NPS set to wield influence on business management

National Pension Service, the country’s largest institutional investor, is not going to cast a favorable vote for Chung Mong-koo, Hyundai Motor Chairman, and Park Yong-sung, Doosan Infracore Chairman, in its board meetings when the next sets of board members are chosen.

The agency, holding a 4.56 per cent share in Hyundai Motor and 2.92 per cent in Doosan Infracore, cites the two business moguls’ crime records of embezzlement as the main reason for the decision. The regulatory book of the agency stipulates that it can oppose to the appointment of anyone as a board member who damages corporate values or infringes upon shareholder’s rights.

Many believe that its shares are not enough actually to cast the two chairmen off the board but the decision is believed to ring an alarm bell in many Korean chaebols for better management and exert influence onto other shareholders in their decision making.