Shin Dong-kook, chairman of Hanyang Precision and the largest individual shareholder of Hanmi Science, the holding company of Hanmi Pharmaceutical, has moved to secure additional shares. Through a deal to acquire the remaining stake held by Lim Jong-yoon, chairman of Coree Group and the eldest son of late founder Lim Sung-ki, the gap with the mother-daughter side has narrowed to 5 percentage points.
According to the industry Wednesday, Shin disclosed that he signed a contract on Tuesday to purchase 3,604,799 shares of Hanmi Science for 172.7 billion won in an off-market transaction. The deal centers on buying the shares from Hong Ji-yoon, wife of Chairman Lim, and six others between the 7th and 11th of next month. The acquisition price is 47,920 won per share. With this transaction, the Hanmi Science stake held by Chairman Lim's side is effectively fully liquidated.
Shin is the largest individual shareholder, holding a 22.88% stake in Hanmi Science. Once the transaction is completed, Shin's stake will rise to 28.15%. Including Hanyang Precision's 6.95% stake, the Shin side's holding will climb to 35.1%.
Despite this stake adjustment, the broad framework of the governance structure will be maintained. It still trails by 5.76 percentage points compared with the founder's family side, which holds 40.86% when combining the stakes of Song Young-sook, chairman of Hanmi Science, and her daughter Lim Ju-hyun, vice chairman of Hanmi Science, along with the 9.81% held by friendly shareholder private equity fund (PEF) Ladefense Partners (Killington LLC).
At Hanmi Science, a management control conflict erupted between the mother-daughter side and the first and second sons' side during the process of liquidating stakes to raise funds for inheritance taxes following the death of founder Lim Sung-ki in 2020. After the mother-daughter side formed a "four-party alliance" with Ladefense Partners and Shin, the conflict with the brothers was temporarily settled. However, analysts subsequently suggested that the management control dispute could reignite as Shin expanded his purchases of Hanmi Science shares.
Meanwhile, Lim Jong-hoon, the founder's second son and CEO of Hanmi Fine Chemical, recently decided to sell 1,709,788 of his shares (a 2.5% stake) to Now IB in an off-market transaction. Lim's side said, "Together with my mother and sister, I will play a role necessary for the company's development to carry on the founder's spirit of 'serving the nation through pharmaceuticals.'" The Shin side had reportedly sought to acquire Lim's entire stake, but Lim declined.
