Mom's Touch delisting feared to benefit large shareholders only
The owner of a Mom's Touch franchise restaurant in Seoul holds a sign protesting the franchisor's abusive management practices, Oct. 27, 2021. Korea Times fileBy Lee Kyung-min Criticism is mounting over the delisting of Mom's Touch, a local fast-food franchisor. Market watchers are calling the move an irresponsible, rushed exit strategy pursued at the expense of retail shareholders, who are highly likely to incur considerable losses, if market prices set by the current tender offer fall short of their purchase prices. Some say that the delisting from the tech-heavy Kosdaq market is a calculated move by KL & Partners, the private equity firm that operates F&B Holdings Korea, the largest shareholder of Mom's Touch, with a 67.49 percent stake, to avoid accounting data disclosure responsibilities. The delisting legitimizes keeping small franchise owners out of the loop to evade due, equitable profit sharing. Others view the delisting as a step toward preparing for a listing in a few years, once all shares of the firm are bought back, as an easy way to fundamentally remove any pos
Jan 23, 2022By Lee Kyung-min
