Korea Zinc Secures Management Rights of Seorin Corporation... Accelerates Organizational Restructuring

Korea Zinc "Disadvantage in Joint Sales"
Moves to Seize Control of Seorin Corporation Board
Korea Zinc Adds 4 Inside Directors
Vice President Baek Soon-heum & Advisor Kim Jae-sun
Organizational Restructuring & Strengthening Overseas Sales Network

Korea Zinc has succeeded in securing management rights of Seorin Trading, a group affiliate responsible for overseas exports. Seorin Trading has been managed by the Jang family’s Youngpoong Group, but Korea Zinc had many complaints about being relatively disadvantaged in exports. It appears that Korea Zinc and Youngpoong, who have faced a crisis in their ‘75-year partnership,’ are moving one step closer to a breakup.

At the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders held on the 20th, Seorin Trading approved the appointment of four additional inside directors from Korea Zinc and the reappointment of Honorary Chairman Choi Chang-geun as chairman of the board. Jang Se-hwan, CEO of Seorin Trading, resigned the day before the extraordinary shareholders’ meeting. CEO Jang is the second son of Jang Hyeong-jin, an advisor to Youngpoong Group. Korea Zinc holds 66.7% of Seorin Trading’s shares, while Youngpoong holds 33.3%. Korea Zinc’s shareholding is large enough to pass special resolutions at the shareholders’ meeting.

The number of Korea Zinc directors on the board increased from four to eight, reorganizing the board into an 8-to-1 structure. Prior to CEO Jang Se-hwan’s resignation, CEO Ryu Hae-pyeong also voluntarily stepped down from his inside director position. Filling 90% of the nine-member board with Korea Zinc personnel, Korea Zinc has taken control of Seorin Trading’s management rights.

The new inside directors recommended by Korea Zinc are Choi Min-seok, president of Steelcycle and cousin of Korea Zinc Chairman Choi Yoon-beom; Baek Soon-heum, vice president of Korea Zinc; Kim Young-gyu, managing director of Korea Zinc; and Lee Soo-hwan, an executive at Korea Zinc. Kim Jae-seon, an advisor and former CEO of Seorin Trading, will return as an executive. A Korea Zinc official said, "We could not submit the proposal to appoint Advisor Kim as a registered director just before the shareholders’ meeting, so the agenda was not addressed at the meeting, but we plan to assign him a management role without registration," adding, "It will be finalized at the board meeting after the shareholders’ meeting."

Choi Yoon-beom, Chairman of Korea Zinc (left), Jang Hyung-jin, Advisor of Youngpoong Group [Photo by each company]

Personnel expert Vice President Baek Soon-heum and sales expert Advisor Kim Jae-seon will be deployed to Seorin Trading’s operations. Vice President Baek will be in charge of reorganizing Seorin Trading. Baek graduated from Yeungnam University’s Department of Law and earned a master’s degree in labor relations from Korea University Graduate School of Labor Studies. He has long been responsible for personnel and organizational management at Korea Zinc. He has overseen the Onsan smelter, the Talent Management Headquarters, the Compliance Management Team, and the Internal Accounting Management Team at Korea Zinc.

Advisor Kim Jae-seon will be responsible for strengthening the overseas sales network. Kim is a close aide to Honorary Chairman Choi Chang-geol of Korea Zinc. He has worked alongside Chairman Choi since the early days to build Seorin Trading. He served as CEO of Seorin Trading from February 2012 to February 2020.

Korea Zinc’s acquisition of management rights over Seorin Trading stems from the judgment that it was disadvantaged in joint sales with Youngpoong. Established in 1984, Seorin Trading is a key affiliate that distributes and sells non-ferrous metals from Youngpoong and Korea Zinc overseas and procures raw materials. Youngpoong and Korea Zinc have focused on jointly selling products overseas through Seorin Trading.

However, Korea Zinc stated this year that "problems have arisen in joint sales due to Youngpoong’s business setbacks such as production cuts and operation suspensions." A company official explained, "While Youngpoong managed Seorin Trading, collaboration and communication with Korea Zinc were not well conducted, and sales support was not smooth. This decision aims to strengthen overseas sales, including exports, and normalize management."

Korea Zinc plans to use this shareholders’ meeting as an opportunity to reorganize the organization and strengthen the overseas sales network to restore performance.

Attention is focused on whether Youngpoong will continue transactions through Seorin Trading, now controlled by Korea Zinc. If Youngpoong establishes a separate route, the ‘75-year partnership’ will become even more distant.

Inside and outside the group, there are expectations that Youngpoong will establish a separate trading company like Seorin Trading. It is also analyzed that CEO Jang’s resignation is related to this. It is known that six Seorin Trading employees recently expressed their intention to resign. The industry views this as a step toward moving to Youngpoong’s trading company. However, Youngpoong stated, "We are not pursuing the establishment of a trading company."

Seorin Trading recorded consolidated sales of 1.529 trillion KRW and operating profit of 17.5 billion KRW last year. Sales decreased by 37% and operating profit by 69% compared to the previous year.

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