Korea Zinc: "Yeongpung and MBK Ignoring Court Ruling and Maliciously Disrupting Market"

"Intentional Abuse of Refiling Injunction Requests"
"Will Hold Legal Responsibility to the End," Emphasized

Korea Zinc warned on the 3rd that Youngpoong and MBK Partners, who are pursuing management rights acquisition, are ignoring the court's decision and continuing market manipulation and market disruption activities, urging them to stop such actions.

Chairman Choi Yoon-beom of Korea Zinc, who is engaged in a management rights dispute with MBK Partners and Youngpoong, is attending the Korea Zinc press conference held on the afternoon of the 2nd at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Yongsan-gu, Seoul.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

Korea Zinc made this statement in a press release on the same day, criticizing the Youngpoong-MBK alliance for filing an additional injunction with the court the previous day to halt Korea Zinc's tender offer for its own shares. The day before, the Seoul Central District Court dismissed Youngpoong's injunction request to prohibit Korea Zinc Chairman Choi Yoon-beom's side from acquiring treasury stocks. With this decision, Korea Zinc became able to defend its shares by purchasing treasury stocks against the Youngpoong-MBK alliance's attempt to acquire management rights through a public tender offer of Korea Zinc shares.

Immediately after the court ruling, Korea Zinc resolved at a board meeting to partner with global private equity firm Bain Capital and invest a total of 3.1 trillion KRW to publicly tender for treasury shares equivalent to 18% of the total shares at 830,000 KRW per share. In response, the Youngpoong-MBK alliance again filed an injunction lawsuit at the Seoul Central District Court to halt Korea Zinc's tender offer procedure for acquiring treasury stocks and criminally sued the directors who approved the treasury share tender offer.

Korea Zinc criticized this as "malicious acts with the intent of market manipulation and disruption, going beyond ignoring the relevant court." Korea Zinc pointed out, "They are aware that the injunction must be assigned to the same court that previously handled their injunction request to prohibit treasury stock acquisition, and that this injunction will also be dismissed for the same reasons, yet they filed it again to increase market instability and buy time." It added, "There is also an intention to 'intimidate' shareholders and investors from responding to Korea Zinc's treasury share tender offer through various lawsuits, and criticism exists that the repeated injunction requests are being deliberately abused to lower Korea Zinc's stock price."

Korea Zinc emphasized that the court did not accept any of the Youngpoong-MBK alliance's claims regarding prohibition of treasury stock acquisition, illegality of acquiring treasury stocks during the tender offer period, breach of fiduciary duty, or market manipulation. A Korea Zinc official said, "We will firmly oppose Youngpoong and MBK's actions that ignore the court's decision and disrupt the market, and will hold them legally accountable to the end."