South Korea's dominant Samsung conglomerate - run by the country's wealthiest family - secured shareholder approval on Friday for the merger of two affiliates, seeing off a formidable challenge from investor activists led by a combative US hedge fund.
The victory, following a bitterly contested proxy battle, will come as an enormous relief to the founding lee family as it seeks to restructure the multi-headed Samsung Group ahead of a generational transfer of power from ailing patriarch lee Kun-Hee.
At an emergency meeting on Friday, shareholders of construction firm Samsung C&T voted in favour of a takeover by the group's de facto holding company, Cheil Industries, in an all-stock deal.