The merger plan between South Korea‘s Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group and OCI Group has faced a setback as the opponents of the merger gained support from the shareholders.

During the shareholders’ meeting of Hanmi Science Co., the holding company of the Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group, on Thursday, the appointment of all five candidates as inside directors proposed by the members of the Hanmi founding family Lim Jong-yoon and Lim Jong-hoon was approved by the shareholders.

The Lim brothers were appointed as inside directors with 52 percent and 51 percent support, respectively.

The merger supporters recommended six candidates as directors, including Hanmi Science President Lim Ju-hyun and OCI Holdings Co. Chief Executive Officer Lee Woo-hyun, but they were all rejected due to failing to meet the majority vote requirement.

The casting votes are believed to have come from small individual shareholders. Given that the difference in shareholdings between the merger supporter and opponent groups was only 2.09 percentage points, most individual shareholders are likely to have supported the Lim brothers.

After the shareholders’ meeting, OCI Group said that it will “humbly accept” the shareholders‘ opinions, expressing abandonment of the merger plan.

By Kang Min-ho, Jung You-jung and Chang Iou-chung

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]