이 기사는 2021년 11월 02일 08:05 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

Investors in Kyobo Life Insurance have filed an injunction against the South Korean insurer’s chief executive officer, Shin Chang-jae, increasing pressure on him to value shares subject to put options under the shareholder agreement and escalating a longstanding legal battle between the two parties.

In a court hearing for the injunction application on October 28, a consortium led by private equity firm Affinity Equity Partners – which invested in the life insurer in 2012 – argued based on the International Chamber of Commerce’s recent ruling that Shin has an obligation to appoint an appraiser to assess the fair market value of the company’s shares and submit a valuation report to the investors under the shareholder agreement, and therefore the consortium has the preserved right to seek the implementation of such procedures.

The hearing comes after the Paris-based court issued a decision on the dispute between Shin and the investor group in September. The ruling stopped short of forcing Shin to buy shares from the investors at a price set by them but acknowledged the validity of the investors’ execution of the put options, allowing parties on both sides of the argument to claim victory.

The consortium said in the hearing that the injunction was applied for because a speedy remedy was unlikely considering that the ICC’s recent ruling took more than two years to be issued, while an extension of loan maturity is unlikely any more and its interest burden amounted to tens of billions of won.

The investors made it clear that their injunction request was based on the 229th paragraph of the ICC’s ruling that said the tribunal “determines that under the SHA, if one party does not appoint an appraiser, the other party may bring a legal claim and seek the remedies available under Korean law”.

The consortium, which consists of Affinity Equity, IMM Private Equity, Baring Private Equity Asia and Singapore’s GIC, purchased shares in Kyobo Life from Shin in 2012 to help him defend his control over the company, it said in a statement. The shareholder agreement included put options that enable them to sell their stakes to Shin if the insurer failed to go public by 2015

Kyobo Life remained as a private company beyond the deadline, prompting the investors to exercise the put options in October 2018. Shin refused to buy back the shares, and the investor group initiated ICC arbitration proceedings against him in March 2019.

The investors interpreted the ICC’s ruling as a judgment that a put option agreement between the two parties is valid under the shareholder agreement and their execution of the put options was legitimate and effective. Shin has so far argued that he didn’t appoint an appraiser because the put option clause was invalid, and this obviously runs counter to the ruling, the investors contended.

Shin’s legal representative refuted that, with Kyobo Life now planning to prepare for an initial public offering, it makes sense for the two parties to cooperate with each other, rather than escalating the legal fight. Shin requested an additional hearing, citing lack of time, but the request was declined. A ruling on the injunction will be made next week. (Reporting by Ha-na Suh)