It has been confirmed that Bae In-kyu, an advisor who has been active as a consultant to Hanmi Pharmaceutical, a major shareholder of Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group and a close associate of Chairman Shin Dong-guk, has been dismissed.
According to Hanmi Pharmaceutical and industry sources on the 5th, Advisor Bae In-kyu was dismissed from Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group last week. The company stated, "It is not a dismissal, but the end of the consulting contract."
Former Advisor Bae recently sparked controversy by pressuring the Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group to reduce personnel and making excessive managerial interventions in research and development, quality control, and other areas. On the 24th of last month, ChosunBiz reported that former Advisor Bae had given such instructions to employees through recorded audio files. It is known that the management of Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group held discussions and took follow-up actions immediately after the report.
Chairman Shin Dong-guk is the largest shareholder, holding 16.43% of the equity in the holding company Hanmi Science, and is a non-executive director of Hanmi Science. Former Advisor Bae also served as the president of Hyundai Powertech, a manufacturer specializing in automotive transmissions, which is a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Group. He joined Hanmi Pharmaceutical at the recommendation of Chairman Shin Dong-guk.
On the 25th of last month, the holding company Hanmi Science and its business entity Hanmi Pharmaceutical held a board meeting ahead of the second-quarter earnings announcement. It was revealed that the controversy surrounding former Advisor Bae was discussed at this meeting. Participants included Chairman Shin Dong-guk and Kim Jae-kyo, the representative of Hanmi Science. On that day, it is reported that Kim Jae-kyo and other board members expressed significant concerns after listening to the audio file of former Advisor Bae's remarks.
Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group clarified, "There is an aspect that former Advisor Bae's communication with employees was misunderstood because the content was conveyed out of context, especially when he initially joined Hanmi and had a somewhat insufficient understanding of the pharmaceutical industry."
A representative of Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group noted, "I believe that even controversial statements made by former Advisor Bae were his sincere advice for Hanmi's development, given his remarkable achievements in fields other than the pharmaceutical industry." He added, "Although the relationship between Hanmi and former Advisor Bae has ended, Hanmi plans to listen to various external advice moving forward."
Following the management rights dispute among the founder's family, including a mother and daughter as well as brothers within Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group, internal discord has continued. The potential for a fracture among the four-member alliance, consisting of the mother and daughter of Hanmi Group (Song Young-sook and Lim Joo-hyun), Chairman Shin Dong-guk, and the private equity management company Radefongs Partners, is also being raised in the market.
In the investment community, there are claims that the four-member alliance, excluding Chairman Shin, recently seized approximately 22 billion won worth of assets, alleging that Chairman Shin violated the shareholder agreement. It is reported that assets targeted include about 12 billion won worth of shares in Hanmi Science held by Chairman Shin and the real estate Hannam The Hill, valued at over 10 billion won, with a usable area of 233㎡.
Concerns have been raised that Chairman Shin recently secured approximately 19.7 billion won in cash based on his equity in Hanmi Pharmaceutical to initiate a recoupment of investments. On the 29th of last month, he issued an exchange bond worth 19.7534 billion won under the name of Hanyang Precision. The exchange target for the bond is the shares of Hanmi Pharmaceutical held by Chairman Shin and Hanyang Precision, with a reported exercise price of 349,000 won.