MBK, Young Poong secure more than 5% stake in Korea Zinc, source says (updated)

YoungPoong

14/10/2024 10:02

(Changes attribution, adds details)
       SEOUL, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Private equity firm MBK and
Young Poong  000670.KS  have secured  a more than 5% stake in
Korea Zinc  010130.KS  through a tender offer that closed on
Monday, a person familiar with the matter said.
    Korea Zinc has made its own tender offer to purchase shares
in the company as it seeks to fend off what it says is a
"hostile" takeover attempt.
        MBK said the additional shares would enable it to have
enough voting rights to push ahead with their proposal at a
shareholders' meetings. 
  
        "We believe today will be recorded as a meaningful
milestone for Korea's capital market," MBK said in a statement,
adding that it marked the first step to enhancing corporate
value by improving corporate governance.
  
        The competing sides in combination with their likely
supporters had held about a one-third stake in Korea Zinc before
the tender offers, according to calculations by Meritz
Securities. 
  
        Korea Zinc was not immediately available for comment. 
  
    MBK and South Korea's Young Poong had conducted a tender
offer to purchase up to 14.6% of Korea Zinc shares, for an
estimated price tag of up to 2.5 trillion won ($1.85 billion)
with a tender price set at 830,000 won per share.
    Last week, Korea Zinc raised the purchase price and size of
its tender offer by 7% to 890,000 won each and increased the
number of shares in plans to acquire by 20% to 4,140,657 shares
alongside Bain Capital, valuing the tender offer at 3.6 trillion
won. The offer closes on Oct. 23 
        Korea Zinc has been in a bitter battle for control of
the $12 billion zinc empire with the co-founding Chang family,
whose electronics conglomerate Young Poong made an initial joint
offer with MBK in September.
  

 (Reporting by Heekyong Yang and Jack Kim 
Editing by Ed Davies)
 ((jack.kim@thomsonreuters.com; +822 6936 1455;))