National Pension Service Opposes Appointment of Lim Jong-yoon as Hanmi Pharm Inside Director... "Low Attendance at Board Meetings"

"Opposition to Senior Director Lim Jong-yoon Due to 'Board Attendance Below 75%'"
Opposition Also to Directors Shin Dong-guk and Nam Byung-ho
Lim Jong-yoon: "Regret Opposition, It Hinders Resolution of Korea Discount"

The National Pension Service (NPS) has decided to vote against the appointment of Lim Jong-yoon, director of Hanmi Science, as an inside director of Hanmi Pharm.

Jong-yoon Lim (second from left), President of Hanmi Pharmaceutical, and Jong-hoon Lim (third from left), CEO of Hanmi Fine Chemical, are attending the '51st Hanmi Science Annual General Meeting of Shareholders' held on the 28th at Syntex in Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi-do. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

On the 13th, the NPS disclosed its voting record for the Hanmi Pharm extraordinary general meeting of shareholders (scheduled for the 18th) on its website. It will exercise its voting rights against the appointment of Lim Jong-yoon as an inside director. The reason for opposition is "attendance rate at board meetings was below 75% during the previous term." According to the NPS's fiduciary responsibility guidelines, candidates with a board attendance rate below 75% in the previous term may be voted against.

The NPS also decided to oppose the appointment of Shin Dong-guk as a non-executive director and Nam Byung-ho, CEO of Herrings, as an outside director. The opposition to candidate Shin is due to "difficulty in fulfilling duties of loyalty because of excessive concurrent positions," and for candidate Nam, the reason is "compromised independence as an outside director due to conflicts of interest with the company." However, the NPS will vote in favor of the appointment of Lim Jong-hoon, inside director and CEO of Hanmi Science, the parent company of Hanmi Pharm.

Due to the NPS's opposition, the possibility of candidate Lim Jong-yoon being rejected is low. As of the 3rd, the NPS holds a 9.95% stake in Hanmi Pharm. Hanmi Science holds a 41.42% stake. Additionally, Shin Dong-guk, chairman of Hanyang Precision and an ally, holds a 7.72% stake.

Meanwhile, regarding the NPS's decision, Lim Jong-yoon, director of Hanmi Science, expressed regret over the opposition to his appointment, stating, "The Hanmi Pharm board was dominated by private equity fund personnel, who can be considered the main culprits of the management dispute, along with existing board members who cooperated with them. I abstained from attending in order to officially veto, that is, exercise a rejection right, over Hanmi Pharm's decision-making as a board member." This implies that even before the management dispute of the Hanmi Pharm Group surfaced, the private equity fund was leading efforts to exclude him from work and to take control of the organization. Lim argued, "The NPS's exercising opposition solely based on board attendance rates at the shareholders' meeting agenda runs counter to the current trend of resolving the Korea discount (undervaluation of the Korean stock market)."