The management rights dispute between the founder family's siblings and the mother-daughter duo of Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group, which has continued for about a year since last year, has ended in victory for the mother-daughter side's four-person alliance.
With the mother, Song Young-sook, chairperson of the Hanmi Group, and her daughter, Lim Joo-hyun, vice chairperson, taking the majority on the board of directors of Hanmi Science, the group's holding company, and Hanmi Pharmaceutical, the second son, Lim Jong-hoon, chief executive officer, stepped down from the position of representative at Hanmi Science.
Hanmi Science announced on the 13th that Lim Jong-hoon, chief executive officer, has resigned, and it has appointed Song Young-sook as the new chief executive officer. The appointment proposal for Chairperson Song as the new representative of Hanmi Science was passed unanimously by the six directors present at the board meeting that day. Out of a total of seven directors, six attended, including CEO Lim Jong-hoon.
Thus, Lim Jong-hoon, who was in conflict with his mother, Song Young-sook, will return to management after a nine-month absence. On that day, after the board meeting, it was reported that mother Song embraced her son, former CEO Lim Jong-hoon, on-site.
Initially, the Hanmi Science board comprised an equal number of 10 members: five from the four-person alliance (Shin Dong-guk, chairman of Hanyang Precision; Song Young-sook, chairperson; Lim Joo-hyun, vice chairperson; and the representative from Ladefongs Partners) and five from the siblings (Lim Jong-yoon, inside director of Hanmi Science, and Lim Jong-hoon, CEO).
Subsequently, on the 11th, with the resignation of outside director Sa Bong-gwan and non-executive director Kwon Gyu-chan from the sibling side, the structure became favorable for the four-person alliance. Following the resignation of eldest son Lim Jong-yoon as an inside director the day before, the resignation of CEO Lim on that day led to the four-person alliance taking control of the Hanmi Science board.
The new representative, Song, plans to reorganize the group's structure and focus on normalizing management. Previously, after the siblings assumed management rights in March of last year, Chairperson Song was dismissed from her position as co-CEO of Hanmi Science in May of that year, while she has maintained her position as an inside director.
A representative of the Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group said, 'This marks a specific first step toward the end of the management rights dispute and normalization of management at Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group' and noted, 'We will soon hold a board meeting and gradually implement follow-up measures.'