Kolmar Holdings to cancel $14.4 mn worth of its shares

South Korea's Kolmar Holdings Co. , Kolmar Group's holding company, announced on Wednesday that it will implement a value-up program to enhance corporate value by canceling 2,473,000 shares, which accounts for 6.73% of the total shares.

Each share is valued at 500 won, and the total cancellation amount is estimated at 19.99 billion won ($14.4 million). The cancellation is scheduled for July 3.

According to Kolmar Holdings, the cumulative share cancellation ratio as of today is 9.93%.

Kolmar Holdings is the third listed company to announce a value-up program and the first in the cosmetics industry.

Last July, Kolmar Holdings committed to returning more than 50% of net income, excluding extraordinary gains, to shareholders as part of its shareholder return policy.

It plans to use a certain percentage of irregularly occurring extraordinary gains for stock buybacks and cancellations, and quarterly dividends.

The company aims to increase compliance with key corporate governance indicators from 66.7% to 86.7%.

To achieve this, Kolmar Holdings will improve its governance by enlisting foreigners or institutional investors on its board, and proactively introducing audit and internal transaction committees.

The company also plans to enhance communication with shareholders by providing more English disclosures, expanding the provision of guidance materials for individual, foreign, and institutional investors, and increasing the frequency of regular meetings with institutional investors.

Write to Sul-Li Jun at sljun@hankyung.com