The stock price of Korea Zinc, which is engaged in a management rights dispute with Youngpoong and MBK Partners, rose.
On the 2nd, Korea Zinc closed at 713,000 won, up 25,000 won (3.63%) from the previous trading day.
On that day, Korea Zinc started trading at 677,000 won, down 1.60% from the previous trading day. However, shortly after the market opened, the stock price reversed to an increase following news that the court dismissed the injunction request filed by Youngpoong and MBK Partners against Korea Zinc Chairman Choi Yoon-beom and CEOs Park Ki-duk and Jung Tae-woong, seeking to prohibit the acquisition of treasury shares.
In the afternoon, Korea Zinc announced that it would publicly tender and retire 3,029,009 common shares, equivalent to 15.5% of the total issued shares. Following this announcement, the stock price rose to as high as 740,000 won.
The tender offer price is 830,000 won per share, with the expected amount totaling approximately 2.6634 trillion won. Along with this, Korea Zinc plans to take out short-term loans totaling 2.7 trillion won, including 1.7 trillion won in financial institution borrowings and 100 million won in private bonds.
The public tender offer is being conducted together with the global private equity fund (PEF) Bain Capital. Bain Capital will acquire up to 517,582 shares, about 2.5% of the total issued shares, amounting to 429.6 billion won. Through this, Korea Zinc and Bain Capital plan to secure an 18% stake. The total amount Korea Zinc and Bain Capital will invest in treasury share purchases reaches 3.1 trillion won.
They also announced plans to enhance corporate value: ▲ pursuing a mid-to-long-term operating profit margin of over 12% ▲ growing sales by 2.5 times ▲ expanding the proportion of new business sales to 50%. Additionally, the value-up roadmap includes ▲ strengthening shareholder returns ▲ maintaining an average total shareholder return rate of at least 40% over three years ▲ keeping the retention ratio below 8000%.
As measures to increase target earnings value, they set goals such as ▲ aiming for a three-year average ROE (Return on Equity) of 9% ▲ maintaining Net Debt/EBITDA (net debt to cash flow capacity) below 2 times. They also plan to secure the sustainability of the roadmap through internalization.
Meanwhile, Youngpoong and MBK filed a criminal complaint against the board of directors along with an injunction request against the public tender offer of treasury shares. On the same day, Youngpoong filed an injunction request at the Seoul Central District Court to halt Korea Zinc’s "public tender offer for the purpose of acquiring treasury shares."
This is separate from the injunction request filed on September 13 to prohibit Korea Zinc, a special related party, from acquiring treasury shares during the public tender offer period by MBK Partners and Youngpoong. The injunction aims to stop the board of directors’ resolution on the public tender offer for treasury share purchases, claiming it is a breach of fiduciary duty that harms the interests of the company and all shareholders.
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