[THE INVESTOR] Minor shareholders of
Samsung SDS are reaching out to the National Pension Service in their fight against the company’s reorganization plans.
Samsung SDS is reviewing plans to spin off some of its businesses including the logistics operations. Since Oct. 19, Samsung SDS stock has been on a downward slope with prices down by half since then. The minor shareholders’ association has put the blame squarely on the company’s spin-off plans, and has been demanding action from Samsung SDS and
Samsung Electronics vice chairman
Lee Jae-yong, who has a 9.2 percent stake in the company.
While the NPS has less than 5 percent shares of Samsung SDS, the minor shareholders claim that the it should take action as an investor. Under related regulations the pension fund is not required to disclose the name of companies it has invested in unless its stake is 5 percent or more.
The association said that the NPS is likely to have sustained significant damages from the stock price drop.
At the time, Samsung SDS allocated about 3.66 million shares to institutional investors.
The offer was met with a rush of institutional investors, each eyeing a hefty portion of the allotted shares. Institutional investors seeking Samsung SDS shares had requested a total of over 2.38 billion shares, resulting in 651.5 to 1 competition.
However, reports of institutional investors being disgruntled at the small amount of shares they gained sprang up shortly after. Some claimed that the NPS is likely to have taken a large chunk of the shares allotted to institutional investors.
By Choi He-suk (
cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)