Unionized ChungHo Nais workers chant during a press conference in front of the company headquarters in Seoul, April 1, to protest the Carlyle Group's takeover bid. Courtesy of Korean Federation of Service Workers' Union

The Carlyle Group is facing challenges in its bid to acquire ChungHo Nais and its affiliates from the bereaved family of the Korean water purifier maker's late founder.

As family members remain divided over their inheritance, ChungHo Nais workers are urging management to halt efforts to sell control of the company to a foreign private equity firm.

The family dispute became public in January, two months before reports of Carlyle’s takeover bid.

After ChungHo Nais founder Joung Whi-dong died at 67 last June, his older son, born in 1986 to the founder’s ex-wife whom he divorced in 1990, filed a complaint challenging the validity of the will. The will granted the founder’s wife and their son, born in 2000, full inheritance of his stake in the company.

Since founding the company in 1993, Joung had remained its largest shareholder. Before his death, he held a 75.1 percent stake in ChungHo Nais, while family-controlled Microfilter owned 12.99 percent and the founder’s younger brother held 8.18 percent. The company’s total equity value is estimated at 800 billion won ($542 million).

The founder’s wife and younger son are reportedly seeking to sell their inherited shares to cover more than 200 billion won in inheritance taxes.

The older son argued that the will reflected only his father’s emotional state. If he prevails in court, he would become the second-largest shareholder with a stake of about 20 percent.

In that scenario, Carlyle would need to pay a significant sum to acquire the older son’s stake to avoid complications in key decision-making processes, including a future exit from the Korean firm.

The U.S. firm must also address concerns from unionized workers at ChungHo Nais, who have criticized the company for attempting to sell a controlling stake without consulting employees. In 2022, Culligan failed in its attempt to acquire ChungHo Nais following union opposition to the deal.

Source: Korea Times News