SNT Group has regained its position as the largest shareholder of SMEC, a KOSDAQ-listed corporation specializing in machine tools.
According to a report from the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system on the 15th, SMEC announced that its largest shareholder has changed to SNT Holdings and Choi Pyeong-kyu, chairman of SNT Group. The equity ratio is 14.74%.
SNT Holdings and Chairman Choi have each secured additional equities of 2.31% and 3.76%, respectively, through market purchases this month, surpassing the previous largest shareholder, CEO Choi Young-seob, who holds 9.75%.
The change of the largest shareholder at SMEC is the third in the last month. On the 25th of last month, SMEC also announced that the largest shareholder had changed from CEO Choi to SNT Holdings and Chairman Choi.
After that, CEO Choi participated in a shareholder-allocation capital increase, achieving an equity reversal, but has now returned to SNT Holdings and Chairman Choi.
Some in the market speculate that SNT Group may be aiming for a hostile takeover of SMEC. It is known that SNT Holdings proceeded with the acquisition of additional equity without any prior agreement with SMEC.
SMEC has been expanding its business by partnering with Relson PEF, a private equity firm, to acquire HYUNDAI WIA's machine tool division, the second-largest player in the industry. It also recently acquired the 5G specialized network business (Eum 5G) that SEJONG Telecom was operating.
SNT Group has several key subsidiaries, including SNT Dynamics (defense, automotive parts, machine tools) and SNT Motiv (automotive parts, powertrain).
Meanwhile, SNT Holdings has acquired nearly 15% of SMEC's equity but disclosed its acquisition purpose as 'simple investment purpose.'