Align Partners Sends Second Letter to Doosan Bobcat... Urges Announcement of Abandoning Comprehensive Stock Swap Reattempt

"The Core Issue is Conflict of Interest Among Shareholders
...Public Response by December 31"

Activist fund Align Partners Asset Management has once again urged Doosan Bobcat to accept demands including ▲abandoning the re-promotion of a comprehensive stock swap with Doosan Robotics ▲special dividends ▲strengthening the independence of the board of directors.

On the 25th, Align Partners stated, "we sent a second shareholder letter to the Doosan Bobcat board yesterday, requesting a public response by the 31st of next month."

First, Align Partners welcomed the announcement of a 'corporate value enhancement plan' to be made within the year as a response to the first shareholder letter sent last month, but pointed out that demands such as the 'announcement to abandon the re-promotion of the comprehensive stock swap' were not accepted.

Align Partners emphasized, "Doosan Bobcat stated that 'a comprehensive stock swap is difficult to proceed without sufficient consensus with shareholders and the market,' but to fully alleviate concerns in the capital market, it must publicly announce the abandonment of the re-promotion." They added, "the core concern in the capital market is the conflict of interest among shareholders, where from the controlling shareholder's perspective, a lower stock price benefits the exchange and merger ratio," and said, "the board of directors should clearly state its firm position on the re-promotion and announce measures to resolve conflict of interest concerns."

They also demanded a more effective corporate value enhancement plan, including special dividends. Align Partners said, "So far, Doosan Bobcat has maintained a low shareholder return rate (an average of 22% over the past 3 years) compared to peer companies (an average of 65% over the past 3 years) citing mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and has reportedly retained most of its profits," adding, "the core of the corporate value enhancement plan should be listing in the U.S. and normalization of shareholder return rates, as well as capital structure optimization. The 1.5 trillion KRW that was intended to be used to respond to stock purchase rights should be used for shareholder returns through special dividends."

Regarding the request to strengthen board independence, they urged, "The Doosan Bobcat Audit Committee should transparently investigate and disclose the results on whether the board, prior to the previous comprehensive stock swap resolution, conducted sufficient internal review and deliberation, prioritizing the interests of the company and all shareholders in determining the timing, method, and procedures of the comprehensive stock swap."

Previously, Doosan Group attempted to merge Doosan Bobcat and Doosan Robotics during its business restructuring process but withdrew the merger via comprehensive stock swap due to shareholder opposition. As of the 22nd, Align Partners holds 1,356,973 shares of Doosan Bobcat stock (1.35% of total issued shares) through managed and advisory funds.