President Lee Jae-myung commented on allegations that INTOPS, a KOSDAQ-listed company, engaged in "pressing down the stock price," saying, "Isn't this stock price manipulation?"
On the 8th, the president said this on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), citing the article "There was a reason why only my stock didn't rise… allegations of 'pressing down the stock price' that mock the government."
According to the report, INTOPS is suspected of effectively inducing short selling by setting a call option that limits stock price gains in the process of issuing exchangeable bonds (EB).
A call option is the issuer's right to buy back the bonds if certain conditions are met. It is typically used for the issuer to recoup gains from a rising stock price. In particular, the EB issued by INTOPS included a condition allowing the issuer to redeem the bonds if the stock price exceeded 130% of the exchange price for 10 consecutive trading days.
The outlet reported that, for EB investors, this clause could create an incentive to keep the stock from rising more than 30% above the exchange price, since a sharp rise could trigger early redemption.
In fact, immediately after issuing the EB, INTOPS was designated as a "short-selling overheated stock" four times over about seven months from early November last year to last month. Before the EB issuance, it had never been designated even once.
As a result, some criticize that INTOPS issued the EB using 630,792 treasury shares (3.83%) and even granted a call option structured to limit stock price gains, which runs counter to the government's ongoing "prevention of pressing down stock prices" stance.
Controversy is also brewing over the fact that, during the period of a sideways stock price, the second-generation owner, the largest shareholder, moved to accumulate equity through the family company "Flatel." Flatel's stake, which was 3.09% as of the end of September last year, increased to 3.27% by the end of March this year. Flatel is a family company owned by Kim Geun-ha (94%), Kim Yun-seo (3%), and Kim Jun-seo (3%).