Palliser Urges Samsung to List US Shares to Fund Buyback

· Finance · South Korea · United States

Activist investor Palliser Capital has asked Samsung Electronics to list shares in the United States and use the proceeds to buy back its preferred stock. Palliser argues the company should do more to narrow the discount on those preferred securities, which carry no voting rights. The proposal targets a persistent valuation gap between Samsung's common and preferred shares and presses management on how it returns capital to shareholders. Samsung is the world's largest memory-chip and smartphone maker, and its shares are closely watched as a bellwether for the semiconductor cycle. An overseas listing by such a large company would be unusual and could draw attention to governance and capital-return questions at Korean conglomerates. No response from Samsung was reported.

Why it matters：Activist pressure for an overseas listing and buyback at the world's largest memory maker touches on corporate governance and capital-return norms at major Asian conglomerates, and could set a precedent for how global investors engage with them.

Key points

  • Palliser wants Samsung to list shares in the US and use proceeds for a preferred-stock buyback.
  • The preferred shares carry no voting rights and trade at a discount that Palliser wants narrowed.
  • Samsung is the world's largest memory-chip and smartphone maker, a bellwether for the chip cycle.

Sources (original reporting)

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