Hankook Tire "50 Billion Won Share Buyback to Enhance Shareholder Value"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] Hankook Tire & Technology (hereinafter Hankook Tire) announced on the 24th that it has resolved to further strengthen its shareholder-friendly management stance, focusing on enhancing shareholder value, improving financial soundness, and strengthening fundamental competitiveness through management innovation, as outlined in the board resolution and shareholder letter.

On the 23rd, Hankook Tire decided through a board resolution to repurchase its own shares to enhance shareholder value. It plans to purchase approximately 50 billion KRW worth of Hankook Tire shares over the next six months.

In addition, the dividend size was significantly increased. Hankook Technology Group decided on a cash dividend of 350 KRW per common share based on last year's settlement, greatly expanding the dividend compared to 300 KRW per share the previous year. Hankook Tire also decided on a dividend of 550 KRW per share and a total dividend amount of 68.1 billion KRW last year, an increase of about 22% compared to 450 KRW per share and a total of 55.7 billion KRW the previous year. Going forward, it will continue efforts to enhance shareholder value through improvements in shareholder return policies, considering investment plans and market conditions.

Along with this, a dedicated support system for outside directors and external auditors will be established to increase transparency in corporate governance, and an electronic voting system will be introduced for exercising voting rights at the general shareholders' meeting to encourage shareholder participation and expand communication with shareholders. In the long term, the company plans to strengthen the roles of the board of directors and audit bodies to establish advanced corporate governance.

Hankook Tire also plans to focus more on asset efficiency to strengthen financial soundness and secure future investment resources. In particular, it will sell idle assets such as the logistics center site in Yeongdo, Busan, and use the funds secured through this to invest in new growth engines, aiming to raise the company's future value. Additionally, it plans to internalize sustainable growth behaviors into corporate culture and employee awareness by expanding the win-win management system with partners and establishing an ethics management committee.

Furthermore, Hankook Tire plans to strengthen its fundamental competitiveness through active management innovation in the tire industry. Notably, Hankook Tire will innovate business processes across all areas including product development, SCM, marketing, and sales. It will especially expand investments in the development and supply capacity of products and tires for new vehicles. Moreover, it plans to achieve sales growth and improve market share and profitability by securing additional distribution channels in domestic, U.S., and European global markets.

Cho Hyun-sik, Vice Chairman of Hankook Technology Group, stated, "Due to the spread of COVID-19, the global automobile market, including Europe and the U.S., has faced challenges such as factory and distribution channel closures and demand decline, and short-term sales impacts are inevitable. However, we will make thorough preparations in advance to quickly reverse the situation with sales expansion once the crisis ends." He added, "We will continue attempts at management innovation within existing business areas and actively seek new investment and M&A opportunities based on a sound financial structure to simultaneously strengthen core business capabilities and future competitiveness, making our best efforts to further enhance shareholder value."

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