Lee Bok-hyun "Insufficient Protection for Common Shareholders During Public Buyouts Aimed at Delisting"

Remarks Made at the Executive Meeting on the 14th
Nine Tender Offers for Delisting Last Year... 4.5 Times Higher Than the Previous Year
Large Dividends Frequently Follow Tender Offers

Lee Bok-hyun, Governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, Yonhap News

Lee Bok-hyun, Governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, stated at the executive meeting on the 14th that "there has been an increase in tender offers aimed at delisting, mainly by private equity funds, and there are insufficient protections for minority shareholders," urging the need for appropriate measures.

Tender offers for the purpose of delisting accounted for 9 cases in 2024, representing 40.9% of all tender offers. This is a significant increase compared to 2 cases each in 2022 and 2023.

Last year, companies that conducted tender offers mainly through private equity funds included Lock&Lock, Ssangyong C&E, JCS Medical, and Connect Wave.

Since 2014, there have been a total of 36 tender offers aimed at delisting. Among these, 36% had tender offer prices below the net asset value per share, and 42% conducted large dividends averaging 24.5 times the previous amount after the tender offer. There were almost no cases where the issuing company expressed an opinion on the tender offer.

Meanwhile, Governor Lee also urged on the same day, "Since the personnel changes at the beginning of the year have been completed recently, I ask all executives and employees to work diligently with a sense of urgency."

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