The chairman of the board of Korea Zinc vowed on Wednesday to make way for an outsider after the firm dropped a plan to issue new shares worth $1.8 billion that had sparked an investigation by the financial watchdog and a share sell-off.

Korea Zinc Co.’s chairman will step down from his role as the head of the board after scrapping a planned $1.8 billion share sale, a blow to his efforts to fend off a bid for control from the company’s largest shareholder.

Korea Zinc Co., the world’s largest refined zinc producer, announced Tuesday that it is carefully reconsidering a controversial $1.8 billion share sale plan. The plan, which initially surprised the market and sparked significant backlash from both regulators and investors,