November 23, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Shares of Ananti, a Korean resort developer, soared on Dec. 11 on news that the company has appointed Jim Rogers, a prominent American investor, as a non-executive director.

Ananti shares jumped almost 25 percent to 12,300 won (US$10.90) in morning trading.

The developer has announced the appointment of Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings and co-founder of Quantum Fund, as an outside director for a three-year term, which needs to be approved at a shareholders meeting on Dec. 27. 

Jim Rogers

“We got to know Jim Rogers through China Minsheng Investment Group in late 2015. We offered him the position and he accepted,” an Ananti official said. “He is quite interested in Korea and knows our company well.”

China Minsheng Investment Group is the second-largest shareholder of Ananti with a 33.24 percent stake as of end-September. The largest shareholder is Ananti CEO Lee Man-gyu.

The company, listed on secondary bourse KOSDAQ, owns various resorts across the country and also opened a resort including a golf course and hot spring at Mt. Kumgang in North Korea in 2008. But the resort has shut down since a South Korean woman was shot by a North Korean soldier only two months after its launch.

Rogers’ involvement in a company that has business interests in North Korea has lifted investor expectations that inter-Korean business cooperation could recuperate soon.

He has shown interest in inter-Korean cooperation and said there is a great potential for the country once it opens up, noting that a unified Korea would make it an ideal region for investment due to abundant natural resources and cheap labor in the North and capital and know-how in the South.

By Park Ga-young (gypark@heraldcorp.com)