강제매수제도의 합리적 운용을 위한 개선방안

Squeeze-out system, introduced by the revised commercial law in 2011, is globally common as it improves management efficiency, but it also has many problems with protection of minority shareholders. After the controversy concerning its introduction, the system will need to be operated with effectiveness, and the present paper contemplated ways to resolve the problems with squeeze-out system in the revised commercial law. The important point in squeeze-out system is to compensate minority shareholders for the shares properly and ensure a fair process of the squeeze-out. For it, the phrase ‘business purpose’ in the law should be deleted and, instead, the ‘entire fairness standard’ of the Delaware Court of the US that requires proof of ‘fair transaction’ and ‘fair price.’ Then, while the squeeze-out shall be decided by the vote of entire shareholders, minority shareholders should be able to separately determine whether to accept the decided price through an additional vote. also, all transactions regarding squeeze-out must be clearly made public by requiring registering the vote in a share holders’ meeting, and it should be used as evidence in case of dispute, contributing to ensuring the fairness of transaction. Next, the method and procedure of determining the share price must be specifically improved so that minority shareholders who are expelled against their will can be sufficiently compensated. Although, in squeeze-out, the share price is basically decided according to value evaluation when dissident shareholders exercises stock purchase right, as defined by the revised commercial law, the synergy effect, expected profit of the company, and minority discount must be reflected on the price, given the particularity of squeeze-out. Lastly, the main body that appoints an appraiser and post-squeeze- out supervision process must be specified in the commercial law in order to ensure fairness in price determination process. Also, the burden of proof on pricing should be on the majority shareholder and the cost for determining the share price should be paid by them as well, to reduce the burden of minority shareholders. In addition, opportunistic endeavor of majority shareholders must be prevented in advance by clearly stating the basic date of share pricing. The research also suggested introduction of duty of loyalty of majority shareholders, to prevent abuse or unfairness of squeeze-out and make it serve as basis for indemnity.