KB Financial Board "Opposes Union-Nominated Outside Directors" VS Union "Unreasonable Logic"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi] KB Financial Group's board of directors has expressed opposition to the appointment of outside director candidates recommended by the employee stock ownership association, making a vote showdown over the shareholder proposal for outside director recommendations inevitable at the extraordinary general meeting scheduled for the 20th.

On the 29th of last month, KB Financial's board of directors clearly stated its opposition to the shareholder proposal for outside director candidate recommendations put forward by some shareholders, including the head of the employee stock ownership association, through a public disclosure.

The board stated, "The recommendation of outside director candidates at our company is conducted systematically and rigorously through stages of candidate pool composition, evaluation, shortlisting, reputation checks, and final selection. We consider it undesirable for candidates who have not gone through KB's exemplary outside director candidate management and recommendation procedures to be appointed, and therefore oppose the agenda item."

It continued, "The proposing shareholders claim they urgently recommend environmental and governance experts as directors to strengthen Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) aspects, but KB Financial already established an ESG committee in March this year, the first in the industry, composed entirely of directors with expertise in various fields including governance experts." "Since the current size and structure of the board have been formed over several years with shareholders' approval at general meetings, if shareholder-proposed candidates are additionally appointed at the extraordinary general meeting without unavoidable reasons such as the retirement of existing directors, changes to the board and committee composition will be inevitable, causing confusion in board operations," it explained.

Earlier, KB Financial's employee stock ownership association submitted a shareholder proposal to the board office recommending ESG experts Professor Yoon Soon-jin of Seoul National University Graduate School of Environmental Studies and Ryu Young-jae, CEO of Sustainvest, as outside director candidates. This was based on the reason that KB Financial Group urgently needs to supplement true ESG experts as outside directors to professionally operate the ESG committee.

In response to KB Financial's board's official opposition to the employee stock ownership association's recommended outside director candidates, the labor union has countered that the board's reasoning is groundless. They argue that the board's insufficient opposition logic clearly confirms that the purpose of the shareholder proposal is reasonable and valid.

The KB Kookmin Bank branch of the National Financial Industry Union stated, "Since the public disclosure of the extraordinary general meeting and the board's recommendation for opposing voting rights on the shareholder proposal have already been made, the employee stock ownership association will immediately disclose a recommendation for supporting voting rights on the shareholder proposal and actively engage in shareholder persuasion to refute the board's arguments." They also added, "With ongoing support and solidarity from various civic, social, and labor organizations, we will strengthen activities targeting major shareholders and voting advisory institutions through diverse networks."

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