Sovereign Asset Management ("Sovereign") today announced that it has launched appeal proceedings against the decision by the Korean courts to deny shareholders an EGM at SK Corp.
The court confirmed that Sovereign met the legal requirements to call an EGM. It also ruled that Sovereign is not abusing its rights as a shareholder. It then added unprecedented stipulations concerning the timing of the EGM and made the extraordinary observation that the shareholder rights of a corporate entity may be less enforceable than those of a "natural person".
James Fitter, CEO of Sovereign Asset Management, said:
"Sovereign is seeking to overturn what it believes to be a potentially damaging ruling for Korea's capital markets if it is left to stand. It is vital for the efficient functioning of Korea's capital markets that everyone should be able to freely exercise the basic shareholder rights to which they are enTitleMainMaind under Korean law."
About the Appeal
Under Korean law, the right of a shareholder to requisition an EGM requires the shareholder to own more than 1.5% of the company's shares, and hold those shares for more than six months. As SK Corp's largest single shareholder, Sovereign, through its subsidiaries, has held 14.9% of the company for some 18 months.
The Board of SK Corp had earlier refused Sovereign's request of 25th October to hold an EGM to vote on new Articles of Incorporation that would enshrine the principle that persons indicted for serious crimes should be suspended and that persons convicted of serious crimes should be barred from acting as a director.?SK Corp's denial of this request prompted Sovereign to bring the issue before the Korean courts.
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