Exceeding 45% Voting Shares... Over 5% Point Gap with Choi Yoon-beom's Side
"Trading in a Way That Does Not Affect Market Price... Legal Action Against False Information Dissemination"
MBK Partners increased its stake by an additional 1.36% through on-market purchases following the conclusion of the tender offer for Korea Zinc, widening the shareholding gap with Chairman Choi Yoon-beom's Korea Zinc faction by more than 5 percentage points.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system on the 11th, MBK Partners' special purpose company (SPC), Korea Enterprise Investment Holdings, acquired 282,366 shares of Korea Zinc (1.36% of the total issued shares) from the settlement date of the tender offer on the 18th of last month through to this day.
As a result, the combined stake of the MBK-Youngpoong alliance in Korea Zinc increased from 38.47% to 39.83%.
The shareholding of Chairman Choi Yoon-beom's faction is estimated at 34.65%, including friendly forces, following the departure of Korea Investment & Securities (158,861 shares, 0.87%), previously classified as an ally.
Excluding treasury shares without voting rights and shares owned by foundations, the MBK-Youngpoong alliance's voting rights stake is estimated at 45.42%, while Chairman Choi's faction holds approximately 39.5%.
MBK's on-market purchases were steadily made over 15 trading days, ranging from a minimum of 529 shares to a maximum of 50,050 shares. The largest volume of shares was acquired on the 31st of last month, when Korea Zinc's stock hit the lower limit following the sudden announcement of a general public rights offering.
The total acquisition funds amounted to 292.1 billion KRW. Of this, 205.9 billion KRW was MBK's own capital, with the remainder borrowed from NH Investment & Securities.
MBK stated that these on-market purchases were conducted using the 'Careful Discretion (CD)' trading method.
Careful Discretion trading refers to a method where investors deposit margin with a securities firm, which then executes small, steady trades without impacting the stock price.
An MBK representative said, "Korea Enterprise Investment Holdings purchased shares on-market through a discretionary trading account opened with NH Investment & Securities, complying with procedures and regulations without affecting the market price. We plan to take strict measures against unfounded speculations by some groups disparaging transparent transactions and defamatory articles claiming purchases were made through mutual credit cooperatives."
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