Elliott Management sells stakes in Hyundai Motor companies

Elliott held over $1 billion worth of shares in the company.

Elliott Management sold its shares in Hyundai Motor companies last year after it was thwarted in its campaign for huge special dividends and board seats.

The U.S. activist hedge fund was not one of the December 2019 year-end list of shareholders at any of the Hyundai companies it sought, the Korea Economic Daily reported and cited an unidentified investment banking source.

A Seoul-based representative for the fund and Hyundai Motor have refused to comment.

Elliott held over $1 billion worth of shares in Hyundai Motor Group companies including Kia Motors and Hyundai Mobis.

Its attempts to influence the family-run conglomerate found some success when a 2018 Hyundai-backed shareholder vote on a restructuring proposal, seen aimed at aiding the management of the group’s reins to heir apparent Euisun Chung, was canceled.

But in early 2019, the companies’ shareholders declined Elliott’s demands for 7 trillion won ($6.2 billion) in one-off dividend payments as well as seats on the boards of Hyundai Motor and Hyundai Mobis.

“We expect a vote showdown at the upcoming meeting, which will create a favorable environment for minority shareholders,” said Chung Yong-jin, an analyst at Shinhan Investment and Securities, on the event.

“From Hyundai Motor’s perspective, Elliott kept talking about excess capital and asking for dividends, a lot of money. But the company declined it by insisting it has a lot of investment needs,” stated Lee Han-joon, an analyst at KTB Investment & Securities.

The latest recovery in the share prices of the Hyundai companies may have impacted the move, the newspaper stated, mentioning the source.