Activist investing is hard work, even for tenacious veterans like Elliott Management Corp. The very mention of its name sends shivers up the spines of corporate fat cats. Yet, until recently, the U.S.-based hedge fund hasn’t been able to scare up much success in Asia.
Elliott has been in the region for years, picking battles with Korean chaebols and Hong Kong billionaire tycoons. But its track record is mixed at best. In 2015, Elliott lost a proxy fight with Samsung Group’s founding Lee family over an $8 billion merger deal. Three years later, the hedge fund sued South Korea for at least $770 million in damages over that deal. This year, it exited its positions in Hyundai Motor Co with a loss.
Even its victories had a bitter aftertaste. This March, Bank of East Asia Ltd., Hong Kong’s only family-run bank, finally agreed to a strategic review, six years after Elliot first began the fight. In the interim, however, the bank’s share price languished. Elliot had a more financially rewarding tangle with the Lee family in 2016, a direct engagement with their crown jewel, Samsung Electronics Co. However, the hedge fund is still involved in a painful lawsuit with the South Korean government over the 2015 proxy fight.