한진칼의 소유･경영권 분쟁, 2018-2022년

Abstract

This paper analyzes the struggle for the ownership and control of HanjinKal, the holding company of Hanjin Group, the 14th largest business group in Korea as of 2023. The struggle lasted for some four years from November 2018 to September 2022 between Cho Won-Tae, who was from the third generation of the group’s owner family, and Kang Sung-Bu, who was the founder of KCGI, a shareholder activism fund. Cho and Kang were later joined by, respectively, two other key shareholders: [Cho] Delta Airlines of USA and Korea Development Bank; [Kang] Daeho Development Co. and Cho Hyun-Ah who was Cho’s elder sister. Kang first acquired shares, 9%, of HanjinKal in November 2018 and, between January and November 2020, Kang and his two colleagues together owned more shares than Cho’s side. From December 2020, however, the shareholdings by the ‘attack’ side had continued to remain less than those by the ‘defense’ side and, in the end, Kang and Daeho Development sold most of their shares in, respectively, April and September 2022. On the other hand, Kang had attempted to replace, either entirely or partially, the existing managerial members of HanjinKal led by Cho, but without success. As the result, Kang failed to fully pursue his ‘shareholder activism’ philosophy in HanjinKal. Nevertheless, Kang’s involvement in the struggle appears to help enhance HanjinKal’ corporate governance and, thus, its shareholders’ interests. Furthermore, Kang was extremely successful in terms of ‘investment’ by finally achieving a very high return, say 18.2% of IRR (Internal Rate of Return), from his shares in HanjinKal.