Fight stirs up Samsung investors
Shareholders in South Korea back U. S. hedge fund’s campaign to block asset merger.
Thousands of South Korean investors are backing an American hedge fund’s bid to thwart a business combination between Samsung companies that they argue will only enrich the country’s wealthiest family.
At stake: Billions of dollars for the Lee family that founded Samsung and South Korea’s image as a fair place for investors, big and small.
Last month, Samsung announced that its de facto holding company, Cheil Industries, which operates fashion, catering and theme park businesses, will take over Samsung C& T, a builder of skyscrapers and trader of goods.
But the takeover ratio, which gives a mere 0.35 share in the new entity for each C& T share, prompted Elliott Associates, the American hedge fund that is the third- largest investor, to take legal action against the deal. The fund says the takeover is unfair to C& T shareholders because it undervalues the company.
Despite the poor image of foreign hedge funds in South Korea, many investors here agree with Elliott.
The takeover “is far from being fair or reasonable,” said Kim Gyeong- hwan, a 40- year- old dentist in Seoul who owns about 40 million won ($ 36,000) of shares in Samsung C& T. “Elliott’s argument is reasonable. Shareholders are owners of the company, not the head of the company.”
Few buy Samsung’s argument that its plan for one company in the empire to take over another will create business benefits. The deal is instead seen as crucial for the once- in- a- generation leadership transition underway at Samsung, which has accelerated since patriarch Lee Kun- hee, 73, was hospi- talized after suffering a heart attack in May last year.
His son and heir apparent Lee Jae- yong does not have a major shareholding in Samsung Electronics Co., the crown jewel in the Samsung empire. Inheriting his father’s shares in Samsung Electronics or his stakes in other key Samsung f irms that have stakes in the consumer electronics giant would incur heavy inheritance taxes that could go over $ 5 billion.
But Lee, 47, is a major shareholder in Cheil thanks to shares he was effectively gifted before the company went public. If Cheil takes over Samsung C& T, Lee will control its 4.1% stake in Samsung Electronics that would cost him $ 7 billion if he had to buy the shares on the market.
The groundswell of shareholder activism in support of Elliott Associates is a departure from South Korea’s typical hostility to foreign funds and shows that weak corporate governance, often cited overseas as a risk of investing in Samsung and other family- controlled conglomerates, is getting growing attention in South Korea. Most of the country’s biggest companies are publicly traded, but the families who founded them one or two generations ago retain disproportionate inf luence, irking other shareholders who feel the business elite treats public companies as their personal property.
Samsung says the pro- posed takeover deal and ratio are legal. It says the ratio is based on Samsung C& T’s recent share price. It was near a f ive- year low before the deal was announced, a performance at odds with its robust finances.
Kim, the dentist, is leading efforts to ensure that Samsung C& T management, its board and other shareholders hear their voices, including South Korea’s National Pension Service, which has a 9.9% stake in C& T and has not expressed its stance on the deal. More than 2,000 shareholders in C& T have gathered at an online community, vowing to vote against the deal, while others supporting Elliott have written to the court that will hear the case.
Elliott’s maneuvering has tapped into discontent in South Korea with how regulators, the media, and the country’s pension service are not standing up for shareholders.
Kim Jae- chul, a 63- yearold retiree from the textile industry, said he was so angered he bought 680 shares so he could vote on the deal at the July 17 meeting of C& T shareholders. Even though he feels proud when he sees Samsung phones abroad, that pride isn’t going to stop him from casting his f irst vote as a shareholder against the deal, he said.
“I feel enraged to think how Samsung neglects the weak people and brings all profit to the founding family.”