Samsung Press Pause On Restructuring
Despite earlier indications by the company late last year, it looks like Samsung is going to back off on plans to restructure itself as a holding company.
Speaking at the company’s annual shareholder meeting, Chief Executive Kwon Oh-hyun dashed the hopes of shareholders by indicating that such a broad corporate reshuffle was unlikely at the present time.
“There are negative effects that would arise from transitioning to a holding company so it does not appear it will be easy to do so at present,” Kwon said.
He said the company will continue to review the issue and report to shareholders with results when done.
Though not explicitly mentioned, it’s hard not to notice the timing of the delay with the arrest of Samsung VP Jay Y. Lee last month.
“Samsung had been saying the review would proceed without issues, so the market had accepted that, but now they are saying the transition will be difficult,” said CJ Heo, a fund manager at Alpha Asset Management told VentureBeat.
“This will hurt investor sentiment for a while,” he advised.
Accordingly, Samsung stock has fallen 7% in the immediate aftermath of the comments.