Exclusive
Cho Hyun-bum, Chairman of Hankook & Company, Purchases Large Tracts of Land in Hwaseong: "Will He Realize His Father’s Golf Course Dream?"

[비즈한국] It has been confirmed through a BizHankook investigation that Cho Hyun-bum, Chairman of Hankook & Company Group000240, purchased a significant amount of land in Jangji-dong, Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi-do, last year alongside a family-owned company. The acquired land is adjacent to property where Chairman Cho’s father, Cho Yang-rai, Honorary Chairman of Hankook & Company Group, once attempted to build a golf course. At the time, Honorary Chairman Cho abandoned the project due to regulatory hurdles, sparking interest in whether his son, Chairman Cho Hyun-bum, might now pursue that dream.

According to industry sources and real estate registries, Chairman Cho Hyun-bum purchased 13,686 square meters of forest land near Mt. Madeungsan in Jangji-dong, Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi-do, for 2.07 billion KRW last July. Jangji, a family company affiliated with Chairman Cho, purchased a total of 13,173 square meters of nearby farmland for approximately 5.1 billion KRW across June, August, and November of last year—before and after the Chairman's own land purchase. As of May of last year, Jangji is an agricultural corporation where Chairman Cho and his brother, Cho Hyun-sik, former advisor to Hankook & Company, each held a 45% stake. Prior to these transactions, the company held nearby farmland gifted by an individual surnamed Kim in March 2020.

The land they purchased is adjacent to the property of Honorary Chairman Cho Yang-rai, where a golf course project was being pursued 12 years ago. Honorary Chairman Cho has been purchasing land in the area since around March 1968. Currently, the land confirmed to be under his name exceeds 800,000 square meters. Shinyang World Leisure, a family company of the Honorary Chairman, proposed an urban management plan to the city of Hwaseong in August 2013 to construct a golf course on a 990,000-square-meter site in the area. Previously, in March 2008, Hwaseong City had designated this area as a potential tourism and recreation site capable of accommodating a golf course as part of the "2020 Hwaseong City Master Plan."

However, the golf course project promoted by Honorary Chairman Cho Yang-rai failed due to licensing hurdles. In October 2013, Hwaseong City rejected Shinyang World Leisure’s proposal for an urban management plan citing reasons such as: the need to preserve green belts, ecosystems, forests, and landscapes; concerns over site feasibility and golf course demand; the unreasonableness of the land use plan; the inappropriateness of the proposed zoning changes; and advice from the Urban Planning Committee. Shinyang World Leisure filed a lawsuit against Hwaseong City to cancel the rejection, but the Supreme Court ultimately dismissed the case in November 2016.

The exact reason for the recent land purchases by Chairman Cho Hyun-bum and his family company remains unconfirmed. However, given the location of the newly purchased land and Honorary Chairman Cho Yang-rai's past efforts, there is speculation that Chairman Cho Hyun-bum might be reviving the golf course plan to fulfill his father's wishes. A representative from the Hwaseong City Urban Policy Office explained, "To build a golf course, a new district unit plan (urban management plan) would need to be established, and there have been no new proposals submitted for that area since the previous rejection."

Shinyang World Leisure, which previously attempted to build a golf course on the Honorary Chairman's Hwaseong land, is a private company owned by the father and son. As of May last year, Honorary Chairman Cho held a 20% stake, while brothers Cho Hyun-sik and Cho Hyun-bum held 40% each. Established in March 2009 with the purpose of operating golf courses and ski resorts, the company reported zero revenue in 2023 and is effectively dormant. Jung Il-yong, CEO of Shinyang World Leisure, concurrently serves as the CEO of Jangji, which purchased the land with Chairman Cho last year, and Korea Dongrami Partners, a subsidiary of Hankook & Company that supports the independence of disabled individuals.

A representative for Hankook & Company stated regarding this matter, "It is difficult to confirm details related to personal companies."

Hankook & Company Chairman Cho Hyun-bum is the largest shareholder of the group's holding company, Hankook & Company. In June 2022, his father and the group's founder, Honorary Chairman Cho Yang-rai, sold all of his shares in Hankook & Company to his younger son, Chairman Cho, through a block deal. Through this transaction, Chairman Cho surpassed his older brother, former advisor Cho Hyun-sik (who held an 18.93% stake as of May last year), his sister Cho Hee-won (10.61%), and Cho Hee-kyung, chair of the Hankook Tire Foundation (0.81%), to become the largest shareholder (42.03%) of Hankook & Company.