Lim Jong-yoon, President of Hanmi Pharm, "Inheritance tax is the same for the whole family... Song Young-sook Chairman is responsible for private gain"

Lim Jong-yoon, Chairman of the Korea Bio Association, is being interviewed by Asia Economy. Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

Jong-yoon Lim, CEO of Hanmi Pharm, rebutted the claim made by Young-sook Song, Chairwoman of Hanmi Pharm Group, accusing him of ‘self-serving profit extraction,’ stating, “The inheritance tax issue applies equally to all family members, so this is a serious distortion of information.”

On the 14th, Lim’s side released a statement saying, “The Hanmi Pharm PR team’s claim that they oppose the Hanmi-OCI merger with the goal of boosting the stock price to maintain personal collateral loans applies equally to Chairwoman Song and her three siblings, who must pay large inheritance taxes, as well as to Jong-yoon Lim personally,” adding, “To say that Hanmi is being used for Jong-yoon Lim’s personal purposes is a serious distortion of information and could be considered defamation.”

Lim pointed out, “In fact, those exploiting Hanmi Group as a tool for self-serving profit extraction are Chairwoman Song and CEO Joo-hyun Lim,” and noted, “There is already a buyer who has expressed intent to purchase Hanmi Science shares at more than twice the price. Looking into why the decision, which only guarantees CEO Joo-hyun Lim’s status as a major shareholder of OCI through a management premium, was made while ignoring the rights of 40,000 shareholders will reveal the truth.”

Lim’s side also presented that the underlying cause behind the Gahyeon Cultural Foundation’s decision to sell the family’s jointly owned Hanmi Science shares due to excessive debt is the accumulated debt from Chairwoman Song’s reckless construction of a photo museum, which is further evidence of self-serving profit extraction.

He emphasized, “The stock-collateralized loans were used for the bio-healthcare business, and since the establishment of the Cori Group in 2009, there have been various investments experiencing both failures and successes, building a business today valued at over 1 trillion KRW,” adding, “The interest payments on the stock-collateralized loans can be covered through the Cori Group’s business.”

He also pointed out, “The three siblings have similarly been assessed inheritance taxes and have collectively paid approximately 52 billion KRW in taxes by last year,” noting, “This could be misunderstood as if the inheritance tax payments are being delayed and that this transaction is being used to resolve the issue, which poses a serious risk of defamation.”

Furthermore, he claimed, “Other statements that portray Kyu-chan Kwon, CEO of Dx&Vx and one of the few domestic new drug development experts, as someone unrelated to new drug development, or that depict Dx&Vx?a listed company undergoing regular annual audits?as if it operates like a small hole-in-the-wall store subject to the whims of major shareholders, have caused serious harm to Dx&Vx’s shareholders and employees.”

He added, “Going forward, we will do our utmost to achieve Hanmi Pharm Group’s goals of new drug development and pharmaceutical patriotism,” and concluded, “We reaffirm our position as the holding company of Hanmi Science and will continue the tradition and innovation of new drug development established by the late chairman, steadfastly advancing toward Hanmi’s 100-year future.”

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