Executive Director Park Cheol-wan Increases Kumho Petrochemical Shares... Mother Also Joins In

[Asia Economy Reporter Ji Yeon-jin] Park Cheol-wan, Executive Director who is in a dispute over the management rights of Kumho Petrochemical against his uncle Chairman Park Chan-gu, has purchased additional company shares.

Park Cheol-wan, the largest individual shareholder of Kumho Petrochemical, announced on the 4th that he purchased 9,550 shares of the company on the market on the 2nd. The acquisition price was about 200,000 KRW per share, costing approximately 2 billion KRW for this share purchase. Park's holdings in Kumho Petrochemical increased from 3,046,782 shares to 3,056,332 shares, raising his stake from 9.10% to 9.13%.

Additionally, Park announced separately that his mother, Kim Hyung-il, purchased 25,875 shares (0.08%) of Kumho Petrochemical and that she will be added as a special related party. The cost of Kim's share purchase was about 5.5 billion KRW. The combined shareholding ratio of Park's side slightly increased from 10% to 10.12%.

The shares secured this time will not have voting rights at the regular shareholders' meeting held later this month. The business community views this as a strategic move to secure friendly votes in the expected showdown with Chairman Park Chan-gu's side at the upcoming shareholders' meeting and to consider actions after the meeting.

Park Cheol-wan has been raising the level of his offensive ahead of the shareholders' meeting by launching a webpage the day before to publicly announce plans to enhance shareholder value.