Hahn & Company has won a share transfer lawsuit against Namyang Dairy Chairman Hong Won-sik and the rest of the Namyang Dairy owner family, putting an end to a legal battle which took more than two years.
On Jan. 4, the Second Division of Korea’s Supreme Court affirmed the original ruling in favor of the plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by Hahn & Company against the Hong family for the transfer of their Namyang Dairy shares.
Including injunctions and lower court cases, this is the seventh court ruling on the transfer of Namyang Dairy shares. The lawsuit came to an end with Hahn & Company winning all seven trials.
A share purchase agreement signed by Hahn & Company and Chairman Hong on May 27, 2021 was scheduled to be concluded on July 30, 2021. But Chairman Hong had been claiming the unilateral termination of the deal after he abruptly postponed a scheduled extraordinary general meeting of shareholders without showing up at the deal conclusion location on the day of closing the deal.
Hahn & Company decided to fulfill the contract even through litigation, and has been engaged in litigation for more than two years. Prior to the Supreme Court’s ruling on Jan. 4, both the first and second trial courts accepted Hahn & Company’s testimony and ordered Hong to transfer shares to Hahn & Company.
“We welcome the Supreme Court’s ruling,” Hahn & Company said. “We have taken part in the legal battle because we could not allow the M&A agreement to be thrown away like trash due to the change of Chairman Hong’s heart and his false claims. Now that the long dispute is over, all that remains is for Chairman Hong to sincerely honor the share purchase agreement. In this regard, we expect Chairman Hong to respect the Supreme Court’s ruling. In addition, we will implement the share purchase agreement as soon as possible and therefore make management improvement plans by normalizing the management of Namyang Dairy together with Namyang Dairy employees. At the same time, we will restore consumer trust and create a new Namyang Dairy.”