Im Jong-yoon, Chairman of Core Group and eldest son of the founder of Hanmi Group, is the largest shareholder of listed company DXVX (D-X-N-V-X). The company has demanded a special audit from Hanmi Pharmaceutical. It urged verification regarding suspicions of private misuse of Han Mi-geu-rup (Chairman)’s corporate card and matters related to investments in Aptoz. Interpretations suggest this is a counterattack, as Lim (Chairman) is currently undergoing a special audit related to suspicions of uncollected accounts receivable at Beijing Hanmi Pharmaceutical. Amid ongoing legal battles over the management rights of Hanmi Group between the mother-daughter side and Shin Dong-guk’s Han Yang-jeong-mil (Chairman), Lim (Chairman), who sold shares to Shin (Chairman), also appears to be joining in.
According to the pharmaceutical industry on the 25th, DXVX sent a shareholder letter to Hanmi Pharmaceutical’s board of directors and audit committee on the 23rd, requesting an independent special audit. DXVX, which holds shares in Hanmi Pharmaceutical and Hanmi Science, demanded investigations into three areas: △Song (Chairman)’s position, compensation, corporate card use, and internal controls; △investments and financial support related to Aptoz Biosciences; and △leakage of internal company materials and execution of promotional expenses.
In particular, regarding Song (Chairman), it requested an investigation into the legal and contractual basis for her position and compensation payments, compensation and economic benefits by period, and the business relevance and approval procedures for corporate card expenditures. Previously, some had raised suspicions of Song (Chairman)’s misuse of corporate cards.
However, DXVX’s current request is interpreted as having a strong retaliatory nature. Currently, Hanmi Pharmaceutical has initiated a special audit related to uncollected accounts receivable at its local Chinese subsidiary, Beijing Hanmi Pharmaceutical. As of the end of last year, the uncollected accounts receivable from Beijing Hanmi to local pharmaceutical distributor Lunmeikang were 125.4 billion won. The chairman (director) of Beijing Hanmi (Lee Sa-hoe (Chairman)) is Lim (Chairman), and Lunmeikang is a subsidiary of Core Group controlled by Lim (Chairman). Life Asset Management raised issues regarding this and sent a shareholder letter, leading to the commencement of a special audit related to Lim (Chairman) and others.
Amid ongoing lawsuits between Shin (Chairman) and the Hanmi Group mother-daughter pair, Lim (Chairman) is also seen as taking sides with the Shin (Chairman) camp to pressure the mother-daughter side. This year, Lim (Chairman), his family, DXVX, and others sold 13.74% of Hanmi Science shares to Shin (Chairman) off-exchange. In this process, Shin (Chairman)’s shareholding ratio in Hanmi Science increased, raising suspicions of violating the "Capital Markets Act," which mandates a public tender offer if an investor acquires shares from 10 or more shareholders off-exchange within a certain period to hold 5% or more of the shares.
As of the disclosure on the 7th, Shin (Chairman)’s individual shareholding ratio in Hanmi Science is 28.15%, and it will increase to 30.18% upon completion of additional off-exchange purchases planned for next month. Including the holdings of Hanyang Precision, this is currently 35.10% and is scheduled to become 37.13% next month. In contrast, the shareholding ratio on the Song (Chairman) side is slightly lower. Based on the disclosure on the 16th (reflecting the shares Shin (Chairman) plans to acquire), Song (Chairman)’s individual shareholding ratio in Hanmi Science is 3.8%, and including the shares of special related parties such as La Defense, it totals 71.15%. Excluding the holdings on the Shin (Chairman) side, the shareholding ratio is 34.02%. Although Song (Chairman) and Shin (Chairman) formed a four-party alliance and established a joint contractual relationship during the management rights dispute with the brothers’ side, this structure has effectively collapsed at present.
Meanwhile, Hanmi Pharmaceutical plans to announce its third-quarter results for this year after holding a board meeting on the 27th. It is not yet known whether the acceptance of the special audit will be discussed at that board meeting.
in THEBIO
