Samsung Electronics family to sell $1.2 billion stake amid share rally

SEOUL (Reuters) -The mother and two sisters of Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Y. Lee plan to sell some 1.73 trillion won ($1.22 billion) worth of shares in the South Korean tech firm, the company said in a regulatory filing. The purpose of the sale of 17.7 million shares, or a 0.3% stake in Samsung Electronics, is to cover tax payments and loan repayment, according to the late Friday filing with the Korea Exchange. Experts view the sale by Lee's sisters Lee Boo-jin and Lee Seo-hyun and his mother, Hong Ra-hee, as part of the owner family's efforts to secure funds to pay their inheritance tax estimated at about 12 trillion won, following the 2020 death of Samsung patriarch Lee Kun-hee. The sale will be handled by Shinhan Bank under a trust contract and completed by next April, according to the filing. Samsung shares have jumped more than 48% since it announced a chip-supply deal with Tesla in July. It has secured supply deals with other major customers such as OpenAI, and expectations have risen that the company will be able to supply its latest high-bandwidth memory products to Nvidia. The stock is up more than 84% this year, gaining 0.2% on Friday to 97,900 won. "Samsung's 10 trillion won share buyback plan last year was aimed at protecting the stock value, which would help the Samsung family to secure fund for inheritance tax," said Park Ju-gun, head of corporate analysis firm Leaders Index. With Samsung's share price now nearing 100,000 won, the planned sale likely aims to complete inheritance tax payments. "One disappointing aspect is that the owner family is selling shares at a time like this, which could dampen sentiment among retail investors," he said. "After all, Samsung Electronics is practically a 'national stock', owned by about 5 million retail shareholders who have been eagerly watching the shares approach the 100,000-won mark after the recent rally." ($1 = 1,421.5800 won) (Reporting by Heekyong Yang; Editing by William Mallard)

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