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Photo = Yonhap news |
[Alpha Biz= Reporter Kim Sangjin] National Pension Service Opposes the Dismissal of Hanmi Pharmaceutical CEO Park Jae-hyun
The National Pension Service (NPS) announced on December 13 that it will vote against the dismissal of Park Jae-hyun, CEO of Hanmi Pharmaceutical, at the company’s extraordinary general meeting of shareholders scheduled for December 19.
The NPS’s Fiduciary Responsibility Committee held its 16th meeting and deliberated on how to exercise its voting rights on the items for the upcoming shareholder meeting. The committee stated, "Regarding the agenda items for the extraordinary general meeting, including the dismissal of in-house director Park Jae-hyun and non-executive director Shin Dong-guk, the grounds for dismissal were insufficient, and we decided to vote 'against' each of these items." It also opposed the election of Park Jun-seok and Jang Young-gil as in-house directors, as their appointment was based on the dismissal of the existing directors.
The extraordinary general meeting will include two main agenda items: the dismissal of Park Jae-hyun and Shin Dong-guk (Item 1), and the appointment of Park Jun-seok and Jang Young-gil as directors (Item 2).
As of late September, the major shareholders of Hanmi Pharmaceutical owning more than 5% of the company's shares include Hanmi Science (41.42%), NPS (9.43%), and Shin Dong-guk, chairman of Hanyang Precision, with small shareholders holding approximately 39% of the shares.
The CEO of Hanmi Science, Im Jong-hoon, is pushing for the extraordinary meeting to proceed and the agenda items to pass. However, there is a limitation, as the board of directors at the holding company, Hanmi Science, is divided evenly, with five members from the Im family and three from the major shareholder faction. Proceeding with the resolution could lead to legal disputes.
In this context, the NPS’s decision to oppose the items is significant not only for its practical impact but also as a signal for stabilizing group management.
In addition to the NPS, domestic and international proxy advisory firms have also recommended opposing the agenda. Domestic firms such as Sustainvest and the Korea ESG Evaluation Institute issued reports between December 10 and 12 advising domestic institutional investors to oppose the dismissal of Park Jae-hyun and Shin Dong-guk.
On December 6, two global proxy advisory firms, ISS and Glass Lewis, also sent reports to foreign institutional investors advising them to vote against the proposals.
Hanmi Pharmaceutical stated that the demands for dismissal were unreasonable, as CEO Park Jae-hyun achieved consecutive record-high quarterly results during his two years in office, and that the claims of mismanagement or illegal activities lacked convincing evidence.
Alphabiz Reporter Kim SangJin(letyou@alphabiz.co.kr)
