One of the biggest names in electronics manufacturing is vulnerable to a hostile foreign takeover following government intervention into the company's tangled corporate structure, an industry body in South Korea has warned.

Samsung Electronics, which earned $59bn in revenue last year, is the jewel in the crown of South Korea's sprawling Samsung Group.

The company makes healthy profits from mobile phones, memory chips and flat panel displays, among other products. Samsung Electronics' own forecasts say it will earn over $60bn in revenue this year.

"58 financially healthy companies in which foreign shareholders held a bigger stake than the largest shareholder are exposed to the possibility of hostile mergers and acquisitions," warned Joo-tae Kim, of the Federation of Korean Industries' corporate policy department, in a report published this week.

The FKI named Samsung Electronics and local mobile phone services giant, SK Telecom, among them.

Foreign interests already control "up to 60 per cent" of Samsung Electronics, another FKI official, Lee Seung Chul, told the Korea Herald.

Following planned government action to enforce existing regulations, Samsung will see its voting rights in de facto group holding company, Samsung Everland, reduced from 25 per cent to five per cent.

Samsung Everland indirectly controls a significant seven per cent stake in Samsung Electronics. The voting rights of that stake will also be restricted to five per cent.

"Samsung currently holds only about 15 per cent in Samsung Electronics, so however small it may be, losing voting rights can be risky," Chul told the Korea Herald.

Samsung is South Korea's largest family-controlled conglomerate, or chaebol, but the stake held by the controlling Lee family has been increasingly diluted by the company's near-exponential growth.

Last year, Samsung was accused of attempting to use Everland as a vehicle to pass control of the group to the son of chairman Lee Kun-hee. Two executives were convicted on charges of illicitly selling shares to the younger Lee at a $960m discount on the market value.

Koreans generally take pride in the global success of local brand names like Samsung and LG. The prospect of hostile foreign takeovers of big-name Korean companies has generated considerable concern in the country recently, following a US-led bid for control of ailing former tobacco monopolist KT&G.

Media reports today suggest that renowned US corporate raiders Carl Icahn and Warren Lichtenstein are likely to win at least one KT&G board seat despite strong resistance from local incumbents.