Mother and daughter – two brothers’ different causes for ‘the will of the former president’
Song Young-sook, Chairman of Hanmi Group <한미약품>
[인사이트코리아=김민주 기자] The management rights dispute between the Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group’s owner family is escalating to the point where it is becoming increasingly difficult. As the positions between the eldest son and second son and the mother and daughter regarding the integration of OCI Group are tense, attention is being paid to the future direction of realizing the ‘great cause’ of the founder, ‘the will of the late Chairman Lim Seong-gi.’
According to related industries on the 14th, the founder’s first and second sons, Lim Jong-yoon, CEO of Hanmi Pharmaceutical, and Lim Jong-hoon, CEO of Hanmi Fine Chemical, who were excluded from the decision to merge with OCI Group, announced their intention to return to management as CEO of holding company Hanmi Science and subsidiary Hanmi Pharmaceutical, respectively. To this end, on the 8th, the two brothers filed a shareholder proposal against Hanmi Science, requesting that the agenda of appointing them and the four candidates they designated (two non-executive directors and two outside directors) as directors of Hanmi Science be submitted to the general shareholders’ meeting. exercised.
The brothers explained, “The purpose of this shareholder proposal is not simply to enter the board of directors, but to express a clear will to manage Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group as the respective CEOs of the holding company and subsidiaries according to the wishes of the former chairman.” In response, Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group refuted this, saying, “This is an expected procedure, and this action only appears to be an attempt to use Hanmi for personal gain.”
The conflict between the mother, daughter, and brother of the Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group family recently arose during the process of signing a contract for integration with OCI Group. Hanmi Science’s board of directors made a unanimous decision on Chairman Song Young-sook’s decision, but the two brothers objected, saying, “We have not received any notice, information, or materials” regarding the integration, and filed an application for a temporary injunction to ban the issuance of new shares on the 17th of last month. On the 24th, the company resolved its special relationship with Chairman Song and began preparing for a vote battle over integration at the general shareholders’ meeting in March.
After the conflict surfaced, Chairman Song of Hanmi Group said, “There were some differences of opinion between the families, but the purpose and direction of integration was explained, so the integration of Hanmi Group and OCI Group will proceed without a hitch.” He added, “The two sons who opposed the integration eventually did. “I believe that you will understand the cause of this integration from a macroscopic perspective,” he expressed his will to resolve the conflict between the families, but the eldest son and second son responded with strong criticism to their unyielding counterattack, effectively ending the possibility of compromise.
Maintaining the founder and fighting for legitimacy of management rights
An interesting aspect of the conflict over Hanmi Group’s management rights is the aspect of legitimacy based on the ‘qualities’ and ‘will of the founder’ that are commonly emphasized between the conflicting opinions of both sides.
President Lim Jong-yoon’s side emphasized the special nature of the pharmaceutical industry and criticized the current Hanmi Science board of directors, which consists of lawyers, for having no experience or expertise in the field. In addition, he claimed that the current management has not only damaged the corporate value and caused the stock price to fall through secret management over the past three years since the death of the late Chairman Lim Seong-gi, but also allowed Hanmi Science to lose its holding company status due to the merger and acquisition decision. “The board of directors to be newly formed. “We will solidify our position as a holding company for Hanmi Science, restore the current stock price to the 2018 level before the pandemic, and strengthen the fairness and transparency of our operations.”
In fact, Hanmi Pharmaceutical was a company with a solid talent lineup that was known as a ‘pharmaceutical R&D talent house’ by focusing on fostering research and development (R&D) in accordance with the passion and obsession of developing new drugs for the pharmaceutical powerhouse of the late late Chairman Im Seong-ki. However, it has been reported that more than 23 key executives and professionals of Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group have left the company since August 2022, when the former chairman passed away and private equity fund (PEF) management company La Defense Partners began providing management advice to Chairman Song. Regarding the departure of executives and employees who had long been trusted by the founder, who had a strong will to develop new drugs, President Lim said that, considering the nature of new drug development in which manpower and funds are invested for more than 10 years in one project, Hanmi Group’s direction is far from new drug development. claimed to be moving away.
Chairman Song’s integration of Hanmi Group and OCI is the best way to secure inheritance tax funds while protecting ‘Hanmi’s DNA’ and firmly establish itself as an R&D-centered pharmaceutical company. This is a point that runs counter to the claim that it is not different from the vision of .
In addition, President Lim has delayed the project to develop artificial intelligence (AI)-based customized biomarkers for diabetic obese patients who can be matched with Hanmi Pharmaceutical’s obesity and diabetes program due to direct and indirect damage caused by ‘backroom management’, and the future of Oxford University and Pandemic Science. As an example, the crisis of the alliance agreement being prepared for the crisis was cited as an example.
Meanwhile, at next month’s regular shareholders’ meeting, the two brothers will table a proposal to appoint as board members, including themselves, the CEO of DXVX, a genome diagnostics company where the eldest son, President Lim Jong-yoon, is the largest shareholder, and a lawyer specializing in real estate as board members of Hanmi Science. While it is known that Hanmi Pharmaceutical will do so, Hanmi Pharmaceutical strongly criticized Jang Chanam’s move to secure management rights, questioning the sincerity of the move.
Hanmi Pharmaceutical said, “President Lim Jong-yoon has been indifferent to the management of Hanmi Pharmaceutical, rarely going to work for the past 10 years and only attending Hanmi Pharmaceutical’s board of directors meeting where he is an inside director once out of five times in the first half of last year.” They added, “CEO Lim inherited Hanmi Science.” He has used most of the stock for his own business and personal funds, and claims, “President Lim appears to have an intention to use the Hanmi Group for personal gain, such as artificially raising the stock price by creating a management rights dispute and resolving debt through this.” did.
A high-ranking Hanmi Pharmaceutical official said, “In our internal judgment, President Lim Jong-yoon and President Lim Jong-hoon lack management ability. Hanmi Pharmaceutical has grown into a company focused on new drug development and R&D, but President Lim focuses on the healthcare business for short-term performance. “I understand that he was out of favor with his mother ever since he was the previous CEO because he was far from the company’s management philosophy and principles,” he said.
The official added, “The two sons will try to make a final counterattack through the shareholders’ meeting, but their mother, Chairman Song, may not be trustworthy.”
As the conflict between the two sides intensifies, the management rights dispute within the Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group’s owner family is expected to be ultimately decided by a vote at the general shareholders’ meeting. Currently, the combined shares of the two brothers and their spouses and children are 28.4%. It is less than the approximately 31.9% stake held by specially related persons, including her mother, Chairman Song Young-sook, and President Lim Joo-hyun. In order to gain an equity advantage, both sides are expected to focus their efforts on persuading Hanyang Fine Chemical Chairman Shin Dong-guk, who is known to be a junior of the founder’s hometown, who holds about 12% of Hanmi Science’s shares, as well as other investors and minority shareholders.
2024-02-14 09:39:00
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