A South Korean court has denied a request from U.S. activist fund Elliott for an injunction blocking a shareholder vote on a proposed $8 billion merger between two Samsung Group companies.
Elliott, which owns 7.1 percent of Samsung C&T, sought to block a C&T shareholder vote scheduled on July 17 over a proposed all-stock takeover attempt by Cheil Industries, the de facto holding company of Samsung Group.
"While we are disappointed with the court's decision, we continue to believe that the proposed merger is neither fair nor in the best interests of Samsung C&T's shareholders," Elliott said in a statement.
The Seoul Central District Court did not issue a decision on Elliott's second injunction request to block Samsung C&T's stake sale to KCC but plans to announce its ruling before July 17.
"We note that the court has not yet decided whether the wholly inappropriate sale of treasury shares by Samsung C&T to KCC in blatant support of the Proposed Merger is, as Elliott believes, unlawful. We will continue to seek to prevent the proposed merger from being consummated, and we urge all Samsung C&T shareholders to do the same," Elliott said.