Hyundai Motor Group Vice Chairman Visits New York

Hyundai Motor Group vice chairman Chung Eui-sun has visited New York to win over global institutional investors ahead of the upcoming shareholders’ meeting of Hyundai Mobis scheduled for May 29, at which the group’s corporate governance reform will be discussed in earnest for the first time.

The vice chairman flew to the United States on May 15. The announced purpose of his trip was a meeting with Hyundai Motor officials to discuss sales and production expansion in the U.S. market. He visited Hyundai Motor America and its manufacturing plant in Alabama after arriving in the U.S.

His next destination was New York, which is home to investment banks such as Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan, the world’s largest asset management firm BlackRock, and Elliott Management Corporation, which is currently opposed to the group’s governance reform plan. The Hyundai Motor Group’ meetings with institutional investors in North America started on May 14. The vice chairman was expected to attend the meetings to ask them to support the group’s governance reform plan.

Chung desperately needs to secure support for the reform plan ahead of the shareholders meeting. Elliott Management Corporation recently declared that it would vote against the plan at the shareholders’ meeting. The Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis, the world’s two largest proxy advisory firms, also advised Hyundai Mobis shareholders to vote against the reform plan. These advisory firms’ opinions significantly affect foreign institutional investors’ decisions. At present, foreigners’ combined shareholdings amount to 48.75%.