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View of CJ CheilJedang headquarters (photo = CJ) |
[Alpha Biz= Reporter Kim Sangjin] CJ Group has recently been issued a warning by the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) for submitting false information regarding the designation of its business group status.
According to the KFTC on November 28, the Commission's first subcommittee issued a warning on September 13 regarding Lee Jae-hyun, the de facto owner of CJ Group, who failed to include two affiliated companies, Unistory Asset Management and Zen Partners & Company, in the group’s submitted documentation for the designation of a conglomerate under the cross-shareholding restriction rules in 2020 and 2022.
Unistory Asset Management, established in July 2019, became fully registered for investment advisory and discretionary investment services later that year. The company changed its name after registering as a specialized private equity investment firm. The largest shareholder of Unistory Asset Management, Kim Deok-sul, had served as an executive director of CJ Group's affiliate Samhae Sangsa, and held a 66.67% stake in Unistory until December 2020, reducing it to 46.67% as of now.
Despite this connection, CJ Group did not report Unistory Asset Management as a group affiliate until April 2021. However, the company was later removed from the group in August 2023.
Zen Partners & Company, established in August 2021, had Lee Hyun-beom as its largest shareholder and later became a director at Tving, another CJ Group affiliate. As Lee held key positions both at Zen Partners & Company and Tving, the KFTC considered it a CJ Group affiliate as of May 2022. However, after Lee resigned from Tving in April 2023, the company was removed from CJ Group's list of affiliates.
The KFTC concluded that there was no significant violation of the law because there were no internal transactions or debt guarantees between these entities and CJ Group. Based on the relatively low influence of Zen Partners & Company and the absence of significant violations, the KFTC decided on a simple warning rather than further penalties.
Alphabiz Reporter Kim SangJin(letyou@alphabiz.co.kr)
