Seoul, Dec 30: A family dispute over the control of South Korea's Hyundai group deepened today as the group's chairwoman filed a fresh lawsuit to reclaim treasury shares sold to a rival relative four months ago. Hyundai Elevator Co, the group's de facto holding firm, said the legal action was to take back 80,000 common treasury shares, or a stake of 1.43 per cent, from Kumgang Korea Chemical Co Ltd (KCC).
Hyundai Elevator's chairwoman Hyun Jung-Eun has been in a bitter feud with KCC honorary chairman Chung Sang-Yung, the uncle of her late husband, over the control of the group since August.
Both sides have since filed lawsuits against each other.
The latest legal action came after Hyundai Elevator earlier this month received a court ruling in favour of its petition to ban KCC from exercising its voting rights over the 1.43 stake in the company.
Hyundai Elevator said in the injunction last month KCC had misled the company into selling the stake, posing as if KCC was buying the stake to help defend chairwoman Hyun from a possible hostile takeover from others.
KCC's Chung, who has acquired Hyundai Elevator shares to raise his stake, insists the group should be managed by its founding Chung family and denounces Hyun's planned public offering to defend her managerial rights.
On December 12, a court in Suwon, south of Seoul, ruled in favour of KCC's petition for a ban on the sale of new shares by Hyundai Elevator. Bureau Report