'Responsible Management' Kumho Tire Employees Relay Buying Company Shares

[Asia Economy Reporter Suyeon Woo] Kumho Tire employees have actively purchased company shares to defend the stock price. This move aims to demonstrate their commitment to responsible management and confidence in performance recovery.

On the 14th, Kumho Tire announced that Jeon Dae-jin, President of Kumho Tire, purchased 10,000 company shares on the 7th. Kim Sang-yeop, Head of Sales and Marketing, also bought 7,000 shares on the same day, followed by a relay of share purchases by other key executives.

Kumho Tire explained that the recent share purchases by key executives are "an expression of confidence in performance improvement and an active action to defend the stock price," adding that it "shows a strong will for responsible management."

Until now, Kumho Tire had continued operating losses since the fourth quarter of 2016 due to the impact of the sale issue, but since Double Star's investment in 2018, it has laid the foundation for a performance rebound. From 2018 onwards, through continuous business normalization, the company achieved a turnaround to profitability in the second quarter of last year after 10 quarters and maintained profits for three consecutive quarters, raising expectations for a profitable full-year performance in 2019 as well.

Since last year, Kumho Tire has shown remarkable achievements, such as supplying all original equipment (OE) tires for Kia's popular compact sport utility vehicle (SUV) Seltos and recently starting OE supply for the German premium brand Audi Q5.

Marking its 60th anniversary this year, Kumho Tire plans to make this year the first year of operating profit achievement. As the will to improve performance is crucial for a leap beyond business normalization, this share purchase reflects the determination of the employees and executives.

A Kumho Tire official said, "Despite turning to a profit trend from the second quarter of last year, the stock price has excessively declined recently due to external adverse factors. Executives, including President Jeon Dae-jin, will continue to expand share purchases to fulfill their responsibilities as management."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.