Act of Threatening Shareholders
Platform Partners Asset Management Co., a local hedge fund, announced on Sept. 18 that Macquarie Korea Infrastructure Fund (MKIF) is threatening shareholders as if there are serious financial risks in the company in order to intervene in a vote at a shareholders’ general meeting.
This came after MKIF said it received an official notice from the Korea Securities Depository (KSD) that shareholders holding a total of 107,441,593 shares, nearly 30.8 percent of the total stocks issued, expressed dissenting opinion as of the 18th, a day before the shareholders’ general meeting.
MKIF said about 1 trillion won (US$889.68 million) of funds need to be raised based on the closing stock price on the 17th when a 30.8 percent stake is claiming for stock purchase.
In this regard, Platform Partners said that KSD’s notice of opposition opinion to exercise the appraisal right by stockholders is just a prior procedure to meet the requirement to request for stock purchase depending on the result of the shareholders’ general meeting.
An official from Platform Partners said, “MKIF officially announced the company’s internal information at discretion for corporate director’s personal gains. The corporate director breached its obligations of care and neutrality itself, adding, “Most of foreign shareholders, including the largest shareholder, are most unlikely to exercise the stock purchase right that can defer payment with mutual funds which need to deal with repurchase at any time.”
He also added, “Macquarie should immediately stop making baseless threats to shareholders. Many shareholders must attend the shareholders’ general meeting to exercise the voting right in a bid to stop such an infamous deed.”