Bio

Sanggon Kim is a partner at Lee & Ko. Since joining the firm in 1994, he has concentrated his practice in general corporate and business law, focusing on mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Kim has handled a wide variety of M&A transactions in the financial and petrochemical industries. His experience in friendly takeovers includes Representation of SK Telecom in the acquisition of Hana Card in late 2009, which was the first case of consolidation between a mobile telecom business and credit card business; CJ Group (the largest cable TV program provider in Korea) in its acquisition of On Media (the second largest program provider in Korea); Citibank in its acquisition of KorAm Bank; the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation in its sale of Korea First Bank to Newbridge, LG Chem's spin-off of its battery business division and establishment of LG Energy Solution, and Hahn & Co's acquisition of in-flight catering and duty-free business of Korean Air. Additionally, Mr. Kim has established his position as a leading lawyer in the field of hostile M&A, having represented parties of major hostile takeover cases in Korea, namely Karl Icahn's takeover attempt of KT&G, Sovereign's takeover attempt of SK Group, and KCC's takeover attempt of Hyundai Group. Not only that, Mr. Kim also spearheaded the trend of Korean conglomerates' restructuring into a holding company structure through share transfers among affiliates by representing virtually all of the major conglomerates in this process, including the LG Group, SK Group and CJ Group. Mr. Kim's singled out by clients as being "always quick to respond to our queries, while providing an unmatched level of comprehensiveness and detail" on M&A as well as general corporate mandates.