
It's Governance
Game is Still ON
KT&G
1. Lost 15 Years
KT&G stock price is lower than 15 years ago… why? With better governance, how high can it get?
2. HNB is Future
See why tobacco industry is having its “Tesla moment”.
3. Free Ginseng
Let’s unshackle the World’s No. 1 ginseng brand from tobacco.
4. Focus
The secret of managing 9 non-core businesses without distraction? None.
5. Cash
I know it’s a boring subject… but it is almost 70% of market cap.
6. ESG Champion
KT&G can be the world ESG champion, “because” it’s a tobacco company.
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Change from Within
What We Do
Flashlight Capital
We Enhance Governance
Governance may not sound as intuitive as… say, Environment. But it is a door that leads to all others in ESG.
It is our core investment strategy. If we improve governance, we can make great returns from our investment, better than just trading shares.
Two Levers to Governance
When we hear of great companies or ones that fail, we often ascribe such performance to CEO’s capabilities. That is only half correct. A company’s performance gets influenced by not only the CEO’s capability, but also the incentive system that directs the CEO’s behavior. Therefore, the right governance requires the best manager “and” aligned incentive.
We often expect outcome of A without knowing we incentivized managers to do B. If we find ourselves in this situation, it’s time to overhaul the incentive system, before finding faults with the management team.
Managing Partner: Sanghyun Lee
Sanghyun Lee is the Managing Partner of Flashlight Capital Partners, and possesses two decades of private equity experience in Korea.
What has private equity to do with governance improvement? For all buyout deals, private equity ensures there is the right management team, and they are properly incentivized to work towards the common goal. It is from these live experience Sanghyun developed the idea of bringing governance improvement to listed companies.
“The secret of great returns from buyout transactions is the aligned incentive between the shareholders and management team.” Sanghyun says, “I have looked at many investment targets in Korea, and KT&G stands to be the single most attractive investment opportunity. This absurdly low valuation should not exist in Korea, or anywhere else in the world.”
Sanghyun’s profile is as follows.
Head of Korea at The Carlyle Group
Managing Director at Affinity Equity Partners
GIC (Government of Singapore Investment Corporation)
Management consultant at McKinsey & Company
Sanghyun is a graduate of Seoul National University and Harvard Business School.

Three Principles
How We Do It
Approach
Shareholders, Not Traders
Shares represent the right to influence companies. When we forget our right because we are simply too busy buying and selling stocks, we stop being shareholders.
Ghosting is Never a Solution
Exclusion is no strategy. We don’t believe that disengagement leads to success. Solution to any problems, starts with offering our hands to those who need help.
Management Friendly
We believe in the power of incentive, not criticism. Not that we are nice guys; we just don’t think criticism works. We want to focus our energy on building a great future, instead of spending time in blame game. We are open to hear management’s view and discuss in a constructive manner how we can help make a better company.
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Contact
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Flashlight Capital
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Longacre Square Partners
Greg Marose / Charlotte Kiaie
+1-646-386-0091