Samsung Asset Management has withdrawn its plan to merge its hedge fund arm following a yearslong delay since the announcement, a filing showed Monday.

The proposed merger of Samsung Asset and its wholly owned Samsung Hedge Asset Management was scrapped with the consent of the parties concerned, according to the filing submitted to the Korea Financial Investment Association.

The merger plan was announced in April 2020 and was designed to be completed by August the same year. But the plan has been put on indefinite hold due to the ongoing all-out inspection of private funds by financial authorities.

In the meantime, the lossmaking hedge fund arm has struggled to find a breakthrough, as Korean investor sentiment toward private funds has turned sour over the past few years following a series of the fallouts from fund freeze and fraud cases.

Samsung Hedge Asset was overseeing some 300 billion won ($257 million) in assets as of August, shrinking by more than half in the past two years.

Samsung Hedge Asset recorded an operating loss of 356.6 million won in the first quarter of 2021, while its revenue halved to 423 million won from the previous year. The company was making losses for the fifth consecutive quarter.

Moreover, Samsung Hedge Asset is now facing a damage suit filed by an undisclosed individual investor, surrounding an investment product associated with Hong Kong-based hedge fund Gen2 Partners.

Samsung Hedge Asset was carved out of South Korea’s largest asset manager by the size of its managing assets in 2017, in order to focus on the traditional long-short strategy.