Samsung Electronics is reportedly set to launch a treasury stock buyback worth nearly 90 trillion won in the near future.

This comes as management and labor agreed to pay special management performance bonuses in treasury stock, creating a need to purchase a massive amount of shares exceeding the company's current holdings.

According to industry sources today (June 24), Samsung Electronics is preparing to purchase additional treasury stock to pay out the special management performance bonuses and is expected to announce detailed plans shortly.

KB Securities' operating profit forecast for Samsung Electronics stands at 375 trillion won for this year and 548 trillion won for next year. Assuming that the operating profit in 2028, when the supercycle is expected to continue, remains the same as next year, the combined operating profit for the three-year period will reach 1,471 trillion won.

Under the recent agreement between management and labor, Samsung Electronics will pay 10.5% of its operating profit as special management performance bonuses to its semiconductor division, bringing the total bonus amount over the next three years to approximately 154 trillion won.

Samsung Electronics plans to withhold about 40% in taxes and pay out approximately 93 trillion won in shares.

If Goldman Sachs' forecast of 1,514 trillion won in combined operating profit over the next three years is applied, the scale of the treasury stock buyback could be even larger.

Although relatively small in comparison, the company must also distribute treasury stock worth 6 million won to employees in other divisions, such as the finished product sector.

In addition, Samsung Electronics needs to purchase more treasury stock under the Performance Share Units (PSU) system introduced in October last year.

This system was introduced to strengthen responsible management among employees regarding mid- to long-term business performance. Samsung Electronics has committed to granting 200 shares to all entry- and associate-level employees, and 300 shares to managers, deputy general managers, and general managers, among its 128,000-strong workforce.

Under the PSU structure, the number of shares distributed increases if the stock price rises on the evaluation base date of October 13, 2028, compared to the agreement base date of October 15 last year. While the stock price at the time of the agreement was in the 80,000 to 90,000 won range, it has now risen about 3.5 times to 310,000 won.

Assuming the current stock price is maintained until the 2028 evaluation base date, the payout multiplier will reach 200%, meaning all employees will receive either 400 or 600 shares of treasury stock.

In this case, the number of treasury shares the company needs to distribute is estimated at approximately 70.58 million shares, requiring an acquisition cost of around 22 trillion won.

However, Samsung Electronics currently holds 82.09 million treasury shares, valued at 25 trillion won based on the previous day's closing price.

Consequently, to pay out the special management performance bonuses (93 trillion won) and PSUs (22 trillion won), the company is faced with the need to purchase an additional 90 trillion won worth of treasury stock over the next three years, on top of its current holdings valued at 25 trillion won.

This volume translates to approximately 290 million shares, which is close to 5% of Samsung Electronics' total common stock.

This means the company will buy back about three times the amount of treasury stock in just the next three years compared to the total of 30.7 trillion won it spent on share buybacks over the past decade to boost shareholder value.

While one-third of the treasury stock distributed as special management performance bonuses can be sold immediately, the remaining two-thirds are subject to selling restrictions over the next one and two years, respectively.

As the circulation of these treasury shares is temporarily restricted, expectations are rising that the combination of buying demand and the "lock-up" effect will further drive up the stock price.

"Samsung Electronics' current holdings of treasury stock are far from sufficient compared to the shares it needs to distribute in the future," an industry official said. "The massive stock compensation plan to be announced soon is expected to lead to an increase in shareholder value."

(Photo: Yonhap News)