What if? No. 422026-10-26

Hanmi's heirs sold to pay a 60% tax. Now a family friend owns the most

Lim Sung-ki, founder of Hanmi Pharmaceutical, held 34.29% of the group's holding company when he died in 2020. His widow and three children inherited it, with a tax bill of about ₩540 billion, and sold shares for five years to pay it. Today his widow holds 3.84% in her own name and his friend Shin Dong-kook 30.18%, and on 23 October the eldest son asked for an audit of his mother's corporate card. What a Singapore founder could have done differently, and what Singapore would not have changed.

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The Hanmi logo: the word Hanmi in white italic letters inside a red oval. Hanmi Pharmaceutical's founder Lim Sung-ki left 34.29% of the group holding company in 2020 with an inheritance tax of about ₩540 billionHanmi Pharmaceutical · Public domain (logo) · Wikimedia Commons

The news, this week

The founder's eldest son demands an audit of his mother's spending, and turns a family quarrel into a company matter

On 23 October 2026 DXVX, a KOSDAQ-listed company in which Lim Jong-yoon, the eldest son of Hanmi Pharmaceutical's late founder, holds about 58.6%, sent a shareholder letter to Hanmi Pharmaceutical's board and audit committee. It asked for an independent special audit of three things: the roughly ₩70 billion invested in and lent to the American biotech Aptose, the position, pay and corporate-card spending of chairwoman Song Young-sook, his mother, and leaks of internal documents and public-relations spending.

The son gives the board 14 days to answer, while his own China unit is audited over ₩108.4 billion

The letter asked for an answer within 14 days and results by 30 November, and said DXVX would consider recovery, damages and a shareholder derivative suit if wrongdoing is found. Hanmi had told the press that the card spending was executive welfare, gifts and business travel; DXVX said it was not presuming the allegations true. The press reads the letter as a counter-attack: since 8 October the audit committee has been auditing Beijing Hanmi, which the son chairs, over ₩108.4 billion still owed at the end of June by a distributor in his own Coree group.

The founder's widow now holds 3.84% in her own name, while his friend holds 30.18% of the holding company

The register explains why a son is writing to his mother through a company. Song's own large-holding report of 16 October 2026, filed with Korea's Financial Supervisory Service, lists her at 3.84% of Hanmi Science, the group's holding company, and her daughter Lim Ju-hyun at 9.15%. It lists Shin Dong-kook, chairman of Hanyang Precision, at 30.18%, counting shares he has agreed to buy, and Hanyang Precision at 6.95%. Shin is a hometown and high-school junior of the founder.

The widow and daughter sign a pact with an outside investor, then lose a ₩60 billion claim against him

The five-way shareholders' agreement of 6 January 2025, between Song, her daughter, Shin, Hanyang Precision and the fund vehicle Killington, covers board composition and joint voting and gives each party a right of first offer. The 16 October filing also records Song's sale of 1.7 million shares to a company called Willoen for ₩86.02 billion, due to close today, 26 October. On 1 October a court dismissed Song and her daughter's ₩60 billion penalty claim against Shin; they appealed on 19 October.

Four heirs inherit the founder's 34.29% block in 2021, and with it a tax bill of about ₩540 billion

It began with one block and one bill. The founder, Lim Sung-ki, died on 2 August 2020 holding 23,076,985 Hanmi Science shares, 34.29%. In March 2021 his widow took about 30% of that block, each of the three children about 15% and two foundations the rest. The four were assessed about ₩540 billion of inheritance tax, Song about ₩220 billion and each child about ₩100 billion, payable in six instalments over five years.

The heirs borrow against their shares to pay the tax, and the eldest son alone ends up owing ₩182.9 billion

By November 2024 they had paid about two-thirds, Dailypharm reported, largely with loans against their shares; the eldest son alone owed ₩182.9 billion. To pay, the family sold. In January 2024 the mother and daughter agreed a deal with OCI that would have sold a block worth ₩285.7 billion; the brothers fought it and, with Shin's backing, won the March 2024 shareholders' meeting.

The eldest son sells his last shares to the founder's friend in 2026, and the friend becomes the largest holder

That September Song and her daughter sold Shin 4,444,187 shares, 6.5%, for ₩164.4 billion and agreed to vote with him. The younger son sold for tax money that November. On 27 March 2026 the eldest son sold his last 718,750 shares to Shin; over two years he had sold about ₩285.6 billion. The block that one man held is now spread over the family, two foundations, a fund and his friend, and the largest single holder is the friend.

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The knot

The founder dies, and his block becomes four owners and a cash tax near 60% of its value

A founder's controlling block is one object while he lives. On the day he dies it becomes four things at once: shares owned by four people who may not agree, and a tax bill that each of them must pay in cash. Korea's inheritance tax runs to 50% above ₩3 billion, and the value of a largest shareholder's shares is raised by a fifth before the rate applies, so the bill on a control block comes to about 60% of its market value. A family that holds almost nothing but the shares has one place to find the money.

Each heir sells where it helps his own side, and five years of tax payments move control to an outsider

So the shares were pledged and then sold. Each sale had to go somewhere, and in a contested family each heir sold where it helped his own side. The mother and daughter sold to Shin and voted with him; the younger son sold for tax money; the eldest sold everything to Shin. Five years of paying a bill moved the largest holding from the founder's family to his friend, without anyone deciding that it should.

With no agreement on who steers, the heirs fight through rival audits, and the company pays for both

The audit letter is what is left. Once the heirs no longer control the company together, the company becomes the place where they fight: one side's audit of Beijing Hanmi, the other side's audit of the chairwoman's card. The tax set the clock, but what turned a bill into a contest is that four people inherited the block with no agreement on who would steer it.

What if it had been Singapore?

A Singapore founder's block would pass with no estate duty, so no heir would have to sell to pay a tax, but an equal split among four would still leave no one in charge; what keeps control in the family is a lifetime trust or holding company that votes the block as one, and an agreement that offers any heir's shares to the family before an outsider.

A Korean resident founder owes Korea's tax wherever his shares sit, so Singapore cannot cut this bill

Limits first. Hanmi is a Korean company and the founder was a Korean resident; Korea taxes a resident's estate wherever it sits and anyone's Korean shares, so nothing in Singapore law would have reduced this bill. Korean courts decide the penalty appeal, and Hanmi's board decides the audit request. The useful question is what a founder whose family and company are in Singapore can do, and what Singapore would not change.

A Singapore founder's 34.29% block passes whole with no estate duty, so no heir must sell to pay

The tax would not exist. Singapore removed estate duty for deaths on and after 15 February 2008, and has no inheritance or gift tax. A 34.29% block would pass to the heirs whole, with no ₩540 billion bill, no five years of instalments, no loans against the shares and no sale to raise cash. That alone removes the reason most of these shares left the family.

A Singapore founder dies without a will, and the widow takes half while the children split the rest

The split would not go away. If a Singapore founder dies without a will, section 7 of the Intestate Succession Act 1967, read on Singapore Statutes Online on 26 October 2026, gives the surviving spouse one-half and divides the other half equally among the children. Four heirs would hold about 17%, 5.7%, 5.7% and 5.7% of the company: tax-free, but just as divided. A will that leaves the block in equal shares does the same.

The founder puts his block in a lifetime trust, so one trustee votes it and four heirs share the value

So the remedy is a structure, signed while the founder can still sign. The first piece is one vote for the block: the shares go into a trust or a family holding company during his lifetime, the trustee or the holding's board votes them as one, and the four heirs share the income and the value. Equal money and a single hand on the vote can coexist; it is how families with several heirs keep a listed stake from becoming four camps.

An heir who must sell offers family the shares first at a formula price, and control stays inside

The second piece is an exit that stays in the family. An heir who needs cash, or wants out, offers the shares to the other heirs or the trust first, at a price fixed by formula, with money arranged in advance, life insurance included. At Hanmi the right of first offer was signed in January 2025 by the widow and daughter with Shin and a fund, so the door opened towards outsiders. The third piece is a referee named in advance for deadlocks, such as arbitration seated in Singapore.

A shareholder who wants to sue the board needs a Singapore judge's permission first, after 14 days' notice

Singapore would also slow a fight through the company. A member who wants a Singapore company to sue its own directors needs the court's permission under section 216A of the Companies Act 1967: 14 days' notice to the directors first, good faith, and a claim that appears to be in the company's interests. That is a filter, not a cure. If the heirs no longer share control, they will find a forum; the structure is what keeps the dispute out of the boardroom.

An heir asks who votes the block and who buys first, and keeps control in the family

For the reader whose parent holds a controlling block, three questions are worth asking while everyone can still sign. If the block passed tomorrow, who would vote it, one hand or four? If an heir had to sell, who would be offered the shares first? And is there a tax, in the country where the family actually lives, that would force a sale? Asking how control will pass is stewardship, not impatience.

Song Young-sook, the founder's widow — about 30% of his block in 2021 and about ₩220bn of the tax; 3.84% in her own name at 15 Oct 2026; a ₩60bn penalty claim against Shin lost on 1 Oct, appealed 19 Oct; now the subject of the audit request

Lim Jong-yoon, the eldest son — about 15% of the block; his last personal Hanmi Science shares sold to Shin on 27 Mar 2026 (about ₩285.6bn in two years); the 23 Oct letter through DXVX; chairman of Beijing Hanmi, itself under audit

Lim Ju-hyun, the daughter — about 15% of the block; 9.15% at 15 Oct 2026, party to the 6 Jan 2025 shareholders' agreement

Shin Dong-kook, the founder's friend — 30.18% in his own name counting agreed purchases, 6.95% more through Hanyang Precision: the largest holder of a company he did not found

The same family in Singapore — no estate duty and no forced sales (deaths on or after 15 Feb 2008); an intestate split of one-half to the spouse and the rest to the children (ISA s7); the cure is a lifetime trust or holding that votes the block as one, and a family-first exit

The reader whose parent holds a controlling block — three questions: who votes it, who is offered an heir's shares first, and which tax could force a sale

A counterfactual, not advice. The verified machinery is on the Singapore page; where your family stands is the briefing.

From the case files: A founding family fights through the boardroom: City Developments

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