이 기사는 2021년 08월 12일 08:05 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

The first trial has been held for an accountant who is accused of copying Deloitte Anjin’s valuation of Kyobo Life Insurance shares subject to put options, which could be the start of a long legal battle between the South Korean insurance company and its private equity investors.

The Seoul Central District Court held the first trial on Tuesday for an accountant at Nexia Samduk, an accounting firm that was mandated by Affirma Capital – one of the financial investors in Kyobo – to value the insurer’s shares in 2018.

In 2012, a consortium led by Affinity Equity Partners acquired a 24% in Kyobo for about 1.21 trillion won ($1.04 billion) with a put option giving them the right to sell their holdings to Kyobo chairman Shin Chang-jae if the company fails to go public by 2015.

As Shin failed to take the company public in a specified period, the consortium exercised its put option in October 2018. A month later, Affirma Capital, another financial investor in Kyobo with a 5.33% stake, followed suit.

The Affinity consortium and Affirma Capital, formerly known as Standard Chartered Private Equity, hired accounting firms Deloitte Anjin and Nexia Samduk, respectively, to value Kyobo shares subject to put options. Deloitte Anjin valued the insurer’s stock at 409,912 per share, about twice the purchase price paid in 2012.

A prosecutor in charge of the case argued at Tuesday’s trial that the indicted accountant at Nexia Samduk exactly copied the valuation report prepared by Deloitte Anjin without proper validation, violating the country’s Certified Public Accountant Act.

The defendant’s lawyer refuted that the accountant did not copy but referred to Deloitte Anjin’s report to perform the task in a given period of time. However, when the judges asked if the accountant made any changes to the report, the lawyer answered that no changes were made.

The results of the trial are likely to have a sigificant impact on a separate case involving accountants at Deloitte Anjin and officials from the Affinity consortium.

In January this year, prosecutors indicted three accountants at Deloitte Anjin and two officials from the consortium for allegedly mispricing Kyobo’s stock price in favor of the investor group. The first trail of the case is scheduled for August 20. (Reporting by Eun-sol Lee)