By Dipo Olowookere
South Korean technology giant, Samsung Electronics, has disclosed it is considering dividing the company into two separate corporate entities.
This followed calls from some investors supporting the split of the company into a holding unit and an operating part to boost shareholder value.
With the split, the cross-shareholding would affect only the holding company while the operating unit could be assed separately, making it a lot easier to arrive at a clean company evaluation.
According to Samsung, it would bring in external advisors to conduct a thorough review of the optimal corporate structure before the eventual split.
However, the company stressed that the review does not indicate the management or the Board’s intention one way or another.
Samsung has come under immense pressure especially after the Note 7 battery explosion issue, which forced the company to stop production of its flagship smartphone model in October 2016.
Users of the Note 7 smartphone complained that the gadget was ‘catching fire’ while charging. The company had to make a global recall of the product.
This also occurred few days before its major competitor, Apple, launched its new flagship phone, iPhone 7.
