Hanmi Pharm CEO Lim Jong-yoon, the eldest son of the late Lim Sung-ki, who founded the Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group, and his younger, Hanmi Science CEO Lim Jong-hoon, have announced their intention to change the management of Hanmi Science.

They plan to form a new board of directors through the shareholders' meeting next month, drawing the industry’s attention to the impact on the scheduled merger of the Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group with the OCI Group.

According to industry sources, last Thursday, Lim Jong-yoon and Jong-hoon exercised their shareholder proposal rights against the group’s holding company, Hanmi Science.

They reportedly aim to propose an agenda item for the 2024 annual general meeting of shareholders of Hanmi Science scheduled for March so that the two brothers and four other director nominees designated by them can be appointed as new directors of Hanmi Science.

The two brothers explained the reasoning behind the shareholder proposal, stating that the board of directors of Hanmi Science, the Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group holding company, needs to be expanded to include more directors with experience, knowledge, and expertise in the pharmaceutical industry.

They maintained that the current board of directors of Hanmi Science, which consists of Chairwoman Song Young-sook, outside director Shin Yoo-cheol, a former prosecutor, outside director Kim Yong-duk, a former Supreme Court justice, and outside director Kwak Tae-sun, a former asset manager, have no experience and expertise in the pharmaceutical industry.

After forming the new board of directors, Lim Jong-hoon will head the holding company Hanmi Science, and. Jong-yoon will head Hanmi Pharm, a subsidiary, to manage the companies directly.

"The purpose of the shareholder proposal is not just to enter the board of directors but to express our clear intention to manage the Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group as the CEOs of the holding company and its flagship subsidiary following the will of the late chairman," the two brothers said.

The new board of directors will solidify its position as a holding company for Hanmi Science while mobilizing all available strategies to restore the current stock price to the pre-pandemic 2018 level or higher, faithfully protect the rights and interests of all shareholders, and strengthen the fairness and transparency of the board's operations, they added.

"In the last three years since the passing of the late chairman, the current management has failed to provide a vision for the future business and has let Hanmi Science lose its status as a holding company through irrational and opaque closed-door management, resulting in serious damage to corporate value and a decline in the stock price, as well as the decision to make a takeover bid," Hanmi Pharmaceutical CEO Lim Jong-yoon said.