The court hearing the management control dispute at Korea Zinc ordered the company to submit the advisory contract and minutes it signed with the operator of the retail shareholder platform "ACT."
According to legal sources on the 26th, the Seoul Central District Court recently ordered Korea Zinc to submit materials including the advisory contract concluded with Conduit, the operator of ACT, as well as emails, proposals, progress reports, minutes, and opinions. The aim is to verify the content and scope of the work Conduit performed. The court also ordered the submission of all records on funds that Korea Zinc paid to Conduit.
The order to submit documents was issued in the lawsuit seeking to nullify the resolutions of the 2025 Korea Zinc regular shareholders meeting, filed by Young Poong and MBK Partners. Young Poong and MBK Partners argue that Director Choi Yoon-beom's side mobilized Korea Zinc's Australian affiliates, SMH and SMC, to acquire more than 10% of Young Poong shares and, on that basis, restricted the voting rights of Young Poong, the largest shareholder of Korea Zinc, an unlawful measure that exceeded the bounds of legitimate management control defense.
Young Poong and MBK maintain that Conduit is not a mere external advisor. They say internal Conduit materials disclosed last year included content related to restricting Young Poong's voting rights and strategies to defend Korea Zinc's management control.
Regarding this, Young Poong and MBK said, "The crux of this decision is to objectively determine to what extent Conduit was involved in forming the circular shareholding structure and the appearance of cross-shareholdings that led to restrictions on Young Poong's voting rights, and whether that process fell within the scope of legitimate management control defense measures."
In particular, whether Korea Zinc's corporate funds were used for external advisory work related to Chairman Choi's defense of control is also at issue. Young Poong and MBK Partners said, "The fundamental question is whether the advisory work carried out with corporate funds was involved in designing measures to restrict the largest shareholder's voting rights and to defend management control."
Korea Zinc, for its part, countered, "This is merely a routine evidence-gathering step to verify facts in the litigation process, not an endorsement of the Young Poong–MBK position or a substantive determination."
It added, "From the first trial through the second and up to the Supreme Court, it has been confirmed that the restrictions on Young Poong's voting rights are lawful and not an illegal act to strengthen the personal control of management."