South Korea's Samsung has said it will increase dividends and consider splitting itself, as the tech giant faces possibly the biggest structural change in its 47-year history.
The world's top maker of smartphones, memory chips and televisions, however, said it was "absolutely neutral" about whether to proceed, and provided little detail on the potential restructuring, underwhelming investors and keeping shares flat.
"The review does not indicate the management or the board's intention one way or another," the company said in a statement, adding it hired external advisers for a review that is expected to take at least six months.
The move comes after US activist hedge fund Elliott Management in October called for the firm to split itself into a holding vehicle for ownership purposes and an operating company, and boost shareholder returns.
Shares in Samsung, worth $224 billion, traded largely flat, rising 0.06% by 5.19am Irish time.
A boost in 2016 payouts fell short of some investors' expectations while uncertainty over the restructuring kept investors at bay, analysts said.
"There is some disappointment that the dividend wasn't even higher or possibly a special dividend and this is the reason for a flat share price today," said Sat Duhra, asset manager at Henderson Global Investors.
Samsung did not directly address Elliott's proposals on Tuesday, but the firm promised to respond by the end of November.
The company pledged to return 50% of free cash flow for 2016 and 2017, versus Elliott's call for up to 75% to be returned on top of a $26 billion special dividend.
Samsung also said it was not considering merging its owner vehicle with Samsung C&T, Samsung Group's de facto holding company, even if it were to move to a holding company structure, rejecting another Elliott proposal.
"I don't think Samsung said much that was surprising or beyond what investors had already had in mind," said HDC Asset Management fund manager Park Jung-hoon.
