Kakao's Ryu Young-joon finally resigns over 'eating controversy'... "Failure to respond to crisis"

<Anchor>

Kakao Pay CEO Ryu Young-joon, who was appointed as the new CEO of Kakao, resigned today (10th). About a month after the company was listed, he resigned as controversy grew over the fact that he made a profit of over 40 billion won by selling the stock he had received as a stock option.

Reporter Jeong Seong-jin's report will be read first and then the story will continue.

<Reporter> Ryu Young-

joon, the nominee for Kakao's CEO, announced his resignation to the Kakao Board of Directors today.

It has been a month since the so-called 'eating controversy'.

CEO Ryu announced on the 10th of last month that he made a profit of 46.9 billion won by selling stocks obtained by using his Kakao Pay stock options, that is, stock purchase rights.

On the same day, eight executives, including CEO Ryu, sold stocks at once, collecting 90 billion won in cash.

It has been a little over a month since Kakao Pay was listed, and it was included in the KOSPI 200 and the stock price soared.

Shares continued to decline on news that management had sold shares at their peak.

As criticism poured in, CEO Ryu held a staff meeting on the 4th and apologized.

However, the Kakao union demanded the resignation of the Kakao Pay, arguing that it was responsible for causing a situation in which even the Kakao Pay prevention law was being discussed in the National Assembly.

In the end, he chose to resign voluntarily in the face of pressure from the union that he would be willing to take industrial action if he did not put down the next president.

The Kakao union argued that Kakao, which has been emphasizing social responsibility, has shown that it has failed to respond to the crisis, and insisted on taking measures to prevent recurrence.

[Seungwook Seo/Chairman of Kakao Union: It is necessary to restrict the partial restrictions on the sale of the management, which can give a bad signal when listed, and to limit the (management) selling for a certain period of time.]

CEO Ryu disposes After that, I have 480,000 Kakao Pay stock options left, and I have decided to maintain the position of CEO of Kakao Pay until March.

(Video editing: Won Yang)

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<Anchor>

It is in the studio of reporter Jeong Seong-jin.

[Reporter Jeong Seong-jin: First of all, there is no legal problem.

For the largest shareholder, etc., the sale of shares is prohibited between six months and one year after listing, but employees are not eligible.

But why is there so much criticism this time?

In most cases, management also restricts the exercise of property rights due to responsible management, etc., but this time, the fact that the management sold its stake for their own profit as a group within a month of listing is a major reason for moral criticism.

Now, the core of the problem is that the members of the company have rejected the belief that they want to grow like this, and the investors now trust and invest in Kakao, but rather damage it.]

[Reporter Jeong Seong-jin: That's right.

Investors are actively liking and investing heavily in corporate IPO, that is, listing through an initial public offering, and companies are using the initial public offering to raise money for investment. This part is a problem when it jumps and now literally sells the investment and now falls out.

However, Kakao has also been criticized for diluting its parent company's stake by listing through games, banks and pay, based on the success of KakaoTalk.

So, the financial authorities are now thinking about extending the stock option disposal proposal to management, and Kakao announced that it would prepare a stock option selling guideline in the wake of this incident.]