Kumho Asiana Group chairman Park Sam-koo has decided to step down from all his posts to eliminate what is called an “owner risk,” a risk that stems from investor distrust in the owner of a company. He was forced to resign to regain investors’ confidence in his group.Park has been showing his strong

The Korean business community is in shock as Hanjin Group chairman Cho Yang-ho lost his managerial control of Korean Air Lines Co. by failing to secure support for his reappointment as an inside director at a general shareholders’ meeting on March 27.Business leaders are surprised as their worst fea

When Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Yang-ho failed to be re-elected as an in-house director at a shareholders' meeting of Korean Air, a key affiliate of the group, on March 27, the stock market assessed it as a "historic event."Some experts called it “a candlelight revolution in the capital market,”

Hanjin Group chairman Cho Yang-ho has lost his control of Korean Air, the group's flagship company.Korean Air held a general shareholders' meeting on March 27, putting Cho's reappointment as an inside director and other matters to a vote.Cho's reappointment was voted down, with 64.1

Korea Exchange (KRX) announced on March 22 that 13 KOSPI-listed and over 40 KOSDAQ-listed companies failed to submit their audit reports as of that day, a total of 18 companies received disclaimers of opinion, and four received qualified opinions.Those in the securities industry point out that this

Despite Asiana Airlines’ efforts to improve its financial structure, an accounting firm has called its management sustainability into question. The company’s net loss in 2018 increased by as much as 10 times from the preliminary estimate of 10.40 billion won (US$9.17 million) to 105 billion won (US$

The Korea Listed Companies Association stated on March 24 that a lot of its members are concerned about the National Pension Service’s decisions against executive appointments in companies such as Samsung BioLogics.“At the upcoming shareholder meeting of Samsung BioLogics, which is the first one aft

Just a week before the regular general meeting on March 29, Hanjin Group won an important victory in a confrontation with home-grown activist private equity fund Korea Corporate Governance Improvement (KCGI). The court accepted the claims of Hanjin KAL, the holding company of South Korea's large

Minority shareholders and institutional investors of major Korean companies have recently suffered a setback as their shareholder proposals have been rejected one after another at general shareholders’ meetings. The National Pension Service (NPS), which declared its determination to actively exercis

The management and labor representatives of Kia Motors Corp. have ended nine years of the ordinary wage dispute. The two sides held a signing ceremony for special agreement on bonus, ordinary wage and wage system improvement and signed the final agreement at the main building of the Sohari Plant in

The Korea Corporate Governance Service (KCGS), which provides advice regarding voting rights for the National Pension Service (NPS), took Hyundai Motor Group’s side, saying that Elliott Management Corp.’s outside director appointment-related proposal and excessive demand for dividends could hamper t

Hyundai Motor Group is striking back at U.S.-based activist fund Elliott Management Corp. which has been pressuring the Korean automotive group to change its governance structure and shareholder return policy.Market watchers say Hyundai Motor has a greater chance of winning a proxy contest with Elli

Hyundai Mobis Co. officially announced on March 7 that it opposes U.S. activist hedge fund Elliott Management Corp.’s shareholder proposals concerning dividends, nomination of independent directors and audit committee members, and increasing the number of board members.In regard to the demand for di

Samsung Electronics ranked seventh, classified as Excellent, in this year's Harris Poll Reputation Quotient with a score of 80. For reference, Samsung ranked 35th with 77.56 in that survey last year. In this year’s survey, Sony climbed from 31st to 10th and 21st Century Fox climbed from 74th to

Shareholder activism is changing the corporate landscape in Korea. It has triggered the introduction of a stewardship code by the National Pension Service, Korea Corporate Governance Improvement (KCGI)’s attempt to participate in the management of Hanjin KAL, and the abolishment of the shadow voting

Unionized Korea Development Bank (KDB) workers have decided to make an attempt to introduce a worker director system for the second time in the local banking industry following Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK).The unionized workers can exercise more influence on the management of their bank once the w

Lotte Group is expected to resume its stalled push for governance reform as group chairman Shin Dong-bin has recently been named as the CEO of Lotte Holdings, the holding company of Lotte companies in Japan.Shin restored his control of Lotte’s Japanese operations as he resumed the CEO post of Lotte

The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has expressed its concern about KEB Hana Bank president Ham Young-joo being selected for the third consecutive term.The financial regulator met with three outside directors of Hana Financial Group on Feb. 26 with regard to the group’s selection of candidates f

South Korea’s small and medium-sized firms are reducing the number of foreign workers due to a spike in labor costs from a minimum wage increase and slowed business.The Korea Federation of SMEs (KBIZ) released the findings on Feb. 25 after conducting a survey of 1,178 small and medium-sized manufact

SK Group issued 7.9 trillion won (US$7.03 billion) worth of corporate bonds last year, according to investment banking (IB) industry sources on Feb. 20. The figure represented a record high in the group’s history. It showed a large gap compared with No. 2 Lotte Group with 3.7 trillion won (US$3.29 b