[THE INVESTOR] The so-called “war of brothers” between Park Sam-koo and Park Chan-koo of the erstwhile Kumho Group has ended, with the latter choosing to withdraw all lawsuits against the former and his companies.

The brothers fell out after the group began to experience financial difficulties in 2009. After it was split into Sam-koo’s Kumho Asiana Group and Chan-koo’s Kumho Petrochemical, the two sides had engaged in drawn out legal battles.

However, Kumho Petrochemical dropped the latest lawsuit against Kumho Asiana on Aug. 10. 

“In order to focus on the purpose of a company, which is to increase its value and return profits to shareholders, it was decided to drop all legal actions against Kumho Asian Group,” Kumho Petrochemical said on Aug. 11.

“It was deemed that (conflict with Kumho Asiana) was meaningless for each other’s survival.”

The case that was dropped on Aug. 10 was an appeal against the court’s decision to side with Sam-koo in a compensation claim.

In the original suit Kumho Petrochemical had filed a suit against Sam-koo and former Kumho E&C chief Kee Ock claiming that the two were behind the sale of Kumho Industrial’s commercial papers in 2009.

Kumho Petrochemical claimed that the two orchestrated the sale of the commercial papers despite being aware that Kumho Industrial was financially unsound. In the suit, Kumho Petrochemical demanded compensation of 10.3 billion won (US$9.35 million), saying that the corporate papers had cost the company 16.5 billion won.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)