Retail investors now own 10 percent of Samsung Electronics

[NEWS1]

Retail ownership of Samsung Electronics broke 10 percent for the first time, rising rapidly in recent years as local punters sought a piece of Korea’s largest company.

Individual investors owned 605 million common shares of the company as of April 30, leaving them with 10.13 percent of the total, according to data from the Korea Securities Depository (KSD).

Their holdings are now higher than those of the National Pension Service (NPS). The NPS, which has been reducing its stake in Samsung Electronics since the beginning of the year, said in March it now owns less than 10 percent of the company, down from 10.7 percent at the end of last year.

Family members of late chairman Lee Kun-hee and related companies own 21.17 percent of Samsung Electronics. The single largest of these is Samsung Life Insurance, which holds 8.15 percent of the company, followed by Samsung C&T, which owns 5.01 percent.

Foreign ownership was 54.61 percent as of April 30 compared to 55.73 percent as of the end of last year.

Retail ownership in Samsung Electronics increased nearly threefold compared to the end of 2019, when the shareholdings of individual investors stood at 3.63 percent. Their stake stood at 2.87 percent at the end of 2017, and 5.76 percent at the end of 2018. It slightly dipped the following year, when their ownership fell to 3.62 percent at the end of 2019.

With liquidity abundant and optimism for a rebound high, retail investors net purchased 177.2 million shares, or 9.6-trillion-won worth, of Samsung Electronics shares in 2020, pushing their stake to 6.48 percent at the end of last year.

Coming into this year, retail investor interest in the country’s most valuable company didn’t subside.

In the first four months of this year, retail investors net purchased 218.1 million shares of Samsung Electronics, which translates to 18.4-trillion-won worth of shares. That is 3.65 percent of all shares outstanding. Their purchases were for 42.3 percent of all 43.5 trillion won of Kospi shares net purchased by retail investors.

A total of 2.94 million retail investors invested in Samsung Electronics last year, the highest figure out of all listed companies in Korea, according to statistics provided by the KSD. Hyundai Motor came in second, with 690,000 retail investors, followed by Kakao, with 560,000 retail investors.

Samsung Electronics closed at 81,500 won on April 30.

BY HONG JI-YU, JIN EUN-SOO [jin.eunsoo@joongang.co.kr]