Shares in Hanjin KAL, the holding company of Hanjin Group, continued to extend losses Monday as investors who bet on the firm's escalating battle with a local activist fund are offloading them, analysts said.
Investors are selling Hanjin KAL, the parent company of Korean Air Lines Co., as the battle between Hanjin KAL and the Korea Corporate Governance Improvement seems to be over and KCGI's 16 percent stake in Hanjin KAL could serve as an overhang, they said.
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(Yonhap) |
"Hanjin KAL may undergo a further correction as investors may think the stocks held by KCGI as potential ones to be sold anytime in the market. Hanjin KAL may fall further to 25,000 won (US$22) in the coming weeks," Choi Nam-kon, an analyst at Yuanta Securities Korea Co., said in his research note.
As of 11:00 a.m., Hanjin KAL had fallen 6.1 percent to 32,200 won and Korean Air had declined 1.6 percent to 30,000 won, underperforming the broader KOSPI's 0.2 percent gain.
On Friday, Hanjin KAL plunged 15 percent and Korean Air shed 2.6 percent as Delta Air Lines Inc. announced that it has acquired a 4.3 percent stake in Hanjin KAL and said it intends to jack up its investment in the firm to 10 percent over time.
Delta's unexpected investment in Hanjin KAL, which owns a 30 percent stake in Korean Air, has cleared uncertainties surrounding its battle to defend its management rights against any attacks of activist hedge funds, such as KCGI.
Delta and Korean Air formed a joint venture last year to collaborate on the industry's most robust trans-Pacific routes, providing customers access to more than 290 U.S. destinations and over 80 in Asia.
With Delta's investment, KCGI is widely expected to face an uphill battle over bringing changes to Hanjin Group, the country's 14th-biggest logistics-centered conglomerate.
Early this month, KCGI demanded a Seoul court designate an auditor to review Hanjin KAL's appointment process for a new chairman.
Hanjin KAL's board named late Chairman Cho Yang-ho's only son, Won-tae, as new chairman in April following his father's death.
Hanjin KAL said it will respond to the move according to legal procedures.
The Cho family and other relatives together hold a 28.93 percent stake, including 17.84 percent held by the late chairman, in Hanjin KAL. The National Pension Service owns a 7.34 percent stake in the firm.
KCGI said Friday that if the purpose of Delta's investment decision is only to help protect the Hanjin Group founding family's management rights, it runs against Delta's honor and principles that it has established over a long time.
The homegrown fund asked for a meeting with the Delta Chief Executive Ed Bastian to join forces with each other to monitor Hanjin's efforts to enhance its governance structure. (Yonhap)
