Ahead of the Hanmi Science shareholders' meeting, Shin Dong-guk, chairman of Hanyang Precision, who declared support for brothers Lim Jong-yoon and Lim Jong-hoon, appealed on the 27th, "I want to leave a precedent where individual shareholders, including myself, are not ignored," and urged, "Minority shareholders should trust my judgment and support with confidence."
Chairman Shin Dong-guk is a hometown friend of the late Lim Sung-gi, the founder of Hanmi, and the largest individual shareholder (with a 12.15% stake).
Earlier, expressing support for the brothers, Chairman Shin said, "I hope Lim Jong-yoon and Jong-hoon form a new board of directors to quickly stabilize the company and continuously seek follow-up measures for the company's long-term development and maximization of shareholder value."
Shin added, "Shareholders will better understand that after observing Hanmi for nearly 50 years, I had no choice but to take this position," and stated, "I hope minority shareholders make good decisions from a long-term perspective on what investments benefit themselves, Hanmi's future, and furthermore, the future of the Korean economy."
Minority shareholders also seem to be joining Chairman Shin's opinion. As the court and the National Pension Service have consecutively expressed support for the Hanmi-OCI group merger, they feel they can no longer stand by. In fact, on portal stock discussion boards and online community forums where minority shareholders share their opinions, voices supporting the two brothers overwhelmingly dominate.
Posts with titles such as "Support the brothers," "Vote for or delegate to the brothers," and "We must really stop the minority shareholders" continue to be posted.
One shareholder wrote in a post titled "Why Lim Jong-yoon Must Win Against Chairman Song's Misjudgment," "Looking at how the stock price falls as the merger approaches, the stock market has sent a signal of decline regarding the merger," and added, "President Lim Jong-yoon presented pledges indicating Hanmi's direction for shareholders, so wouldn't it be right for shareholders to support Lim Jong-yoon?"
Another shareholder posted, "After much consideration, I have decided to support the brothers," and said, "Seeing the stock price plummet after a court ruling favorable to the company, I realized that supporting the brothers is definitely advantageous for me."
In particular, calls to encourage minority shareholders to vote are growing louder. Shareholders are writing posts such as "Minority shareholders' stakes are much larger than the National Pension Service's," "If minority shareholders gather just a little more, they can overturn the situation," and "Please encourage delegation to the eldest son to show that there is justice in capitalism." This atmosphere is completely opposite to that of the court and the National Pension Service.
Earlier, the minority shareholders' coalition submitted a petition signed by 321 people opposing the 'Hanmi-OCI merger' to the court in three rounds by the 15th, lending support to the brothers. In the petition, minority shareholders viewed this merger as a deal for the private interests of a third party rather than Hanmi Science's benefit, criticizing it as a low-priced new share issuance ignoring the management premium. They also expressed concern that the rights offering for the merger would result entirely in damage to minority shareholders. They explained that Hanmi Science would be reduced to an intermediate holding company of OCI Holdings after the merger, leading to deteriorated business viability and difficulty in deciding shareholder returns, severely damaging the company's value.
Meanwhile, Samsung Securities' electronic voting closes today at 5 p.m., and delegation through ACT is until midnight.
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