Alteogen's second-largest shareholder has publicly opposed the reappointment of CFO Kim Hang-yeon as an inside director, calling for stronger shareholder-friendly management at the Korean biotech company.
Hyung In-woo, CEO of Smart & Grows and holder of a 5.05% stake in Alteogen, announced his opposition in a blog post on Wednesday. His stake makes him the second-largest shareholder after Chairman Park Soon-jae, who holds 19.1%.
"I notified the company last month that I would vote against the CFO reappointment proposal if it was put forward at this shareholders' meeting," Hyung wrote. "A month has passed without any update on organizational restructuring related to the CFO position, and three days ago, the CFO reappointment was included unchanged in the agenda."
Hyung said he plans to vote against only the third agenda item regarding the inside director appointment through electronic voting "to urge active recruitment of new talent."
According to Hyung, he has been requesting various shareholder-friendly policies from Alteogen since January and communicated his view that the CFO should be replaced.
"The stock price has stagnated for over a year, shareholder complaints are growing, and I question whether Alteogen's management has the ability to properly read and execute what the market wants," Hyung wrote in his communication to the company last month. "As a listed company, I hope Alteogen will add more executives experienced in running public companies with shareholder-friendly approaches."
He noted that since Alteogen's bonus share issue in October 2022, more than three years have passed without any shareholder-friendly activities such as management stock purchases, share buybacks and cancellations, stock splits, bonus issues, or dividends. "The only activity has been stock sales by management," he said.
"The next three years must be different from the past three years, with Alteogen transforming into a more shareholder-friendly company befitting its status as a listed firm," Hyung added.
Hyung criticized management for becoming "intoxicated" with being the top company by market capitalization on the KOSDAQ and the leading domestic biotech firm.
"I hope this serves as an opportunity to reflect on whether management has overlooked that such achievements were made possible by shareholder support, and whether they have been too complacent about the fact that shareholders can vote against proposals at any shareholders' meeting," he said.
He urged Alteogen to move beyond "meaningless competition for KOSDAQ market cap rankings" and transfer to the larger KOSPI market. He also called on the company to benchmark against global top pharmaceutical companies rather than domestic biotech firms and focus on increasing corporate value.
"I hope Alteogen becomes a company that prepares strategies for what shareholders need and acts proactively, rather than one that moves reluctantly only when shareholder demands intensify," Hyung concluded.