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The Hyundai Motor Group’s headquarters
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Declares Elliott’s proposal “excessive” and supports reappointment of Chung Mong-koo as director
The National Pension Service (NPS) is siding with Hyundai Motor in the face-off between the conglomerate and the overseas hedge fund Elliott Management. In a meeting on the morning of Mar. 14, the NPS’ stewardship responsibility expert committee decided to support all of the proposals concerning dividends, inside and outside director appointments, and audit committee appointments proposed by the company at a Hyundai Motor and Hyundai Mobis general shareholders’ meeting. The committee explained that it is supporting the company’s dividend proposal on the grounds that the proposal by Elliott Management, also a shareholder, for 8.3 trillion won (US$7.3 billion) is “excessive.” It also supported Hyundai’s outside director appointment proposal on the basis of the interests of Elliott’s outside director candidates, among other factors. It went on to say that it plans to support the reappointment of Chairman Chung Mong-koo (Hyundai Mobis) and Senior Vice Chairman Chung Eui-sun (Hyundai Motor) as inside directors, but added that some objections were raised over issues concerning the concentration of authority within a single family. In terms of Kia Motors general shareholder meeting proposals, the committee decided to support the reappointment of Chung Eui-sun and CEO Park Han-woo as inside directors. It also decided to oppose the reappointment of former Korea Corporate Governance Service Director Nam Sang-gu as an outside director and audit committee member, citing his lax performance of oversight duties as an outside director during the Hyundai Motor Group’s acquisition of a Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) site at a cost of over 10 trillion won (US$8.79 billion). At a Hyosung general shareholders’ meeting, a decision was reached to oppose the reappointment of former Federation of Korean Industries Vice Chairman Son Byung-doo and former Minister for Trade Bark Tae-ho as outside directors and the appointment of Korea Institute of Certified Public Accountants President Choi Joong-kyung as an audit committee member. Reasons cited included the candidates’ failure to properly perform their oversight role as outside directors during the occurrence of accounting fraud at Hyosung. By Lee Wan, staff reporter Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
