Samsung’s Lee signals at more board power
Jay Y Lee, de facto head of South Korea’s sprawling Samsung Group, accelerated taking a board seat at flagship unit Samsung Electronics partly because of investor pressure to improve governance, two people familiar with the matter said.
Samsung Group narrowly survived a bid by US activist hedge fund Elliott Management last year to block a controversial merger of two group businesses, Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries. The deal sparked criticism that the Lee family put its interests ahead of those of shareholders.
In its latest campaign, Elliott, which owns 0.62 per cent of Samsung Electronics, is calling for the world’s biggest smartphone maker to be split in two, and for shareholders to be handed a 30 trillion won ($26 billion) dividend. “Over the past couple of years, there were repeated requests from internal and external board members for Lee to join the board, which he had persistently resisted,” said one of the people, declining to be named as he is not authorised to speak publicly. “But the (2015) attack from Elliott was one of the triggers that prompted him to take a board seat earlier than planned, and consider governance issues more seriously.”
Samsung Electronics said in October it will respond to Elliott’s latest proposals by the end of this month.
Lee, 48, the conglomerate’s unassuming heir-apparent had previously orchestrated operations from behind the scenes after his father Lee Kun-hee was hospitalised in 2014 following a heart attack. He had finally been persuaded to stand for a seat on Samsung Electronics’ board at next year’s March shareholder meeting, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
But the sale of the company’s printer business to HP required investor approval, triggering a shareholder meeting last month, and a chance to get Lee on to the board ahead of schedule. “He felt it was time and he was ready,” said the second person familiar with the issue. Samsung Electronics said Lee was nominated for the October meeting rather than March so he could participate more actively in important decisions such as the composition of the management team and acquisitions. The board seat also gives Lee formal responsibility for the company’s management, it said.
In a nod to the chorus for more transparency and shareholder handouts, Samsung has been streamlining its complex group ownership structure and boosting payouts. Samsung Electronics has bought back 11.4 trillion won ($9.9 billion) worth of its own shares since last year and may repurchase more to appease investors after the expensive collapse of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone.
“It shows that he wants to have a more global standard of board governance,” said another person familiar with the matter, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of issue, adding Lee wants the board to be the key decision-making body.