이 기사는 2022년 03월 30일 08시09분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

Hoban Construction has acquired a sizable chunk of shares in Hanjin KAL from private equity firm KCGI, bringing in major changes to the ownership structure of Hanjin Group’s holding company.

On Monday, the company announced its purchase of 9.4 million shares (13.97%) in Hanjin KAL from KCGI for 564 billion won ($462 million), or 60,000 won each. It said in a filing that the purpose for holding shares is “general investing”.

Separately, Hoban Construction secured a call option to buy an additional 1,614,917 Hanjin KAL shares from KCGI and a warrant to purchase 800,000 new shares issued by the holding company.

The transaction comes after Hoban Co Ltd also bought 52,000 shares (0.08%) in Hanjin KAL from the private equity firm at a price of 56,889 won each on March 18. With its stake sale to the two firms, KCGI’s holding in Hanjin KAL has been reduced to 0.9%.

The transactions have caused changes to Hanjin KAL’s ownership structure. The largest shareholder of the company remains Hanjin Group chairman Cho Won-tae and specially related persons. If Hoban Construction exercised both the call option and warrant to get 2,414,917 shares, this would make it the second largest shareholder of Hanjin KAL, with a 17.57% stake including 0.08% held by Hoban.

After Hoban Construction’s stake purchase, some have speculated that the company could join forces with Bando Construction to challenge Cho over the control of Hanjin KAL, reigniting a shareholder battle.

However, many think that such chances are slim because Korea Development Bank (KDB), which owns some 10% of Hanjin KAL, is on Cho’s side as the state-controlled lender tries to support the airline industry hit hard by the pandemic.

KDB pumped capital into Hanjin KAL in 2020 by purchasing the company's new shares to support the acquisition of the debt-ridden Asiana Airlines by Korean Air Lines, a subsidiary of Hanjin KAL. This helped put an end to a management battle between Cho’s allies and a three-way alliance comprising KCGI, Bando Construction and the chairman’s sister Hyun-ah.

KDB and Cho’s allies including Delta Air Lines collectively hold more than 45% of Hanjin KAL.

It is also said that Hoban Construction communicated with Cho before acquiring the stake from KCGI. “I've learned that Hoban chairman Kim Sang-yeol said he’s a ‘white knight’ for Hanjin to his acquaintances,” a source said.

The three-way alliance officially ended their partnership in April last year. Now KCGI has offloaded most of its stake in Hanjin KAL, threats of a potential reunion of the three have eliminated.

“We have continued to make efforts to improve Hanjin Group’s governance and financial health to increase the conglomerate’s value. We will continue to serve our role as a minority shareholder in Hanjin KAL for improvement in the group’s governance and stable growth,” KCGI said in a statement on Monday. (Reporting by Su-jin Yoo)