Part 6/13:
One key shareholder was Chinese-American investor Ja Chan Lee, who owned around 22.5% of Sinovac through One Globe Capital. Lee was skeptical of the management’s intentions and sought to promote a more aggressive sale process, proposing a new slate of board members in 2018. His objective was to remove the poison pill and push for a higher bid, betting that more bidders would enter if the takeover protections were dismantled.
Lee’s efforts succeeded temporarily: in late 2018, his proposed board won a majority vote, emphasizing his influence and control over more than 31% of the company’s shares. These moves threatened the incumbent board, led by founder Yin Wei Dong, which favored the 2017 sale agreement valuing the company at $7 per share.