Young Poong, MBK seek injunction for voting rights at Korea Zinc meeting

The alliance of Young Poong and MBK Partners, the largest shareholder of Korea Zinc, filed a request for a 'provisional injunction for the exercise of voting rights' with the Seoul Central District Court on the 17th to exercise voting rights at the regular shareholders' meeting. Additionally, Kwon Jae-yeol, a professor at Kyunghee University School of Law, who was embroiled in a 'conflict of interest' controversy, resigned from the position of outside director candidate.

Young Poong and MBK announced this in a press release on the 18th. A company official noted, 'Chairman Choi's side is openly revealing their intention to lead the general meeting into chaos by depriving our voting rights again at the regular shareholders' meeting on the 28th,' adding, 'Such chaotic actions even obstruct the rightful exercise of voting rights by other shareholders excluding Chairman Choi’s side.'

Earlier, on the 12th, Chairman Choi's side had 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). This was an attempt to restrict Young Poong's voting rights by forming a new cross-shareholding relationship. It was just three days after the court ruling that formed a cross-shareholding through SMC was deemed illegal.

Young Poong and MBK claimed, 'Chairman Choi's side has committed acts that violate corporate law by deciding on four acting chairpersons in the order of Seo Dae-won, Hwang Deok-nam, Lee Min-ho, and Kim Do-hyun in case of the absence of representatives Park Ki-deok and Jung Tae-woong during the board meeting on the 13th, attempting to limit our voting rights by any means and drive the general meeting into chaos.' They further asserted, 'Even if we present a motion of no confidence against the chairperson, they aim to block any subsequent procedures for electing an interim chairperson, demonstrating their malicious intent to obstruct the so-called separate general meeting resolutions.'

In addition, they explained, 'As there is still a risk of illegal and unilateral restriction of voting rights at the general meeting, we aim to obtain a provisional injunction for the exercise of voting rights from the court before the meeting as one means of protecting rightful voting rights.'

Young Poong and MBK also announced that Professor Kwon Jae-yeol has resigned from the outside director candidate position. Professor Kwon had served as a specialist member of the National Pension Service's Fiduciary Responsibility Committee for three years until last month, leading to speculation that the National Pension Service would forgo exercising its voting rights to avoid the controversy over a conflict of interest.