DHAKA: Shares in Samsung Electronics have hit a record high after activist investor Elliott Management proposed a radical corporate shake-up.

The US hedge fund is urging the tech giant to streamline its business, which makes consumer electronics including smartphones and televisions.

It believes the restructure would put the world’s largest smartphone maker on equal footing with its global rivals, reports the BBC.

The news pushed up Samsung's shares by as much as 5% to a new record.

In a letter made public this week, the activist hedge fund said that the “unnecessarily complex” structure of the Samsung Group empire was weighing on the shares of Samsung Electronics.

Samsung Electronics is part of a conglomerate controlled by the Lee family, which also owns stakes in the real estate, insurance and fashion industry in South Korea.

It has been hailed the crown jewel of business, but it is caught up in the Samsung web.

Elliott Management is proposing to pull out Samsung Electronics from the labyrinth and relist it. The new Samsung Electronics operating business would be listed in New York and Seoul.

Elliott also wants the company to pay shareholders about 30 trillion Korean won ($27bn) in special dividends and add three independent directors to the board.

Affiliates of the New York-based hedge fund own nearly two-thirds of Samsung Electronics.

BDST: 2010 HRS, OCT 06, 2016
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