It comes amid growing opposition from some retail investors over a last-minute, tentative deal between management and its labor union last week that averted an 18-day strike but sparked fresh controversy over how the electronics giant distributes its unprecedented profits, fueled by an artificial intelligence-driven chip supercycle.
ACT, a platform for retail shareholders, said Samsung accepted its request to review and copy the register just two days after it was filed. The group is expected to carry out the review at Samsung Electronics' headquarters in southern Seoul later this week.
The unusually swift approval gives ACT access to the register, which contains ownership details as well as voting rights and dividend eligibility, allowing the group to pursue coordinated shareholders' action at South Korea's largest listed company by market capitalization. Under South Korean law, shareholders have the right to request access to such records, a step often used as a starting point for collective action.
The request was made after the company's tentative wage and bonus-related arrangements raised questions about whether shareholders were receiving a fair share of the company's profits.
Once access to the register is completed, the group plans to contact institutional and retail investors, even those holding a minimum number of shares, to seek support for collective action.
ACT plans to contact domestic and foreign investors holding over 6,735 Samsung shares, aiming to collectively reach the 1.5-percent threshold required under South Korean law to call an extraordinary shareholders' meeting. To qualify, shareholders must have held their shares for at least six months.
The core concern centers on a bonus structure that allocates a fixed share of operating profit to bonus payments, which critics say could come at the expense of dividends and broader shareholder returns, infringing on their interests. ACT argues that while management can hand out one-off bonuses at its discretion, a permanent profit-sharing arrangement of this kind is significant enough that shareholders should have a say.
ACT's push comes as Samsung union members are in the middle of a weeklong vote on whether to accept the tentative deal, putting the company under simultaneous pressure from both labor and shareholders.
With voting set to close on Wednesday, more than 80 percent of the 57,290 eligible voters out of about 70,505 union members had already voted, raising the likelihood that the deal would pass, with members of the memory division accounting for the largest share at around 24,000, followed by roughly 17,000 from the non-memory business and about 22,000 from other divisions.
For the deal to pass, more than half of eligible voters must participate and a majority must vote in favor.
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