삼성전자•현대차 각각 자사주 소각•매입…"주주가치 제고"
Samsung Electronics says it will cancel... more than 4 billion U.S. dollars worth of its corporate shares... to boost shareholder value.
Hyundai Motor also announced a share buyback plan of its own.
Ko Roon-hee gets us up to speed with the developments.
Two of South Korea's largest firms announced on Friday to cancel or buy back its own shares... to increase the shareholder value.
Samsung Electronics said it would cancel around 4-point-3 billion U.S. dollars worth of its shares.... on December 4th.
The tech gaint plans to retire more than 4-hundred-49 million common shares and 80 million preferred shares...accounting for 7 percent and 9 percent of the total respectively.
The value of the shares announced by Samsung was based on its book value,... with the actual market value being worth 19-point-6 billion U.S. dollars... as of market close on Thursday.
This comes after the company announced in April 2017... to cancel its treasury shares in two stages, and it retired around half of the amount in May last year.
"The most important reason for companies to cancel treasury stocks is to maintain or increase the value of their shares. The cancellation reduces the number of stocks which raises the value per share for the remaining ones."
Hyundai Motor Company also announced plans to buy back around 223 million U.S. dollars worth of its treasury shares.
The process will begin starting next Monday, and continue until Februrary 28th.
The company says this move will stabilize its stock prices and increase investor returns.
Economic experts say these window-dressing moves... often take place near the end of the year for a reason.
"Most companies manage their stock prices at the end of the year. Because this is when they report their performance of the group. The stock prices will reflect how well they managed the company."
Ko Roon-hee, Arirang News.