The integration plan between major South Korean pharmaceutical firm Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group and chemical company OCI Group was halted Thursday following the opposition's victory in a voting battle. At a shareholders' meeting of Hanmi Science Co., the group's holding company, in Hwaseong, south of Seoul, five candidates proposed by Lim Jong-yoon and Jong-hoon, sons of the late founder of Hanmi Group, Lim Sung-ki, were elected to the board of directors. As a result, they will take a majority on the holding company's nine-member board of directors. In January, Hanmi Group and OCI Group announced plans for a merger, aiming to strengthen their competitiveness in the global healthcare market, by issuing and acquiring new shares in each other. Song Young-sook, the late founder's wife and chairperson of Hanmi Group, led the merger plan, while the two Lim brothers tried to block the move. After the shareholders' meeting, OCI Group declared a suspension of the integration process. "We humbly accept the will of our shareholders, and the integration process will be suspended," it said. "We wish Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group the best in the future." Hanmi Group is one of the top five South Korean pharmaceutical companies, while OCI Group is the 38th-biggest firm in the country in terms of total amount of assets as of last year. Source: Yonhap News Agency