2024-12-26
– Must Asset seeks shifts at Young Poong, trading at 0.2 P/B
– Young Poong, backed by MBKP, is fighting to control Korea Zinc
A Korean hedge fund that has outperformed the nation’s sluggish stocks with a 50% return so far this year is calling out hypocrisy at miner Young Poong Corp. over shareholder returns.
Kim Doo-Yong, founder of Must Asset Management Inc., said he noticed disturbing irony in Young Poong president’s rebuke of a buyback by Korea Zinc Co. that wasn’t followed by cancellation of the shares. Young Poong itself has been sitting on uncanceled treasury shares for more than 10 years, said Kim, whose fund holds a stake of more than 2% in the miner.
“It was a sad moment that laid bare the ‘Korea Discount,’” Kim said in an interview, referring to the persistent undervaluation of the nation’s stocks relative to overseas peers. Must Asset last month proposed Young Poong cancel its treasury stock, equal to 6.62% of its shares outstanding, among other efforts to improve its valuation.
Young Poong shares trade at less than 0.2 times book value. That ranks it in the bottom 10 of the 200-member Kospi Mid Cap Index.
※ Full Article: Hedge Fund Returning 50% Calls Out Korean Corporate Hypocrisy – Bloomberg
