Samsung ElectronicsFinancial Structure & Shareholder Returns

Book value against market value

We checked the accounting equation against the real filing first, and it closed to the won. The market told a different story. On the same day it priced Samsung's common shares at more than three times the book equity, and we read the difference as technology, brand and expectations for the semiconductor cycle, the kind of value a balance sheet never records.

Why preferred shares

At first the proposal looked like an ordinary buyback argument. The share class is what made it interesting, because preferred shares were trading well below common shares and the same money could therefore cancel more of them.

Ownership pointed the same way. Samsung Life and Samsung Fire & Marine hold roughly 10% of the common stock, so cancelling common shares would push their stake up, whereas preferred shares carry no votes at all.

Where we landed

We did not claim that cancelling preferred shares always beats a dividend. In Samsung's position, with a deep preferred discount and an ownership structure that makes cancelling common shares awkward, we judged it the more effective use of the money.

One more question we chased

Foreign investors held 49 to 53% of Samsung's common shares at each year-end from 2021 to 2025, and about 46% by the end of Q2 2026. We went to the Commercial Act and the Corporate Income Tax Act to show why that doesn't make Samsung a foreign company, since incorporation, place of effective management and tax scope all point to Korea.