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Hanwha Solutions was fined KRW 15.7 billion for the charge of employing a company where the older sister of Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-yeon is the largest shareholder and unfairly supports the company by listing at a higher price. than normal price.
The Fair Trade Commission announced on the 8th that Hanwha Solutions will impose a penalty of 15.7 billion won and will file a complaint with the prosecution for unfair support with a high toll tax and targeting the logistics company Han Express.
▲ Hanwha Solutions logo.
Han Express was imposed a correction order and a 7.3 billion won fine.
The FTC has been monopolizing the inland transportation of Hanwha Solutions’ export containers since Hanwha Solutions was a cloaking subsidiary, but continued this transaction even after the company was sold to Hanwha Group President Kim Young-hye, the Hanwha Group President Kim Seung-yeon’s older sister said Hanwha Solutions unfairly supported Han Express. I saw it.
Han Express started as a logistics company affiliated with Hanwha Group, but in 1989 Hanwha sold its stake and parted ways with Hanwha Group.
However, in an investigation into Hanwha Group’s bribery fund in 2009, it was revealed that Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-yeon had a stake in Hanwha Express under his middle name, and was convicted in the Supreme Court in 2013. .
Consequently, in 2009, Taekyung Hwaseong, Han Express’s largest shareholder, sold all of its shares to President Kim Seung-yeon’s older sister, Kim Young-hye, and her son, Lee Seok-hwan, to become independent from Hanwha Group. Taekyung Hwaseong is also a company that was investigated as a subsidiary of Hanwha Group in the Hanwha Group bribery fund investigation in 2009.
As of June 30, 2020, as of June 30, 2020, Seok-Hwan Lee is the largest shareholder and CEO with a 20.6% stake in Han Express, and Young-Hye Kim is the second largest shareholder with a stake 20%.
According to the Fair Trade Commission, Hanwha Solutions signed a contract with Han Express for a KRW 83 billion container shipping contract from June 2008 to March 2019, which is KRW 8 billion higher than the normal price.
The FTC saw that Hanwha Solutions did not evaluate the transportation company in the process of signing a contract with Han Express after its sale, and that the department of labor promoted the reduction of transportation costs through public tender in 2014, but it was lost.
At the same time, the FTC decided that Hanwha Solutions provided unreasonable support by changing the method of transportation of hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide, which are produced as by-products of production facilities, to provide toll taxes to Han Express.
From January 2010 to September 2018, Hanwha Solutions shifted the transfer of chemicals from factory to retailer by signing a contract with an exclusive tanker trucking company from January 2010 to September 2018, explained the Commission of Fair Trade.
In this process, it was estimated that Han Express did not play a special role and generated unfair profits by collecting around 20% of the toll tax between the agency and the exclusive transport company.
Hanwha Solutions made an exclusive deal with Han Express to increase efficiency, and the FTC claimed that the FTC’s suggested normal price was the unit price of a multinational company with high bargaining power, but the FTC did not accept it.
Regarding the transaction structure that grants tolls, Hanwha Solutions argued that there was a security problem due to the nature of the transport of hazardous substances, and that Han Express has improved security through integrated management.
Hanwha Solutions said: “The FTC is misleading the nature of the matter with the phrase ‘a company of the same person’s own sister.’ Relationship”. [비즈니스포스트 강용규 기자]
