A family feud within South Korea's largest pharmaceutical company broke out again Thursday as its former chief sought a court injunction to ban the company's current management from exercising voting rights ahead of a shareholder meeting next month.
Dong-A Pharmaceutical has been struggling to overcome a nearly three-year bitter struggle between Kang Moon-seok, who replaced his father Kang Shin-ho as the company's chief executive officer in 2004, and the current management, headed by the father's son from a second marriage.
The ousted Kang, who announced in February a plan to make a takeover bid for Dong-A with a reported 15.71 percent stake with his allies, is trying to name five directors on the company's board at the meeting scheduled for Oct. 31.
The move came as current chief executive Kang Jeong-seok sold a 7.45 percent stake in treasury stock, which can't be voted on, in July to a paper company in Labuan, Malaysia. Jeong-seok, backed by his father, holds a stake of about 19 percent, including the treasury stock.
In a statement, Moon-seok accused his half-brother and father of defending their control of the management after restoring voting rights of the treasury stock.
An application for the injunction was filed with the Seoul Northern District Court on Sept. 21, the statement said.
If all of the ousted Kang's five candidates are named at the shareholder meeting next month, analysts say, he would gain the upper hand in the bid for control of Dong-A.
Until the shareholder meeting, the two brothers will solicit proxy votes, analysts say.
"We didn't receive a court document over the injunction," said an official at Dong-A. "After reviewing the document, we will discuss countermeasures."
Shares of Dong-A fell 0.4 percent to close at 99,000 won ($107.40) on the Seoul bourse.
Last year, Dong-A reported a net profit of 32.3 billion won on sales of 576.7 billion won.
(Yonhap)