MBK Slams Choi Yoon Bum's Claims on Young Poong's Voting Rights as Absurd

Chairman Choi Yoon-bum of Korea Zinc and private equity firm MBK Partners, which is in a management dispute with Korea Zinc, on the 13th noted, "Choi's side's claim that Young Poong's voting rights are limited is a strategy to disrupt the shareholders' meeting, whether it is true or not."

MBK stated, "On the 12th, Chairman Choi transferred 10.3% of Young Poong's shares held by Korea Zinc's Australian subsidiary, Sun Metal Corporation (SMC), to its parent company, Sun Metal Holdings (SMH), which formed a new cross-shareholding relationship, and the claim that this limited Young Poong's voting rights is a baseless assertion."

An MBK representative explained, "SMH and Young Poong have never had a cross-shareholding relationship, even for a single second," adding, "Under Article 369, Paragraph 3 of the Commercial Act, the voting rights of the parent company's shares owned by other companies are restricted. At the reference date for the regular shareholders' meeting (Dec. 31, 2024), SMH does not hold any Young Poong shares at all."

MBK emphasized, "At this point, since SMH has acquired more than 10% of Young Poong's shares, Young Poong does not hold any shares of Korea Zinc. Therefore, even on the day of the regular shareholders' meeting of Korea Zinc in March, the claim that Young Poong's voting rights are restricted under Article 369, Paragraph 3 of the Commercial Act is baseless."

Young Poong, right after winning the suspension of the effectiveness of the temporary shareholders' meeting resolution on the 7th, contributed all of its Korea Zinc shares as in-kind capital to establish a new limited liability company. This was to fundamentally prevent Chairman Choi's repeated baseless claims regarding the illegal circular shareholding structure.

An MBK and Young Poong representative stated, "As the fact of securing control of the Korea Zinc board by Young Poong and MBK became established, Chairman Choi openly showed an intention to disregard the law and limit Young Poong's voting rights at the regular shareholders' meeting," adding, "We want to ensure that Chairman Choi and his associates face legal judgment, and that the Korea Zinc board is normalized as soon as possible to restore shareholder value at Korea Zinc through a definitive result at the regular shareholders' meeting."