Korea Zinc shares up nearly 30% as investors bet on long battle for control

YoungPoong

24/10/2024 03:56

SEOUL, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Shares in Korea Zinc
 010130.KS  skyrocketed 29.9% on Thursday to a record high,
after a tender offer for shares in the world's biggest zinc
smelter ended as it tries to fend off a takeover bid by private
equity firm MBK and Young Poong  000670.KS . 
    Korea Zinc has not yet disclosed the outcome of its 3.2
trillion won ($2.4 billion) tender offer to buy its shares,
which expired on Wednesday.  
    But investors are betting that both sides of the takeover
battle will try to snap up more shares in a market where only a
limited number of stocks are available. So far, neither side in
the takeover battle appears to have a significant lead in stake
size, analysts said. 
    "After tender offers, both sides are expected to rake in
more shares through open purchase... Neither has a majority
(stake) yet, and there will be people trying to take profit in
the meantime," said Cho Jun-kee, an analyst at SK Securities. 
    Korea Zinc, backed by Bain Capital, has been in a bitter
fight for control of its $13 billion zinc empire with its
co-founding Chang family, whose electronics conglomerate Young
Poong made an initial tender offer with MBK in September.  
    MBK and Young Poong - which is already Korea Zinc's largest
shareholder - secured a 5.34% additional stake in Korea Zinc
earlier this month, increasing their side to about 38.5% stake. 
    Meanwhile, the stake favourable to Korea Zinc's current
management was estimated at about 34% before Wednesday,
according to Yonhap. 
    It is unclear how much this stake has increased since
Wednesday's tender offer expiry. 

 (Reporting by Joyce Lee and Jihoon Lee
Editing by Ed Davies)
 ((joyce.lee@tr.com;))