Korean pharmaceutical companies are announcing their general shareholders’ meeting schedules.

According to the Kosdaq Listed Companies Association, the key dates for shareholder meetings in 2024 are March 22, 27, and 29, when the domestic drugmakers hold annual shareholder meetings.

In these meetings, pharmaceutical companies report on their performance and R&D investment status, amend the articles of association, appoint directors, and determine remuneration, providing a glimpse into their future operations.

Leading the pack is Yuhan Corp., which will hold its shareholders’ meeting at its headquarters office in Dongjak-gu, Seoul, on Friday. This year's shareholders' meeting has been controversial because the company will reportedly amend its articles of incorporation to create the positions of chairman and vice chairman.

Explaining its background, Yuhan said the new positions are necessary due to the company's quantitative and qualitative growth, which requires organizational flexibility to fit the company's size. The company added that when it recruits excellent talents from outside in the future, the targeted personnel might want higher positions than their current titles.

Among Korean pharmaceutical companies, Hanmi Group subsidiaries' shareholders' meetings are attracting the most attention. Hanmi Pharmaceutical will hold its shareholders’ meeting on March 27, followed by Hanmi Science on March 28. Interestingly, Hanmi Group's AGM will be held at the Laviedor Hotel in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, instead of the Hanmi Tower in Songpa-gu, Seoul.

The reason the Hanmi Group's shareholders' meeting will be held in Gyeonggi Province for the first time is to prevent unnecessary conflicts by following related rules as much as possible at a time when the group’s current management and its late founder’s son, Hanmi Pharmaceutical President Lim Jong-yoon, are in a management dispute.

Article 364 of the Commercial Act states that a shareholders' meeting must be held at or adjacent to the company's head office unless otherwise specified. The head office of Hanmi Pharmaceutical and Hanmi Science is the Paltan Business Center in Muha-ro, Paltan-myeon, Hwaseong City, Gyeonggi Province. The Laviedor Hotel, the venue of their shareholder meetings, is located about 10 kilometers from the Paltan Business Center.

Hanmi Group’s shareholder meeting this year will likely be a turning point in determining the merger of Hanmi Science with OCI Holdings.

Hanmi Pharmaceutical will vote to appoint Seo Jin-seok, president of OCI Holdings and Bukwang Pharmaceutical, as a new director at the shareholders' meeting on March 27. The proposal to re-elect President Lim Jong-yoon, whose term as an inside director expires on March 26, has not been tabled as the agenda.

At Hanmi Science’s shareholders' meeting on March 28, there will be a voting duel over 11 directors nominated by the current management and President Lim Jong-yoon, respectively. Hanmi Science has nominated Lim Joo-hyun, head of strategic planning at Hanmi Science, and Lee Woo-hyun, CEO of OCI Holdings, as inside directors while recommending Choi In-young, head of R&D center at Hanmi Pharm, as non-executive directors and Professor Park Kyung-jin of Myungji University, Seo Jung-mo, CEO of Monas Lab, and Kim Ha-il, dean of KAIST Medical School, as outside directors.

Hanmi Pharm CEO Lim recommended himself and his younger brother, Lim Jong-hoon, as inside directors, Kwon Kyu-chan, CEO of Dx&Vx, and Professor Bae Bo-kyung of Korea University as non-executive directors, and Sa Bong-kwan, a lawyer, as an outside director.

Hanmi Science will vote on the proposal to appoint the new directors en masse. "If the number of director candidates who meet the requirements for ordinary resolution exceeds six, up to six directors will be appointed in the order of the highest number of votes,” Hanmi Science said

The shareholders' meeting of Bukwang Pharmaceutical, a subsidiary of the OCI Group, will be held at Bukwang Pharmaceutical’s auditorium in Dongjak-gu, Seoul, on March 22. At the meeting, a proposal to appoint Woo Ki-seok, CEO of Online Pharm, a Hanmi Group affiliate, a former head of the pharmacy business at Hanmi Pharmaceutical, as a new director is on the agenda. As OCI and Hanmi merge, industry watchers said the appointment of Woo as an inside director of Bukwang Pharmaceutical will likely mark the beginning of the personnel exchange between the two sides.

The co-founders’ son and daughter will join Samjin Pharm's management. At the shareholders' meeting to be held at Samjin Pharmaceutical's headquarters office in Mapo-gu, Seoul, on March 22, Vice President Cho Kyu-hyung, the second son of founder Cho Eui-hwan, and Vice President Choi Ji-seon, the second daughter of co-founder Choi Seung-joo, will be appointed as new corporate directors. They were promoted to vice president of Samjin earlier this year.

Cho Kyu-seok and Choi Ji-hyun, the eldest son and daughter of the company’s co-founders, were elected to the board of directors at the shareholders' meeting last year and were promoted to president earlier this year. With this appointment, all four children of the two co-founders will join the board as inside directors.

Kwangdong Pharmaceutical, which will hold its shareholders' meeting on March 26 at the aT Center in Seocho-gu, Seoul, will amend its articles of incorporation to add "solar power generation business" to its business purpose and relocate its headquarters to Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province.

The company said that adding a solar power generation business to its business purpose reduces the costs of operating a solar power business, and the change of the headquarters location in the articles of association is a result of the articles of association's conditional reflection due to the planned relocation of the company's headquarters location.

On the same day, Dong-A ST will hold a shareholders' meeting at its new building in Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul. Through the amendment of the articles of incorporation, Dong-A ST will delete the business purpose clauses of manufacturing and sales of cosmetics, detergents, cleaning agents, soaps, paints, and plastic products, construction, supply, sales, and construction of housing and prefabricated housing business while adding parking lot operation business.

Regarding the change in business purpose, Dong-A ST said that it deleted the business purpose clause that does not plan to operate the business in the future and added the parking lot operation business to the business purpose clause to establish and lease parking towers.