Sale of 15 Million Shares... 2 Million Shares Donated to Charity
KRW 500 Billion Scale... Sale Planned Until August Next Year
First Since Listing in March 2021
Kim Beom-seok, Chairman of Coupang Inc., announced plans to sell 15 million shares of Coupang stock by August next year. This is the first time Chairman Kim has initiated a stock sale since Coupang was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in March 2021.
According to Coupang on the 7th, Chairman Kim disclosed a pre-arranged stock sale plan to sell up to 15 million Class A common shares of Coupang through a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the 6th (local time). The stock sale will take place from the 11th of this month until August 29 of next year.
This disclosure follows the SEC guidelines under the U.S. Securities Exchange Act's '10b5-1' rule. This system allows corporate insiders such as executives to pre-determine the number of shares and the period for sale and submit a plan to restrict insiders from trading stocks based on non-public information.
Chairman Kim explained that the sale is intended to meet significant financial obligations, including tax liabilities. This marks the first large-scale stock sale by Chairman Kim since Coupang's listing on the New York Stock Exchange on March 15, 2021.
Separately from the stock sale plan, Chairman Kim also expressed his intention to donate up to 2 million Coupang shares. Currently, Chairman Kim holds 174,802,990 shares of Coupang (Class B common stock). The 15 million shares planned for sale and the 2 million shares intended for donation represent about 9.7% of his holdings. Applying the current stock price ($24), the sale amount is approximately 500 billion KRW.
A Coupang representative stated, "Once the stock transaction plan is completed, Chairman Kim will continue to hold 157,802,990 Class B common shares," adding, "There are no additional stock transaction plans until 2025." Meanwhile, Class B common shares carry 29 votes per share and can be converted into Class A common shares, which are regular shares.
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