[비즈한국] It has been belatedly confirmed that the food company Ourhome has purchased the land and buildings of its Yongin Plant 1. The previous owner of the Yongin Plant 1 was a corporation named 'Bodam'. Bodam is known to be a company owned by the family of Koo Bon-sung, the former Vice Chairman of Ourhome and its former largest shareholder. At the time, Ourhome and Bodam had a special relationship, but this relationship was dissolved when Hanwha Hotel & Resort acquired Ourhome.
Hanwha Hotel & Resort acquired Ourhome for approximately 869.5 billion won in May of last year. Three months later, in August of last year, it was confirmed that Ourhome purchased the land and buildings of Yongin Plant 1. Yongin Plant 1 produces bakery-related products. The previous owner was Bodam. Because of this, Ourhome had been paying about 1 billion won annually to Bodam in rent for the Yongin Plant 1. The sale price of the Yongin Plant 1 is reported to be around 30 billion won.
When former Vice Chairman Koo Bon-sung was the largest shareholder of Ourhome, Bodam and Ourhome were in a special relationship. A special relationship refers to entities or individuals—such as related companies with equity ties, shareholders, executives, or employees—that have close business dealings with the company and can influence its management or operational policies. Since there were no direct equity ties between Ourhome and Bodam, it is highly likely that the family of former Vice Chairman Koo were the actual owners of Bodam. In fact, former Vice Chairman Koo served as the CEO of Bodam from 2006 to 2016, and his wife, Shim Yoon-bo, has served as CEO since then. However, Bodam has never officially disclosed its specific shareholder structure.
Regarding the purchase of Yongin Plant 1, an Ourhome official stated, "We decided on the purchase after determining that securing a core logistics hub through asset ownership would be better in the long term in terms of cost efficiency and operational stability."
With Ourhome's acquisition of the Yongin Plant 1, the relationship between Ourhome and Bodam has effectively come to an end. In the business world, reactions suggest that the separation from the side of former Vice Chairman Koo Bon-sung, the former largest shareholder, was a somewhat expected sequence of events following Hanwha Hotel & Resort's acquisition of Ourhome.
Bodam appears to be intending to continue its independent business operations following the sale of the Yongin Plant 1. According to the corporate registry, Bodam changed its name to 'Modamco' last August and relocated its headquarters from the former Yongin Plant 1 to Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Shim Yoon-bo remains as the CEO, while former Vice Chairman Koo Bon-sung, who was an executive director of Modamco, took office as a non-executive director this January. In addition, former Vice Chairman Koo's eldest daughter, Koo Jo-ahn, and eldest son, Koo Jae-mo, are also listed as non-executive directors of Modamco.