Hedge fund pushing for Samsung’s split not deterred by Galaxy Note 7 debacle

Last week, major New York-based hedge fund Elliott Associates publicly came out with a proposal that it wants Samsung Electronics to be split up into separate holding and operating companies and that a one-time dividend amounting to $27 billion should also be paid to shareholders. Elliott happens to own 0.62 percent of the behemoth that is Samsung Electronics and while the company has said it will carefully consider the proposal, no formal announcement of talks between them has been made yet. Investors started dumping Samsung stock once the company announced that it had discontinued the Galaxy Note 7 but Elliott isn’t scared by this debacle. It still sees intrinsic value in the company and isn’t budging from its position of wanting Samsung Electronics to be split up.

Samsung’s stock has been trading at record highs this year but in the days after the recall the company’s stock has been down by more than 10 percent. Investors are concerned about the financial impact of the Galaxy Note 7 recall and any long term damage that has been caused to the Samsung brand as a result of this.

Elliott isn’t panicking like other investors. The hedge fund’s affiliate companies – Blake Capital and Potter Capital – actually own the stake in Samsung Electronics. They have released the following statement today: “The recent issues surrounding the Galaxy Note 7, while unfortunate, do not diminish our view that Samsung Electronics is a leading global technology company with a world-class brand.”

They are sticking to their proposal that Samsung Electronics should be split up into two. I’ve already explained in quite a bit of detail why Samsung is likely to work with the hedge fund than against it this time around.

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