[Bills in Focus] Shareholders protection, offshore wind power support

Proposed Bill: Partial Amendment to the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act

Proposed by Rep. Kang Hoon-sik (Democratic Party of Korea)

● Most acquisitions and mergers of listed companies in Korea are carried out through stock acquisitions, where controlling shareholders privately contract to sell stakes and controlling interest. During these transactions, majority shareholders of the target company sell their stakes at a high price, which includes control premiums.

However, general shareholders suffer significant losses in merger and acquisition situations since they do not have the opportunity to sell their stocks at the same premium price as the majority shareholders. This problem of stock acquisition-type mergers has long been criticized. Therefore, this amendment requires the acquiring company to make a tender offer for the remaining equity after the acquisition to protect general shareholders from incurring losses during a stock acquisition.

Proposed Bill: Special Act for Planned Offshore Wind Farms and Industry Promotion Act

Proposed by Rep. Kim So-hee (People Power Party)

● In the face of the climate crisis, offshore wind energy has emerged as a key energy resource for Korea. Therefore, this special act devises a comprehensive government-led location planning and support system to facilitate the development of offshore wind power projects and expand the offshore wind power industry.

Promulgated Bill: Rules on the Prevention of Pollution from Ships

Competent Authority: Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries

● Following the amendment to the Marine Environment Management Act, these rules provide enforcement rules for inspection of equipment subject to type approval, such as mandating the submission of acceptance certificates for type approval changes and enforcing the implementation of improvement measures for defective equipment. Moreover, it expands the scope of ships required to keep a garbage record book.

Administrative Announcement: Partial Amendment to the Regulation on Supervision of Electronic Financial Transactions

Competent Authority: Financial Services Commission

● This amendment improves the criteria and registration procedures for the registration of prepayment businesses. It also stipulates application procedures and user protection measures for buy now, pay later) services.

---

The Korea Herald republishes a weekly legislative report by local law firm DR & AJU LLC to provide the latest information on bills approved, proposed, pending and set to be promulgated. -- Ed.

---

For any queries about the bills, contact cr@draju.com.