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The hedge fund billionaire at war with Argentina is taking on the Samsung family dynasty
(Wikimedia) Paul Singer, founder and CEO of Elliott Management.
Hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer is known for pursuing his investments to the ends of the earth.
Once, in an effort to squeeze money from the Argentine government, he got a Ghanaian Court to impound one of The Republic's naval vessels. It took months and a United Nations Court to get it, and its crew of 200 sailors, back to Argentina.
Now Singer has decided he will no longer play nice with one of the richest families on the planet — South Korea's Lee family.
The Lees, through their massive Samsung empire, control 17% of their native country's economy. But Singer wants to block the family's latest restructuring ploy.
Somebody get me some popcorn. This will be fun to watch.
What the fight is all about
Here's the deal. For three generations the Lee family has built a sprawling $270 billion empire of companies — not just electronics-maker Samsung. The holding company Cheil Industries, Samsung's parent, contains within it a bunch of businesses raging from textiles to entertainment.
In South Korea this structure is known as a chaebol. It is a complex way of putting together a vast network under one main leader of one powerful family.
Maintaining this over generations hasn't always been easy. The Lees have gone through their ups and downs: corruptions scandals, backstabbing, succession issues. What's happening now is a transition to a new generation and new leader, Lee Jae-yong. He must take the place of Lee Kun-hee, the 110th-richest man on the planet, according to Forbes.
To do that, and to keep Lee Jae-yong's two two very powerful sisters and an older generation of aunts and uncles happy — the Lees want Cheil Industries to purchase Samsung.
For Singer, who owns 7% of Samsung, there's really only one problem with that — the Lees' $9 billion offer price, which Singer thinks undervalues the company.
Remember, the Lees are not necessarily doing this for money. They're doing it for peace.
(Business Insider)
The first gauntlet (lawsuit) has been thrown
Singer is not known for peace, and he has riled up other investors. The Lees have also rallied their allies, one being the Hyundai family conglomerate. The Lees tried to sell Hyundai's construction firm, KCC, 8.9 million treasury shares in the company to get the votes to push through their merger — a move Singer is trying to block.
"The board's decision to sell the treasury shares is to achieve diversification and synergy through the merger, protect the company and shareholders from hedge funds who seek short-term profits and secure funds to improve the company's financials,” Samsung C&T said in a statement.
Singer did not like that. His allies did not either. So now Singer's Elliott Management is suing Samsung over the sale.
(Reuters)
The Lees don't play either
That was last week. On Monday rumors started flying in the South Korean press that the Lees were giving up. The source of that rumor may have been a report by analyst Kim Chul-Bum of Hanwha Investment & Securities.
"In the present situation, Samsung has only a 19.8% stake, which appears to be favorable to the group, while Elliott Management, which holds a 7.1% stake, has an additional 26.7% stake from foreign investors who appear to be favorable to the company. So, it will be not easy for Samsung to win the majority of votes."
To that, the Lees merely laughed.
"The hypothesis that the group will give up on the merger due to huge litigation costs has made something that never happened into fact. It is a groundless rumor that incites anxiety in the market," a Samsung official said.
Think about it: This is a family whose scion, Lee Kun-hee, acknowledged he had a $200 million slush fund on hand for the sole purpose of paying off politicians and judges in 2008. He also pleaded guilty to embezzlement and tax evasion. He was then pardoned by the president of South Korea and returned as chairman of Samsung in a year.
Do you think they're really going to let one American billionaire push them around?
As I said, pop the popcorn.
(REUTERS/Steve Marcus) Lee Kun-hee with with daughter Lee Pu-jin, president and CEO of the family-owned Hotel Shilla.
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