"No Intention to Collaborate with MBK·Yeongpung"…Korea Zinc Core Technical Team Issues Statement

Lee Jejung and 15 Key Executives Issue Statement
"We Are One Team, Standing with Current Management"
"No Future for the Company if MBK and Youngpoong Take Over the Board"
"All New Businesses Pursued So Far Will Be Lost"

Key technical personnel at Korea Zinc reiterated that they have no intention of working with MBK Partners and Youngpoong.

On the 16th, 15 key technical staff members of Korea Zinc, including Vice Chairman and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Lee Je-jung, issued a statement saying, "We strongly oppose the hostile merger and acquisition (M&A) attempts by MBK and Youngpoong," and added, "If MBK and Youngpoong's hostile M&A attempts succeed, we will not cooperate with them."

They pointed out, "If the speculative private equity fund MBK and Youngpoong, a company plagued by severe environmental pollution and deficits, take control of Korea Zinc's board of directors, Korea Zinc has no future."

Now, Lee Je-jung, Vice Chairman of Korea Zinc, along with executives and employees, expressed their opposition to the public tender offer at a press conference regarding the management rights dispute with MBK and Youngpoong held at Korea Zinc in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on September 24 last year. Photo by Jo Yong-jun jun21@

Earlier, in a press conference held in September last year, Korea Zinc's key technical personnel stated, "Core technical staff and all employees of Korea Zinc will stand with the current management," and warned, "If speculative forces like MBK Partners take over Korea Zinc, core technologies will quickly be transferred overseas, and South Korea's industrial competitiveness will collapse."

Ahead of Korea Zinc's extraordinary general meeting scheduled for the 23rd, they issued a public statement once again to emphasize this position. The key technical personnel's conviction that they can never work with MBK and Youngpoong has solidified as they observed the ignorance displayed by MBK and Youngpoong regarding Korea Zinc's business, technology, and new growth engines through press conferences and interviews.

Vice Chairman Lee stated, "MBK and Youngpoong are solely focused on taking over Korea Zinc, which has achieved solid and stable growth," and emphasized, "If their hostile M&A succeeds, all the ambitious new businesses Korea Zinc has been pursuing will be wasted, which would be a tremendous national loss."

Regarding MBK's statement that it would treat Korea Zinc's current employees at a global top level, he dismissed it by saying, "We have no intention of working with incompetent management," calling it "a typical idea of a speculative private equity fund that only pursues short-term profit maximization."

Statement from the Core Technology Team of Korea Zinc. Provided by Korea Zinc.