[뉴스토마토 조용훈 기자] It was found that Sempyo, a general holding company in the brewery and soy sauce food industry, and Polar Energy & Marine, a holding company of a mid-sized shipping company, violated holding company regulations, such as holding debts exceeding twice the total capital and financial business, respectively.
The Fair Trade Commission announced on the 9th that the holding companies, Sempyo and Polar Energy & Marine, will take corrective action against the violation of the ‘Prohibition of Holding Company Conduct Restriction’ under the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act. A fine of 12 million won was decided for Sam-pyo.
According to the violations, Sempyo has owned 500 million shares of Partner One Value Up No. 2 Startup Venture Private Equity Joint Venture, which is a financial industry, for 4 months since December 2020.
In accordance with the principle of separation of finance and industry, the current Fair Trade Act stipulates that general holding companies other than financial holding companies cannot own stocks of domestic companies engaged in the finance and insurance business.
In the case of Polar Energy & Marine, as of December 31, 2020, the company had debts in excess of twice its total capital on its balance sheet. Polar Energy & Marine’s debt ratio reached 635%.
Current holding companies cannot hold more than twice their total capital. This is to prevent the holding company from forcibly expanding its affiliates through debt. In response, the Fair Trade Commission imposed a corrective order on Polar Energy & Marine to resolve debts exceeding twice its total capital within the year.
Pi Gye-rim, head of the holding company division of the Fair Trade Commission, said, “This measure is meaningful in that it discovered and sanctioned cases of violations of the restrictions on conduct that undermine the purpose of the holding company system under the Fair Trade Act for a simple, transparent and sound ownership and governance structure.”
He added, “We plan to continuously monitor holding companies and other violations of the restrictions on conduct and take strict sanctions against violations so that excessive expansion of control using the holding company system can be suppressed and a simple and transparent investment structure can be maintained.”
The Fair Trade Commission announced on the 9th that it has decided to issue a correction order to Sempio and Polar Energy & Marine, respectively, for violating the Fair Trade Act, and to impose a fine of 12 million won on Sempio. The photo is the Fair Trade Commission in Eojin-dong, Sejong City. (Photo = News Tomato).
Sejong = Correspondent Jo Yong-hoon [email protected]
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