Bum-seok Kim, Chairman of the Coupang Board of Directors (third from the left), is holding a celebration of listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on the 11th of last month (local time). News 1
It is expected that Coupang will be designated as a group of large corporations with no total number. This is because the founder and CEO, Bum-seok Kim, the chairman of the board of directors, is an American national.
The Fair Trade Commission announced on the 6th that it plans to designate Coupang as a business group (large business group) subject to disclosure on May 1st. In order to curb the concentration of large companies’ economic power, the FTC designates a group with a total assets of 5 trillion won or more as the disclosure target business groups and imposes restrictions on private interests in the total number of households, and the obligation to disclose large-scale internal transactions. The Fair Trade Commission estimates that Coupang’s assets exceed 5 trillion won, taking into account the increase in the price of the site for distribution centers.
The Fair Trade Commission decided that the same person (total number), which is used as the reference point for the regulation of large corporations, is not an individual Chairman Kim, but a corporation. This is because Chairman Kim is an American national. There is no specific definition for the same person under the Fair Trade Act. However, the FTC has designated only Korean nationals as the same person. An official from the Fair Trade Commission said, “There is no case of a foreigner being designated as the same person.” According to the KFTC’s policy, Coupang is expected to become a conglomerate with the same person as POSCO, KT, and S-Oil.
The actual owner of Coupang is Chairman Kim. He has a 10.2% stake in Coupang and 76.7% of the voting rights when applying differential voting rights. However, due to nationality, the same person is excluded from the designation, and Chairman Kim is not subject to the regulation of private interests. In the case of Naver and Kakao, as Naver Global Investment Officer Hae-jin Hae-jin (GIO) and Chairman Kim Bum-soo of Kakao have been designated as the same person, there will be a controversy over equity with other companies.
An official from the FTC said, “Even if you do not designate an individual as the same person, you can regulate if you provide goods, real estate, etc. to a specially related person or other company, or if you trade on very favorable terms.”
Sejong = Reporter Kihwan Kim [email protected]
