삼성전자 8% 폭락…‘110조 환원’ 기대보다 ‘자사주 소각 제외’ 실망 컸다

Samsung Electronics saw its shares drop by 8% on its first trading day after announcing a massive 110 trillion won shareholder return plan. The plan, which primarily focused on cash dividends, left market participants disappointed as it did not include the planned share buybacks and burning of company shares that directly boost shareholder value.

On March 24, Samsung Electronics' shares ended at 25,700 won, down 8.7% from the previous trading day. Foreign and institutional investors collectively sold 1.18 trillion won and 1.16 trillion won worth of shares, respectively, leading to a significant sell-off.

The company's prior shareholders witnessed an 8.55% decline, while Samsung Life and Samsung C&T, as affiliated entities, suffered 13.09% and 7.84% drops. The broad uncertainty surrounding the implementation of the shareholder return plan was the main source of disappointment. Samsung Electronics announced the plan totaling up to 110 trillion won on December 21, stating that 30 trillion would be distributed as dividends initially, with the specifics to be determined by the board of directors in January of the following year.

In contrast, SK Hynix announced an 40 trillion won stake purchase and burning plan, directly contributing to shareholder value, unlike Samsung Electronics.

The reason behind this difference was the potential impact of Samsung Electronics' share burning on Samsung Life, a key part of the group's dominant Samsung Life structure. Burning shares would reduce the total number of outstanding shares, causing the controlling Samsung Life's stake (6th month end basis 8.51%) to increase, potentially violating the Financial Services and Markets Act (FSMA) that limits financial institutions' ownership of non-financial companies to 10%.

Researcher Kim Su-hyun from Deus Securities said that the remaining 60-80 trillion won of post-shareholder return distribution could be largely executed through dividends due to the FSMA constraint. Analyst Kim Rok-ho from Han Blue Securities noted that the relatively small share buyback amount was unlikely to stimulate investor sentiment, as it was not directly related to employee compensation.