Online games company faces legal action

Investors in one of Korea's largest online gaming companies have taken the firm's management to court to force them to reveal financial documents.

The group of minority shareholders in Gravity have alleged that the new Japanese owners of the company may have licensed its most profitable game to a family-affiliated business at an unusually low price.

Gravity operates the multiplayer online game Ragnarok Online, which claims millions of subscribers worldwide. The company was taken over by a consortium controlled by Japan's giant SoftBank Corporation last year. 

This followed a scandal in which Gravity founder and former chief executive Jung-Ryool Kim was alleged to have siphoned off more than $9.1m from the Nasdaq-listed firm.

Kim resigned and sold his 49 per cent stake in the company to the new owners for $380m last August.

In March, the group of minority shareholders, including foreign-controlled Ramius Capital, said in a financial filing that they believed Gravity's board of directors "approved transactions that may have benefited Taizo Son and other entities affiliated with Taizo Son or SoftBank Corp".

Taizo Son is the brother of SoftBank chairman Masayoshi Son. The minority investors have demanded access to Gravity's financial records to check the validity of their suspicions, but Gravity has not provided the documents, hence the court action.

The shareholders making the complaint control about 14 per cent of the company.