5/19/2026
Hanwha Solutions Investors Demand Korea Zinc Share Sale
Business Korea (05/19/26) Suk-yee, Jung
Hanwha Solutions (KRX: 009830) minority shareholders argued on May 19 that instead of a 1.8 trillion won (approximately $1.2 billion) paid-in capital increase, it is necessary to sell or securitize the Korea Zinc shares held by Hanwha Impact and its subsidiaries. According to the shareholder activism platform ACT, a representative of Hanwha Solutions shareholders posted on the platform on May 19, stating, “Sell the Korea Zinc shares held by Hanwha Impact, and withdraw the paid-in capital increase.” The author stated that Hanwha Impact, in which Hanwha Solutions holds a 47.93% stake, owns a 1.88% stake (373,820 shares) in Korea Zinc (KRX: 010130), while one of Hanwha Impact’s North American corporations holds an additional 5% (993,158 shares). They explained that based on the closing price on May 15, the value of these shares reaches approximately 1.96 trillion won. The representative criticized that although the funds could be utilized in various ways, such as special dividends, share repurchases and cancellations, or inter-affiliate share transactions, the company is not considering them. Currently, the self-rescue plan presented by Hanwha Solutions is to sell a portion of its Hanwha Impact stake to a third party and review the securitization of its Hanwha Hotels & Resorts stake, aiming to complete asset sales or securitization worth around 300 billion won within the third quarter of this year. However, the shareholders believed that the disposal of Korea Zinc shares is necessary instead of such measures. The shareholder representative raised suspicions of friendly shares toward the company for not disposing of the Korea Zinc shares, asking if it is a case where they ‘cannot sell them.’ He argued, “The pretext is a business alliance, but in reality, I suspect it was to play the role of a white knight for Korea Zinc's Choi Yun-beom and to use Hanwha's treasury shares for succession.” While Hanwha and Korea Zinc swapped 7.25% and 1.2% of their treasury shares respectively in 2022, the shareholder representative alleged there are circumstances showing that after Hanwha Energy's tender offer to secure control over Hanwha failed in 2024, Korea Zinc handed over its Hanwha shares to Hanwha Energy at a lower price than the tender offer price. The implication is that if Korea Zinc supported the strengthening of the Hanwha owner family's control in the past, Hanwha is now conversely maintaining its Korea Zinc shares to act as friendly shares (a white knight) for Choi Yun-beom's side. The shareholder representative emphasized, “If the Korea Zinc shares held by Hanwha Impact can be sold, Hanwha Solutions' paid-in capital increase can be withdrawn or at least its scale can be drastically reduced,” adding, “Conversely, if they cannot be sold, the reason must be clearly explained to the shareholders.” With the Financial Supervisory Service having rejected Hanwha Solutions' securities registration statement for the paid-in capital increase twice, Hanwha Solutions changed the schedule related to the paid-in capital increase through a corrective disclosure on May 14. The record date for the allocation of new shares was changed to June 5, and the determination date for the issuance price of new shares was also changed from June 17 to July 7. The scheduled listing date of new shares was revised from July 10 to July 31.
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