Activist investor Flashlight Capital Partners has escalated its campaign to acquire Samsung Group’s stake in S1 by seeking shareholder registers from five Samsung affiliates and writing to Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong. Samsung SDI, Samsung Life Insurance, Samsung Card, Samsung Securities and Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance collectively hold 7,815,656 S1 shares, or 20.6% of the security-services company. Flashlight submitted its 116,000-won-per-share offer on August 27, valuing the stake at 906.6 billion won, or approximately $678.7 million, a 45.2% premium to S1’s 79,900-won closing price on the preceding trading day. The response deadline is September 23. FCP CEO Lee Sang-hyun said the five affiliates should independently assess whether selling S1 shares would better serve their shareholders, arguing that the battery maker and financial companies have limited strategic synergies with a security-services business. FCP plans to contact shareholders directly after seeking register access. It also urged Lee Jae-yong to respect the independence of the five boards. FCP disclosed in June that it held about $40 million, or roughly 2% of S1’s market capitalization, while Japan’s SECOM remains S1’s largest shareholder with a 25.7% stake. S1 holds about 11% of its own shares as treasury stock. Samsung Group and the five affiliates have not issued an official response, while S1 said it would not comment on a share-sale proposal between shareholders.