Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Chairman Lee Kun-hee warded off a lawsuit by estranged family members demanding he hand over billions of dollars of shares in Samsung companies as a South Korean court ruled in his favor on Friday.
Lee, 71, and Samsung Everland, a de facto holding company for the country’s largest conglomerate, were defending against three lawsuits by Lee’s relatives seeking nearly $4 billion in assets in Samsung Life Insurance Co Ltd, which sits at the heart of the web of Samsung group shareholdings, and Samsung Electronics, the group’s crown jewel.
The lawsuit was unlikely to have deprived Lee of his control over Samsung Electronics, the world’s biggest maker of smartphones, TVs and memory chips.
But a ruling against him would have diluted his holdings and could have forced a reshuffling of the intricate shareholdings across the Samsung group if he were to retain his grip.
It also came at a key juncture for the electronics giant’s successions plans, just months after Lee’s son Jay Y. Lee, 44, was promoted to vice chairman.
Samsung has come to symbolize the success of South Korea’s “chaebol” conglomerates on the global stage, where it is battling Apple Inc and its Galaxy smartphone is outselling the iPhone.
A judge at the Seoul Central District Court ruled that Lee could retain more than $1 billion in Samsung Electronics shares and another $1 billion in shares of Samsung Life.
Samsung Everland, a small zoo operator, was also allowed to keep its $1 billion stake in Samsung Life. Lee will remain Samsung Life’s biggest shareholder with a 20.76 percent stake.
The lawsuits accused Lee of hiding from his siblings billions of dollars in shareholdings inherited from his father, Samsung’s founder, while Lee countered that as his father’s chosen successor, he had free rein to transfer group company shares.
