A listed South Korean golf course operator with a track record of doing business in North Korea hit the price ceiling Tuesday on anticipation that US business guru Jim Rogers had been nominated as the sole candidate to become the company’s outside director.

Ananti, listed on second-tier bourse Kosdaq, rose 26.8 percent from Monday’s closing price. It touched the price ceiling at 12,800 won ($11.30), trading 29.8 percent higher, in late afternoon intraday trade. Ananti was the 26th-largest company by market cap among some 1,200 firms trading on Kosdaq.

This came after Ananti unveiled in a disclosure Monday the nomination of Rogers, who co-founded the Quantum Fund and created Rogers International Commodities, will be put to a vote in a shareholders meeting on Dec. 27. 

The 76-year-old American based in Singapore now serves as the chairman of Rogers Holdings. Rogers was reportedly offered the outside director post through China Minsheng Investment Group, which owns 33.24 percent of Ananti.

Ananti, formerly known as Emerson Pacific, has built and managed golf courses and condominiums across the Korean Peninsula, including one located in the joint tourist complex at Kumgangsan in North Korea’s Kangwon Province, called Kumgang Ananti Golf and Spa Resort.

Built in 2008 at a price of some 90 billion won, the leisure facility spans 1.7 million square meters and features an 18-hole golf course. Ananti is South Korea’s only private company that has invested capital for a business in North Korea.

By Son Ji-hyoung
(consnow@heraldcorp.com)