Seoul, South Korea-headquartered Dongwon Industrial, the holding company of Dongwon Group, has announced that it will delist food subsidiary Dongwon F&B (parent company to popular tuna brand StarKist) and incorporate it back into Dongwon Industrial as a wholly-owned subsidiary.
The company will then merge Dongwon F&B with its other food subsidiaries into a single division, it said on 14 April. Dongwon Industries and Dongwon F&B have endorsed a stock swap agreement that will issue new common shares to Dongwon F&B shareholders at a ratio of 1:0.915.
“By restructuring our food affiliates, we seek to accelerate global business growth while simultaneously resolving the dual listing structure," a Dongwon Group official told the Korea Herald.
Shareholders may claim the stock purchase at KRW 35,024 (USD 24.60, EUR 21.74) for Dongwon Industrial and KRW 32,131 (USD 22.50, EUR 19.95) for Dongwon F&B by 1 July, at which time new shares of Dongwon Industrial will be issued to remaining shareholders. A shareholders meeting will be held on 11 July to approve the swap, and delisting is scheduled to occur on 31 July.
The news comes only a few months after the appointment of Eunhong (Edward) Min, who had spent time in leadership roles at Dongwon Industries and Dongwon Systems, to the role of StarKist CEO.
Dongwon Group purchased the Reston, Virginia, U.S.A.-based canned tuna company in 2008. In 2024, StarKist paid USD 3.88 million (EUR 3.44 million) to settle claims of tuna price fixing that had allegedly occurred between 2011 and 2016. In 2018, StarKist pleaded guilty to a separate charge of price fixing between 2011 and 2013.
