Song Appointed as New CEO of Hanmi Science as Second Son Lim Jonghoon Resigns
Management Dispute Following OCI Integration Efforts Concludes After a Year
The year-long management dispute within Hanmi Pharm Group has come to a conclusion. Song Young-sook, Chairwoman of Hanmi Pharm Group, has been appointed as the new CEO of the holding company Hanmi Science, while Lim Jong-hoon, the current CEO of Hanmi Science, will step down from his management role.
Hanmi Science announced on the morning of the 13th that at the board meeting, CEO Lim resigned and Chairwoman Song was appointed as the new CEO.
The company explained that CEO Song plans to focus on reorganizing and stabilizing the group’s structure and normalizing management. Hanmi Science also stated that there will be an official opportunity to disclose a more advanced governance system after the regular shareholders’ meeting in March.
Former CEO Lim Jong-hoon said, "Although I am stepping down from the CEO position, I will continue to work harder for the company as a member of the founding family."
The management dispute within Hanmi Pharm Group was triggered last January when an integration with OCI Group was pursued.
Chairwoman Song, the spouse of Hanmi Pharm founder Lim Sung-ki, and her daughter, Vice Chairwoman Lim Joo-hyun, pushed for the integration to resolve inheritance tax issues and for business cooperation, but the brothers Lim Jong-yoon (inside director of Hanmi Science) and Lim Jong-hoon (former CEO of Hanmi Science) opposed it.
Ultimately, at the Hanmi Science regular shareholders’ meeting at that time, the brothers’ faction secured a majority on the board, causing the integration to fail. The conflict continued, and the mother-daughter faction allied with Shin Dong-guk, Chairman of Hanyang Precision who holds a large stake in Hanmi Science, and the private equity firm La D?fense Partners.
On the 11th, outside director Sabong-gwan and other non-executive director Kwon Kyu-chan, both known to be aligned with the brothers’ faction, resigned from the Hanmi Science board.
The board was previously evenly split 5 to 5 between the mother-daughter faction led by Chairwoman Song and Vice Chairwoman Lim Joo-hyun and the brothers’ faction, but with the resignation of these two directors, the balance shifted to 5 to 3.
In terms of shareholding, the mother-daughter faction holds 54.42%, while the brothers’ faction holds 21.86%. With the advantage in both the board and shareholding structure, it is widely regarded that the mother-daughter faction has effectively won the management dispute.
A Hanmi Pharm Group official described the resignation of the two directors as "the first concrete step toward ending the management dispute and normalizing the management of Hanmi Pharm Group."
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