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Sk Telecom (SKM) Risk Analysis
Risk Overview Q4, 2020
Source: the company's latest filing for the period ended Dec 31, 2020, filed Apr 29, 2021
Risk Change Over Time
No filing history is available.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 1If SK Inc. causes us to breach the foreign ownership limitations on our common shares by being deemed to be a foreign entity, we may experience a change of control.
The Telecommunications Business Act currently sets a 49.0% limit on the aggregate foreign ownership of our issued shares. Under the Telecommunications Business Act, as amended, a Korean entity, such as SK Inc., is deemed to be a foreign entity if its largest shareholder (determined by aggregating the shareholdings of such shareholder and its related parties) is a foreigner and such shareholder (together with the shareholdings of its related parties) holds 15.0% or more of the issued voting stock of the Korean entity. As of December 31, 2020, SK Inc. owned 21,624,120 shares of our common stock, or 26.8%, of our issued shares. SK Inc. is currently not deemed to be a foreign entity. However, should SK Inc. be considered to be a foreign shareholder in the future, then its shareholding in us would be included in the calculation of our aggregate foreign shareholding and our aggregate foreign shareholding (based on our foreign ownership level as of December 31, 2020, which we believe was 33.4%) would exceed the 49.0% ceiling on foreign shareholding. As of December 31, 2020, the two largest foreign shareholders of SK Inc. each held a 3.5% stake therein. If our aggregate foreign shareholding limit is exceeded, the MSIT may issue a corrective order to us, the breaching shareholder (including SK Inc. if the breach is caused by an increase in foreign ownership of SK Inc.) and the foreign shareholder which owns in the aggregate 15.0% or more of SK Inc. Furthermore, if SK Inc. is considered a foreign shareholder, it will be prohibited from exercising its voting rights with respect to the shares held in excess of the 49.0% ceiling, which may result in a change in control of us. In addition, the MSIT will be prohibited from granting us licenses or permits necessary for entering into new telecommunications businesses until our aggregate foreign shareholding is reduced to below 49.0%. For a description of further actions that the MSIT could take, see "Item 4.B. Business Overview - Law and Regulation - Foreign Ownership and Investment Restrictions and Requirements."
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 2Sales of our shares by SK Inc. and/or other large shareholders may adversely affect the market value of our common shares and ADSs.
Sales of substantial amounts of our common shares, or the perception that such sales may occur, could adversely affect the prevailing market value of our common shares or ADSs or our ability to raise capital through an offering of our common shares. As of December 31, 2020, SK Inc. owned 26.8% of our total issued common shares and has not agreed to any restrictions on its ability to dispose of our shares. See "Item 7.A. Major Shareholders." We can make no prediction as to the timing or amount of any sales of our common shares. We cannot assure you that future sales of our common shares, or the availability of our common shares for future sale, will not adversely affect the prevailing market value of our common shares or ADSs from time to time.
- Corporate Activity and Growth - Risk 3We may fail to successfully complete, integrate or realize the anticipated benefits of our new acquisitions, joint ventures or other strategic alternatives or corporate reorganizations, and such transactions may negatively impact our business.
We continue to seek opportunities to develop new businesses that we believe are complementary to our existing product and service portfolio and expand our global business through selective acquisitions. We also continue to seek ways to optimize our corporate structure to maximize the value of our traditional businesses on the one hand and newly developed businesses on the other. Accordingly, we are often engaged in evaluating potential transactions and other strategic alternatives as well as corporate reorganizations, some of which may be significant in size. For example, we completed the Tbroad Merger in April 2020 and became the third-largest pay TV provider in Korea in terms of number of subscribers as of December 31, 2020. In addition, in June 2019, we acquired a 34.6% interest in Incross Co., Ltd. ("Incross"), a digital advertising company, for an aggregate purchase price of Won 53.7 billion, in light of potential synergies with our media and commerce businesses. Furthermore, in order to strengthen our security business and explore potential synergies with our wireless and fixed-line business portfolio, we acquired a 55.0% interest in Life & Security Holdings Co., Ltd. ("LSH"), which owned 100% of ADT CAPS Co., Ltd. ("Former ADT CAPS"), a leading Korean physical security service company, and two sister companies, CAPSTEC Co., Ltd. and ADT SECURITY Co., Ltd. (which subsequently merged with and into Former ADT CAPS), for Won 696.7 billion in October 2018; a 100% interest in SK Infosec Co., Ltd. ("SK Infosec"), Korea's leading information security company, in a share exchange transaction pursuant to which we issued 1,260,668 treasury shares with an aggregate book value of Won 281.2 billion in exchange for all of the outstanding common shares of SK Infosec in December 2018 from SK Inc. (which changed its English name from SK Holdings Co., Ltd. to SK Inc. as of March 29, 2021), our largest shareholder; and additional shares of id Quantique SA ("id Quantique"), a leading provider of quantum cryptography solutions for data security based in Switzerland, with Won 55.2 billion in cash and Won 5.7 billion in contribution-in-kind in 2018 and through our participation in its capital increases in 2019 and 2020, as a result of which our equity interest in id Quantique was 68.1% as of December 31, 2020. We have subsequently combined LSH, Former ADT CAPS and SK Infosec into a single entity through a series of mergers that were completed in March 2021, and the surviving entity, SK Infosec, changed its name to ADT CAPS Co., Ltd. ("ADT CAPS") and has become the principal consolidated subsidiary that operates our security business. We have also pursued other strategic alternatives, such as forming a strategic alliance in October 2019 with Kakao Corp. ("Kakao"), a Korean Internet company and the operator of Korea's most popular mobile messaging application, to collaborate in the information and communication technologies ("ICT") sector through the sale of 1,266,620 of our treasury shares to Kakao, representing a 1.6% interest, for approximately Won 300.0 billion and a concurrent issuance by Kakao of 2,177,401 of its shares, representing a 2.5% interest, to us for approximately Won 302.3 billion. In addition, in September 2019, in furtherance of our efforts to enhance the competitiveness of our media business and to promote its future growth, we acquired a minority equity stake in Content Wavve Co., Ltd. (formerly known as Content Alliance Platform Inc.) ("Content Wavve"), a joint venture established by the three major terrestrial broadcasters in Korea that operated the mobile over-the-top ("OTT") service "POOQ," by investing Won 90.9 billion in cash and transferring our former mobile OTT service business "oksusu" to Content Wavve. Content Wavve combined oksusu and POOQ to launch a new integrated mobile OTT service "wavve" in September 2019. As of December 31, 2020, we held 30.0% of the total outstanding shares of Content Wavve. In addition, Eleven Street is currently in discussions with Amazon.com, Inc. regarding a potential partnership. For a more detailed description of our recent investments in new businesses, see "Item 5.B. Liquidity and Capital Resources - Capital Requirements - Investments in New Growth Businesses." Furthermore, in December 2020, we spun off our mobility business into a new wholly-owned subsidiary, T map Mobility Co., Ltd. ("T Map Mobility"), in order to enhance its competitiveness and promote its future growth, and we have also formed a strategic partnership with Uber Technologies, Inc. ("Uber") pursuant to which Uber has invested approximately US$50 million in T Map Mobility and approximately US$100 million in UT LLC, a joint venture formed in April 2021 between T Map Mobility and Uber in which we hold a 49.0% interest. Through UT LLC, we will launch a taxi hailing service that integrates our affiliated taxi driver network and mapping and AI technologies with Uber's ride hailing technology. See "Item 4.B. Business Overview - Other Businesses - Miscellaneous Businesses - Mobility Business." In order to pursue enhancement of shareholder value and acceleration of our growth, we are currently considering a potential corporate restructuring whereby we would split into a wireless and fixed-line telecommunications company (including our interest in, among others, SK Broadband) and a holding company that would hold interests in semiconductor and new ICT businesses (including our interest in, among others, SK Hynix, ADT CAPS, Eleven Street and T Map Mobility) (the "Spin-off Company"). Such restructuring would be implemented through a horizontal spin-off transaction ("injeok bunhal") under Korean law, whereby the Spin-off Company would be newly incorporated and our existing shareholders would receive shares of the Spin-off Company on a pro rata basis. Further decisions regarding such potential spin-off, if any, are expected to be made in the first half of 2021. While we are hoping to benefit from a range of synergies from our recent or future acquisitions and corporate reorganizations as well as develop new growth engines for our business, we may not be able to successfully complete or integrate such acquisitions, new businesses or reorganized entities and may fail to realize the expected benefits in the near term, or at all. For example, in June 2019, we disposed of our entire interest in our consolidated subsidiaries Shopkick Management Company, Inc. ("SMC") and Shopkick, Inc. ("Shopkick"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of SMC which operates "shopkick," a mobile reward points-based in-store shopping application, which we had acquired in October 2014, following a prolonged period of unprofitability of the shopkick business. Previously in 2018, we also recognized Won 153.4 billion and Won 52.4 billion of impairment losses for goodwill and intangible assets, respectively, in connection with Shopkick. In addition, when we enter into new businesses with partners through joint ventures or other strategic alliances, we and those partners may have disagreements with respect to strategic directions or other aspects of business, or may otherwise be unable to coordinate or cooperate with each other, any of which could materially and adversely affect our operations in such businesses. Our business may be negatively impacted if we fail to successfully integrate or realize the anticipated benefits of such transactions.
Risk Highlights Q4, 2020
Risk Word Cloud
Risk Factors Full Breakdown - Total Risks 32
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 1A holder of our ADSs may not be able to enforce a judgment of a foreign court against us.
We are a corporation with limited liability organized under the laws of Korea. Substantially all of our directors and officers and other persons named in this document reside in Korea, and all or a significant portion of the assets of our directors and officers and other persons named in this document and substantially all of our assets are located in Korea. As a result, it may not be possible for holders of our ADSs to effect service of process within the United States, or to enforce against us any judgments obtained from the United States courts based on the civil liability provisions of the federal securities laws of the United States. There is doubt as to the enforceability in Korea, either in original actions or in actions for enforcement of judgments of United States courts, of civil liabilities predicated on the United States federal securities laws.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 2Short selling of our ADSs by purchasers of securities convertible or exchangeable into our ADSs could materially adversely affect the market price of our ADSs.
SK Inc., through one or more special purpose vehicles, has engaged and may in the future engage in monetization transactions relating to its ownership interest in us. These transactions have included and may include offerings of securities that are convertible or exchangeable into our ADSs. Many investors in convertible or exchangeable securities seek to hedge their exposure in the underlying equity securities at the time of acquisition of the convertible or exchangeable securities, often through short selling of the underlying equity securities or similar transactions. Since a monetization transaction could involve debt securities linked to a significant number of our ADSs, we expect that a sufficient quantity of ADSs may not be immediately available for borrowing in the market to facilitate settlement of the likely volume of short selling activity that would accompany the commencement of a monetization transaction. This short selling and similar hedging activity could place significant downward pressure on the market price of our ADSs, thereby having a material adverse effect on the market value of ADSs owned by you.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 3An investor in our ADSs may not be able to exercise preemptive rights for additional new shares and may suffer dilution of his or her equity interest in us.
The Korean Commercial Code and our articles of incorporation require us, with some exceptions, to offer shareholders the right to subscribe for new shares in proportion to their existing ownership percentage whenever new shares are issued. If we offer a right to subscribe for additional new common shares or any other rights of similar nature, the ADR depositary, after consultation with us, may make the rights available to an ADS holder or use reasonable efforts to dispose of the rights on behalf of the ADS holder and make the net proceeds available to the ADS holder. The ADR depositary, however, is not required to make available to an ADS holder any rights to purchase any additional shares unless it deems that doing so is lawful and feasible and: - a registration statement filed by us under the Securities Act is in effect with respect to those shares; or - the offering and sale of those shares is exempt from, or is not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act. We are under no obligation to file any registration statement with respect to any ADSs. If a registration statement is required for an ADS holder to exercise preemptive rights but is not filed by us, the ADS holder will not be able to exercise his or her preemptive rights for additional shares. As a result, ADS holders may suffer dilution of their equity interest in us.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 4If an investor surrenders his or her ADSs to withdraw the underlying shares, he or she may not be allowed to deposit the shares again to obtain ADSs.
Under the deposit agreement, holders of our common shares may deposit those shares with the ADR depositary's custodian in Korea and obtain ADSs, and holders of ADSs may surrender ADSs to the ADR depositary and receive our common shares. However, under the terms of the deposit agreement, as amended, the depositary bank is required to obtain our prior consent to any such deposit if, after giving effect to such deposit, the total number of our common shares represented by ADSs, which was 6,600,692 shares as of March 31, 2021, exceeds a specified maximum, which was 24,321,893 shares as of March 31, 2021, subject to adjustment under certain circumstances. In addition, the depositary bank or the custodian may not accept deposits of our common shares for issuance of ADSs under certain circumstances, including (1) if it has been determined by us that we should block the deposit to prevent a violation of applicable Korean laws and regulations or our articles of incorporation or (2) if a person intending to make a deposit has been identified as a holder of at least 4.0% of our common shares. It is possible that we may not give the consent. Consequently, an investor who has surrendered his or her ADSs and withdrawn the underlying shares may not be allowed to deposit the shares again to obtain ADSs.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 5There are special risks involved with investing in securities of Korean companies, including the possibility of restrictions being imposed by the Government in emergency circumstances.
As we are a Korean company and operate in a business and cultural environment that is different from that of other countries, there are risks associated with investing in our securities that are not typical for investments in securities of companies in other jurisdictions. Under the Korean Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, if the Government deems that certain emergency circumstances, including a significant disruption in the international balance of payments and international financial markets or extreme difficulty in carrying out currency, exchange rate or other macroeconomic policies due to the movement of capital between Korea and other countries, are likely to occur, it may impose any necessary restriction such as requiring Korean or foreign investors to obtain prior approval from the Ministry of Economy and Finance (the "MOEF") for the acquisition of Korean securities or for the repatriation of interest, dividends or sales proceeds arising from Korean securities or from disposition of such securities or other transactions involving foreign exchange. See "Item 10.D. Exchange Controls - Korean Foreign Exchange Controls and Securities Regulations."
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 6ChangedIf SK Inc. causes us to breach the foreign ownership limitations on our common shares by being deemed to be a foreign entity, we may experience a change of control.
The Telecommunications Business Act currently sets a 49.0% limit on the aggregate foreign ownership of our issued shares. Under the Telecommunications Business Act, as amended, a Korean entity, such as SK Inc., is deemed to be a foreign entity if its largest shareholder (determined by aggregating the shareholdings of such shareholder and its related parties) is a foreigner and such shareholder (together with the shareholdings of its related parties) holds 15.0% or more of the issued voting stock of the Korean entity. As of December 31, 2020, SK Inc. owned 21,624,120 shares of our common stock, or 26.8%, of our issued shares. SK Inc. is currently not deemed to be a foreign entity. However, should SK Inc. be considered to be a foreign shareholder in the future, then its shareholding in us would be included in the calculation of our aggregate foreign shareholding and our aggregate foreign shareholding (based on our foreign ownership level as of December 31, 2020, which we believe was 33.4%) would exceed the 49.0% ceiling on foreign shareholding. As of December 31, 2020, the two largest foreign shareholders of SK Inc. each held a 3.5% stake therein. If our aggregate foreign shareholding limit is exceeded, the MSIT may issue a corrective order to us, the breaching shareholder (including SK Inc. if the breach is caused by an increase in foreign ownership of SK Inc.) and the foreign shareholder which owns in the aggregate 15.0% or more of SK Inc. Furthermore, if SK Inc. is considered a foreign shareholder, it will be prohibited from exercising its voting rights with respect to the shares held in excess of the 49.0% ceiling, which may result in a change in control of us. In addition, the MSIT will be prohibited from granting us licenses or permits necessary for entering into new telecommunications businesses until our aggregate foreign shareholding is reduced to below 49.0%. For a description of further actions that the MSIT could take, see "Item 4.B. Business Overview - Law and Regulation - Foreign Ownership and Investment Restrictions and Requirements."
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 7ChangedSales of our shares by SK Inc. and/or other large shareholders may adversely affect the market value of our common shares and ADSs.
Sales of substantial amounts of our common shares, or the perception that such sales may occur, could adversely affect the prevailing market value of our common shares or ADSs or our ability to raise capital through an offering of our common shares. As of December 31, 2020, SK Inc. owned 26.8% of our total issued common shares and has not agreed to any restrictions on its ability to dispose of our shares. See "Item 7.A. Major Shareholders." We can make no prediction as to the timing or amount of any sales of our common shares. We cannot assure you that future sales of our common shares, or the availability of our common shares for future sale, will not adversely affect the prevailing market value of our common shares or ADSs from time to time.
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