Sovereign Asset Management has independently confirmed that the board of directors of SK corporation is scheduled to meet in Seoul tomorrow to consider potential disposal of the company's Treasury stock.
The Treasury stock is a significant asset of the company. Any endeavour by the company to sell the shares in a closed manner which favours a preferred group of outside buyers to the exclusion of the existing shareholders would be a blatant breach of globally accepted standards of corporate governance.
Such a move at a time that the company is attempting to rehabilitate itself would be a very bad signal to its existing shareholders and represent a continuation in the series of scandals that have plagued SK group companies and damaged the Korean economy throughout 2003.
Any offering of the treasury stock should be made to all existing shareholders on a pro-rata basis.
It is our expectation that the directors of SK Corporation will act in accordance with their fiduciary responsibility to all shareholders.
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