Event set for Wednesday at National Assembly press center
'Public trust in capital markets, shaken by single-stock leveraged ETFs, must be restored'
Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Lee Hoon-ki announced Tuesday that he will hold a press conference Wednesday at the National Assembly press center, together with the Korea Minority Shareholders Research Association, to call for the swift passage of a bill aimed at preventing the deliberate suppression of share prices.
The event will be attended by Lee, a member of the Democratic Party's special committee on the K-capital market, along with five representatives of retail shareholders and three representatives of institutional investors.
The institutional investor representatives include Kim Min-kuk, chief executive of VIP Asset Management; Lee Chang-hwan, chief executive of Align Partners Asset Management; and Kim Ji-yeol, director at Quad Asset Management.
According to political sources, the bill — introduced by Lee as its lead sponsor — is designed to block the incentive for controlling shareholders to deliberately depress share prices in order to reduce inheritance and gift tax burdens, and to protect ordinary shareholders and retail investors who suffer as a result.
The press conference will also highlight what participants see as shortcomings in a rival proposal from the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Critics say the ministry's version relies on past share prices as its benchmark and allows a company to avoid being presumed a price-suppressor if it meets the criteria in just two of 13 half-year periods.
Lee is expected to say at the event that "it is difficult to properly prevent share-price suppression in this way" and that the issue is "a matter of people's livelihoods directly tied to the assets of countless retail investors." He is also expected to pledge that "public trust in our capital markets, shaken by single-stock leveraged ETFs, must be restored," and that the bill "will be passed without fail at this regular session of the National Assembly."
bigroot@heraldcorp.com
