Shin Dong-guk, chair of Hanyang Precision and a major shareholder of the Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group, expanded his control by additionally buying more than 4.41 million shares of Hanmi Science held by the side of Im Jong-yoon, chair of Beijing Hanmi Pharmaceutical and the eldest son of the late founder Im Sung-ki.
Hanmi Science, the holding company of the Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group, disclosed on the 24th that, under a stock purchase agreement chair Shin Dong-guk signed on the 13th, he is set to acquire 4,410,032 voting shares from Cori Pohang Co. and five others through an over-the-counter purchase.
The acquisition price as of the contract date is 48,469 won per share. With this off-exchange transaction, Shin's share count will increase from 11,239,739 shares to 15,649,771 shares.
With this transaction, Shin's total equity stake is expected to grow to about 29.83%. As of the end of last year, Shin's existing Hanmi Science equity stake was 16.43%, and Hanyang Precision, Shin's personal company, held a 6.95% equity stake in Hanmi Science.
Cori Pohang is a 100% subsidiary of Cori Group, the personal company of chair Im Jong-yoon, and Im is chair of Cori Group.
According to the industry, chair Im Jong-yoon earlier transferred his equity to Cori Pohang. After that, through Cori Pohang, he provided Hanmi Science shares as collateral to Curious Science, a special-purpose company (SPC) established by the private equity fund (PEF) Curious, and raised 130 billion won.
The contract period between Cori Pohang and Curious Science is four years. There is analysis that Shin bought the Hanmi Science shares that Im provided as collateral to procure funds.
Chair Shin Dong-guk, a hometown junior of the late chair Im Sung-ki, successively bought shares of Hanmi Pharmaceutical and Hanmi Science. After Im's death in 2020, he emerged as the key figure deciding the outcome of the founder family's management control dispute sparked by inheritance tax issues.
Then in 2024, a three-party alliance of the owner family's mother and daughter and chair Shin signed a shareholder agreement with private equity manager La Défense Partners, forming a four-party alliance.
As controversy over chair Shin's interference in Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group's management has recently spread, some in the industry say he may be moving to expand control through additional equity purchases.