Hyundai Motor chief accepts court ruling

Korea JoongAng Daily - The chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, Chung Mong-koo, has decided to accept a court ruling on Feb. 25 that he should pay 86.2 billion won ($76.8 million) in compensation to minority shareholders of the group because he unfairly supported some subsidiaries of the group, damaging the profits of the shareholders, the Seoul Central Court said yesterday. 

The plaintiffs - the minority shareholders of Hyundai Motor Group and Solidarity for Economic Reform - also said they wouldn’t lodge an appeal against the verdict of the court.

Since the ruling from the court was posted to plaintiffs and the defendants on March 7, it has been more than two weeks during which the court had allowed the plaintiffs and the defendant to file an appeal.

The court, thus, upheld the verdict of the trial.

In 2008, the plaintiffs filed a compensation lawsuit against Chung, arguing that the chairman unfairly supported some subsidiaries of the group, such as Hyundai Glovis and Hyundai Mobis, and had obtained shares of Hyundai Glovis in an improper way when the subsidiary was founded in February 2001.

The plaintiffs said Chung damaged the group’s operations in a way that cost 1 trillion won in total.

On Feb. 25, the court ruled that Chung unfairly supported the subsidiaries, but it didn’t rule that Chung had received the shares of Hyundai Glovis in an illegal manner. So the court asked for compensation of 86.2 billion won, not 1 trillion won, from Chung.