Must Asset Management "Yeongpung Must Appoint Independent Outside Directors at the General Meeting of Shareholders"

Must Asset Management, a minority shareholder of Youngpoong, announced on the 5th that it urged the company to appoint independent outside directors and swiftly implement shareholder-friendly policies in the form of shareholder proposals.

In a statement released that day, Must Asset Management emphasized, "The terms of the three outside directors of Youngpoong are one year, so new directors must be appointed at this regular general meeting of shareholders," adding, "We propose three candidates for outside directors considering their expertise, independence, and suitability with the company."

The candidates proposed by Must Asset Management are lawyer Jeon Young-jun, Park Eung-han, head of the AL Square division, and lawyer Ji Heon-young. Must Asset Management stressed that these individuals are recognized experts in enhancing shareholder rights, real estate lease management, and environmental fields, respectively.

Youngpoong owns two high-value buildings in central Seoul, requiring professional asset management, and has caused controversy due to issues such as negligence in wastewater and sulfuric acid gas management at the Seokpo smelter in Gyeongbuk, which is why environmental experts need to participate in management.

Must Asset Management emphasizes that policies for shareholder rights must be implemented to the fullest extent. Since the company, with net assets of 5 trillion KRW, is trading at a market capitalization of about 700 billion KRW, indicating a serious undervaluation problem, they argue that waiting any longer is not an option.

Regarding the recent purchase of a 10.3% stake in Youngpoong by Sun Metal Corporation (SMC), a subsidiary of Korea Zinc, for 57.5 billion KRW, which effectively neutralized Korea Zinc's voting rights in Youngpoong, Must Asset Management also claimed that "the undervaluation problem was the cause."

They explained that the stock was cheap, allowing acquisition of shares with relatively small funds, and that this gave SMC a pretext to claim that they bought the shares due to the attractiveness of undervaluation.

Must Asset Management stated, "Neglecting the extreme undervaluation problem negatively affects the actual corporate value," and added, "At least the minimum essential shareholder-friendly policies must be implemented for the success of the ongoing Korea Zinc project (securing management rights of Korea Zinc)."

Youngpoong is scheduled to hold its regular general meeting of shareholders next month. The exact date has not yet been decided. Must Asset Management's stake in Youngpoong is known to be in the 3% range.