South Korea’s dominant Samsung conglomerate — run by the country’s wealthiest family — yesterday secured shareholder approval for the crucial merger of two affiliates, fending off a formidable challenge from investor activists led by a combative US hedge fund.
The victory, following a bitterly contested proxy battle, will come as an enormous relief to the Samsung Group’s founding Lee family as it seeks to restructure the multiheaded corporation ahead of a generational transfer of power from ailing patriarch Lee Kun-hee.
At a packed and sometimes fractious emergency meeting, shareholders of construction firm Samsung C&T Corp voted in favor of a takeover by the group’s de facto holding company, Cheil Industries Inc, in an all-stock deal.
Photo: Reuters
Both companies saw their share prices plunge in the wake of the vote result, with C&T closing down 10.4 percent at 62,100 won, and Cheil down 7.7 percent 179,000 won.
The merger had been passionately opposed by a significant number of C&T investors, rallied by US hedge fund Elliott Associates LP, — the company’s second-largest single shareholder.
Elliott had argued that the takeover willfully undervalued C&T’s share price, at an unacceptable cost to its shareholders.
Samsung C&T executives insisted the deal made good business sense and would enhance shareholder value in the long run, with a more competitive merged company that could achieve sales of 60 trillion won (US$52 billion) by 2020.
“I am grateful for the shareholders who voted for the merger,” C&T chief executive Choi Chi-hun told reporters.
“We will do our utmost to ensure their support is repaid in the form of heightened shareholder value,” he said.
Turnout was high, with 83.6 percent of eligible C&T voting shares cast. That left Samsung requiring 55.7 percent of the vote to secure the necessary two-thirds majority, and the finally tally in favor of the merger was 69.5 percent.
For Samsung, victory was critical to its current strategy of streamlining and consolidating its group holdings into fewer, larger companies.
The family already controls Cheil and taking over C&T will solidify its grip on the entire conglomerate because the affiliate holds more than US$10 billion in shares of Samsung Group units.
Elliot accepted the vote result, but hinted that it could pursue other avenues of opposition.
“Elliott is disappointed that the takeover appears to have been approved against the wishes of so many independent shareholders and reserves all options at its disposal,” Elliot spokesman Richard Barton said in a statement
Although the anti-merger camp lost the final vote, its muscular campaign marked a watershed moment for shareholder activism in South Korea, where family-run conglomerates, or chaebol, dominate the economy and are used to running their businesses with minimum investor interference.
In an unprecedented show of domestic investor power, more than 3,000 individual shareholders had grouped together in an online forum aimed at blocking the takeover.
“I think this will be seen as a positive, transitional moment in South Korea’s corporate culture,” Korea Capital Market Institute analyst Hwang Sei-woon said.
“It highlighted deep-rooted problems in corporate governance by the chaebol,” Hwang said.
Small shareholders made sure their voices were heard during yesterday’s meeting, taking the microphone and embarking on long, often rambling speeches — both for and against the takeover.
“I oppose this merger absolutely,” said dentist Park Sun-ok, who bought his C&T shares 13 years ago and said he doubted the board claims that the deal would trigger a long-term rise in shareholder value.
Kang Dong-ok, an activist representing small shareholders, accused Samsung of playing a “dirty game” — harassing shareholders at their homes and workplaces.
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