Samsung Announces $7.16 Billion Stock Buyback to Enhance Shareholder Value

Samsung Electronics said Friday that it would buy back its own shares worth 10 trillion won ($7.16 billion) combined over a period of next year as part of efforts to boost its shareholder value following a recent slide in its stock price.

A total of 3 trillion won worth of the shares will be purchased within three months from Monday through February 17 under the buyback plan approved by the board of directors, the company said in a statement. Posco Steel also said it would determine how and when to use the remaining 7 trillion won from the point of view of shareholder value at future board meetings, the Yonhap news agency reports.

Samsung shares have continued falling in recent months, plummeting by 49,900 won on Thursday, the lowest since June 2020. This decline follows disappointing earnings and a negative outlook in the global semiconductor industry under the incoming Donald Trump administration in the United States.
Samsung said that it is committed to sustainable shareholder value and continued working to enhance the long-term value of the company.

It had conducted an earlier share buyback plan last 2017, in which it repurchased 9.3 trillion won worth of shares and cancelled half of its treasury stocks to enhance shareholder value.

Samsung and its biggest labor union today reached a tentative agreement in which the company agreed to increase wages by 5.1 per cent, clearing the way to resolve frozen wage talks that included a weeks-long strike.

The tech giant and the National Samsung Electronics Union, which represents 31,000 workers or about 24 percent of the company's workforce, have held several rounds of talks since January on issues of the wage increase rate, vacation systems, and bonuses without avail.

While the union huddled around the negotiating table demanding an additional 5.6 per cent in basic pay for all members across the board and a day on which they wanted the company to provide them with a sure day off for the founding of their union along with damages against the company from economic losses due to the strike, the company offered 5.1 percent in wage increases.