Hi-Mart resolves management dispute with stake sales

The management dispute between Hi-Mart and its largest shareholder Eugene Group has come to an end, with both parties agreeing to sell their full stakes in the company at a shareholders’ meeting on Wednesday, it was announced yesterday.

Sun Jong-koo, the electronic goods retailer’s founder and co-chief executive, will sell his 17.37 percent stake, while Eugene Group agreed to sell its 31.35 percent stake, they said, paving the way for new buyers to come in.

Eugene Group took over Hi-Mart in 2007 at a cost of 1.95 trillion won ($1.7 billion). The dispute surfaced after Sun sent an e-mail to employees criticizing the group for intervening in management, which he claimed it had promised not to do so. Hi-Mart owns 25 percent of the domestic electronic product retail market.