100-minute capital market policy meeting chaired by President Lee… Discussion on improving physical constitution

Financial investment industry, institutional investors, experts, and fin influencers all in one place

We look at corporate, market, supply and demand issues... Reflection of field opinions in policy

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Jiyeon Kim = President Lee Jae-myung will meet with the market and experts on the 13th to find ways to improve the fundamentals of capital market policies.

The Financial Services Commission announced that it will hold a capital market policy meeting under the theme of 'Trusted Capital Market, Asking Questions and Finding Answers on the Field' from 9:30 to 11:10 a.m., chaired by President Lee, in Yeouido, Seoul.

The event was prepared to directly communicate with investors, companies, and market experts and discuss policy directions to upgrade the domestic capital market, with about 50 people attending, including capital market experts, business circles, the National Assembly, the government, and related organizations.

On the government side, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economy Lee Hyung-il, Financial Services Commission Chairman Lee Eok-won, Minister of SMEs and Startups Lee So-young, Financial Supervisory Service Chairman Lee Chan-jin, and Exchange Chairman Jeong Eun-bo will attend.

The voices of the financial investment industry such as securities firms, asset management companies, and private equity fund (PEF) councils, institutional investors such as Korea Venture Investment, Korea Development Bank, and venture capital (VC), academia, researchers, fin influencers, merger and acquisition (M&A) experts, KOSDAQ companies, KOSDAQ Association, and the Venture Business Association, etc.

Experts present major issues in terms of companies, markets, and supply and demand.

Hyo-seop Lee, a researcher at the Korea Capital Market Research Institute, pointed out problems such as suppressing stock prices, monopolizing premiums for mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and the absence of external checks as reasons for the low value of domestic companies under the theme of 'spreading shareholder-centered management and improving corporate value.' He announced improvement measures in terms of low PBR (price-to-book ratio) disclosure, involvement of institutional investors, and normalization of the M&A market.

Lim Hyeong-jun, a researcher at the Korea Institute of Finance, said in his presentation on 'Venture Ecosystem and KOSDAQ Redesign' that trust in the KOSDAQ market is declining and long-term and institutional investment is shrinking, and suggested the policy goal of creating a dynamic 'multi-production-multi-death' environment in which excellent high-growth companies emerge and grow and insolvent companies are quickly eliminated.

Kim Hak-gyun, head of Shinyoung Securities' research center, said in a presentation on 'Expanding the stock market's long-term and institutional-oriented demand base' that individual investors should be able to accumulate 'experience of collective success' and that efforts should be continued to increase the attractiveness of the market itself, such as improving the low dividend payout ratio and managing listed stocks.

Attendees will express their opinions on major capital market policies and issues, including the mandatory tender offer system, activating M&A of low-performing companies such as bear hugs, strengthening delisting, and separating KOSDAQ segments. Bear Hug is a method in which when a merger/acquisition (M&A) tender offer is conducted, the prospective acquisition candidate publicly presents the target acquisition conditions and the board of directors reviews them and is required to reveal its position.

The government said that financial market volatility has recently increased due to external factors such as the emergence of uncertainty in the global artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor industries, the trend of raising global base interest rates, and geopolitical risks in the Middle East. “We plan to closely inspect the market situation with the utmost vigilance and unwaveringly pursue policies to fundamentally improve the fundamental structure of the capital market for a market that is not shaken by crises.”

They added that they plan to collect additional voices from the field through written proposals, and design and implement capital market policies that the public agrees with by reflecting the opinions from the field presented at the meeting.