이 기사는 2021년 03월 17일 08시06분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

LX Holdings Corp, a new company spun off from LG Group and led by Koo Bon-joon, is set to be formally launched in one and a half months, which will mark the end of his months-long efforts to stand on his own feet by separating some of the conglomerate’s affiliates such as Housing material provider LG Hausys and display chip maker Silicon Works to form the holding company.

LG Corp, led by Koo Bon-joon’s nephew Koo Kwang-mo, said that the separation of the conglomerate into LG Corp and LX Holdings Corp will be voted on during a shareholders meeting on March 26, according to a regulatory filing. If the proposal is approved, LX Holdings Corp will become operational starting May 1.

Trading in LG Corp shares will be halted for about a month from April 29, with stocks in both LG Corp and LX Holdings Corp expected to begin trading on May 27. After the separation, a shareholder who previously owned 100 shares in LG Corp would hold 91 shares in LG Corp and 44 shares in LX Holdings Corp. Shareholders’ proportionate ownership of both companies will not be impacted by the spin-off.

Koo Kwang-mo and Koo Bon-joon – currently the largest and second largest shareholders in LG Corp with 15.95% and 7.72% stakes respectively – will also have the same proportionate ownership of LX Holdings Corp. This means that the two leaders will need to exchange each other’s stake to complete the separation.

Koo Kwang-mo is expected to own some 12.39 million shares in LX Holdings Corp, while Koo Bon-joon is to hold about 12.12 million shares in LG Corp. The stock swap would be much simpler if LX Holdings Corp shares trade at a similar level to LG Corp shares. But that is highly unlikely, industry watchers said, given the difference between the size of the two companies.

Koo Kwang-mo and Koo Bon-joon will likely opt to wait for the right time for the stock swap, rather than rush to exchange shares, industry watchers said.

When LG Group co-founder Huh Man-jung previously spun off some of LG Corp’s affiliates and established GS Holdings in 2004, the Huh family and the Koo family exchanged most of each other’s stake within less than a week after the stocks in the two holding companies began trading.

At the time, the price of GS Holdings shares was higher than that of LG Corp shares. This had raised concerns among investors about a potential overhang on GS Holdings’ stock, which did not happen. (Reporting by Euna Jo)