Chairman Cho Yong-byoung of Shinhan Financial Group speaks at “2020 H2 Workshop of Board of Directors” at Shinhan Bank headquarters in Saejongdae-ro, Seoul, on Oct. 6.

Shinhan Financial Group has left no stones unturned to reverse recent downward movements in its stock price, which has apparently been affected by rights issues.

The move is designed to dispel the misunderstanding that issuing new sales to third parties of late might be connected with ramping up governance centering on some executives.

Shinhan Financial Group convened “2020 H2 Workshop of Board of Directors” at Shinhan Bank headquarters in Saejongdae-ro, Seoul, on Oct. 6 and discussed the direction of the group’s 2021 strategies.

All officers being groomed as future CEOs of participated in the forum to discuss next year’s strategies with the board of directors of the financial group.

In particular, the agenda involved how to restore the value of Shinhan Financial Group’s shares, considered to be undervalued. Participants discussed Shinhan Financial Group’s undervalued share price despite the fact that the company topped financial institutions in terms of profitability.

In an effort to boost the financial group’s shares, Shinhan Financial Group decided to employ flexible capital policies like mid-term dividends, exploring new businesses, and safeguarding and improving operating profit.

Of late, Shin Financial shares have dropped to the upper 20,000 won per share range, a nearly 40 percent plunge so far this year, which is considered disproportionate to its rival financial institutions.

The drop has been speculated to be related to allotting new shares to third parties three times in one year. Shinhan Financial Group recently decided to issue new shares worth 1.158.2 trillion won to third-party strategic investors – Affinity Equity Partners and Baring Private Equity Asia.

About 39.13 million new shares, a 7.6 percent share, will be issued in the capital raise. The financial group also implemented a rights issue worth 750 billion won to issue convertible preferred shares to IMM Private Equity Asia (IMM PEA).

Some politicians and industry sources claimed that Shinhan Financial’s issuing new shares to third parties recently might raise stakes on part of its executives, leading to lowering its stock prices. Shinhan Financial’s efforts to shore up its share prices may be construed as an attempt to dispel such a misunderstanding.

During the meeting, the financial group decided to implement “Zero Carbon Drive,” designed to proactively cope with climate change. Shinhan Financial Group plans to measure greenhouse gas emissions of assets owned by the financial groups on the scientific basis and set reduction goals, taking a step forward from the conventional greenhouse emission reduction paradigm.
The financial group targets zero GHG emissions by expanding investments in new/renewal energy sectors. Participants of the symposium discussed how to pursue innovation of digital platforms.

“Digital platform innovation” has emerged an essential topic of the financial group, so Chairman Park Chul of Shinhan Financial’s board of directors designated that as one of the issues discussed during the session.

The financial group decided to inaugurate a moonshot task force responsible for building digital platforms under the direct control of Chairman Cho Yong-byoung.

A view of “2020 H2 Workshop of Board of Directors” at Shinhan Bank headquarters. (Photos: Shinhan Financial)

‘Shinhan Square Bridge’ Makes Its Debut

Shinhan Financial Group released “Shinhan Square Bridge (S² Bridge),” a new brand for building innovative growth platforms across the nation, part of the nation’s project to build an ecosystem of innovative growth, dubbed “Triple-K Project.”

S² Bridge means collaboration between Shinhan Financial Group and Shinhan X Start-ups. The brand has been finalized in a two-month process involving a public contest among staff members, surveys and experts’ views.

Startups platforms being built across the nation like “Incheon Startup Park,” “Daejeon D-Bridge,” and “Seoul Dudeulim Space” are to be integrated under the brand “Shinhan Square Bridge.”

Chairman Cho said, “The ultimate goal of Shinhan Financial Group and startups is innovation.” The financial group will devote itself to establishing Shinhan Square into a global startup hub and lead efforts to build an ecosystem of innovation through exploring diverse businesses, he added.