Ever active Matt Levine writes about shareholder activism:  Some people believe that American shareholder democracy has gone too far and that activists are a pernicious force in capital markets, but from my very outside perspective it does look like South Korean shareholder democracy maybe doesn’t go far enough and could use some activists? I am not alone in this; here is one investor’s reaction to Elliott Associates’ fight at Samsung C&T Corp.:

“Elliott is standing up for what other investors are feeling and thinking,” said Sachin Shah, a special situations and merger-arbitrage strategist at New York-based Albert Fried & Co. “It’s a rallying cry for shareholders who were waiting for this.”

Elliott is fighting Samsung C&T’s proposed merger with Cheil Industries, the “de-facto holding company of the Samsung Group conglomerate.” Elliott argues that the merger is underpriced, and the market seems to agree; the shares are now 17 percent above Cheil’s offer because of Elliott’s involvement. Meanwhile Samsung C&T is fighting back by “selling a 5.8% stake in itself to KCC Corp., a Korean construction company with a vested interest in making the deal go through,” thus “effectively adding new votes in favor of the deal,” and it “is straightforward in saying the purpose of the deal is ‘promotion of merger resolution.'” Elliott plans to sue to stop this, and I have to say that if it was suing in Delaware I’d like its chances.

by Claudio Munoz