An electric counterbalanced forklift from Doosan Inracore's award-winning Pro-5 series.

Doosan Group, the largest shareholder of forklift manufacturer Doosan Infracore, has taken steps to improve its transparency, including plans to convert to a holding company, after its former chairman was charged with embezzling company funds last year (Forkliftaction.com News #235).

In a new "roadmap for management", expected to be fully implemented by 2007, Doosan calls for foreign CEOs, the abolishment of the chairmanship system, and a shareholder vote-by-mail program. It aims to conform its accounting system to international standards.

The group wants to convert the parent company into a holding company in three years and establish independent boards of directors to manage subsidiary companies, Doosan said on its website. The system of chairmanship will also be abolished for subsidiaries and Doosan will hire foreign CEOs and global marketing directors.

Details of the group's plans are still taking shape and Doosan says they will be confirmed in the first half of this year. So far, Doosan sums up its action plan as:

1. Abolish the group chairman system and establish an independent board of directors. All directors will be qualified candidates, independent from Doosan Group. There will be "subsidiary committees" to support the boards of directors.
2. The rights of small shareholders will be protected by a new vote-by-mail system, enabling them to exercise their voting rights if they are not present at general shareholders' meetings.
3. Compliance officers will be hired to inspect the new management structure and transparent management initiatives. An internal fair trade committee, comprising independent directors, will be established to increase transparency in internal trade and to implement an accounting system conforming to international standards. This is in addition to its existing disclosure of quarterly financial reports and management activities through corporate conferences.
4. The existing review board's role will be enhanced to re-establish accounting and internal trade standards and supervise its internal control system.

Doosan says its action plan meets monitoring requirements set by the Korean Fair Trade Commission last year.