmed down its executive team from 33 to 27 members in preparation for the integration.

Earlier, on the 9th, Orange Life held a management strategy meeting and announced a sales strategy to significantly strengthen support for the exclusive FC channel, including sales systems and customer management. The plan includes reallocating resources and investing in the FC channel to increase commission rates proportional to performance and to enhance the vision of sales managers.

At the meeting, CEO Jeong stated, "By combining Orange Life's sales power and capital strength with Shinhan Financial Group's brand power, we can create innovations and value that no one else can. We will reorganize the business model simply to promote both quantitative and qualitative growth of the business."