People in ‘special relationship’ owns 32.21% of Ilsung shares

Ilsung Pharmaceutical drew popular attention last year playing a role in the “Choi Soon-sil scandal.”

Ilsung, a drugmaker of middle standing, is in the news again because of its unique governance structure wholly owned by the founding family. CEO Yoon Seok-keun is its largest shareholder, and 10 other family members are major shareholders.

Yoon took the stand at a National Assembly hearing in December to testify on the controversial merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries. It was part of the parliament’s investigations into the influence-peddling scandal by Choi, a confidante of former President Park Geun-hye for four decades.

In the hearing, Yoon said that Samsung had asked him to agree to the merger of the two companies, as the biggest shareholder of National Pension Service had endorsed the deal. Ilsung has 1,414 shares of Samsung C&T.

On Wednesday, the company posted a notice on the stock market showing its stock ownership in detail, especially equities owned by Yoon and people in “special relationship” with him. According to the notice, Yoon, the second son of founder Yoon Byung-kang, has 224,610 shares of Ilsung, or the equity of 8.44 percent.

Yoon’s elder brother, Deok-keun, who also serves as the company’s executive director, owns 127,701 shares, or equity of 4.8 percent.

Also holding Ilsung’s shares were eight other relatives: Hyung-jin (213,482 shares, 8.03 percent), Hyung-keun (4,030 stocks, 0.15 percent), Soo-jin (3,835 shares, 0.14 percent), Jong-ho (6,012 stocks, 0.23 percent), Jong-wook (5,867 stocks, 0.22 percent), Ji-seo (6,151 stocks, 0.23 percent), Jong-Hyun (6,045 stocks, 0.23 percent) and Jong-hee (6,223 stocks, 0.23 percent).

The youngest member of the Yoon family, Jong-hee, 24, has 787 million won ($701,600) worth of Ilsung shares, which changed hands at 126,500 won per share Wednesday.

Other major shareholders in a special relationship were a scholarship foundation (112,175 shares, 4.22 percent), run by the company’s founder, and Seoksan D&P (140,792 shares, 5.29 percent), a health supplementary food maker, led by his eldest son Deok-keun.

The company’s sales in 2016 stood at 67.4 billion won with the operating profit of 2.4 billion won. Penicillin antibiotics such as Augmentin Tab accounted for 30 percent of its total sales. It also sells Baxter’s general anesthetics, Suprane Solution.

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