LX Pantos founder’s son sells shares to LX International for $37 mn

The only son of LX Pantos Co.’s late founder has unloaded his additional shares in the company to South Korean logistics-to-trading conglomerate LX Group’s trading arm LX International Corp. for 49 billion won ($37 million) amid the logistics firm’s delayed public listing.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), Koo Bennett, known as Koo Bon-ho in Korean, on Thursday sold his 5% stake of 100,000 shares in LX Pantos to LX International for 490,000 won each.

Following the deal, Koo’s holdings in LX Pantos dropped to 9.9% from 14.9%, and LX International’s stake in its logistics unit rose to 56% from 51%.

LX International announced in a regulatory filing on the same day that it had acquired an additional stake in LX Pantos to strengthen its grip.

AN INVESTOR WITH THE MIDAS TOUCH?  

Koo’s stake disposal comes as LX Pantos’ planned initial public offering has been slower than expected.  

Founded as air cargo company Bumhan Huengsan Corp. in 1977, LX Pantos has grown into a major logistics company thanks to stable orders through internal transactions with companies owned or run by families or relatives of LG Group.

But its business recently hit a stumbling block, with its operating profit falling 58.3% on-year to 156 billion won in 2023 on sales of 6.9 trillion won, down 35.5%, due to plunging sea freight rates. The disappointing performance is believed to be one of the reasons for the company’s delayed IPO.

Koo is the only son of the late founder of Bumhan Huengsan. His father was a cousin of Koo Ja-kyung, LG Group’s late honorary chairman.

The younger Koo jointly held a 97% stake in the former LX Pantos with his mother after his father's death in 1999. He also served as the company’s vice chairman.

But the mother and son sold their 70.9% holdings to LX International and LG Group’s owner family members in 2015. LX International placed LX Pantos under its wings as a subsidiary with a 51% stake.    

Koo is a professional investor. He scooped up enormous returns from his stock investments until being slapped with a four-year suspended sentence for market manipulation in 2008.

He controls the largest 38.9% stake in Redcap Tour Co., chaired by his mother and has continued investing through his fully owned investment firms, including Pantos Holdings.

Considering that LX Pantos’ corporate value was estimated at 980 billion won in the latest deal, Koo may still have the Midas touch.  

The value is 34.4% higher than the figure estimated five years ago, when LG Group’s owner family members sold off their combined 19.9% stake to Mirae Asset Securities Co. for 145 billion won to avoid an in-house transaction controversy between LG Group and LX Pantos.

Write to Ik-Hwan Kim at lovepen@hankyung.com
Sookyung Seo edited this article.