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Seoul - With four days to go in a landmark proxy battle, a Samsung firm is going all out to coax a legion of undeclared investors into backing an $8bn merger with a sister company that is key to the future of the country's biggest family-run conglomerate.
Holders of nearly one-third of Samsung C&T shares are believed to support the plan, while the votes of more than half are not publicly known ahead of a ballot at a July 17 shareholders meeting. The deal needs the backing of two-thirds of votes cast at the meeting to pass.
The construction firm on Monday launched a media blitz, with front-page ads in domestic papers seeking support after weeks of courtship of retail and institutional investors.
An owner of 3 000 shares said he was visited three times last week by a C&T representative, who on one occasion bore walnut cakes in keeping with local gift customs.
"Even a single vote entrusted to us would be of great help," said sober ads stretched across scores of the country's front pages under the headline, "We earnestly beseech Samsung C&T shareholders". Ads are set to air on TV channels from Tuesday.
Opposition
Approval of a merger with Cheil Industries, Samsung's de facto holding company, would tighten the Lee family's grip on the group and ease generational succession. Samsung's 73-year-old patriarch Lee Kun-hee has been hospitalised since a heart attack in 2014.
Activist US hedge fund Elliott Associates, which says terms of the Cheil offer undervalue C&T, has mounted a vocal campaign opposing the deal, stretching to Seoul's courts.
Regardless of the outcome in a rare case of shareholder activism in South Korea, the battle is expected to influence how the country's family-run conglomerates, known as "chaebol", conduct business in a country where they have long held sway.
In what would be a big boost for a deal affording the Lee family more control over flagship Samsung Electronics, domestic media reports over the weekend said the country's National Pension Service (NPS) would vote its 11.2% stake in favour of the merger.
The NPS, C&T's biggest investor, has declined to comment.
Led by Elliott with a 7.12% stake, publicly known opposition stands at about 9.5%. Elliott said late on Sunday it has received "a very significant" number of proxy votes against the merger from retail shareholders.
Meanwhile, a C&T spokesperson said dozens of employees have visited retail investors recently to enlist support.
IBK Securities analyst Kim Jang-won said NPS support would make Samsung C&T's job easier, but it can't afford to relax. "They need to work hard and keep collecting votes through the week, keep making their public relations pitches and win over shareholders."
