The small shareholder platform Heyholder welcomed Infovine's shareholder return policy on the 3rd. Earlier, Infovine announced that it would acquire 370,000 common shares, worth approximately 10.3 billion won, and subsequently retire them.
Heyholder is regarded as the key contributor that led to Infovine's shareholder return policy. Heo Kwon, CEO of Heyholder, applied for a provisional disposition to view and duplicate the shareholder registry of Infovine in December, and then began a full-scale shareholder movement by publicizing a shareholder letter through Heyholder.
Through the shareholder letter, Heyholder pointed out that while Infovine's treasury stock ratio is excessively high, the largest shareholder's equity stake is low, and the dividend and investment policies are passive. They then demanded a shareholder return policy involving stock splits or stock buybacks and retirements.
The equity stake of Infovine shareholders who agreed with Heyholder's open letter currently stands at 15.6%. This is on par with the largest shareholder equity stake of 17.4% at Infovine. The aggregation of small shareholders has led Infovine to acquire treasury stock on a large scale for the first time in eight years since 2017, and it is interpreted that they specified 'retirement' for the purpose of acquiring treasury stock.
Heyholder plans to partially revise the originally scheduled shareholder proposal based on Infovine's decision to acquire treasury stock and announce it sometime this month. CEO Heo stated, "I welcome the point that Infovine, which was somewhat indifferent to enhancing shareholder value, has changed its attitude and is putting forward a genuine shareholder return plan," adding, "In the current situation where the market capitalization is far below net worth, we will continue to contemplate how we, as shareholders, can contribute to the company's efforts to enhance shareholder value."
Heyholder is a small shareholder activism platform that comprehensively supports the activities of small shareholders needed to resolve Korea's discount and actively carries out initiatives. CEO Heo, who comes from a law firm specializing in corporate governance and management disputes, provides consultancy on management disputes or shareholder movements of listed companies.