The Lee family holds about 25% of Samsung Electronics shares, but foreign shareholders now have 57%.
Foreign shareholders have increased their holdings in recent years as traditional cross-shareholdings between banks and their corporate chums have unravelled (see chart).
Another signatory was Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a controversial oilman once vilified by his foreign shareholders but now reinventing himself as an investor-friendly Internet entrepreneur.
And those agencies with foreign shareholders seem to be fairly independent.
Every European country seems to want strong banks, but until they can live with lay-offs, foreign shareholders and less nationalistic regulation, they will be disappointed.
"Foreign shareholders will continue to make sure the company is managed transparently, "says Jeffrey Jones, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea and a 20-year resident of Seoul.
Some British firms, such as Rank, an entertainment group with only a minority of foreign shareholders, are wondering whether the costs of an American listing now outweigh the benefits.
Although the company's base and its board are firmly British, and the government has the power to veto foreign shareholders, Mr Hoon was right in that a majority of its shareholders are American.
Goldman's investment in ICBC, which was one of the first Chinese lenders to accept foreign investors as shareholders, has been lucrative.
Several months later, when Russian state monopoly Gazprom bought a controlling stake in the project from its shareholders - foreign companies Royal Dutch Shell, Mitsui and Mitsubishi - the dispute was settled.
Third, shutting out Petrobras's outside shareholders might scare off foreign investors from Brazil in general.
But the intricate dance between the exchange, shareholders and a string of foreign suitors is set to continue.
There is little public sympathy in Russia for the minority shareholders (many of them foreign) who stand to lose.
Germany is the latest in Europe to put corporate governance on the table--in part to address questions and concerns from shareholders, both German and foreign.
India's opening to foreign investment has changed the way companies treat shareholders.
That worked when mainly foreign-owned banks were willing to risk their shareholders' money to chase market share.
ECONOMIST: Eastern Europe��s economies: Some calm amid storms | The
And there is increasing indirect American investment in the island: many of the multinationals from Europe and Canada that have set up operations in Cuba since Mr Castro's opening to foreign investment a decade ago count American institutions among their shareholders.
Mr Fazio, whose opposition to foreign ownership of Italian banks is well known, met Antonveneta shareholders.
The constitutional change is expected to encourage more foreign investment, allowing non-Mexican companies to become majority shareholders for the first time.
With nearly half of Bayer's stock in foreign hands, it seems only a matter of time before shareholders get their way.
Aside from its rapid growth, the company has another attractive aspect for shareholders: low costs, achieved through a largely foreign labor force and taking advantage of offshore tax incorporations.
The danger, however, is that the Bank's shareholders would use this as an excuse to cut their own foreign-aid budgets still more.
Foreign investors may have a better nose for boardroom shenanigans and a strong incentive to protect minority shareholders.
It would also require the Securities and Exchange Commission to ensure that shareholders are made aware if publicly traded companies own at least 10 percent of a foreign company doing business in violation of U.S. sanctions on state-sponsors of terror.
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