No more nut rage: activist fund takes on family-controlled Korean Air

Days after photographs of broken windows and smashed china hit the newsstands revealing a Christmas Day family squabble in the home of Korean Air’s late patriarch, an activist fund received an unsolicited offer to help unseat the current chairman. Heather Cho, eldest daughter of the founding family’s late patriarch, made the proposal to Korea Corporate Governance Improvement, the biggest shareholder of Korean Air’s parent Hanjin Kal, to oust her younger brother, Walter. “I didn’t meet her initially because I didn’t take it seriously when she said she was ready to give up everything,” said Kang Sung-boo, who runs the $380m fund that is pushing for board and management overhaul at the airline. “I didn’t trust her until she agreed to take her hands off management.” Hanjin said Cho, in light of “his clear vision, managing capability and global network,” was better suited for longer-term investment than professional managers. Heather Cho is known for the ‘nut rage’ incident in 2014, after she forced a Korean Air plane to return to the gate because she did not like the way she was served nuts. A win by the 47-year-old activist investor will be a watershed moment in South Korea’s 67-year post-war corporate history which has been led by family-owned chaebol and spawned global industrial powerhouses such as Samsung and Hyundai.<br/>