The representative listed on Hyundai Motor's business registration certificate has been changed from President José Muñoz to Vice President Choi Young-il, head of domestic production.
According to the industry on the 16th, Hyundai Motor notified internally that as of the 14th the representative on its business registration certificate was changed from President Muñoz to Vice President Choi. Accordingly, business registration certificates were reissued for all business sites, including headquarters as well as each plant, research institute, service center, and rental business site.
Born in 1965, Vice President Choi is an engineering expert who graduated from the mechanical engineering department at Kyungpook National University and was promoted from managing director in Dec. last year to head of domestic production. He was then appointed a co-CEO of Hyundai Motor at the regular shareholders meeting on the 14th of last month. Hyundai Motor currently has three CEOs in total: Vice President Choi, Chairman Chung Eui-sun, and President Muñoz.
Hyundai Motor said the change of the representative listed on the business registration certificate from President Muñoz to Vice President Choi was an administrative convenience measure. A Hyundai Motor official said, "To establish domestic plants and expand production facilities, we need to submit various documents and go through complex administrative procedures, and because President Muñoz holds foreign nationality and is often overseas, we changed it to Vice President Choi, one of the CEOs." President Muñoz is a Spanish American.
Hyundai Motor posted a record high of 186.2544 trillion won in revenue last year, but operating profit fell 19.5% to 11.4678 trillion won.
The main cause of the deteriorating profitability was spending 4.11 trillion won solely on U.S. auto tariffs, but sales also failed to gain traction. Hyundai Motor's global sales volume last year (wholesale basis) was 4,138,389 units, down 0.1% from a year earlier. After a 1.8% drop in 2024 (4,142,357 units), it marked two consecutive years of decline. While President Muñoz led a solid performance in the U.S. market, there are assessments that the company is failing to respond adequately in key markets such as Korea, India, and the Asia-Pacific.
A Hyundai Motor employee said, "As President Muñoz enters his second year in office, some employees are dissatisfied that the company is being 'Nissan-ized' with a management focus on cost cuts." President Muñoz is from Japan's Nissan. Nissan carried out high-intensity cost reductions for more than 10 years, which is widely seen to have led to lower employee morale and weaker technological competitiveness.
There are also expectations that Hyundai Motor's first-quarter results this year will be weak. Brokerages see Hyundai Motor's first-quarter global sales volume at around 970,000 units, down about 2% to 3% from a year earlier. Choi Tae-yong, an analyst at DS Securities, said, "It's due to weak sales in the Middle East and supply chain production disruptions, including the fire at (core parts maker) Anjeon Industrial and the naphtha turmoil." As a result, the first-quarter operating profit consensus (average forecast) is 2.7275 trillion won, down 24.9% from last year.
An auto industry source said, "It is true that having a Korean rather than a foreign national as the representative on the business registration certificate is administratively more convenient," but added, "Considering that numerous domestic brands list foreigners as the representative on their business registration certificates, it may not be a difficult issue."