Crucialtec Does Not Disclose in Business Reports Until Before LaserCell's IPO② [Listed Companies at a Crossroads]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Hyowon] It has been confirmed that Crucialtec, a KOSDAQ-listed company, did not disclose its affiliate LaserCell as a related party until before LaserCell’s listing. Although there had been transactions with LaserCell over the past several years, the details of these transactions were not disclosed.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service’s electronic disclosure on the 1st, Crucialtec disclosed LaserCell as an other related party in its first half report this year. It had not disclosed this until the end of last year, but made the disclosure for the first time when LaserCell was listed on the KOSDAQ market in the first half of this year.

The largest shareholder of LaserCell is Chairman An Geonjun of Crucialtec, holding 18.68% of the shares. Chairman An is the largest shareholder and CEO of Crucialtec. Despite Chairman An being the largest shareholder of both LaserCell and Crucialtec, Crucialtec had not disclosed LaserCell as a related party until now.

According to the Corporate Accounting Standards, if an individual invests in two companies and has control over one company and significant influence over the other, the two companies are considered related parties. Significant influence refers to participation in the company’s board of directors or involvement in dividend or policy decision processes.

LaserCell was established in 2015 under the name Crucial Machines and changed its name to LaserCell in 2019. In 2017, it received an investment of 500 million KRW from Crucialtec. Chairman An served as CEO of LaserCell from its founding until October last year.

Additionally, some of LaserCell’s key executives are former Crucialtec employees. The current CEO of LaserCell, Choi Jaejun, worked at Crucialtec until 2014 and co-founded LaserCell with Chairman An. Also, Executive Director Son Hoseok and Research Fellow Seo Jongcheol of LaserCell are former Crucialtec personnel.

Chairman An stated, “When Crucialtec’s business declined and talented employees left, out of regret, we accepted employees at LaserCell.” This indicates that Chairman An had authority over personnel decisions at LaserCell.

Furthermore, part of the salaries for LaserCell’s core laser research personnel was paid by Crucialtec’s U.S. subsidiary. LaserCell sent salary funds to Crucialtec’s U.S. subsidiary under the name of service fees.

In this way, Crucialtec and LaserCell maintained a close managerial relationship. Especially since Chairman An was the largest shareholder and CEO of both companies and had control over personnel decisions, the two companies are analyzed to be related parties.

In fact, LaserCell classified Crucialtec as an other related party in its audit report last year and disclosed sales and purchase transactions worth approximately 400 million KRW as notes. In contrast, Crucialtec did not disclose transactions with LaserCell during the same period.

Chairman An said, “The accounting auditor did not point out the related matters, and we disclosed according to the guidelines.”

Meanwhile, amid Crucialtec’s five consecutive years of losses, controversy arose over “switching” as LaserCell, involving Chairman An and Crucialtec personnel, was listed on the KOSDAQ market in June. The criticism is that only LaserCell was nurtured without saving Crucialtec.

In fact, Crucialtec’s sales sharply declined from 320 billion KRW in 2017 to 41.7 billion KRW last year. In contrast, LaserCell’s sales grew from 2.8 billion KRW in 2019 to 3.9 billion KRW in 2020 and 9.7 billion KRW last year.

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