Elliott Investment Management’s long-running dispute with the South Korean government still has someway to go after Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon revealed a new law suit aimed at reversing a decision by an international tribunal to award the US hedge fund $108m in damages, according to a report by The Korea Herald.
The dispute centres on the controversial 2015 merger of two Samsung Group affiliates, Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries, which led to Elliott – a minority stakeholder in Samsung C&T – suing the Korean government in 2018 for pressuring a state-run pension scheme to vote in favour of the deal.
On 21 June, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague agreed with Elliot that it incurred losses as a result of the vote, but only awarded the firm $108.5m (7%) of its original $770m compensation claim.
South Korea’s Ministry of Justice is arguing that the tribunal did not have jurisdiction to make the ruling due to Korea’s free trade agreement with the US, and is now seeking to reverse the ruling via a British arbitration body.
