Jowon-tae Achieves 'Complete Victory' in First Round... All Candidate Appointment Proposals from the Three-Party Alliance Rejected

[Asia Economy Reporters Hyewon Kim and Jehun Yoo] Cho Won-tae, Chairman of Hanjin Group, successfully secured reappointment as an inside director of Hanjin KAL on the 27th. While all the inside and outside director appointments recommended by the board of directors were approved, all candidates from the shareholder coalition (three-party alliance) aiming for group normalization faced defeat. With this, Chairman Cho achieved a complete victory in the first round against the shareholder coalition (three-party alliance) for group normalization.

Chairman Cho’s reappointment was approved with 56.67% in favor and 43.27% against at the 7th regular shareholders' meeting of Hanjin KAL held in the Hanjin Building, Sogong-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, on the morning of the same day. This allows Chairman Cho to retain his position as an inside director of Hanjin KAL until 2022.

In the concurrent inside director appointment, Ha Eun-yong, Vice President of Finance at Korean Air, was also smoothly appointed with 56.95% in favor and 42.99% against. For outside directors, all candidates recommended by Hanjin KAL?Kim Seok-dong, Park Young-seok, Lim Chun-soo, Choi Yoon-hee, and Lee Dong-myung?were approved.

On the other hand, all candidates from the three-party alliance were rejected. The appointment of Kim Shin-bae, former Vice Chairman of SK and inside director candidate, was rejected with 47.88% in favor and 51.91% against. Another inside director candidate, Bae Kyung-tae, former Vice President of Samsung Electronics (43.26% in favor, 56.52% against), as well as non-executive director candidate Ham Cheol-ho and four outside director candidates, were all rejected.

Thus, Chairman Cho secured a complete victory in the first round against the three-party alliance. Industry insiders view this outcome as expected, given that the court dismissed various injunction lawsuits filed by the three-party alliance and the National Pension Service also sided with Chairman Cho, widening the shareholding gap between the two sides to 10 percentage points.

However, a "long-term battle" seems inevitable. Recently, the three-party alliance has raised its shareholding ratio to 42.13%, which is not significantly different from the shares secured by Chairman Cho’s side. It is predicted that the three-party alliance will continue to attempt to control the board through demands for extraordinary general meetings and other means. An industry insider commented, "The three-party alliance likely purchased shares with a long-term battle in mind. Chairman Cho will also have to endure the dual hardships of a difficult management environment and a management rights dispute for the time being."

Meanwhile, the voting shares present at this shareholders' meeting accounted for 84.93%, reflecting the high level of interest related to the management rights dispute.

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