The below article appeared in Activist Insight on March 20, 2019, and is re-printed here with their permission.
Activist Insight
March 20, 2019
Proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) has condemned Hyundai Home Shopping‘s feeble corporate governance structure, its poor shareholder payments, and inflated executive compensation.
A report dated March 14 by ISS revealed a modest grade for governance quality at the South Korean television home shopping company. The adviser graded the firm with a score of 8 on a scale from 1 to 10, the latter indicating the highest governance risk.
On the shareholder rights front, the company received a 9 due to weak dividend policy while on executives’ wages it got the worst possible rating as the firm has upped their paychecks on a continuous basis.
The report also noted that the firm’s 2018 payout ratio of 13.3% falls in line with widespread policies in Korean corporations.
The report helps the recent campaign by activist Dalton Investments, which urged Hyundai Home Shopping to return capital to investors, recalibrate its executive pay program and split some of its operations, earlier in March.
The 2.5% shareholder also spoke against rising management compensation, concluding that there is a “lack of alignment of interest between that of management and that of all shareholders.” The Santa Monica, California-based hedge fund threatened to object to the board’s nominees for two independent directors and two audit committee members.
Two other local investment funds, Value Partners and VIP Asset Management, followed suit with similar demands, although the company issued only a boilerplate response in the press that it seeks to create shareholder value.
James Lim, a research analyst at Dalton, told Activist Insight Online in a recent interview that the company is not “serious” about the cost of capital, noting it splurged $1 billion in non-core investments, while its payout ratio is very low compared to U.S. peers.
By comparison, the proxy adviser graded Hyundai Motor’s governance quality with 5 while giving a 6 to fellow chaebol division Hyundai Mobis. Both firms have been recently targeted by Elliott Management as the activist investor seeks to prompt board refreshments and an increase of the capital return scheme.
Shares in Hyundai Home Shopping closed down 0.5% on Wednesday.
The article is available at the below link:
https://www.activistinsight.com/members/ViewNews.aspx?mode=1&neid=29930