The sale of Namyang Dairy Products Company is likely to be determined in court after the dairy giant's chairperson pulled back from a deal to sell his stake to a major private equity firm. 
 
In a statement on Wednesday, Namyang Chairperson Hong Won-sik said he gave private equity firm Hahn & Company notice that a contract they had clinched on the sale of Namyang Dairy three months earlier would be scrapped. 

Hong and his family had agreed to sell their controlling stake of 53 percent to Hahn & Company for 310 billion won.
 
The private equity firm argues the contract is still valid. It sued Namyang's shareholders in late August for failing to honor a binding contract, and said a court injunction barring Hong from selling his stake to a third party was approved and issued. 
  
Hong defends the notice as inevitable as the buyer had failed to implement agreements reached ahead of the contract's signing. He claimed Hahn & Company violated confidentiality clauses for its own gain, adding that it wrongfully intervened in the management of Namyang even before signing the sales deal.
  
Hong had tearfully pledged not to hand Namyang Dairy to his children in May after the company came under fire for claiming a yogurt product was effective in suppressing COVID-19.