|
Samsung Electronics is devising ways to protect itself from hostile takeover bids. A Samsung Electronics executive said Thursday there were rumors that foreign hedge funds are going to buy a large amount of Samsung Electronics stocks and the company is drawing up protective measures against a takeover bid. Apparently, Samsung got a tipoff that the corporate raider Carl Icahn plans to field a hostile takeover bid for the company.
The Samsung Group holds a 30.4 percent stake in Samsung Electronics, including a 3.2 percent stake owned by chairman Lee Kun-hee and his family. Any hedge fund would need to secure a stake equivalent to that to acquire managerial rights in the Korean company. That would require some W30 trillion (US$1=W928) given that Samsung Electronics¡¯ market capitalization is estimated at W90 trillion. Another Samsung Electronics executive stressed the importance of maintaining the stock price at an appropriate level, since W15 trillion would be all it takes for a foreign fund to attempt to take over Samsung Electronics if the company¡¯s market value were to shrink to half of the current value or W50 trillion.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
|
