Doublestar Rejects Former KDB Official
It has been belatedly found that Lee Dae-hyun, former senior vice president of Korea Development Bank (KDB) who was nominated as chairman of Kumho Tire Co. earlier this year, refused to take the job at the last moment as he was virtually rejected by China’s Qingdao Doublestar Co., the largest shareholder of the Korean tire company.
Lee, who had about nine months of his term left at that time, wanted to have at least two years of tenure at Kumho Tire, but Doublestar offered a one-year term and an extension depending on his performance, practically rebuffing him, banking industry sources said on April 10.
When KDB executives become chief executive officers (CEOs) or chief financial officers (CFOs) of the bank's subsidiaries, they are normally guaranteed a tenure of three years, two years of term and plus one year. However, such practice was disregarded by Doublestar.
Lee led the sell-off of Kumho Tire, which was previously owned by Kumho Asiana Group, to Doublestar. As Doublestar insisted on offering a one-year term, Lee decided not to take the post. Previously, labor union's opposition was known to be the reason for Lee's failure to become chairman of Kumho Tire.
Some say that Doublestar did not want to care about KDB's intention anymore as it spent 700 billion won (US$614.84 million) on acquiring Kumho Tire. As a result, KDB had lost face.