Ahead of the General Meeting, Kakao... Appoints Bae Jae-hyun as Executive Director and Pursues Investment in SM

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Kakao announced on the 22nd that it will hold the 28th General Meeting of Shareholders at its headquarters in Jeju on the 28th of next month. The agenda related to Kakao's acquisition of SM Entertainment was not included in this shareholders' meeting. However, Bae Jaehyun, Chief Investment Officer who led the SM investment, was nominated as a candidate for inside director.

At this shareholders' meeting, a total of nine agenda items will be discussed: approval of financial statements, partial amendment of the articles of incorporation, appointment of directors, appointment of outside directors as audit committee members, appointment of audit committee members, approval of director remuneration limits, cancellation of treasury stock, amendment of director retirement pay regulations, and approval of stock option grants.

There are six director candidates to be appointed at the shareholders' meeting, including three new appointments and three reappointments.

Bae Jaehyun, Co-Chief Investment Officer of the Kakao community, was nominated as an inside director candidate, and Jung Shina, CEO of Kakao Ventures, was nominated as a non-executive director candidate. Lawyer Shin Seonkyung from the law firm RIO is expected to join the board as an outside director, replacing outside director Cho Gyu-jin whose term is expiring.

In particular, inside director candidate Bae Jaehyun has played a key role in capital attraction and investment, recently leading large-scale investments worth over 1 trillion won and securing shares in SM. This is interpreted as a strategy to aggressively respond to the alliance movement between HYBE and former SM Chief Producer Lee Soo-man.

If all six candidates are appointed, the total number of registered executives at Kakao, including inside director and CEO Hong Eun-taek, will remain seven.

Currently, inside director Kim Seongsu, who serves as chairman of the Kakao board, will resign from both the chairman and director positions. The next chairman will be decided by the board after the shareholders' meeting as a procedural matter.

Meanwhile, Kakao disclosed the composition ratio of shareholders by country on its website along with the resolution and announcement of the shareholders' meeting on the same day.

As of December 31 of last year, 73.9% of Kakao shares are owned by domestic shareholders. In addition, Singapore holds 7.3%, North America 7.2%, and other foreigners 11.6%.

Kakao stated, "We plan to regularly update the shareholder composition ratio by country and strengthen communication by accurately providing additional information on governance to shareholders and stakeholders."