The court dismissed Yeongpung's injunction request to halt the tender offer for treasury shares filed against Korea Zinc. As a result, Korea Zinc can purchase treasury shares to defend its management rights.
On the 21st, the Seoul Central District Court Civil Division 50 (Chief Presiding Judge Kim Sang-hoon) made this decision regarding Yeongpung's injunction request to stop the tender offer procedure against Korea Zinc Chairman Choi Yoon-beom's side.
In this second injunction lawsuit, a key issue was whether Korea Zinc's tender offer for treasury shares was for the benefit of the entire company or for the current management, including Chairman Choi.
Yeongpung and Korea Zinc sharply clashed over specific points such as ▲whether the tender offer for Korea Zinc's treasury shares at 890,000 KRW per share harms the company ▲whether the directors who made this decision violated their duty of care ▲whether voluntary reserves can be included within the distributable profits limit by board resolution alone and used as funds for acquiring treasury shares ▲whether the tender offer for treasury shares, which the largest shareholder Yeongpung cannot participate in, violates the principle of shareholder equality.
Yeongpung filed an injunction request with the court to block Korea Zinc's announcement to conduct a tender offer for treasury shares worth 3.6 trillion KRW by the 23rd. Previously, Yeongpung had filed an injunction request to prevent Korea Zinc from acquiring treasury shares during the tender offer period (from the 13th of last month to the 4th of this month) to secure management rights, but it was dismissed on the 2nd.
Yeongpung, MBK Partners, and the current management led by Chairman Choi Yoon-beom are engaged in a battle to secure shares over the management rights of Korea Zinc, the world's number one non-ferrous metal smelting company.
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