SONGDO -- Samsung Biologics President and CEO Kim Tae-han on Friday reiterated the legality of the firm’s accounting practices at an annual shareholders meeting held in Songdo, Gyeonggi Province.

“We deeply regret the supervision results of the Financial Services Commission. We believe our accounting was done within all legal boundaries. We apologize for any concerns the investigations have caused our shareholders,” Kim said.

“Samsung Biologics will make its best efforts to prevent this issue from affecting our fundamental corporate value.”

Shareholders approved the company’s request of reappointing former Executive Director Kim Dong-joong, and outside directors Jeong Seok-woo and Kwon Soon-jo, with the addition of Heo Geun-nyeong, the former chief judge of Seoul Central District Court and the incumbent chief lawyer at Pyeong An Lawfirm. Heo was also made a member of the audit committee along with Jeong and Kwon.

The event marked direct attendance of 291 shareholders who own a total of 101,622 shares, and proxy attendance of 888 shareholders, owning over 57.6 million shares. In total, 1,179 shareholders voted, whose 57.7 million shares account for 87.35 percent of Samsung Biologics’ 66.1 million shares.

The company’s shareholders meeting drew attention a day ahead following news that the National Pension Service intends to vote against the key proposals.

The CEO stressed that Samsung Biologics’ future goal is to attain 50 percent of the global biopharmaceuticals’ contract manufacturing organization market. The company will also actively invest and expand its areas to contract development organization, contract research organization, more biosimilar development and development of innovative novel bio drugs, he said.

Samsung Biologics was founded in April 2011. Its headquarters is based in Incheon, Gyeonggi Province. The company went public in November 2016. It attained sales of 530 billion won ($469.05 million) in 2018. The company has 1.1 trillion won cash reserves.

Samsung C&T Corp. and Samsung Electronics own 43.44 percent and 31.49 percent stake in Samsung Biologics, respectively.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)