SK Biopharm Surrounded by '1.6 Billion Lotto Rumor': "Rejoining After Resignation? Nonsense"

About 10 Employees Resign One After Another

On the afternoon of the 2nd, when SK Biopharm was newly listed, a stock price graph was displayed on the Infomax monitor in Jongno-gu, Seoul. On that day, SK Biopharm surged to the price limit (29.59%) compared to the opening price, closing at 127,000 won.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] SK Biopharm's stock price has nearly quadrupled since its IPO, leading some employees to resign. It is reported that some employees expressed their intention to resign from the very first day of trading, which opened at twice the IPO price and closed at the upper limit, in order to realize capital gains. SK Biopharm is suffering from the side effects of a windfall in company stock due to the rapid surge in its shares, to the extent that people are saying, "They might resign to sell their shares and then rejoin the company."

According to industry sources on the 22nd, about 10 employees have applied for resignation since SK Biopharm's stock listing. This accounts for about 5% of the total workforce (207 employees). SK Biopharm employees were allocated an average of 11,820 shares each as employee stock ownership. The average investment principal was 579.18 million KRW. It is known that team leaders received more than 20,000 shares.

As of 11:11 AM on the same day, SK Biopharm's stock price was 191,000 KRW, nearly four times the IPO price (49,000 KRW). Based on the previous day's closing price of 180,550 KRW, the per-share unrealized gain translates to over 1.6 billion KRW in capital gains per person.

Employee stock ownership is subject to a one-year lock-up period after listing, making immediate profit realization impossible. However, if an employee resigns, the shares are released one month later. This has led to speculation that some employees are resigning to sell their otherwise untradeable employee shares and realize profits. An SK Biopharm official said, "There were employees who expressed their intention to resign from the very first day of listing (the 2nd)," adding, "The emergence of resignations has unsettled the internal atmosphere, and more employees are considering resignation."

Some speculate that certain SK Biopharm employees might use the loophole of "resigning and then rejoining," but this is completely untrue. An SK Biopharm official refuted this, stating, "The idea of resigning and then rejoining is 100% groundless," and "We are not considering such a method at all."

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