Flashlight Capital Calls on Samsung to Put S-1 Stake Up for Open Auction
Flashlight Capital Calls on Samsung to Put S-1 Stake Up for Open Auction
- Five Samsung affiliates declined Flashlight Capital's KRW906.6 billion offer for their 20.6% stake in S-1, citing deal certainty, not price
- Flashlight Capital calls on the affiliates to appoint sell-side advisers and launch a competitive sale process without delay
- "Samsung did not say S-1 is not for sale. Let the market decide who owns it next."
SINGAPORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Flashlight Capital Partners Pte. Ltd. ("Flashlight Capital") today called on the five Samsung Group affiliates that together hold 20.6% of S-1 Corporation (KRX: 012750) ("S-1") – Samsung SDI, Samsung Life Insurance, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, Samsung Card and Samsung Securities – to sell their stake through an open auction.
"Korea's leading security company deserves a shareholder that actually wants to own it."
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On August 27 (KST), Flashlight Capital offered to acquire the affiliates' entire holding of 7,815,656 shares at KRW116,000 per share, or KRW906.6 billion in total. The offer represented a premium of approximately 45% to S-1's closing price on August 26, and exceeded the stock's all-time high. The affiliates declined, citing insufficient certainty of completion.
"Samsung's answer was not 'no.' It was 'not like this,'" said Sanghyun Lee, Founder and Managing Partner of Flashlight Capital. "If certainty is the concern, the answer is a competitive process. An open auction lets every credible buyer, strategic or financial, put a firm offer on the table, and lets each board choose the one that best serves its own shareholders."
Flashlight Capital noted that all five affiliates are listed companies whose directors owe duties to their own shareholders. Turning down a substantial premium without testing the market, and then holding a non-core minority stake indefinitely, is difficult to reconcile with those duties.
"For decades, S-1 has been treated as a third-class citizen within Samsung and a landing spot for its retiring executives," Lee said. "Korea's leading security company deserves a shareholder that actually wants to own it."
About Flashlight Capital
Flashlight Capital Partners Pte. Ltd. is a Singapore-based activist investment firm founded in 2020 by Sanghyun Lee, former Head of Korea at The Carlyle Group. The firm has led public campaigns at KT&G (2022) and S-1 Corporation (2026).
For more information www.FlashlightCap.com.
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