Cross-Border M&A의 법적 기반조성 방안에 관한 연구 - 국제적 합병을 중심으로 -

송종준 법무부 2020 선진상사법률연구 Vol.- No.90

It was reported that some cases of domestic company's triangular merger toward the US company have occurred since 2011 revision of the Commercial Act. Upon this opportunity, this article reviewed the legal basis of EU, US and Japan comparatively and suggested the legislative, interpretive and practical solutions to some problems surrounding the legal infrastructure of Cross-Border Merger as follows. First, cross-border direct merger shall be admitted interpretively by taking into consideration of the economic benefits and internationally increasing trends of the mergers, but it is more promising that legal basis of the merger should be stated explicitly for securing legal stability of the merger practices as the current triangular merger provisions in the Commercial Act. In relation to applying governing rules to the mergers, both domestic governing laws of the parties should be respectively applied to the general merger procedures, but a stricter regulation of the parties' governing laws should be applied to the common matters among contents and types of the merger agreement according to the unification or cumulative theory. Additionally, legal basics of merger registration should be quickly and clearly defined in the current commercial registration rule. Next, in cross-border triangular merger between domestic parent and foreign target, foreign subsidiary should be treated equally as the legal status of domestic subsidiary company in the Commercial Act. And sale of domestic parent's own stocks, acquired by use of distributable profit, to the foreign subsidiary for paying the consideration of the merger should be considered as valid. It is because the parent can dispose of stocks discretionally as one of it's own assets. Corporate values of both of the subsidiary and target company should be evaluated for estimating the ratio of the merger, and also probability of choosing more fair value estimation models should be provided to the merger parties. Moreover, use of the nominee accounts, in which a stockbroker or central securities depository and settlement system holds shares belonging to real shareholders, making buying and selling those shares easier, and also the easier listing procedure of stocks of foreign parent company in the domestic Stock Exchange could be reviewed for preventing the practical inconveniences of paying foreign parent's stocks as a merger consideration to domestic shareholders and reducing it’s legal risks. Finally, essentially material information on the foreign parent company in the cross-border merger should be mandatorily disclosed to the shareholders. 2011년 상법개정 이후 국내회사들이 삼각합병을 이용하여 외국회사를 자회사로 그룹조직을 재편한 몇 개의 사례가 발생한 바 있다. 이 논문에서는 이를 계기로 유럽, 미국 등의 경우와 같이 국내외회사 간 직접합병이나 삼각합병 등 국제적 합병이 원활하게 활용될 수 있도록 그 법적 기반 문제에 관한 입법적, 해석적, 실무적 해결방안에 관하여 검토하였다. 먼저 국제적 직접합병은 그 경제적 효용과 국제적인 증가추세 등을 고려하여 발전적으로 인식할 필요가 있고, 법적 안정을 위해서는 삼각합병과 같이 입법에 의하여 명시적인 허용 근거를 두는 것이 바람직하다. 국제적 직접합병에 대한 속인법을 적용하는 방법과 관련하여 합병의 일반절차에는 각 당사회사의 속인법을 중첩적으로 적용하고 합병계약의 내용과 형식 중 공통사항은 속인법 중 보다 엄격한 규제에 따르도록 하는 중첩적용설이 합리적이라고 본다. 실무적으로는 국제적 직접합병의 등기에 관한 법적 근거를 명시하는 것이 중요하다. 다음으로 국제적 삼각합병의 실무를 위한 법해석상 국내회사의 국외자회사도 상법상의 자회사로 취급하여야 하고, 국외자회사의 국외소멸회사 주주에 대한 합병대가지급과 관련하여 국내모회사가 배당가능이익으로 취득한 자기주식을 자회사에 임의 처분하는 행위는 손익거래로서 적법한 것으로 보아야 한다. 또한 합병비율은 자회사와 대상회사의 기업가치를 평가하여 산정하는 것이 타당하고, 당사회사들이 자본시장법이 정한 기준 외에 보다 공정한 합병산정원칙을 선택할 여지를 제공하는 것이 바람직하다. 외국모회사의 주식을 국내대상회사의 주주에게 합병대가로서 지급하는 경우에 따르는 불편과 법적 리스크를 방지할 수 있는 대안으로서 주주명의인계좌제도를 활용하는 방안, 외국모회사의 국내 상장을 용이하게 할 수 있도록 상장규정을 개정하는 방안도 검토해 볼만하다. 아울러 국외모회사에 의한 국내 대상회사와의 삼각합병의 경우에는 상법 또는 자본시장법상 외국모회사에 관한 본질적인 중요정보는 의무적으로 공시하도록 규제할 필요가 있다.

삼각합병의 구조와 관련 법적 문제

송종준(Jong-Joon Song) 한국기업법학회 2013 企業法硏究 Vol.27 No.3

The triangular merger has been permitted as one of the corporate reorganizations since 2011 in Korea. Nevertheless, there are lots of interpretational issues in applying the provisions about triangular merger as follows : is the reverse triangular merger permitted?, is the acquiring parent company able to acquire its own shares and sell them to the acquiring subsidiary company at the parent"s own discretion?, until when is the acquiring parent company able to acquire the shares and how to acquire them?, and should the merger synergy effect be considered in calculating the values of the minority shareholders" appraisal right in the target company? Futhermore, there would be some structural limitations in carrying out the flexibility and vitalizations of the triangular merger in comparison with the American and Japanese triangular mergers. In other words, it"s required to legislatively supplement the current provisions about triangular mergers in the following issues such as the acquiring parent"s direct issue of new shares to the target"s shareholders, acquiring subsidiary"s disclosure of material information on the parent company and legal treatment of target"s potential shares like the bonds with stock purchase warrant and convertible bonds as well as stock options. And also there are some legislative issues to be considered in the mid-long term such as in the permission of the reverse triangular merger and extension to the various types of triangular reorganizations from the triangular mergers. Lastly, considering the increasing possibilities of hostile corporate mergers and acquisitions since the revision of the Capital Market Act in 2013, appropriate responses to LBO type triangular merger and cross-border triangular merger should be reviewed in a legislative perspective. In conclusion, this paper suggests the reasonable interpretational directions of current provisions relating to triangular merger and the legislative solutions to the above-mentioned structural limitations.

삼각조직재편

김정호 한국경영법률학회 2014 經營法律 Vol.25 No.1

In the year of 2011, Korean Commercial Code(KCC) was revised. Through this revision, the triangular merger was newly introduced in KCC. The Korean Ministry of Justice tries now to complete the codification onto the triangular reorganisation by adding further sections for the triangualr share exchange and triangular split-off. It is nowadays easy to observe the regulation on the triangular reorganisation abroad. The Delaware General Corporation Act permits the triangular merger. The revised Model Business Corporation Act does permit not only triangular merger, but also the triangular share exchange. The japanese Company Act 2006 permits all types of triangular reorganisation. The triangular reorganisation became nowadays important legal tool in the field of cross-border M&A. There are already lots of cases abroad. It was a big event in the international finance sector to observe the triangular share exchange and the following merger between the american Citi-Group and the japanese Nikko-Cordial. The British Petroleum and the american Amoco were also the famous partners in their reverse triangular merger. The Kyocera-AVX case in the year of 1990 played also an important role to establish milestones for a further cross-border M&A between the two nations, US and Japan. The legal problems surrounding triangular reorganization come mainly from discrepancy between the formal and substantial legal structure. The first main issue is, how the subsidiary gets the stocks of parent for the purpose of further delivery to the target’s shareholders. It became frequent for the company lawyers in Korea to discuss on whether the acquiring parent can deliver its own stocks or issue new stocks directly to shareholders of target company. The second one is, whether the shareholders of acquiring parent can enjoy standings in a litigation to render the merger void. The third one is to enlarge the scope of disclosure on the foreign acquiring parent for shareholders of a domestic target.

[연구논문] : 삼각조직재편제도의 도입과정상 쟁점과 입법론적 과제

송종준 ( Jong Joon Song ) 한국상사판례학회 2016 상사판례연구 Vol.29 No.1

2015년 11월 12일 국회 본회의에서는 삼각주식교환, 삼각분할합병 및 역삼각합병 등 삼각조직재편제도의 도입을 골자로 하는 상법일부개정법률안이 통과되었다. 이것은 전통적인 대륙법계 회사법의 근간인 자본유지원칙에 대한 예외를 확장한 것으로서 기업의 대내외 경쟁력을 강화하기 위한 회사법개혁의 국재적 경쟁 흐름 속에서 단행된 입법정책적 결단이라 할 수 있다. 그럼에도 불구하고 새로 도입된 삼각조직재편제도를 활용하는 데에는 실무운용상 비효율성의 문제가 있을 뿐만 아니라 해석론상의 문제도 상존하고 있다. 또한 기업조직재편 수단의 또 다른 형태인 영업양수도의 경우에는 이 제도가 적용되지 않은 것도 문제이고, 인수모회사가 외국소재회사인 경우에도 삼각조직재편제도를 활용될 수요가 점증하고 있지만 이에 대비한 법적 기반 형성에 대하여는 입법상으로 논의되지 않은 문제도 있다. 이러한 문제는 국민경제적 측면에서 경제사회적으로 삼각조직재편제도의 불가피성이나 중요성과 관련되는 것으로서 합리적인 해석원칙과 입법정책적 타협으로 해결해야 할 과제라고 본다. 이 논문에서는 삼각조직재편제도의 입법과정에서의 쟁점을 정리하고, 삼각조직재편제도의 효율성 극대화의 실현을 위하여 입법으로 해결하여야 할 핵심적 쟁점으로서 자회사에 의한 모회사주식취득과 대가지급의 문제, 모회사주주의 보호 문제, 삼각조직재편 대가산정의 공정성 확보 문제, 삼각영업양수도의 수용 문제, 외국회사에 의한 삼각조직재편의 기반형성 문제 등을 비교법적 관점에서 입법적 대안을 제시하였다. The triangular reorganizations such as triangular share exchange, triangular split-merger and reverse triangular merger were introduced in the Commercial Act November 12, 2015. This introduction has a meaning of enlarging the exceptions to the capital maintenance rule as a fundamental normative principle strictly maintained and respected under the conventional company law system, and would be regarded as a legislative determination for enhancing the domestic corporate competitiveness. Nevertheless, the newly introduced triangular reorganizations have some problems such as the practical less-effectiveness and interpretational gaps, no-permission of sale of all of the assets economically similar to the merger, no-legislature of legal infrastructure for the cross-border triangular reorganizations etc,. They all are fundamental legal issues to be solved by way of additional legislation as well as reasonable interpretations in that they are closely related to national economic importance in the future. In this paper some issues discussed in the legislative course of triangular reorganizations are summarized on basis of materials for the revision committee. And for maximizing the practical effectiveness of the triangular reorganizations in the future, some reasonable legislative recommendations are suggested in the essential problems in relation to the acquisition of parent company shares by a subsidiary company with a problem of the payment of consideration, parent`s shareholder protection in issuing new shares, fairness tests in the appraisal of consideration, a new introduction of stock-for-asset exchange type of triangular reorganization and legal infrastructure for the cross-border triangular reorganizations, in which most of the problems are analysed and reviewed in comparative perspectives.