Foreign funds have built up a 46 percent stake in Samsung Corp and have begun agitating for reform of the trading and construction unit at the heart of Samsung, South Korea's most powerful family-run group.
British activist fund manager Hermes has urged Samsung Corp to sell its 3.8 percent stake in affiliate Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, worth 2.8 trillion won ($2.4 billion) at current market prices, a Samsung Corp spokeswoman said.
The stake, which is worth more than Samsung Corp's own $1.8 billion market value, had not been sold, she added.
Hermes, which owns five percent of Samsung Corp, was also prominent in this year's push by foreign funds to reform the management practices and board of South Korea's top oil refiner, SK Corp.
The battle to reform SK was led by Monaco-based Sovereign Asset Management, which also has an undisclosed stake of significantly less than five percent in Samsung Corp.
Foreign activist and turnaround funds have begun targeting the various arms of the tangled family-run conglomerates or "chaebol" that control Asia's fourth-largest economy.
They believe that untangling the morass of cross-ownership stakes, increasing the accountability of boards and improving minority shareholder rights will lift the value of these firms.
The Samsung Group, which is dominated by Samsung Electronics, is now the latest chaebol targeted by the activist funds.
Samsung Electronics, the world's most valuable consumer electronics firm, currently trades at a price to forecast earnings multiple of 6.8 - well below peers such as Intel on 23 and Sony Corp's 36.5.
This low comparative valuation reflects what foreign fund managers describe as the "Korea Discount", where Korean stocks are priced at a collective 7.5 times earnings, compared with double that in other similar Asian markets.
This is partly due to concerns about the management practices of the family-run chaebol, which have been criticised for propping up failing units with big debts and hurting minority shareholders.
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